If God truly called you to minister.. He will provide all that you need to do your duty to him... God does not need others to pay you to do what He asks you to do.. Many examples in the word... The if factor.. I like this one for now... Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. I have commanded the ravens to feed you there: There is an emphasis on the word there. God promised that the ravens would feed Elijah has he stayed at Cherith. Of course, theoretically the ravens could feed him anywhere, but God commanded that it be at Cherith. Elijah perhaps wanted to be somewhere else, or be preaching, or doing anything else. Yet God wanted him there and would provide for him there. Elijahs provision. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. Mind you... Every bit of food that came to Elijah came from the beak of an unclean animal. Elijah had to put away his traditional ideas of clean and unclean or he would die of starvation. Through this, God taught Elijah to emphasize the spirit of the law before the letter of the law. Its all about trusting God before the ways and means of man...First, he recognized that God may bring a good word to us through an unclean vessel, a spiritually unclean like a raven. Second, that one can bring spiritual food to others and still be unclean spiritually themselves. But see, too, how possible it is for us to carry bread and meat to God’s servants, and do, some good things for his church, and yet be ravens.... God can bless you many people, but not at the expense of people with out giving back to them some way or dome how... Bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening: As faithfully has He provided manna for Israel in the wilderness, God provided for Elijahs needs. He came to trust more than ever in the miraculous provision of God. A little boy, having read this incident with his widowed mother on wintry night, as they sat in a fireless room, beside a bare table, asked her if he might set the door open for Gods ravens to come in; he was so sure that they must be on their way. The burgomaster of that German town, passing by, was attracted by the sight of the open door, and entered, inquiring the cause. When he learnt the reason, he said, I will be Gods raven; and relieved their need then and afterwards. Latter... Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. We should also remember that this was the general region that the wicked queen Jezebel was from. Elijah was visiting enemy territory and showing the power of God in an area where Baal was worshipped, though ineffective through drought. I have commanded a widow there to provide for you: Widows were notorious for their poverty in the ancient world. God told Elijah to go to a Gentile widow and receive provision.... When He rejected by His own people, Jesus used this example of Elijahs coming to the widow of Zarephath as an illustration of Gods right to choose a people to Himself: Then He said, Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. (Luke 4:24-26) Elijah addresses a widow. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink. And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. Indeed a widow was there gathering sticks: This showed that she was a poor woman, gathering meager scraps for firewood. Elijah perhaps thought that God would lead him to an unusual rich widow, but God led him to a poor Gentile widow. You learn this from the fact that she had not even firewood. Now, there was no reason why she should not have had that even in time of famine of bread, for there was no famine of wood, unless she had been extremely poor. God told Elijah (1 Kings 17:9) that He commanded a widow to feed the prophet. Yet this woman seemed unaware of the command. This shows how Gods unseen hand often works. She does not appear to have been at all aware that she was to feed a prophet. She went out that morning to gather sticks, not to meet a guest. She was thinking about feeding her son and herself upon the last cake; certainly she had no idea of sustaining a man of God out of that all but empty barrel of meal. Yet the Lord, who never lieth, spoke a solemn truth when he said, I have commanded a widow woman there. He had so operated upon her mind that he had prepared her to obey the command when it did come by the lip of his servant the prophet. This was certainly putting the widows faith to an extraordinary trial: to take and give to a stranger, of whom she knew nothing, the small pittance requisite to keep her child from perishing, was too much to be expected. God indeed chose this woman, but He chose her for more than a miracle. He chose her for service. The choice of this woman, while it brought such blessedness to her, involved service. She was not elected merely to be saved in the famine, but to feed the prophet. She must be a woman of faith; she must make the little cake first, and afterwards she shall have the multiplication of the meal and of the oil. So the grace of God does not choose men to sleep and wake up in heaven, nor choose them to live in sin and find themselves absolved at the last; nor choose them to be idle and go about their own worldly business, and yet to win a reward at the last for which they never toiled. Ah, no! the sovereign electing grace of God chooses us to repentance, to faith, and afterwards to holiness of living, to Christian service, to zeal, to devotion. The response of the widow of Zarephath. So she said, As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die. As the LORD your God lives: This polite address showed that she respected God, yet recognized that the God of Israel was Elijahs God and not her own. I do not have bread: Elijah quickly found out that she was not only poor, but desperately poor. Elijah found her right before she was going to prepare her last morsel of food for herself and her son, and then resign themselves to death. Elijahs words to her. And Elijah said to her, Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD God of Israel: The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth. Do not fear: This was Gods first word to the widow through Elijah. Her present crisis rightly made her afraid, and God wanted her to put away fear and put trust in Him. Go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first: This was an audaciously bold request from the prophet. He asked this destitute widow to first give him something from her last bit of food. The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth: This shows why Elijah could make such an audacious request. It was because God told him that He would provide a never-ending supply of food for the widow, her son, and Elijah himself. He asked the widow to put her trust in this great promise of God. The widows obedience and Gods great blessing. So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah. So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah: The widow actually did it she willingly gave at great risk, based on her trust in the promise of God. She and he and her household ate for many days: God fulfilled the promise to the widow, her son, and Elijah. God used her as a channel of supply and her needs were met as a result. You not need anything, but you and your trust in Jesus... And do what He tell you to do...
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 23:49:47 +0000
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