First Kings 17-18

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God’s message to me: “I will provide.” That’s what God says to me. Through every problem in my life and through every time of “famine” God has provided. There have been times of plenty. As a long haul trucker I made plenty of money and had no worries. I have also had times like this when I couldn’t get work, couldn’t make ends meet and God had to provide. As a child and as an adult, even in the leanest of times, I have never gone without a roof over my head and food on the table. It wasn’t always what I wanted but it was sufficient for my needs. God is capable of prospering us greatly or of simply providing our needs. He does these things to let us know He is God.

In my time of plenty I often forgot Him, skipping church for months or even years, being a workaholic, being a bad example and so on. In my times of little God has reminded me He provides all so that when the plenty returned I remembered Him and when the little returned I trusted Him.

Promises: God can provide all our needs and “possible” has nothing to do it. When the common way of doing things is not available God can use the uncommon and even the supernatural to provide.

Commands: Do not tolerate false Gods or false teachers. The Lord will provide the proof of His truth and existence. Just as he did for Elijah He can and will do the impossible to prove himself. Burning the offering on wood and alter socked with water and an offering soaked in water with a pool of water all around was nothing for the God who can let an entire town be leveled by a tornado and leave the church untouched in the middle. You’ve seen those photo’s and you understand what I’m saying. Those who can see His miracles and still deny Him have made their choice. The rest of us can learn and turn to Him.

It was predicted that the prophets of Baal and Asherah would be sacrificed and in this story we see them all killed after their god was proven false and Jehovah proven true. Note that God didn’t ask for blind faith but provided ample evidence before asking for action.

Timeless principles: not every little disaster is a curse from God. The widow’s son became very ill and died. She saw this as judgment for her sins. God used it as an opportunity to show His unlimited power. God raised the child from the dead showing he could do much more than simply meet their needs.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: Trust God for our needs no matter how great or small. From providing the next meal to raising the dead, God has provided examples to show He is capable of all that we need.

more to learn for in-depth study: Here is an exception to the rule. Elijah is a hero of the bible who did not live the life of Donald Trump. After predicting drought and famine for the king of Israel He lived in hiding near a small stream where ravens brought him food and he drank from the stream. When the stream dried up he lived with a widow and her son. They had a little flour and a little oil and the Lord made sure it never ran out but they did not go without. they weren’t prospering. The four and oil weren’t multiplying so that they had extra and could give it or sell it. It was never used up and it was sufficient for their needs.

tomorrow: First Kings 19-21

Testing Spirits and KINGS

Testing the spirits is a complicated issue and one I am no expert on. Here are a few tips that I use in trying to understand what God is telling me:

1) God does not contradict Himself. If you believe God is telling you to do something His word forbids then you need to realize you are hearing from a false spirit (or even your own imagination trying to get what you want)

2) Your own imagination will tend to tell you what you want to hear. If your hearing what you already wanted it’s time to lay a fleece before God and/or study more in the bible to find God’s will.

3) False spirits (ungodly spirits trying to influence you) will not recognize Jesus as the Son of God and God incarnate. The answer to “Who is Jesus?” Should be an immediate “the Christ”, “The Messiah”, “The Son of God”. If there is any doubt whatsoever the question should be “I Jesus God?”. The answer should be “He is Lord”, “He is God”, “He is divine” or something similar. If you believe this is answered then the spirit is true. Ask God to block out the voice of any spirit but His and test the spirits. Then you may trust what you hear if it is not in contradiction with the Bible.

4) God isn’t big on repeating Himself. If the answer you seek could be easily found by reading the bible you are not likely to hear it in a disembodied voice. If you do it will probably be more like one of those nagging songs you can’t get out of your head. You will simply hear the verse that applies going over and over again in your memory until you are willing to comply with it.

5) Laying a fleece before God: This is taken from the story of Gideon and is a basic principle of finding truth. When faced with a big decision and you truly desire to find God’s will in the matter, test Him. Pray earnestly and believing that God will give you his sign. Be specific about the sign and do not make it something that would randomly happen. The example of Gideon is perfect. The dew would naturally be on everything on the ground so he asked that it be on the ground and not the fleece. The be sure he asked again that it be on the fleece but not the ground. Nature would put it on both but God could choose what stayed dry. Remember that Gideon was triple sure. His first test was to lay a sacrifice before the Angel of the Lord and he saw that the Angel brought fire out of the rock to consume the sacrifice supernaturally.

Endless testing while refusing to comply is sin. Testing to certainty is not. Once God has made His will clear it would be sin not to comply with it. If you have asked His guidance and tested His will you must comply with what He made clear or face the penalty of disobeying a direct order from God.

KINGS: For those who might be following the show notice a few things. The events take place in Shiloh, which is the city where the Tabernacle of Meeting was set up before Israel had kings. The Preacher who inaugurated the current king is Rev Samuels. Rev Samuels anointed David in the garage after he fixed the Reverends car. David killed a Goliath tank from the enemy nation of Gath. David gained position in the kings court because of his heroism. David is in love with the kings daughter. The king has an unreasoning hatred of David building after learning from Rev Samuels that the Lord has ceased to bless his house and that another will replace him as king that is not one of his children. These are all elements of the story of king David and King Saul. I’ll be watching to see how closely the story follows the bible and I’m sure many of you will too.

It is interesting to me that God leads me to things in perfect timing. The series began last week and this Sunday is the second episode. It’s Saturday morning and we are beginning our study of the books of Samuel which is the beginning of the study of the first kings of Israel. Over the next several weeks wee wil learn all about that time in history with 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles. I hop that you will join me in taking notes as you go along to keep the timeline in Chronological order. Each of these books tells parts of the story and you will find they retell the same stories from different views and with different details. Keeping notes will help you get the whole story and refresh the information you may be comparing to the TV Series.