She stands there, tears streaming down her face, holding the body of her child in her arms. And at that exact moment, Elijah holds out his arms and claims, “Give him to me.”.

He claimed to her, “Give me your son.” Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the higher room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed. And Elijah simply announces, “Give him to me.”. Somehow he knows that nothing he will be able to say at this moment will satisfy this mourning mother. No words from him can ease her stricken spirit.

He does not remind her of all she owes him or of how humiliated she deserves to be for blaming him. He simply asks her to put her burden in his arms.

Pause for a moment to notice that Elijah is again in a situation that, at least from a human viewpoint, he does not merit.

He has obeyed God by going to Ahab then hiding at Cherith. He has walked with Our Lord God from Cherith to Zarephath. He’s done precisely as the Lord instructed, He is trusted God, and now he is receiving the brunt of this girl’s blame.

God often appears to put us in the vise, and then He tightens it and tightens it more, till we think, in the agony of His sovereign squeeze, “What’s He attempting to do to me?” We walk closer to Him and even nearer to Him. We do not see how we could walk any closer, but still more tests come, one on top of another. He stands proud and silent in the shade of The Lord God, grounded in religion, assured of his Lord’s power. He simply claims, with quiet compassion, “Give me the boy.”.

Elijah had walked into a situation that was, from all human point of view, not possible.

But the excellent news is that he saw outside the difficulty. He handled the difficulty with religion, not fear.

Elijah was determined that those first first-impression blues were not going to get him down. The widow had her eyes on the impossibilities : a few flour, a little quantity of oil, some sticks. Elijah rolled up his sleeves and targeted only on the probabilities.

How could he do that? As he was a developing man of the Lord God. He had seen the proof of The Lord God’s faithfulness. He had obeyed God, and, without delay, he had walked to Zarephath. You can not talk the talk if you have never walked the walk. You can not inspire someone else to think the unlikely if you have not assumed the very unlikely. You can’t light another’s candle of hope if your own torch of religion isn’t burning. When Elijah saw the near-empty flour bin and oil jug, he claimed, about with a shrug, “That’s no problem for God. And fix some for you and your boy too.” Then he told her why. Listen to these assured words of religion : “The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, till the day that the LORD sends rain on the face of the earth.”. That lady must have looked at Elijah, this beat, dusty stranger, with wonder and distraction, as she heard words like she’d never heard before. These are the sort of awesome associations God uses to build up our religion.

As we probably did earlier, shall we inspect the significancy of the name of this place where the soothsayer was told to go.

Zarephath comes out of a Hebrew verb that suggests “to melt, to smelt.” curiously in noun form it implies “crucible.” The place might have gotten its name seeing as there had been a smelting plant found somewhere near there ; we do not know for sure. But whatever the source of its name, Zarephath would turn out to be a “crucible” for Elijah—a place designed by God to refine the soothsayer and make a big difference in the rest of his life.

It was about as if the Lord were asserting to His servant, “I first took you to Cherith to wean you away from the bright lights and the general public platform, where I could cut you down to size and reduce you to a person who would trust Me, in any case. But now it is time to do an even deeper work.

Now, Elijah, I am going to turn up the heat in the furnace and melt you so I might mildew you much more exactly into the kind of man I need to meet the purposes I have in mind.”. And as fast as you climb out of one cooking pot thinking, “Okay, I made it thru that one,” you are dropped into another, where the flame is even warmer.

This is exactly what the hymn writer were considering when he wrote:. The flame shall not hurt thee ; I only design,. Thy degs to consume and thy gold to refine..

But what did He reveal? Verse twelve tells us : he said His written word. The very first thing God gave to this person who met up with Him was His truth in written form. Nobody has ever had in his possession a more valuable document than this. Moses possessed the autograph of Deity—the autographa etched in stone by God’s own finger.

God gave His folks the Word of the Lord that they’d know His mind and obey. He gave them the design for the church that he’d come and dwell among them. He didn’t wish to stay detached high up on a mountain. He learned that it takes discipline and preparation to do so.

It’s one thing to grasp what to do ; it’s quite another to basically do it. What percentage of us take a course on prayer but infrequently pray, or learn the methods of evangelism but rarely share our faith? In this account of Moses’ life, we might have learned small new, but we’ve been challenged with some profound reminders from the Lord God’s Word. We don’t need a creative new strategy quite as much as a swift kick in the pants.

We need a rebuke from the Lord God Almighty, as we are so slothful and slow and knackered when it comes to climbing that mountain and meeting for 30 minutes with the Lord. Regardless of our bad track record, may He stop us this moment with the reminder that we might become far stronger women and men of The Lord God if we’d only maintain a period of meeting with Him. It could be on a craggy mountain top, in a closet, or, as with my personal mummy, in a locked loo with a “Do not disturb” sign on the door.

God isn’t particular in the least about the place you select or the quantity of time you spend.

First surprise. Next puzzlement, followed by fear, like icy fingers round the heart. When Moses’ well-tended secret hit the prime-time networks, he got the shakes. And acting on fear, the biblical account states that “he left from the presence of Pharaoh.” Why did he run? Verse fifteen tells us, “Pharaoh attempted to kill Moses.” Now that Moses had tipped his hand and shown his true duty, Pharaoh couldn’t stomach having such a threat around. In the king’s eyes, a faithless and out-of-control prince was better off dead.

What terrible consequences grew out of Moses’ ill-considered action. It is truly possible that you, too, have been forced to address such consequences. Your track record may reflect a pattern of great aspiration but tiny information. Great need but tiny discernment. Great hopes but small mildness. Great fervour but tiny knowledge. And so you’ve got to run the rabbit trails right to the sour dead-ends, one after another. You have run quicker every time, but never succeeded. None has taken you where you wanted to go. And if the truth were known, your rash actions have led to an intolerable situation. In my book, there’s just one thing worse than being at the end of a self-directed life, and that is being in the middle of one. You assert, “Well, I am in my thirties, I ought to understand better than that.” Moses was 40.

You assert, “Hey, I’m no novice! I have got education and coaching like you would not believe!” Better than Moses? Remember, by this time in his career, he was “educated in all of the learning of the Egyptians.” Our electrifying resum is a part of the difficulty. Infrequently we are educated beyond our own intelligence.

We know more than we are safe to handle! The reality is, when you depend on the flesh to find employment done, you do not need more schooling. You do not need another degree. You do not want more coaching conventions. Plain and easy, you want knowledge. So do I. So do all of Almighty God’s folk. But discerning knowledge needs time. It takes some major bumps in the road. It takes enduring some failures and swallowing large and sour applications of modesty. Welcome to fact.

Challenges are universal. Whether we are facing fiscal difficulty, health crises, or private trauma, we all struggle thru some difficulty in our lives. The believer’s first instinct should be to hope, which is actually the correct approach, but the method in which we pray is also critical. Rodney Howard Browne explains that worship isn’t reserved for Sun. morning, but should come from our lips each day. Our conversations with God are frequently problem-focused, but plenty of the heroes of the Old Testament laced their requests with worship of the Almighty. David regularly speaks of God’s protection even as he begs for refuge from Saul’s pursuing armed forces. We intend to stand up from our prayer time with replenished vigor and confidence if we spend time acknowledging God’s capacity to handle our challenges, rather than concentrating on the trial. Rodney Howard Browne explains that an alternate way to take on our issues is to get other people concerned in praying for us. Sometimes this needs bravery and arrogance. We could be non-public folk, or maybe we are working with an extraordinarily private issue.

But the requests of fellow followers will inspire and fortify our spirit. If you have not heard someone else calling out your name before God, let me tell you it’s an extremely powerful experience. In addition, the Lord may use one of our prayer partners to offer a solution. The words he or she speaks in passing could contain the precise message God wants us to hear. Rodney Howard Browne explains that we will be sure he’ll always show us a technique to resolve the difficulty we are facing, whether thru someone else, His Word, or His voice in our hearts.

Rodney Howard Browne points us to Exodus 21:

¹Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.

²If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

³If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.

⁴If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.

⁵And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:

⁶Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

⁷And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.

⁸If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.

⁹And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.

¹⁰If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.

¹¹And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.

¹²He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.

¹³And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.

¹⁴But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.

¹⁵And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.

¹⁶And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

¹⁷And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:

¹⁹If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.

²⁰And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.

²¹Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.

²²If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

²³And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

²⁴Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

²⁵Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

²⁶And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake.

²⁷And if he smite out his manservant’s tooth, or his maidservant’s tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth’s sake.

²⁸If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.

²⁹But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.

³⁰If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.

³¹Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.

³²If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

³³And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein;

³⁴The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his.

³⁵And if one man’s ox hurt another’s, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide.

³⁶Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his own.

Rodney Howard Browne points us to Exodus 7:

¹And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

²Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.

³And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

⁴But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.

⁵And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

⁶And Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded them, so did they.

⁷And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.

⁸And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

⁹When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.

¹⁰And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

¹¹Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.

¹²For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.

¹³And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.

¹⁴And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.

¹⁵Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand.

¹⁶And thou shalt say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness: and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.

¹⁷Thus saith the LORD, In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

¹⁸And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river.

¹⁹And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.

²⁰And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.

²¹And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

²²And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the LORD had said.

²³And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also.

²⁴And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.

²⁵And seven days were fulfilled, after that the LORD had smitten the river.

If you forgive anyone anything, I too forgive that one; and what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sakes in the presence [and with the approval] of Christ (the Messiah), 11 To keep Satan from getting the advantage over us; for we are not ignorant of his wiles and intentions. 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 AMP

The Lord knows us humans very well – inside and out. He knows what motivates us, what we need and what we want. He also knows the devil and how he operates. Rodney Howard Browne teaches that the devil hates God and he hates man – God’s crowning creation. He has figured out how to deceive man, how to divide man, and how to control him through fear, lust and selfishness. The Word will protect you from the devil and his devices if you will put the Word in your heart. If you know the devil’s devices – his wiles and intentions – it will not be so easy for him to get an advantage over you.

Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. John 12:3-6 NIV

14 Then one of the Twelve-the one called Judas Iscariot-went to the chief priests 15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over. Matthew 26:14-16 NIV

Judas Iscariot was Jesus’ treasurer – he was in charge of the money that belonged to Jesus and the disciples. Rodney Howard Brown explains that the only problem is that he was also covetous and a thief – he was stealing from the bag. He thought that he was in charge of the money, but he forgot that it wasn’t his money, it was Jesus’ money. He thought that he was controlling the money, but it was controlling him. Judas did not really care about the poor – because he loved money more than God, he gave the devil access to his life – to deceive him and to control him. Judas and the devil were offended when the woman anointed Jesus with the whole pint of valuable perfume. He was so mad that he walked right out and cut a deal with the chief priests to betray Jesus. He was blinded by the devil and blinded by greed.

Jesus knew that one of His disciples would betray Him and He told them so. When they asked who it was, Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. “What you are about to do, do quickly,” Jesus told him, 28 but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night. (John 13:26-30 NIV)

Even though Jesus knew what Judas was up to and He even told Judas that He knew that he would betray Him, Judas still went ahead with it. He was so blinded by the devil that he could not see what he was doing – betraying Jesus – an innocent Man. There are many wrong choices that people make that open themselves up to be deceived by the devil and manipulated by him to destroy others and themselves. God wants us to love one another in order to preserve us and protect us, but the devil wants us to turn on each other and to destroy each other and ourselves. When people are sinning, their heart condemns them. If they won’t repent and change, they must shut off their conscience and find fault with the people who convict them. When someone is sinning, they are jealous of those who are obedient and who have found favor with God – like Cain and Abel. Whatever was motivating Judas, whether it was greed or jealousy, he was wrong and he made a wrong choice to betray Jesus.

While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, 48 but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” Luke 22:47-48 NIV

Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. 2 They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor. 3 When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. 4 “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.” 5 So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. Matthew 27:1-5 NIV

Once the devil had used Judas for his purposes, he did not need him anymore and so he did not care that Judas’ eyes were open and he could see what a terrible thing he had done. Judas was so devastated that he took his own life. If only he had not opened the door to the devil, the devil would not have been able to deceive him and he would not have ended up killing himself instead of being part of changing the world with the other disciples. Don’t give the devil access to your life through lies and sin. Protect your heart and you will protect your life.

The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]. James 5:16b AMP

When a righteous man prays a continued, earnest, heartfelt, prayer, there is a tremendous power that is released – a dynamic active power that effectively goes to work – producing the desired result. Rodney Howard Browne teaches that if you want your prayers to be answered, there are a few things that you must do to ensure the desired result – you must walk righteously before the Lord, you must pray sincerely and fervently and you must pray according to God’s will.

1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 when you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:1-3 NIV

James tells you that you don’t have the things that you want, because you have not asked God for them. Many times, people do terrible things to each other, because instead of looking to the Father as their source and supply, they look to get things from other people. They are jealous over their neighbor’s stuff and they covet it. They see it, they want it and they go to help themselves to it – instead of working for their own stuff or asking for it from the Lord. Christians, especially have no business coveting and fighting over their neighbor’s stuff – they should know where to go to get it – from God. And when you do ask for stuff, make sure that you ask with the right motive. Your heart must be yielded to the Lord – He is not your servant, but He is your Master! Rodney Howard Browne tells us: Don’t ask for selfish things that only gratify your own flesh. God will bless you, but He expects you to be a blessing to others, too.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6 NIV

Don’t worry! Ask your Father! In everything by prayer and petition and supplication – let God know what it is you want. When you get to heaven, you cannot go to God to complain about all the things that He never gave you that you never asked for! Rodney Howard Browne explains that if you ask correctly, then He will answer. He will give you the things that you ask for in faith. You must persist in your faith and your asking as if you expect an answer and you will get one.

7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. Matthew 6:7-8 NKJV

Being persistent in your heart and your faith and your prayers is not the same as praying the same thing over and over and over and over. Jesus tells you not to use vain repetitions like the heathen do – saying the same words over and over. The heathen think that God will hear them and answer them if they say the same thing enough times, but whether they realize it or not, they are trying to manipulate God and He doesn’t respond to manipulation. God responds to our faith and our obedience. Most of the time people try to get God to do things for them, but they don’t want a relationship with Him. However, God wants us to build a relationship with Him first and foremost. He knows what you need before you ask and the moment you ask Him correctly, He moves to bring the answer to your prayer to you.

18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. 1 John 3:18-24 NIV

How do you know if God is listening to your prayers? If your heart is right with God, then His Word says that He hears your prayers. If you have a relationship with God and His Spirit lives in you, then your heart will keep you in line and make sure that you have a good attitude and that you stay willing and obedient. Sin negatively affects your relationship with the Father. If your heart convicts you of sin, then you know that it is time to repent before you come to God to ask for anything. If your heart is at peace with God, then you can boldly come into His presence to ask for what you need. First you obey, then you ask and then you receive.