KEY TEXT
1 Kings 17:1-7 (NKJV)
V1- And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD God Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.
V2- Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying,
V3- “Get away from here and turn eastward and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.
V4- And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”
V5- 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.
V6- The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.
V7- And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
Our God is a God of process and not a God of short-cut or automatic promotion.
Before God can put a man of God to publicly challenge the kingdom of darkness, He will subject that man to a process of maturity.
Our Key text introduces us to one of the greatest and anointed prophets of God – Elijah. We see from the key text that before Elijah could stand on Mount Carmel, he needed to sit by the Brook Cherith and be fed by the ravens and the widow of Zarepheth. Before the more mature faith and ability to handle the Mount Carmels of life, there must be the maturing experiences of the Cherith brooks of life and the widow of Zarepheth. These are the testings of life that purify and build as they teach us to trust in the Lord and stay occupied with Him
This morning, I would like to share a sermon entitled, THE TESTINGS BY THE BROOK OF CHERITH.
There are 4 testings by the Brook of Cherith which Elijah had to undergo before he could stand on Mount Carmel to challenge the Prophets of Baal.
(I) THE TEST OF GOD’S GUIDANCE
V2- Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying,
The communication from the Lord came after Elijah’s faithfulness and obedience (verse 1).
Obeying the revelation he had and being a man who spent time alone with God, Elijah was prepared for more. In other words, he had ears to hear and obey the commands of God even though HE MIGHT NOT UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF THOSE COMMANDS.
People often complain about how hard it is to know God’s guidance and leading. The problem is not God’s leading. God is always ready to lead and guide us. The problem is our listening and too often, our listening is colored by false expectations and selfish motives. We want the Lord to answer in our way. We want God’s blessing on our will rather than seeking His will. We tend to make up our list of what we would like to do with our lives, even as it pertains to serving the Lord. We then present that to the Lord for His approval.
What the Lord would now tell Elijah was most likely contrary to what he was expecting. After all was he not a prophet and had he not come to proclaim the Word of Yahweh to Israel? Wasn’t Elijah supposed to be there to serve, preach, perform miracles and to be active for the Lord? But the Lord did not tell Elijah to do any of these things.
The command that follows is very interesting and illuminating.
The command is, “Get away from here and turn eastward and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan (verse 3).
Simply put, the command is – RETREAT, CONCEAL YOURSELF AT BROOK CHERITH.
The “Brook Cherith” (NKJV) or “Ravine Kerith” (NIV) was one of the many waddies or ravines that emptied its waters into the Jordan from the mountains to the east.
Elijah was commanded to depart from Samaria, to turn eastward across the Jordan, and to hide there.
“CHERITH” in Hebrew is Kerith and that means “a cutting”- a place cut by some type of catastrophe like an earthquake, or more likely, by years of water flowing down from the hills to the Jordan.
There were many brooks in this area to which Elijah could have been sent, but only one that was called by this name.
Please note that the Hebrew kerithuth means “a cutting” and was used of DIVORCE, OF THE CUTTING OF MATRIMONIAL BONDS.
Why is Elijah sent to the PLACE OF CUTTING?
Some think for protection from Ahab. Perhaps that was part of it but it was NOT the primary reason because later God sent Elijah to face King Ahab and the king made no attempt to slay him (1 Kings 18:17-20).
More likely, the reason was SECLUSION, CONCEALMENT.
The Hebrew word for HIDE is satar, that means “to hide, conceal, to cover.”
This refers to a DELIBERATE AND DECISIVE CHOICE IN OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S COMMAND TO BE ABSENT, OUT OF SIGHT.
So we can see here that the testing concerned with God’s guidance is seen in the command for Elijah to leave and hide by the brook east of Jordan.
Application: We all must recognize how desperately we need the revelation and direction of the living God. After Elijah gave his prophetic message, he needed God’s guidance to know what to do next. What is God’s plan? What is my need at the moment? Man’s tendency is to direct his own way but the Scripture firmly warns us against that.
Jeremiah 10:23- I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.
For us to strike out on any venture or task without seeking God’s direction is ARROGANT INDEPENDENCE. It is acting as though we can direct our own way.
The test is simply this: Do we recognize our need and prayerfully and studiously seek God’s guidance? Do we wait on the Lord?
This first test of God’s guidance is a test of OUR BASIC ORIENTATION AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS LIFE. Will we follow the command of Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight”? Or do we turn to our own strategies? Do we hunger for God’s word because we understand our need or are we proudly confident in our own resources?
One of the questions Elijah faced as the Lord revealed His will to him was, “Why does God want me to go and hide?”
There are 2 reasons to it. Firstly it relates to the nation and second it relates to Elijah himself. For the nation, it was a judgment. God was removing His instrument of the Word (namely a prophet) from their midst until their hearts could be prepared by the suffering that would follow. When there is no response to His Word, God eventually removes his human messengers of the Word with His instruments of discipline.
For Elijah, however, this time by the Brook was surely designed to maintain his INNER LIFE WITH GOD and to further prepare him for the testings and the ministry that would follow. It would become a PLACE OF TESTING but also of SPIRITUAL GROWTH.
Why do God’s people need this time alone?
First, we need, as Elijah did, SECLUSION. We need time alone, away from the hustle and bustle and the comings and goings of the rest of the society, even from our own ministries to family, church and friends.
Charles Swindoll writes: “To be used of God, is there anything more encouraging, more fulfilling? Perhaps not, but there is something MORE BASIC – TO MEET WITH GOD. To linger in His presence, to shut out the noise of the city and in quietness, give Him the praise He deserves. Before we engage ourselves in His work, let’s meet Him in His Word….in prayer….in worship.”
One of the great commands of Scripture is “Cease striving [be still- KJV] and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10). How many of us truly hear the inaudible or see the invisible realities of God? The only way we can find true satisfaction or meaning in life is to hear the invisible, inaudible voice of the living God, the Lord Jesus, through developing our capacity to hear and see Him by spending time alone with Him.
Application: Spiritually speaking, God has designed our time alone with Him (a place where we can feed on His Word and think on the Lord) to be a kerith to us, A PLACE OF CUTTING, a place where God can chisel away on our character and cut the world out of our hearts. It enables us to divorce ourselves from the world and its pulls. Without it we become married to the world. We need this time alone that we might draw upon our supernatural resources in the Lord, His Word and prayer for a life of faith.
We are to get alone with God, first to just know and love Him, to develop our dependence on Him and then to bring order and strength to our inner life. We are to do this to bring God’s control over every area of our lives: our MOTIVATIONS, what moves us, the things that pulls us to conform or to compete, our perspective of life, why we are here and what are we seeking, our priorities and values, the use of our time, talents, treasures and truth and our thought processes.
Getting alone with God is not optional. If we want true spiritual success, it is fundamental. It is a key part of God’s plan by which our lives are first strengthened by the underground spiritual streams of life in Christ and then changed and cut into the ravine that God wants to use to make us a channel for pouring out the blessings of the Savior on others.
Hiding ourselves does not mean that we will not be available for Christian service and ministry. If we are truly spending quality time in getting to know our Lord, it will mean special sensitivity to the very things God wants us to do but it will be accompanied by a growing willingness to serve with the power of God in the ministry God gives. Furthermore, we will certainly be more apt to serve from biblical motives rather than the neurotic motivations of self-centered living or from a misplaced sense of responsibility.
For the Church of Jesus Christ, the Scripture directs us 2 basic ways by which we hide ourselves in the Lord to hear his voices. First, there is what we might call the dailies – This is the scheduled time for reading, study, meditation and prayer but the dailies include, moment-by-moment trust wherein we pray without ceasing and seek to relate to and rest our lives on the Lord. Then there are the weeklies – The times when we stop our regular routines and come together as members of the body of Christ.
In the final analysis it is not what you hear from the pulpit, You tube or read in a book. It is what you hear from the Lord while you are hiding in secret place of prayer. It’s what really gets through to you and to me as a word (rhema) from God.
(II) THE TEST OF GOD’S PROMISE AND SUPPLY
V4- And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”
Here in verse 4, God promised to supply Elijah’s needs while by the Brook Cherith.
There are 2 elements to the promise to Elijah
• “YOU SHALL DRINK FROM THE BROOK”
God chose to supply Elijah’s needs through a brook, not a river, or a lake or an artesian well. It was a brook that would dry up very soon and Elijah knew that.
Why is God’s provision sometimes just barely enough? And why does God’s supply sometimes dry up?
God does this to remind us of a number of spiritual lessons like:
a) True joy, meaning and significance in life does not consist in the abundance of our possession (Luke 12:15)
b) “Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked” (Ps 37:16).
c) “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim 6:6).
Whatever our lot, God wants us to learn to be content in whatever state we are in by first learning to rest in Him by faith. Why? So that we might experience God’s sufficiency and learn that our greatest need is God. Not only does Scripture warn against seeking our happiness, security and significance in things like position, praise, applause, prestige, possessions or pleasure but God works providentially as here with Elijah to teach us that He alone is our security and true source of joy and peace. We must recognize that our greatest need is not things, not a changed environment and not people. It is God.
• ‘I HAVE COMMANDED THE RAVENS TO FEED YOU THERE’
In this promise, we see the principle of Philippians 4:18, “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Since God has already done the most for when we were enemies and alienated from God, how much more will He not do for us now that we are His children and have become the special objects of His love and grace.
E.g. A consecrated Jewish believer, Dr. Max Reich, gave this testimony: “When my wife and I were first married, we felt called to full-time Christian service. God blessed our ministry and many people accepted the Lord. Although our income was small and we had few worldly possessions, our hearts were full of joy. One day, however, my wife said, “Max, there’s nothing to eat for dinner!” I didn’t reply at first but stood listening to the bird singing in the trees. Suddenly these words from a well-known Gospel song flashed through my mind: “His eyes are on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.” Immediately I said, “If our Heavenly Father feeds the birds, surely He’ll take care of us!” Just then a lady knocked at the door. After introducing herself, she said, “My husband was a hopeless alcoholic. Every time he got his check, he’d spend most of it to get drunk, so the children and I were often hungry. Recently he heard you preach the Gospel and the Lord worked a miracle in his heart. Now he’s a changed man! For the first time in years he brought home a full week’s pay and I was able to get a good supply of groceries. I thought as I was cooking, part of this food really belongs to Brother Reich. I was going to bring you some later, but I felt compelled to do it immediately. Here’s half of the chicken I’ve fried and some biscuits fresh from oven!’ We were so happy,” said Dr. Reich, “that we sang, ‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow!” To this moment the Lord has never failed to give us our daily bread.”
Next, notice the 2 ways the Lord supplied Elijah’s need. He provided through natural means, the brook, and supernatural means, the ravens. There is an important lesson here – He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think to meet our needs. He has promised to supply according to His riches in glory – that’s an infinite supply. But if He wants to use supernatural means, He can and occasionally does.
Now the ravens would bring bread and meat to Elijah. BREAD in Hebrew is lechem and that can refer to FOOD IN GENERAL and may well have included rice, fruits, nuts and eggs. Isn’t this interesting? God could have rained bread from heaven or brought up quails as he did for the Israelites in the wilderness. Instead, He chose to feed Elijah through the ravens.
Why ravens? What did this mean to Elijah?
Elijah was a Jew and according to the Law the raven was an unclean bird, one of the species the Jew was not allowed to eat. Though he is not told to eat the ravens, still God chose an unclean bird to feed Elijah. Benson Commentary says, “God is said to command both brute creatures and senseless things, when he causes them to do what he intends to effect by them. The ravens being birds of prey and very voracious, were more likely to rob the prophet than to bring him food; but God’s command suspended their natural instinct and made them contrary to it. They are said to be unnatural to and to neglect their young ones; yet when God pleases, they shall feed his prophet. God could have sent angels to minister to him; but he chose winged messengers of another kind, to show that he can his own purposes as effectually by the meanest as by the mightiest creatures and to give Elijah such a proof of his power and care in providing for him, as should effectually teach him to trust in God in those many and great difficulties to which he was to be exposed: and the more unfit instrument the ravens seemed to be, the more was his almighty power magnified.”
Simply put – the Raven is to remind Elijah and us that the Lord is SOVEREIGN and SUPREME and we need to learn to submit to the tools He chooses to use to mold us and to the methods He uses to supply our needs. Here God was nourishing Elijah’s faith, building his confidence and reminding him of who was in charge.
There are no limits to what the Lord can do and His tools are limitless.
Are we willing to trust God’s promises and provision no matter how contrary to the ideas His provision seems? He uses all kinds of instruments, all kinds of people and all kinds of situation. Think about your problems – people, finances, health, family, job conditions, whatever. These are tools, agents of the Lord, like ravens sent to supply certain needs in our lives.
So what is our need? Of course our need is to trust the Lord, but how is that trust to manifest itself?
Our need is to follow Solomon’s counsel in Ecclesiastes 7:11-12 (NET) – Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing; it benefits those who see the light of day. For wisdom provides protection, just as money provides protection. But the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves the life of its owner.
Here the text in Ecclesiastes emphasizes on the value of biblical wisdom and how God works.
Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 (NET) – Consider the work of God: For who can make straight what he has bent? In times of prosperity be joyful, but in times of adversity consider this: God has made one as well as the other, so that no one can discover what the future holds.
In Verses 13 and 14 Solomon gives us insight into how God works as the SYNCHRONIZER and ORCHESTRATOR of our lives. We are told to “consider the work of God”. The word “consider” in Hebrew is ra’ah which means “to see, look at, inspect, observe” and then based on what is seen, “to think on, consider with the mind and to understand.” Knowing and believing that God is involved in the affairs of our lives, we are to observe, inspect and consider these affairs, and then to respond in faith and seek to understand what God is teaching us.
The question is then asked, “For who is able to make straight what He has bent?” Note the connective word “for”. This links the question to command to consider and points us to the reason or cause. It shows us what God can do and does. HE BENDS THE PATH OF OUR LIVES.
This means the path of life, like a mountainous road, is sometime BENT; it has CURVES, UPS AND DOWNS, ROUGH PLACES AND SMOOTH PLACES. It isn’t always an interstate highway and along the way, it has its brooks that dry up.
This means that God has not deserted us in those ups and downs or turns or bends in the road. HE IS INVOLVED IN OUR LIVES. Life is not just a matter of blind chance or the flip of a coin.
The text in Ecclesiastes also teaches us WHAT WE CANNOT DO. We CANNOT STRAIGHTEN WHAT GOD HAS BENT. When God puts a curve in our road, He is calling us to follow the curve. If, in the providence of God, He allows you to fall and break your arm, you cannot reverse the film and cut out that part of the film. You must live with the fall and the broken bone. Isn’t this an intriguing way to teach us how God is intimately and lovingly involved in our circumstances? He bends the paths of our lives but Scripture shows He does so out of love and wisdom.
This is followed by instruction that tells us how we are to act and respond to the varied circumstances of life (verses 14). When things are going well, when the road is straight, be happy, rejoice and enjoy the life God gives, though other scripture warns us to never seek ours security in such conditions. In the days of adversity, when God puts a bend in the road, consider, observe, inspect your circumstances, stop, think and learn. Think about what is God telling you? Apply the truth of the fact that a sovereign, all wise, all knowing and all powerful God is involved; our circumstances are not chance happenings.
Application: When things don’t go well, when the car breaks down, when you have a sickness, when you hear about the criticism, whatever it is, how do we respond? Do we blow up or stay calm? Do we trust the Lord or become depressed? What do we do? We are to remember that God is at work. He makes both the day of prosperity and the day of adversity. He synchronizes both into our lives –often the same day – but He is working it all together for good, the ultimate good of making us like His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
(III) THE TEST OF OBEDIENCE
V5- 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.
V6- The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.
Elijah went and did. He went and did NOT according to how he felt or what he thought or what other might think or want, but according to the directions of the Lord.
Immediate obedience – no arguments, no questions.
He could have argued with the Lord, “Now wait a minute Lord. Across the Jordan is out of the land of promise. And ravens? My goodness, they are unclean birds according to your own word. Furthermore, I am a prophet and you called me to preach. If you send me over to Brook Cherith, you will be wasting my gifts. The nation needs me. This doesn’t make sense.”
Thank God, Elijah did not disobey nor argue with God. He
went and did according to the word of the Lord because he knew and trusted in His God. He believed that the Lord’s will is always perfect and designed for the highest good with ramifications extending into eternity. He knew the Lord was building his faith, his character, and preparing him for things to come. His obedience was a work of faith.
(IV) THE TEST OF THE DRIED UP BROOK
V7- And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
• ‘AND IT HAPPENED’
The Hebrew verb hayah means “to come to pass, become, or be.” This was NOT a matter of unfortunate chance but it was the sovereign will and plan of God at work. Whether, by the NATURAL OCCURENCES OF LIFE or the SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTIONS OF GOD, things do not just happen to us. They are the outworking of a sovereign God who works all things according to the counsel of His own will. This means God works and orchestrates all things in accordance with His deliberation and decisions based on His wisdom, power and purposes.
• ‘AFTER A WHILE’
This phrase literally means “at the end of days.” But the literal Hebrew brings out an important point that our English translation miss. The implication from the Hebrew translation is – God deals with us NOT simply “after a while” or “sometime later” but AT THE END OF SPECIFIC DAYS, IN HIS TIME which is the best time. Here we see God’s involvement is a day-by-day involvement.
God had a specific plan that included divine provision by the brook for a specific number of days. This plan was unknown to Elijah and unknown to us but it was known to God from all eternity and calculated by Him to be a test, a learning place and a blessing for Elijah.
God’s timing is usually not our timing. This is one of the reasons we are told numerous times in Scripture to wait on the Lord. Rather than turn to our own devices and run ahead of the Lord, we are to take it to Him and wait by faith on HIS TIMING and DIRECTIONS.
• ‘THE BROOK DRIED UP’
What brook? The very one God promised as a source of water. Remember the saying, “Cheer up, things could be worse. So I cheered up and sure enough, things got worse.”
The words “dried up” refer to a PROCESS. Elijah did not just wake up one morning and suddenly find everything gone. Day after day he saw the little brook dwindling in its water supply and he knew what was coming. What must he have thought? What do you suppose he did? Was he measuring the depth of the brook each day? “Oh no, it’s down another inch.” Did he have his eyes on the problem? Was he remembering the way things used to be when he was back in the land? Was he telling God what He needed to do? Or was he focused on the Lord and His promises? I believe he was trusting in the Lord.
Our tendency is to carry a ruler by which we constantly measure what God is doing as though we can’t really trust Him. We measure others. We compare how God is supplying other’s needs. Then we measure our own blessings – our gifts, talents, opportunities and the list goes on.
We are so prone to focus on others to measure what God is doing in and with us. We are so quick to seek our comfort and well being in such measurements, rather than in the “who” and “what” of the Lord.
Well, what would you have done as the brook dried up? Sit there quietly claiming promises like “The battle is the Lord’s” or sing the song, “Jehovah Jireh, my Provider?” Howard Hendricks humorously writes, “I have the highest respect for Elijah. I wouldn’t have been able to sit there and watch the brook diminish. I would have gotten out my road map and been looking for every water hole in the area. My motto would be: “Don’t sit there. Do something.” Isn’t this the tendency for all of us?
Finally, note 1 Kings 17:8 – “Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying…” God was not unconcerned about Elijah. He had a plan. He came to Elijah’s rescue. Granted, sometimes He cuts it a little closes in our thinking, but He is always there. The Lord sits in the heavens, and He does that which He pleases. And it pleases Him to test us in order to build our character and transform us into the character of the Savior.
Illustration: In the vast plains of the Serengeti in Southeast Africa, about the only thing that grows are gnarly old acacia bushes. These don’t provide very straight arrow shafts for the little bushmen that inhabit the plains, so they’ve formulated an ingenious process to keep their quivers full. First they go out and find a suitable branch; it doesn’t matter if it’s got a 30-agree angle in it, just so it’s the proper thickness and length. Next, they’ll build a fire and right beside the fire, they will drive 2 rows of pegs into the ground, about 6-8 inches apart. Then they will put the branch into the fire to get its juices flowing, making it pliable. When it is hot enough, they’ll fish it out of the fire and jam it between the two rows of pegs and let it cool. It’s a little straighter but still looks more like a boomerang than an arrow. So it’s back to the fire, move the pegs a little closer together, back to the fire, jam the shaft between the rows, and let it cool again. It’s getting straighter. Back to the fire, back to the pegs, back to the fire, back to the pegs….until finally the pegs are right next to each, with only an arrow’s width between them. When the bushman pulls it out this last time, he’s got a perfectly straight arrow that’s useful to its maker.
We like the part about “useful to the maker” but it’s the FIRE and that BENDING we’d just as soon avoid. If you want to be made useful, though, you’ve got to take the tough with the easy. We learn from the account of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego that God doesn’t always take His children around the fire. Sometimes He meets them in the middle of the furnace.
Likewise, God left Elijah by the brook until it was dry as a bone. Then, having worked in the heart of the prophet, He came to him in his need and sent him to his next place of provision – the widow of Zarepheth. Again it was a place for growth but also MINISTRY. That’s life. God is developing our faith in Him that He might use us in the lives of others and them in our lives as well.
OUR LORD JESUS
Our Lord Jesus, before He could be released to confront and defeat the Satanic power on the cross, had to undergo these 4 tests as Elijah.
TEST OF GUIDANCE- Jesus after being baptized at River Jordan, was guided by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to fast for 40 days, after which he was tempted by the devil.
TEST OF PROMISE AND PROVISION – Throughout his earthly ministry, God used the “ravens” like the women to provide for his daily needs; God used the fish with the shekel in its mouth to pay the tax due to Caesar; the small boy with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes to feed the ministry of Jesus.
TEST OF OBEDIENCE – His classic prayer at the Garden of Gethsemane proves Jesus’ perfect obedience to God even death at the cross –“Not my will but thy will be done!”
TEST OF THE DRIED UP BROOK – Jesus was so parched at the cross. He was dehydrating (drying up) at the cross and he uttered, “I thirst”. God sent a soldier to offer him a hyssop (sponge) dipped in vinegar [cheap wine carried by almost every Roman soldier called POSCA] so that with that little provision, Jesus’ parched throat could be refreshed with just enough liquid to shout out the most powerful words of redemption – IT IS FINISHED and that wins Jesus’ own Mt Carmel war against the chief of all Baal and false gods – Satan!
Jesus has been tempted at all these four points of testing so that he is able to save you and me in our testings at Brook Cherith (Hebrews 2:18).
Many of us crave for the faith and anointing of Elijah. Some of us even pray, “God, would you give me the kind of faith like Elijah?” Then sometime later, we find that the things in our lives take a turn for the worse. We begin to come under all kinds of pressure and suffering. The pressure builds up, problems develop and many of them without any seeming solution —at least not in the near future. Then we will be asking, “Lord, what’s going on? Why is my world falling apart?” It may be God is answering your prayer. More importantly He is simply carrying out His purpose and plan for your life – the purpose of refining and transforming you into the image of Christ through the 4 four testings at your Brook Cherith – The testing of God’s supply, the testing of God’s promise and supply, the test of obedience and the testing of the dried up brook. Be prepared for God to do a deeper work of preparation in our hearts!
My testimony: Recently God rebuked me for my unwarranted suspicion of his faithfulness (Jeremiah 15:19-Amp). He uses my Brook Cherith to cut open my heart and expose my idols. My idols are security and the worship of highway. I hate bends and uncertainty of life. God has been sending many “Ravens” to provide for etab and us. These ravens are the unlikeliest means of financial support. God told me that in my Negev, drought, or dryness, He will sustain me naturally by the brook and supernaturally through the “ravens and widows”. And God did and He is still sustaining us in these ways. But I have to hide myself in his presence and listen to him. I have to reorder my inner life. If ever there is one thing that God is changing and maturing me again and again at my Brook Cherith is MY FAITH in Him and to release control of my life and let him take over. My penchant for security should not be my savior. Christ is my security and source and not the channels He uses. I know too that this brook Cherith is just a preparation for greater ministry to the widows or the poor where miracles will happen and a Carmel confrontation later on in my ministry. “Therefore thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah]: If you return [and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair], then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile [cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God’s faithfulness], you shall be my mouthpiece.” Jeremiah 15:19 Amp
Are you in a spiritual condition where you can hear God’s instruction and guidance?
What are you facing in your life right now that needs God’s supply? Are you resting in Him for your needs? Or is there distrust and despair? Is your heart full of unworthy and unwarranted suspicion concerning God’s faithfulness? If so, God will be using this Brook Cherith testing to keep cutting away this vileness in your heart.
Where is your focus? Are you focused on the problem rather than the Lord?
Are you seeing the agents of supply in your life as totally inadequate with the result you are questioning what God can do?
Does your present condition look impossible? Does it look like there is no way God can meet your needs through what He has brought about in your life?
Have you considered that before God meets your needs, or that in meeting your need, He wants to use you to meet the need of someone else first?
END
PREACHED AT ETAB 1ST SV ON 29 NOV 2015
