1 Kings 17: 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. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.  And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
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.”  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.”
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.”
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.’ ”  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

18:And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.”
41: Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”  So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.” Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!” So he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’ ”  Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. 

“Faith doesn’t ignore a problem, it just doesn’t give it authority.”

I was reading 1 Kings the other day and I got stuck on chapters 17 and 18. I have read these verses before but the Lord was really pulling something out of it this time for me and I want to share what I felt!

{The word is alive and active so you can read a verse one week and the next week the Lord can teach you something completely new! its honestly the best feeling!! }

In chapter 1 Kings chapter 17 Elijah prophecies that there will be no dew or rain for the next few years. Then, the Lord told Elijah to go and hide by a brook and to drink from the brook and eat the food that the ravens (birds) will bring to him. Its already cool that he is being fed by literal birds, but watch this next part and tuck the wording away in your heart for a second. The Lord said “For I have commanded them to bring you food.” Elijah obeyed and the ravens did exactly what the Lord said they would. Elijah was fed by the birds and he drank from the brook until it dried up from there being no rain.
OK, this is where I got focused and where I lingered.

In the next “section” it shows that God tells Elijah to go into a village and says “I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” Sound familiar? In some translations like the NLT it changes the wording to “I have instructed” but in the original language it is the same exact wording in verse 4 and verse 8. God says that He commanded the birds to feed Elijah AND the widow to provide from Elijah.
OK, keep hanging on with me:
Elijah obeys the Lord and goes to the village and he see’s the widow. Elijah then ASKS her for water and food. After he asks her for these things she tells him that she has NO food in her home to the point that she was gathering sticks to cook ONE LAST MEAL for her and her soon because she was preparing to DIE.
DO YOU SEE WHAT I AM SEEING?!

In verses 4-6 Elijah is miraculously feed by birds. They are bringing him bread and meat EACH MORNING AND EVENING (talk about room service) and he ate and drank. Elijah didn’t have to ask the birds or even God, the birds were commanded and they did as they were commanded, right? Elijah didn’t have to go and hunt an animal or make the bread! He was brought everything.
THEN
He is told by the Lord that he was going to be provided for by a widow. Once he finds that widow, she seems to be unaware of the commanding that the Lord said He did AND she is about to die from starvation. That does NOT look like someone who can provide for Elijah, especially after being fed by BIRDS!

So, when I was reading this I thought to myself about how easy it would have been for Elijah to either question God, question his word, question his truthfulness, believe that God told him something that didn’t come true, or think that he heard God wrong potentially. Why? Because the provision and promise didn’t look like it did BEFORE.
Elijah had to ASK this time, he had to initiate the conversation. He had to ask for water and THEN he had to ask for food. When he heard that she had NOTHING he could have said “oh this must not be the widow God told me about” and walked away BUTTTTTTT he TRUSTED God’s word.
He had FAITH BEYOND WHAT HE COULD SEE.
After she told Elijah that she had nothing and that she was going to die, what did he say?
“DON’T BE AFRIAD”
wowowowwoowoww
“For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!”
It goes on to show that she did as Elijah said and there was always enough flour and olive oil left in her containers MIRACULOUSLY! Elijahs faith and obedience and the obedience of a woman at her end turned her life upside down and provided for her and her son until the drought was lifted! Elijah was provided for, like the Lord had said, and the woman and her son lived.

I can’t help but really compare those two situations and see how this plays out in our lives everyday. There have been times in my life where I can look back and see how the Lord provided for me when I wasn’t doing anything! Where in a hard time He provided like the birds provided for Elijah. And there are other times in my life when I have had to ask others for help and trust that the Lord means what He said about where the provision was going to come from even when it didn’t LOOK like it could!

The last comparison that tied all of this together was in chapter 18 the Lord told Elijah to tell the king that He was going to send rain soon. In verses 41-46 Elijah tells the king that he HEARS “The SOUND” of rain coming.
In the original Hebrew the word “sound” meant “the voice, whether of animals, or men, both speaking and crying out in joy or sorrow or also God speaking.” It meant a voice, sound of an instrument, or a proclamation.
Elijah then climbed to the top of mount Carmel and bowed low to the ground and prayed WITH HIS FACE BETEEN HIS KNEES (keep hanging with me I promise this all ties together so beautifully.) He then told a servant to “go and look out towards the sea” the servant came back and said that he didn’t SEE anything. SEVEN TIMES Elijah told him to go and look.
FINALLY on the seventh time, the servant told him, “I saw a LITTLE cloud about the size of a MANS HAND rising from the sea. Then Elijah SHOUTED. Hurry to Ahab and tell him ‘climb into your chariot and go back home. If you don’t hurry the rain will stop you!.”
AHHHHHHHHHHH

The drought had lasted for 3 1/2 years. That is a long time! Long enough for people to probably start to loose hope and obviously long enough where it caused some people to have a lack of food and water. Some were probably at their end physically and even emotionally. BUT GOD TOLD Elijah that He was going to send rain just like He told Elijah that He commanded the birds to feed him and commanded the widow to provide for him.
Elijah had a testimony of provision looking different at different times but also a testimony of God’s faithfulness. SO when Elijah told the servant to go look and that servant came back and said there was nothing, Elijah knew it was coming even thought it couldn’t be SEEN yet. Elijah HEARD the proclamation of the Lord, the voice crying out, and instead of giving up or loosing trust he kept sending that servant back.
NOW
That servant went up 7 TIMES. I don’t know how long that walk was or anything about where they were on the mountain BUT the language suggests that the servant had to GO UP to look and come back. After the 5th or 6th time I bet the servant just wanted to see something, anything, so when we “finally” saw the cloud the size of a mans hand it was significant enough for him to tell Elijah! But if we think about it, a cloud the size of a mans hand, is preeeettyyyyy small and would seem insignificant or not enough for rain that is supposed to stop a drought right? But after the waiting and going back and forth it was enough to excite the servant!
And from that small cloud, Elijah continued to proclaim God’s promise that the rain would be SO BIG that it would cause the Kings chariot to get stuck.
I really hope you are hearing the excitement and the connections that I am getting.

Elijah trusted the Lord to provide and every day was fed by birds. Elijah trusted the Lord to provide even when the the person that was commanded to provide was dying with no food, Elijah trusted the Lords word for rain even when it was a NO 7 times and when something did show up it was so small.

Faith is not delusional. Faith is not ignoring that there is a problem or not recognizing that there are no clouds 6 times in a row. Faith is not pretending there is a cloud when there isn’t. Faith is not giving authority to the problem and giving authority to the creator!
Faith is knowing that something might look one way but knowing that God has promised something else. Faith is knowing that provision will look different but our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
The word of the Lord is what we speak. We speak HIS word over our lives, not the word of society or of fear.
Fear makes you self protect and try to control. If Elijah had lived in fear, he could have tried to go find another widow or provisions for himself and in turn that widow and her son would have died.

Our obedience in trusting the Lord and waiting on His timing and ways will not only bring provision and blessings in our lives, but He will use promises to bring it to others at the same time! Elijahs obedience and faith brought a miracle to the widow and the servant.

ALLLLL of this to say. We have to be aware of when we are listening to God and when we are listening to the world. The widow said she had no food and was going to die, GOD said she was going to provide for Elijah. The servant said there was nothing, GOD said there was going to be rain.
The way God provides will sometimes look like room service from birds and sometimes it will look like going and checking 7 times and then being excited about a small cloud.

Take every thought captive. Pull out the weeds of doubt quickly. And speak God’s promises over your life more than you speak the negative “what if” story.
Faith is not delusion, its knowing the God who loves you and trusting in HIM!!

Father, I thank you for your provision. I thank you for your goodness and your timing. I pray that anyone reading this would start to look back at their lives and see your hand throughout it. That they would see the different ways that you have provided and being to listen in more closely to know where you want them to go. I pray that their obedience will not only grow their faith but it would be a fruitful outpouring for others. That others would see your goodness and love through the obedience and faith of their friend. We trust you beyond what our physical eyes can see and will speak your promises over our lives. Holy Spirit renew our minds daily, burning up any doubt or fear that is caused by our circumstances so that we can can your word and truth over ourselves.
We love and pray this all boldly at your feet through the mighty name of Jesus,
AMEN