Freed In Christ

Go Show Yourself To Ahab
Part Ten of a Ten Part Series
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

Micaiah, in 1 Kings 22, saw an interesting vision of heaven:  He “saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and the host of heaven was standing by Him.”  And the LORD said, “How are we going to get Ahab over to Ramoth-gilead that he might fall there?”  So, one spirit says, “I’ve got an idea.  I’ll be a lying spirit in the mouth of all of Ahab’s prophets.”

The LORD said, “That will work.  Go ahead.”

Here we find something that is rarely considered, i.e., that Satan is a servant, serving God’s purposes.  That’s why God has allowed him to exist.  That’s why God has allowed him freedom.  Yes, he’s acting in the sphere of his own free will, but yet, his controls are ultimately held by God.  Satan is nothing but a glove on the hand of God.  It’s a tragic mistake to think of Satan as an opposite of God.  There’s no battle of, Good vs. Evil . . . in equal portions.  There’s God, and there’s everything else!  Satan is not an opposite of God.

God is an eternal, omnipotent, self-existent being, whereas Satan is a created being - in the rank of angels.  If we’re looking for an opposite of Satan, maybe we could look at Michael, or one of the archangels.  There we’d find opposites.  But in no way is Satan an opposite of God.  Nowhere near.  Satan exists under the total sphere of God, and though he is opposed to God, he is not an opposite of the eternal, omnipotent God in any sense of being.

Satan is definitely limited (by God) in his understanding, abilities, and powers. God says he can go so far, and no further.  This was Satan’s complaint to God in the case of Job.  “You’ve put a hedge around that guy.  I can’t get to him.”  God puts limitations on what Satan can, and can not do.  God allows Satan liberty within a limited sphere, to serve God’s purposes.  Thus, God can use, and often does use Satan or his emissaries to fulfill God’s purposes - which is why God commissioned a lying spirit in 1 Kings.

God sent the lying spirit into Ahab’s prophets (one spirit into all of them) to encourage Ahab to go against Ramoth-gilead and “fall.”  And it worked!  Ahab believed ‘em and orders God’s true prophet, Micaiah, to be, “put in prison until I return in peace.”

To which Micaiah replied, “If you return at all, then I’m not a prophet of God.”

With Ahab’s prophets’ approval, he, and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, head out to battle the Syrians.  On the way, Ahab says to Jehoshaphat, “Hey, you take my chariot.  I’m gonna put on some common garb and get into the battle myself.”

So Ahab takes off his king’s robes, gets into another chariot and rides-off . . . Ahab was thirsty for a little excitement.

In the meantime, the Syrian commander said to his fellows, “Now look, all we want is the king.  Concentrate on Ahab.  If we kill him the rest of the people will be so demoralized that that’s all we’ll have to do.”

As the battle progresses, the Syrians see Jehoshaphat in Ahab’s chariot, wearing Ahab’s robe, and figure it’s Ahab, and start to pursue him.  Jehoshaphat, senses the problem and high-tails it off in the other direction.

When the Syrians finally catch-up to Jehoshaphat, they realize that it ain’t Ahab.

And an interesting scripture occurs here.  “A certain man drew a bow at a venture” (1 Kings 22:34).

In other words, he just let fly an arrow in the direction of their enemy.  And, low & behold,  the arrow hit Ahab.

The wounded Ahab turns to his driver and says, “Carry me out of the battle, because I am wounded.”

Ahab, propped up in the chariot, his blood running out into the midst of the chariot dies - and was buried in Samaria.  “And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, and they washed his armor, according to the word of the LORD which he spoke.  Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, all that he did, the ivory house that he had made, all of the cities which he built, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel (1 Kings 22:34-39).

So we come to the close of Ahab.

Interestingly, in the city of Megiddo, (one of the cities that Ahab rebuilt), there are about twenty different levels of cities - one built on top of the other.  When one city was destroyed, they’d built a new city on top.  Archaeologists have dug up twenty different civilizations on different levels of Megiddo.

The level that dates to Ahab’s time, (next to the ruins of the temple of Baal that Ahab built), archaeologists found several hundred jars with the skeletons of babies that had been sacrificed by their parents to Baal - the worship Jezebel and Ahab introduced to the people.  This is why God wanted this horrible religious system utterly wiped out, because it involved the sacrifice, the human sacrifice of babies in the worship.

In this series, I’ve spent a lot of time in the northern kingdom, not because of Ahab, but because of Elijah.  He’s the central character of this story.

Back in the southern kingdom of Judah, Jehoshaphat reigned, walking in the ways of Asa his father (who was a fairly good king), doing that which was right in the eyes of the LORD.  The remnant of the sodomites (homosexuals) which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land, but, the high places (for pagan worship) were not taken away” (1 Kings 22:42-47).

For the rest of that story . . . well, that’s for another day.

Shalom.

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 26 January 2012.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Go Show Yourself To Ahab
Part Nine of a Ten Part Series
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

It is impossible to read 1 Kings without being impressed by the severity of its note:  “There was no king worse than Ahab.”  He “did very abominably in following idols, according to all the things that the Amorites had done before them, the people the LORD had cast out of the land.”

But, when Ahab, evil & fiendish as he was, heard Elijah’s words, “because you have sold yourself to work evil in the sight of the LORD.  Behold, I will bring evil upon you, and will take away your possession, and cut off from Ahab all of his descendants.  And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like Baasha” (1 Kings 21:17-22) . . . Ahab began to really live more vigilant.  “He put on sackcloth, fasted, and lived very carefully.”  So the LORD came to Elijah again , “These things will not happen in his days but in the days of his children” (1 Kings 21:26-29).

Ahab received clemency - and Israel had rest from war with Syria for three years.

In the third year, Jehoshaphat, who was the king of the southern tribes (Judah), came to visit Ahab.  And Ahab said to his servants, “Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we are still, and why not take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?”  (Apparently, after three years of rest given by the LORD, Ahab’s “sackcloth living” had come to an end - forgetting the mercy of the Lord.  Paul was right.  “Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation . . . but the sorrow of the world works death” [2 Corinthians 7:10].)  “So Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Will you go with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?’  And Jehoshaphat answered the king, ‘I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses are as your horses.  But, let’s inquire of the Lord and see if we’re to go to battle.’”

“So the king of Israel gathered his prophets together, ‘Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?’  And they said, ‘Go up, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.’  Jehoshaphat, seeing that this might be a misstep, asked, ‘Is there any other prophet that we can ask’” (1 Kings 22:1-7)?

“Ahab said, ‘Well, there’s this one guy, Micaiah, but that guy never gives me a decent prophecy.  He’s always saying something evil about me.’  Jehoshaphat said, ‘Oh, don’t say that.  Let’s call him in and see what he has to say.’”  In the meantime one of Ahab’s prophets, “Zedekiah, made some iron horns and put them on his head and began running around with these iron horns on his head saying, ‘Thus saith the LORD, With these shall you push the Syrians, until you have consumed them.’  And all of Ahab’s prophets said, ‘Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper.  The LORD is going to deliver it into the king’s hands.’”

Meanwhile, outside of the Palace, the messenger who went to get Micaiah said to him, “Now look, all the king’s guys have given him good prophecies, so Micaiah, when you get in there, say something good, too.  Don’t lay a heavy one on him, you know” (1 Kings 22:11-13).

“As the LORD lives,” Micaiah answered, “I’m going to tell him and I can only tell him what the LORD tells me to tell him.  And what the Lord says, that’s what I’m going to speak” (1 Kings 22:14).

So Ahab’s messenger brought Micaiah into the king, and Ahab said, “Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth-gilead or shall we forbear” (1 Kings 22: 15)?

Micaiah answered him in a very sardonic, sarcastic way:  “Go, and prosper, for the LORD is going to deliver it into the hand of the king” (1 Kings 22:15).

Ahab, thinking that this guy was maybe trying to pull a fast-one said, “How many times have I told you, don’t tell me anything that is not true in the name of the LORD” (1 Kings 22:16)?

“All right.  You wanna know the truth?  I saw all of Israel scattered on the hills, like sheep that have no shepherd.  And the LORD said, ‘These have no master, let them return every man to his house in peace’” (1 Kings 22:17).

In other words, Micaiah is prophesying Ahab’s death:  “The people are all scattered over the hills because their shepherd has been destroyed.”

Ahab, looking at Jehoshaphat said, “Didn’t I tell you that this guy would say something like this” ( 1 Kings 22:18)?

Then Micaiah continued, “Hear the word of the LORD:  I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and the host of heaven was standing by him on his right hand and on his left.  And the LORD said, ‘Who shall persuade Ahab, that he might go up and fall, (be killed), at Ramoth-gilead?’  And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.  And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’  And the LORD said, ‘How?’  And he said, ‘I will go forth and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets.’  And the Lord said, ‘That will work.  Go ahead’” (1 Kings 22:19-22).

Micaiah’s vision of heaven is very interesting.  “ I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and the host of heaven was standing by him on his right hand and on his left.”  And the LORD said, “How are we going to get Ahab over to Ramoth-gilead that he might fall there?”  And they began suggesting different things, until one spirit came up and said, “I’ve got an idea.”

“What is it?”

“Well, I’ll be a lying spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets.”

The LORD said, “That will work.  Go ahead.”

Next:  Why would God commission a lying spirit?

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 19 January 2012.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Go Show Yourself To Ahab
Part Eight of a Ten Part Series
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

At this point in the story, Benhadad has gathered the forces of Syria together to fight against Israel the second time.

“And the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids,” hopelessly outnumbered . . . “But the Syrians filled the country” (1 Kings 20:27).

“And there came a man of God, and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, ‘Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is the God of the hills, but not the God of the valleys, therefore I’m going to deliver this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD’” (1 Kings 20:28).

Now, the interesting thing here, is that, although wicked king Ahab had turned against God, God continued speaking to him.  This is always true of God.  Even though we may turn our back on God and go our own way, God continues to speak to us.  God doesn’t just forsake us and let us go . . . That’s the way of God.  God continues to speak to us, because He loves.  He continually seeks to draw all mankind to Himself.

So the children of Israel came against the Syrians, in the valleys, and wiped them out and captured their king, Benhadad, who quickly told Ahab, “The cities, that my father took from your father, I’m going to restore them; and you shall make streets, and we’ll make streets for you in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria.”

Ahab, thinking this was a good idea, made a treaty with Benhadad, and sent him away.

Meanwhile, one of the sons of the prophets came-up to his neighbor, “Smite me, I pray you.”  And the man refused.

“All right, because you’ve refused to smite me, you’ve not obeyed the voice of the LORD, so as soon as you depart from here, a lion is going to slay you.”

And as soon as the man departed, a lion killed him.

So the prophet found another man, “Smite me.”  And the man whacked him good.

Then, the wounded prophet disguised himself and as soon as Ahab passed by, cries out, “Your servant went out into the midst of battle, and behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, ‘Keep this man, and if by any means he is missing, then we will require your life for him.  And this man got away from me and now they want to kill me.’”

“You’ve pronounced your own judgment.” Ahab bellows back.  “You said that it was your life for his life and you let him get away.  You’ve set your own judgment.”

The prophet then rips-off his disguise, “Thus saith the LORD, Because you have let go out of your hand the man who I appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.”

Ahab, knowing this was a word for him, returned to Samaria and began to live more carefully from that point on . . .  “But he was heavily displeased” (1 Kings 20:34-43).

Now it came to pass after these things, that there was a fellow by the name of Naboth who had an excellent vineyard that butted-up to Ahab’s property, down in the area of mount Gilboa.  To no one’s surprise, Ahab was desperate for that vineyard.  So he spoke to his neighbor Naboth, “I’d like to buy your vineyard.  Name your price.”

“Hey, wait a minute!”  Naboth contested.  “This is my family’s vineyard.  If I sell it, I’ll be selling my family’s property.  It’s not for sale.”

So Ahab, pouting, goes back to the palace.

“Why such a downed-face, my husband?”  Jezebel asks.

“I want Naboth’s vineyard.  But he won’t sell it!”

“Not to worry, my king, quit pouting!  I’ll get you that vineyard.”

So queen Jezebel orders the men of the city to gather together, and hires a couple of guys to lie against Naboth saying, “We heard this man curse the king and curse God.”  Now the penalty for cursing God, was being stoned to death.  So, with the two men bearing false witness against him, lying as they did, they killed Naboth . . . And of course, Jezebel took Naboth’s vineyard and gave it as a present to her husband (1 Kings 21:1-16).

“And the word of the Lord came to Elijah saying, ‘Arise, go and meet Ahab the king of Israel, which is in Samaria; he’s in the vineyard of Naboth, he’s gone down to possess it.’  And you shall say to him, ‘Thus saith the LORD, Have you killed, and taken possession?  In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall the dogs lick your blood.’”

So Elijah finds Ahab, and Ahab says, “‘Have you found me, my enemy?’  And Elijah answered, ‘I have found you, because you have sold yourself to work evil in the sight of the LORD.  Behold, I will bring evil upon you, and will take away your possession, and cut off from Ahab all of his descendants.  And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like Baasha’” (1 Kings 21:17-22).

In other words, “Ahab, your family dynasty is at an end.  Kaput!”

Then Elijah turns to Jezebel, “The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.  And him that dies of Ahab in the city the dogs will eat; him who dies in the field the fowls of the air or the vultures will eat.”

Here, the writer of 1 Kings adds, lest we forget, “There was none like unto Ahab, who did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whose wife Jezebel stirred up.”

“When Ahab heard Elijah’s words, he began to really live more carefully, putting on sackcloth, fasting, and living very carefully” (1 Kings 21:23-27).

Next:  Elijah gives Ahab a final word.

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 12 January 2012.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Go Show Yourself To Ahab
Part Seven of a Ten Part Series
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

Elijah, after all of his daring & bravery with the prophets of Baal, is doing what?  Hiding in a cave on Mount Horeb.  So the Lord questions him, “What are you doing here?”  And Elijah tells Him why he’s there (1 Kings 19:14).  So the Lord repeats the question.  And Elijah again tells Him Why he’s there.

But the question was, “What are you doing here?”  Not, “Why are you here?”  So the Lord get specific with Elijah, because in reality, Elijah’s doing nothing.  God doesn’t like His people to do nothing.  So the Lord re-commissioned Elijah.

“Elijah, get out of here, and get on up to Damascus, and when you get there, anoint Hazael to be the king over Syria.  And then get down and anoint Jehu to be the king over Samaria.  And then anoint Elisha to take your place” (1 Kings 19:15-16).

God put Elijah back to work.  God wants to put us all back to work.  God wants to get us off our duffs and get back to doing something that’s worthwhile for Him.

While He’s at it, He corrects His prophet, “Elijah, you’re exaggerating.  For I have seven thousand men in Israel, whose knees have not bowed to Baal, whose lips have not kissed his image” (1 Kings 19:18).

Sound familiar?  Haven’t we all said, “I, only I am left.”  And God says, “No, no, you’re not alone.  I’ve got seven thousand more.”

Anyway, Elijah leaves his cave, and finds Elisha plowing with his oxen.  As Elijah passes by, he takes his mantle and he throws it on Elisha.  And Elisha left his oxen and came running after Elijah.  “Wait a minute, I pray you, let me go back and kiss my father and mother goodbye, and I will follow you.”  And Elijah said, “Go on back to your oxen, what have I done to you?”  So Elisha goes back and kills a yoke of oxen, boiled their flesh, gave it to the people, and then became the servant of Elijah (1 Kings 19:19-21).

Now Benhadad, the king of Syria, having gathered all of his host together to besiege Samaria, sent a messenger to Ahab saying, “Your silver and gold is mine.  Your wives and your children, the best of everything you have, is mine.”  And Ahab answered, “My lord, O king, according to your saying, I am yours, and all that I have” (1 Kings 20:1-4).

But Benhadad wasn’t satisfied.

 “I will send my servants tomorrow, and they will search through your house, and the house of your servants, and it shall be, whatever is pleasant in their eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away.”

So Ahab call his elders, “Looks like this guy just wants a fight.”

“Well, don’t hearken to him, don’t consent.”

With his elders’ backing, Ahab tells Benhadad, “All that you requested at the first we’ll do.  But that’s all!”  So Benhadad says, “The gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for the handfuls for all the people that follow me” (1 Kings 20:5-10).

Ahab answers back, “Benhadad, better not count your chickens before they’re hatched” (1 Kings 20:11).

 When Benhadad heard this, as he was drinking with his kings, he says “Set yourselves in array.”

Meanwhile, God’s prophet comes to Ahab and says, “Thus saith the LORD, ‘Have you seen this great multitude?  Behold, I’m going to deliver it into your hand today, and you will know that I am the LORD.’”

Ahab says, “By whom?”

“Thus saith the LORD”, says the prophet, “Even by the young men the princes of the provinces.”

But “who shall order the battle?”

“You will Ahab!”

So Ahab numbered the 232 young men & the princes from the provinces, and all of the children of Israel.

Now while old Benhadad was drinking himself drunk, some of his young men came to him, “There’re men coming out of Samaria!”  And he screams, “If they’ve come out for peace, take them alive!  If they’ve come out for war, take them alive!”  So his young men went out, and Israel slew them all with a great slaughter.  Only Benhadad escaped.

After the victory the prophet came to Ahab, “Go, strengthen yourself.  At the end of the year this guy’s goin’ be back” (1Kings 20:12-22).

After their humiliating defeat, the Syrians were dumfounded.  Consoling Benhadad, at his time of grief, they reasoned that, “Israel’s gods are the gods of the hills and not the gods of the valleys.  That’s why they defeated us” (1 Kings 20:23).

They thought of gods in a localized sense.  We should never think of God in a localized sense.  God is omnipresent.  He’s everywhere at once.  Therefore, it’s wrong to think of God in a locality.  Sometimes we think of God in a localized sense in heaven.  And He seems very far off and remote because we don’t know where heaven is.  “It’s out there in space somewhere.”

Or we may think of God in the Church-House.  Even in our prayers, we express that idea, “Lord, we are so thankful that we can come into Your presence, here, this day.”  Hey, we were in His presence when we left home.  We were in His presence when we were driving to Church.  We can’t escape the presence of God.  He is everywhere!

But the Syrians had a localized sense of God.  All pagans see god locally, as,  “the god of the hills.”  Next time fight in the valleys.  There you’ll be the victor.

So Benhadad gathered the forces of Syria together and he came up to Aphek to fight against Israel the second time.

“And the children of Israel went out against them.  And the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids” (1 Kings 20:27 KJV).

Israel was totally, hopelessly outnumbered . . .

Next:  “And there came a man of God.”

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 5 January 2012.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Go Show Yourself To Ahab
Part Six of a Ten Part Series
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

Ahab, if you’ll recall, has just informed his wife, Jezebel, that Elijah’s killed all her prophets.  Jezebel, in turn, has expressed her intention to kill Elijah.  Elijah, upon hearing this news, high-tails it off to Beersheba - which is about eighty-five miles south of Jezreel - leaving his servant there probably so bushed he couldn’t go on any further (1 Kings 19:1-3).  Elijah then journeys another day into the wilderness, sits down under a juniper tree, and asks God to kill him.

“Now, O LORD, I’ve had it, take away my life, slay me, I’m through” (1 Kings 19:4).

Elijah was speaking out of a distraught condition.  We’ve all been there.  We want God to end it.  We’re upset and say things we don’t really mean.  We run-off at the mouth - not really engaging our brains.  Then afterwards we’re sorry.

Anyway, Elijah’s had it.  “Lord, slay me.  I’m through.  Just kill me, Lord.”

This is an odd situation.  If Elijah really wanted to die, why didn’t he just stay in Jezreel?  Jezebel would have gladly killed him herself.  That was the whole purpose of his flight - to get away from the Jezebel.  The fact that he ran-off, proves that he wanted to survive.

So Elijah, now in the wilderness, at wits’ end, decides to take a nap under a juniper tree.  When he wakes-up, an angel had prepared him a meal.

“Arise & eat.  Because you’re gonna go a long way on this food” (1 Kings 19:5).

Angel’s food.  Good stuff.  Very nutritious.  Elijah journeyed another forty days on the strength of that one meal, until he came to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God (1 Kings 19:8).

Horeb, is way down south in the Sinai . . . way down.  Elijah’s really fleeing from Jezebel now, down in the barren wilderness of Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb - both names given to this Mount - the mountain where Moses met the Lord.  There Elijah finds a cave to lay-low for a while . . . And the word of the LORD came to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9).

Elijah, it seems, didn’t really understand the question.  The question was, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  But Elijah gives Him the Why, not the What.

 “I’ve been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts!  Israel has turned against God.  They’ve forsaken His covenant, broken down His altars, slain His prophets, & I’m the only one left, and they’re looking to kill me” (1 Kings 19:10).

How much worse can things get?  Israel’s in total apostasy.  They’ve forsaken the Lord, broken down His altars, killed His prophets.  Only one prophet left and they’re seeking to kill him.  That was Elijah’s overstatement of the case, because he’s so upset, distraught & discouraged.

That’s one thing about discouragement & despair, it causes us to overstate our case - making it look much worse than it really is.  We get discouraged & despondent.  We don’t want anyone to cheer us up.  We just want tea & sympathy.  “This is bad.  Really bad.  No one’s ever had it this bad.”  And we overstate our case, just as Elijah was overstating the problems in Israel.  “They’ve killed all of Your prophets and I, only I, am left, and they’re looking for me, to kill me.  Lord, You don’t have a single one but me left in Israel.”  So the Lord says, “That isn’t quite right, Elijah, but you’re upset and I understand.”

Then the Lord tells Elijah, “come out of your cave and stand here on the mount.”  So Elijah comes out to the entrance of the cave.  And a fierce wind came whipping through, tearing rocks lose, rolling them down the hillside.  But God wasn’t in the wind.  Then came an earthquake, that shook the whole Mount.  But God wasn’t in the earthquake.  Then came a raging fire.  But God wasn’t in the fire.  Then came a still, small voice (1 Kings 19:11-12).  And that was the voice of God.

We often miss the voice of God because we anticipate God speaking in a great, thunderous, mystic ways.  And we miss His voice altogether.

When God speaks to us, we often think it should be something like, “Beep, beep, beep, turn right.  Beep, beep, beep, go forward.  Beep, beep, stop.”  People who think like this way, will often say, “God is leading me.  I’m being led by the Spirit.”  Not so.  In fact, when God speaks to us, when He begins leading our life, He does it in such natural ways, that generally, we’re not even aware that God is doing anything, because it just seems so natural.

Don’t expect God to speak in thunder & lightening.  Why?  Because it’s awfully hard for us to hear, when our life is in the midst of a tempest or storm.

We need to get our hearts very quiet before God.  We need to get away from the tempest, the storms, the shaking & the things around us that distract us, to be alone with God, to be in a place where we can really hear that still, small voice of God within as He guides us, as He assures us of His love, as He assures us of His purpose.  We get strength & help from God when He speaks to us.  And it’s that still, small voice within we hear.  That voice which is so natural, it seems as though it’s coming from our own heart or mind.  But in reality, it’s God speaking.  God planted that thought in our mind, with that still, small voice.

Back on the Mount, the Lord repeats the question, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  And Elijah repeats his Why answer.  So the Lord gets specific with His upset prophet because in reality, Elijah’s doing nothing.

Next:  God puts Elijah back to work.

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 22 December 2011.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Go Show Yourself To Ahab
Part Five of a Ten Prat Series
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

In 1 Kings 18, the prophets of Baal, after an afternoon of unsuccessful attempts to get their god to do anything, had started to cry louder & cut themselves in great religious zeal with lancets, till the blood was gushing out all over them.  Crying for Baal to send fire.  And of course, nothing happened.

“Now about the time of the evening sacrifice, there was neither a voice to answer, nor any that regarded their cries.”  So Elijah said to all the people, “Come on over here now near me.”  So the people came near to him.  And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down - taking twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of Israel - building the altar in the name of the LORD.  He then dug a trench around the altar, enough to contain about two measures of seed, he put wood in order on the altar, cut up the bullock in pieces, laid them on the wood, and told the people to, “Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and the wood.”  Okay, “Now, do it a second time.”  Then, “Do it a third time.”  So that the water ran all over the altar, and filled the trench.

Around the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah said, “Jehovah, God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that You are the God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all of these things at Your word.  Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are Jehovah God, and that You have turned their heart back again.”  And the fire of the LORD fell, consuming the burnt sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust, and licked up all the water that was in the trench.  When the people saw this, they fell on their faces, and said, “Jehovah, He is the God.  Jehovah, He is God.”  Elijah said, “Take the prophets of Baal, don’t let any of them escape.”  So they took all the false prophets to the brook Kishon, which is in the valley beneath Mount Carmel flowing out of Megiddo into the Mediterranean and there Elijah killed all 850 of them.  Elijah turned to king Ahab and said, “Get up, and eat and drink, for there is a sound of an abundance of rain.”  So Ahab went to eat and to drink.

Meanwhile, Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel, and cast himself down on the earth, and put his face between his knees, and he said to his servant, “Go up and look toward the Mediterranean.”  And he went up, and looked, and said, “There is nothing.”  Elijah said, “Go again.”  Seven times he sent him.  And it came to pass the seventh time, that his servant said, “Behold, there’s arising a little cloud out of the sea, about the size of a man’s hand.”  And Elijah said, “Go up, and say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and get down, in order that the rain doesn’t stop you.’”

As Ahab rode off to Jezreel - at the other end of the valley of Megiddo - “It came to pass, that the heaven was black with clouds & wind, and there was a great rain”  (1 Kings 18:29-45).

God answered by fire, and then sent rain in answer to Elijah’s prayer.  The confidence in Elijah’s prayer came from the fact of his listening ear.  This is always true.  Real confidence in prayer comes from the fact that we have heard from the Lord.  The listening ear is an important detail in prayer.  So often we’re so overwhelmed with our particular problems & situations that we rush into God and start blurting out the whole scene, rather than coming in and waiting for God to speak.  Never thinking . . . maybe He’s got something to tell me.

Some of you are likely thinking, “God does not speak to men today as He did in days of old.”  I disagree, and I’ll give you a true statement:  Men are not listening today as they once did.  If men will listen, God will speak.

With many people, prayer is only thought of in terms of a monologue.  Real prayer should be a dialogue.  We should be speaking to God, and then we should be listening to God - to hear His instructions & directions.  Our time of quiet, listening before the Lord is very important.  We should sit down, relax and be quiet before the Lord so that He might have an opportunity to speak to us.  Then we speak to Him again & so-on.  We wait for Him to answer.

Every morning I like to spend time reading, praying & listening . . . praying & listening again, that I might get directions, instructions and guidance from the Lord for each new day.  It’s always an exciting experience when God responds to my prayers and begins to give me direction and answers.  When I listen, God will speak.

You may be saying, “God never responds to me.”  Or, “God doesn’t say anything to me.”  Well, maybe you’re not giving Him a chance?  Are you really listening?  Are you really waiting for His response?  Well, are you?

Anyway, after all the commotion had died down, Ahab runs home to tell his wife Jezebel what Elijah did, and how he’d killed all her prophets.  So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, “Let the gods do to me, and even more also, if I don’t make your life like the life of those prophets by tomorrow this time.”  When Elijah got the message, he hightailed it off to Beersheba . . . (1 Kings 19:1-3).

Next:  There came a still small voice.

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 15 December 2011.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Go Show Yourself To Ahab
Part Four of a Ten Part Series
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

“The word of the Lord came to Elijah saying, ‘Go show yourself to Ahab.   I’m going to send rain upon the earth.’”  So Elijah sets-out to show himself to Ahab, in the area of Samaria, the Northern Kingdom, where they’d been without rain for three years.  (1 Kings 18:2).

Meanwhile, “Ahab had called Obadiah, who was the governor over his house.”

“Who’s Obadiah”, you ask?  Well, he’s almost completely unknown apart from the meaning of his name:  Servant or Worshiper of the Lord.  Among all the prophets, he is the briefest in number of words - his prophecy occupies only one page in our Bible - yet in the grace of mysteries, he is their equal.  The last words of his prophecy sums up the character of this man, “The kingdom shall be Jehovah’s”  (Obadiah 1:21).

During the time that Jezebel was cutting off all of the prophets of God, Obadiah took a hundred prophets, hid them in two caves, fifty in each cave, and fed them daily  (1 Kings 18:3-4).

Obadiah was a man who feared God, not the king . . . or the queen.

“Ahab said to Obadiah, ‘Now you go this way through the land and see if you can find any pools of water, where there might be some green grass around them so we can feed our mules and horses and keep them alive, that we don’t lose all of our animals’” (1 Kings 18:5).

“So they divided the land between them to pass through it:  Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself”  (1 Kings 18:6).

As Obadiah was out looking for water, Elijah came to meet him.  Obadiah, knowing Elijah’s distinctive nature, fell on his face and said, “‘Is that you, my lord Elijah?’  And Elijah said, ‘I am.  Go and tell your lord, King Ahab that I am here’”  (1 Kings 18:7, 8).

“Hey, what have I done to hurt you?”  Obadiah parries.  “You want me to go tell Ahab you’re here?  Fine & dandy.  But, as soon as I do, the Spirit of the Lord will snatch you off someplace.  So if I go to Ahab and say, ‘Come on over here, Elijah’s going to meet you,’ and I bring him, I know that the Lord, will likely have carted you off someplace else and he’ll kill me.  I’m a family man and I don’t mean you any harm.  Why would you ask me to do something like that?”

Elijah, dispelling Obadiah angst, said, “I will surely be here and I will meet him.  Now go and tell your lord, Behold, Elijah’s here.”  So Obadiah found Ahab and told him, “Elijah’s over here”  (1 Kings 18:9-17).

Ahab, now, face to face with Elijah says, “Are you the one that has troubled Israel”  (1 Kings 18:17)?

Ahab, like most people who live wicked lives, when the fruit of their wickedness comes, they blame God or His men for their calamities, as though God, or His men, actually owe them something.

But Elijah’s not a man to take the blame.

 “I haven’t troubled Israel, but you, and your father’s house have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and you’ve followed Baalim.  Now therefore send, and gather me together all Israel to mount Carmel, and bring in the prophets of Baal, all four hundred and fifty of them, and the prophets of the groves, the four hundred prophets of Ashtoreth, that you’ve been supporting.”

“So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together to mount Carmel.  And Elijah came unto the people, and said, ‘How long will you falter between two opinions?  If the LORD is God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him.’  And the people didn’t answer a word.  Then said Elijah unto the people, ‘I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD, but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.  Now give us two bullocks, and let them take the choice, whatever bullock they want, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and don’t put any fire under it, and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under, and let them call on the name of their gods, and I will call upon the name of Jehovah, and the God that answers by fire, let him be God.’  And all the people said, [fair enough] ‘It is well spoken’”  (1 Kings 18:18-24).

So Elijah tells the prophets of Baal, “look, there’s a lot of you guys, so choose one of the bullocks first, dress it, but don’t put any fire under it & call on the name of your god.”  And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us.”  But there was no voice, nor any that answered.  So they leaped upon the altar.  Now it came to pass at noon, that Elijah decided to mock them saying, “Maybe you guys ought to be crying louder, look, he’s a god, unless maybe he’s in conversation, or maybe he’s on vacation, or he could be asleep, maybe you need to wake him up.  Why don’t you just scream a little louder”  (1 Kings 18:25-27)?

“So they cried all the louder.  They cut themselves in great religious zeal with knives and lancets, till blood was gushing out all over them”  (1 Kings 18:28).  Leaping on the altar.  Crying for Baal to send fire.  And of course, nothing happened.

“Now about the time of the evening sacrifice, there was neither a voice to answer, nor any that regarded their cries.  So Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come on over here now near me’”  (1 Kings 18:29, 30).

Next:  Elijah repairs the altar of the LORD.

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 8 December 2011.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK

Go Show Yourself To Ahab
Part Three of a Ten Part Series
by
Dr. Jay Worth Allen

Here, in 1 Kings 17, we find Elijah, the Tishbite, has come upon a poor widow-lady gathering sticks to cook-up one last loaf of bread for herself and her son, to whom he says, “Would you bring me a drink of water?  And while you’re at it, how’s about bringing me some bread, too?  Oh, and don’t worry about your flour & oil . . . they won’t run out!”

So this widow-lady makes Elijah bread and, Bingo! . . . There was still flour left in the barrel and oil in the jar.  She kept feeding Elijah day after day.  And during this whole period of drought, the flour didn’t fail, nor the oil, there was always just enough to make one more loaf  (1 Kings 17:8-16).

If she had, first of all, gone in to make the cake for herself and her son, that’d been it.  The barrel would have been empty of flour, and the oil would have been gone.  They would have died.  But she followed Elijah’s instructions, “Make me first the cake and then for you and your son.”  She put the Lord first.  When we get our priorities correct, God will take care of us, and all the other aspects of our life, too.  The most important relationship that we have in all this world is our relationship with God, and nothing should come before that.

If we’re going to work on any relationship at all, we should be working on our relationship with God above every other relationship, because if that relationship gets correct, then the others are all going to fall into balance.  If our relationship with God is out of kilter, then there is no way we’re going to be able to balance our life.  It will always be crazy, topsy-turvy.  There is no way we can have a well-balanced life until our life is centered in God.  That’s the vertical axis upon which our life rotates.

Elijah set forth a principle with this lady for God to work.  Put God first . . . and God will take care of you and your son.  He’ll take care of the seconds and the thirds and the fourths.  But it’s priority, it’s simple, it’s basic, and yet it’s one of the most important truths that we need to learn in our whole experience of life:  our relationship with God must supersede every other relationship, because our right relationship with God will see us through everything else.

So the little lady did as Elijah asked & God took care of the rest!

“The barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Elijah.  Now it came to pass, that the son of this woman became very sick,” so sick, that he quit breathing.  “And she said to Elijah, What have I to do with you, O you man of God?  Are you come to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son” (1 Kings 17:16-18)?

It is interesting that she thought the death of her son was somehow related to her own sin.

“And Elijah said unto her, Give me your son.  And he took him out of her bosom, and he carried him up into a loft,” [where he was staying, next to her house] “and he laid him on his own bed.  And he cried unto the LORD, and said, ‘O LORD my God, have you brought this evil upon this woman that I’m staying with in slaying her son?’  And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and he cried unto the LORD, and said, ‘O LORD my God, I pray you, let this child’s soul (or consciousness) come into him again.’  And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came to him again, and he revived.  And Elijah took the child, and brought him down to his mother and presented him to her:  and he said, ‘Look, your son is living.’  And the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and the word of the LORD is in your mouth in truth’”  (1 Kings 17:19-24).

“And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, ‘Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth’” (1 Kings 18:1).

This is the important part of the story.  “The word of the Lord came to Elijah saying, ‘Go show yourself to Ahab.  I’m going to send rain upon the earth.’”  So Elijah has the promise from God that rain is going to come.  Later on, we’ll find Elijah on Mount Carmel praying, bowing himself and praying for God to send rain.  And then we’ll find him sending his servant out seven times to the Mediterranean to look for clouds.  His prayer and his sending his servant out is related to the Lord’s promise, “I will send rain.”  In other words, his prayer was premised upon the fact that he had heard from the Lord and already received the promise of God.

Prayers that are based upon God’s promises and God’s word, we can be sure are going to be answered.  So we have the promise of God.  Elijah heard the word of the Lord and on the basis of his hearing ears came his prayer.

Next:  Elijah shows himself to Ahab.

 (Article originally published in The County Journal 1 December 2011.)

© Dr. Jay & Miss Diana Ministries, Inc. USA, UK