Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
God is prophetic. He speaks, and life happens! He speaks to the season of today, and the season of today yields to the reality of a new day for a new tomorrow. This is the way of faith in Christ. This is the way of our path of destiny as the body of Christ. As leaders, we must be aware of spiritual realities that seek to bind us to the seasons of the past. In the story of Elijah, Jezebel depicts a controlling spirit of compromise that seeks to bind us to a comfort zone of our past. The spirit of Jezebel is a seducing spirit that binds us to the desires of our own flesh. It depicts the impossible strength of the flesh and it depicts a spiritual force that attempts to intimidate us from pursuing a path of faith, trust, and new freedom in Christ. God always leads us forward into paths of new blessing that empower us to be a blessing to our world. In blessing, God will bless us! In multiplying, He will multiply who we are for a multigenerational journey of destiny in Christ. This is a continual journey that requires us to let go of old things and embrace new things in Christ. The spirit of Jezebel seeks to bind us from being the blessing of God upon the earth. Elijah found himself in such a place when he retreated to a cave in the wilderness because of the intimidating spirit of Jezebel
1 Kings 19:11-12 Then He (God) said him, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
Elijah wasn’t obedient to God. He didn’t come out of the cave and stand before the Lord. While he remained in the cave God passed by and:
- There was a breaking (wind broke up the things build).
- There was a shaking (earthquake shook and revealed instability).
- There was a taking (fire consumes and takes away).
God was not in these events, but He was speaking while these events were taking place. He was speaking before they happened, while they were happening, and after they happened. His voice was a “still small voice”. There had to be a removal of other things before Elijah was able to respond to the voice of the Lord, who had been speaking to him all along. When God enters our today, the things of our creation are revealed as less important than who the Creator is and what the Creator can do. When God enters our present reality, things in our present reality shake and prove to be things that are no longer useful for God’s will today and tomorrow. When God comes into our space, fire consumes what can be consumed. Things are consumed so that we can hunger to be filled with the eternal realities of God. God wants us to know Him and His love. Our created realities are not a substitute for what the One who loves us can bring into our lives.
God loves us enough to take drastic measures in His attempt to allow us to hear His voice. A season of loosing is a season of God speaking. Elijah should have known that it was a season of loosing and therefore he should have immediately come to the mouth of the cave and stood before God to hear His voice. Elijah was bound to his own thoughts from his past experiences, he was reluctant to respond in obedience and “come” to the place where he could hear the voice of the Lord. If we are focused on our own history and experiences in a season of God’ loosing, we are not ministering to the Lord. We are ministering to ourselves. It is “ministry to self” or “selfish ministry”. It has an impartation of death to ourselves, and to everyone around us! Proper ministry of God while God is in a season of “loosing” is a ministry of “loosing. Freedom is the cry of God’s heart!
1 Kings 19:13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
It was after the fire consumed the things around Elijah, after things were taken away, that Elijah was able to hear the voice of the Lord that had been calling to him since before the wind, the earthquake, and the fire. When Elijah finally responded to the voice of the Lord, he wrapped his face in his mantle. Elijah hid under his gift. He hid under the fact that he was a prophet. When he had lost everything else, he still put his trust in his gift, not God. When he came to face God, he did not come a humble servant, but he came as a “prophet”. I believe that he was justifying his actions by his gift. Instead of doing what he should have been doing, he was hiding under the fact that he was a prophet. When he had lost everything else, he still put his trust in his gift, not God.
The more that we think we know in God, the more we become susceptible to this trap. We were saved by the grace of God! It was the mercies of the Lord that called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We must never allow the religious trappings of spiritual pride to cause us to hide behind our gift. God gifted us because we humbled ourselves before him. We were nothing so He gave us ALL! We must never lose sight of that. The presence of the Lord and the fellowship of His face Is more to be valued than the gifts of His grace. The Father of the house is to be more valued than the house. It is the Father who makes the house a home. Without the Father the house is just a house empty of all the things that make the house a place one wants to live.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
Donations can be made at the link on the home site of:
Checks can be made payable to House of Bread Ministry and sent to:
House of Bread Ministry, 3210 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225
To avoid us paying a transaction fee from your donation, you can also set up a payment or an automatic payment from your bank to House of Bread Ministry. Just set it up as a ‘bill pay’ through your online bank account and your bank will mail a check to House of Bread Ministry. We will record your payment as a donation to House of Bread Ministry (E.I.N. 91-2009037) and we will send you a contribution receipt at the close of the year.
Our Ministry Information Is:
House of Bread Ministry
3210 Meridian St.
Bellingham, WA 98225-1728
