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HEARING GOD’S VOICE SERIES
BREAKTHROUGH
INTO GOD’S POWER
We are touching on hearing the voice of God. We have touched on the
three blockages that block the widow from hearing from God. The bible tells us
that God said to Elijah in I King chapter 17 I have commanded a widow to feed
you. But the widow didn’t hear that command from God. When Elijah went to her
she felt that she was all ready to die. To eat the last meal means to have a
funeral service. That was all she was ready to do. She didn’t hear from the
Lord. I will hear the Lord when He speaks. I will be
quiet enough to listen to the Lord when He speaks. That was what the widow
didn’t do. When the Lord spoke and commanded her to feed Elijah, she didn’t
hear a thing. Sometimes God is speaking to us. We are too busy. We have too
many things in our life. She was too busy looking at her own self. Self
consciousness hindered her from hearing the Lord.
Secondly that woman was looking at the natural circumstances around
her. When she was distracted by the present circumstances and the temporal
thing she forgot the eternal thing. So she was distracted by her circumstances.
She couldn’ hear God.
Thirdly this woman has lost all hope. When you lose your hope you
have no more purpose to live for. And faith comes from hope. Faith is the
substance of things hoped for. Last week we ended with the woman and Elijah how
the oil lasted and so did the little bit of flour that she had. It lasted them
throughout all years perhaps. Just that little oil and the little flour it
lasted throughout the remaining time of the famine. God’s power was working
everyday. God’s power didn’t just work on the Sabbath day. If God’s power
didn’t work for them one day they will starve. Sometimes we depend on ourselves
so much that we don’t need God’s power. But when you are really depending on
God’s power God just doesn’t work just for one day. If God stop working for one
day they will miss their breakfast, lunch and dinner. They will starve.
Everyday they needed God’s power. And everyday we need God’s power working in
our life. Not just once or twice we need it every single day.
I King 17:24 After this the son of the woman the mistress of
the house, became ill, and his illness was so severe that there was no breath
left in him. (In other word he died.) And she said to Elijah, “What have you against
me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sins to remembrance, and so
cause the death of my son.” And he said to her. “Give me your son!” And he took
him from her bosom, and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged,
and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, hast
thou brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her
son?”
It is so easy to blame God. Elijah was not
in the New Testament but in the Old Testament. The Old Testament culture always ascribe every thing to God. They always take
God as the final cause. Remember we are reading the Old Testament. In the Old
Testament the Hebrew language is a permissive language. I will give you
scriptures so that you will not be confused in your life. So that when you read
the Old Testament you will have an understanding about the working of the
permissive will of God. Compare II Sam. 24:1 with I Chron. 21:1.
II Sam 24: 1 Again the anger of the
Lord was aroused against
I Chron
21: 1 Now Satan stood up against
You will notice that in one scripture it says
the Lord moved David but the other verse says the devil did it. You can use
this scripture to prove that God kills. God didn’t cause the killing. The
Hebrew sense of the word means that God allowed the situation to happen. It is
a permissive sense. The English translation gives the impression that God
caused the killing to take place but the Hebrew language actually meant that
God was just doing nothing .He just lifted up His hands. He was not actively
doing it but He allowed it. We don’t have it in the English. Why did He allow
the tragedy to take place? Usually because of disobedience.
Since man insists on his way, God takes his hands off. So we need to qualify
the word “allow”.
Then he stretched himself upon the
child three times, and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s soul
come into him again.” And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Elijah; and the
soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the
child, and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and
delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” And the
woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word
of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”
We are talking about the renewing of the
mind. I want you to see here that God’s power was working everyday in their
lives. They had a miracle taking place everyday. Do you know that the things of
God can be so familiar that we lose our respect for holy things.
I mean people fall on the power the first time in your life it’s beautiful but
you see it in every service you can get so familiar that you lose your respect
for God. You lose the respect in reverence when God is doing something. You
just take the manifestations of the Holy Spirit lightly. Don’t take the things
of God lightly. When God heals one person it is a miracle. When God did a work
in salvation and you have never seen people saved before and the first time you
win a person to the Lord you felt like shouting halleluiah in the next twenty-four
hours. You could hardly sleep because your mouth is praising God. But after the one thousand souls that you won to the Lord praise
God and you say the sinner’s prayer. You have lost your reverence for
God. When you reach that stage God cannot work any longer. That is why His
power starts growing weaker and weaker in your life when you lose your
reverence for God. There is a presence and working of God that we can get so
acclimatized to that we say it is no big deal.
The Israelites ate manna everyday in the
desert. The first time they saw manna they asked, “What is this?” Everyday it
was a miracle. And in the evening God caused the fowls to come. Of all places
this miracle was taking place in an impossible place in the wilderness. They
got so used to eating this miraculous supply of food that they started
grumbling after some time. They mumbled, “O how lovely was the curry and
MacDonald that we ate in
When God’s Spirit began moving, the Lord
blessed the people. They cried out gratefully, “O, thank you Jesus.” Then the
second week, and third week, the praises went weaker. You lost your reverence
for God’s power. Kathryn Kuhlman kept that awe of God all her life. Every time
a miracle happened, she looked at it as if it was a first miracle. The way she
reacted to the Lord showed she preserved that preciousness in her relationship
with the Lord. Usually if your love for the Lord grows weak that happens. If
your love is fresh everyday your relationship with the Lord will be the same
constant beautiful relationship.
In the woman’s house, miracles were taking
place everyday but suddenly there was a tragedy. For no reason mentioned the
woman’s son died. The first thing that woman did was to call her sins to
remembrance. She felt condemned and said, “Maybe my sins have brought this.” I
do not know what kind of life she lived. But the bible says she told Elijah, “Why
have you brought my sins to remembrance?” Elijah didn’t do anything. He just
ate at the table. Suddenly the woman’s son died and the woman came to Elijah
and asked him why did he bring her sins to
remembrance. You know what the woman has? An unrenewed mind. We will classify as that today. She
had condemnation from the past.
God’s work is this way. At first it was in
the physical realm. But as God works He gets deeper. God wanted to get into the
soul area. It is the same with your life and my life. Many of us we came to
know the Lord in His miracle working power that affected our physical bodies.
But God is not only interested in your physical body. He is interested in your
soul. After some time in your Christian life He began to deal with your soul. Through
the power of the Spirit it affected your body. But now the soul has to be
affected too - to be changed, renewed, touched and be healed. God wants to
touch your soul. And as God’s power moves stronger and stronger in your life,
your body, soul and spirit undergo some spiritual cleansing. You will be aware
especially if you are fasting and praying. When you are fasting and praying in
your dream some of the things of your past began to come up. When you fast
physically your body cleanses itself. Your soul also goes through a cleansing
process. All the things in your past
like little small shadows in hiding are coming out in your dream and in your
daily life especially. All these things are washed up for you to deal with
before the presence of the Lord. And the more you go nearer to God’s presence
and since God’s presence is so powerful, so bright, so white, the more you see
dark spots in your life that you might have not noticed. The dark spots in your
life will come out to be dealt with.
So they are tasting
God’s power everyday. But now it’s closer still. Her mind has condemnation.
There was guilt in her. So this woman has problems in three areas. No. 1 she
limited God’s power. He son died that would need another miracle. But she had
already been receiving miracles everyday. The same God who could multiply the
flour and the oil could heal the son. It never occurred to her. She limited
God’s power. Many times we limit God’s power. God has answered us in one area
and we say God cannot answer on this other area. We put God into compartments.
We say God you can do this but not this. Think about the times that God has
blessed you. Think about the miracles He had done for you. Or if your life is
down; if you are feeling the burdens in your life; problems coming upon you;
remember count your blessings one by one. Remember what the Lord has done for
you. If He had done one thing He can do a thousand things. If He had healed one
blind man He can heal all the blind men. If God has done one miracle, it means
that God’s power is never in short supply. He can heal forever more. And there
is still much power to do more. Do not limit God’s power. If He has answered
the prayer in one area in your life all the other areas are areas He can work
His miracle working power too. The problem is she has limited God’s power. She tasted God’s doing one thing but she did
not taste God’s power doing another thing. The words she said are shameful for
one who has tasted the power of God everyday. She limited God’s power.
The second problem she had was that she
held on to her past. She asked Elijah why did he bring
her sins to remembrance. If you hold on to your past, your past can destroy
your present and your future. She held on tightly to her past. It didn’t come
out the first time. The first time Elijah met her, she didn’t think of her
past. But it was there all the time. She kept the guilt and condemnation in her
soul. It was like a sleeping giant in her soul. But the more she got to know
God and God’s power, the sleeping giant woke up in
her. That soul in her woke up for healing. Inside her she was still holding on
to her past tightly. She was still holding on to the past. Nobody knew but God
knew. God has eyes, He knows every secret that you have in your heart, in your
mind, in your life, and nobody knew but He knows. This woman was holding on
secretly to her past. The things she had done in her past was still troubling
her from time to time. When the children stop playing, when the activities of
the day calmed down and when she sat alone at night her past still haunted her.
It was like a creature from the past, a monster from the past that keeps coming
and haunting her. She held on
the past. That’s her
problem. By holding onto her past she was actually cutting off herself from the
forgiveness of God.
What does the miracle of the
multiplication of the flour and the oil taking place in her own house saying to
her? God is saying, “I love you. I love you enough. I care for you to multiply
this oil, to multiply this flour.” God is saying, “I love you. I care about you
now. I have forgiven you. Your relationship is nice with me. I am having a
beautiful lovely relationship with you otherwise there will be no miracles.” If
she don’t have a relationship with God there will be
no miracle. Because the miracles come forth from the
relationship with God. Continual miracles especially.
The first miracle you can receive might be
through somebody else who has relationship with the Lord. If you continue to
receive in your own life the miracles directly from the Lord, you know there is
a relationship established. Establish a relationship establish a miracle life.
You want continuous miracles establish a relationship with the Lord. God is
saying, “I have forgiven you. I love you.” Love means forgiveness. Jesus on the
cross says Father forgive them. To love is to forgive. God has forgiven you.
God has loved us. But because you are holding on to the past, you are unable to
receive the love of God. That past, that block of wood she is holding on to blocked
her from God’s love reaching her. She did not receive God’s forgiveness in her
life. She is holding on to the past. If you hold on to the past just one
incident, two incidents, ten incidents you may destroy your future. Warning, do
not hold on to the past. You may destroy your future. There are some things to
forget, there are some things to remember. Remember what the Lord has done.
Remember the blessings. But there are some things to forget. And because she
did not forget her past, you know what the past is doing to her? The past is
now destroying her. That monster that woke up from the past has come to destroy
her. And if Elijah didn’t do any thing she would be destroyed for the rest of
her life.
Thirdly she asked Elijah why have
you brought my sins to remembrance. She told the man of God. Why have
you killed my son? Thirdly she did not take the responsibility on herself. And
that sin echoed the failing of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam sinned,
Eve sinned, the serpent of course has sinned too. Adam
didn’t say, “God, I was wrong.” Adam pointed to Eve and told God, “Lord, the
woman you gave me, she gave me to eat.” In other words, Adam was saying that
not only was it the woman’s fault but it was also God’s fault for giving him
the woman. Eve didn’t say, “I was wrong, God. Eve said that it was the serpent
that tricked her. The serpent looked at God and didn’t say anything. It just
slithered away and chuckled to himself.
It is easy just to blame somebody else for the
faults we are hiding. By doing that we are avoiding responsibility for our own
problem. And by doing that we are actually saying, “I do not want to solve my
problem because I am not the cause of it.” Remember whatever problem you are
going through are the ones that are killing your life not another person’s
life. You are responsible for the source and the solution of those problems.
Unless we face the problem and acknowledge, “Yes it is my problem. It is my
weakness. It is my own character that needs to be dealt with and not the other
person,” then you won’t have solution. Before you can receive the forgiveness
of sin you must acknowledge sin. With the acknowledgement of sin comes the
forgiveness of sin.
So this woman did take the problem on herself.
She did not say I am responsible for it. She put all on Elijah. It’s very easy
to blame the one next to you. She didn’t blame some Old Testament character but
she blamed the one near her. Easy, just pass the buck to the one next to you.
She did not take responsibility to herself. If you are not healed don’t blame
somebody else. If you are having financial problem don’t
blame somebody else. If you are having a problem in our life, a character of
weakness, don’t blame somebody else. Stand up with your face towards God. Look
towards the Mighty One and say, “I am the one that needs to be dealt with.” And
then God will do it. So because of all these areas he was blocked from the
power of God.
But look at Elijah. When Elijah saw the situation
that this woman was facing, the first thing that Elijah did, Elijah did three
things. In verse 20 he cried out to the Lord. Then in verse 21 he stretched
himself on the child three times. When he put himself on the child and cried
out onto the Lord, Elijah prayed with all his might. The three things Elijah
did are opposite from what the woman did. The woman limited God’s power. For
Elijah if God can do the miracle for the flour and the oil God can also do
this. All I have to do is bring it before God. If God had done that one miracle
through prayer I can come to God and bring this and God will have another
miracle here. He did not limit God’s power. He prayed with all his might. No.1
Elijah prayed with all his might. That’s what you and I have to do. If a situation
keeps coming up in your mind, pray with all your might. Don’t look to the left
or to the right but look to the Lord. And pray with all your might. And draw on
the power of God into that situation. And that power of God will be released in
your situation. God only rewards those who seek Him diligently. Heb. 11:6 those
who seek God must believe that He is and he is a rewarder
of those who seek Him diligently. Not just once or twice you must come to God
with all your mind consistently. And God will reward
you.
James 5:14 Is
any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them
pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer
of faith will save the sick man. It is not just the prayer of the
righteous. You read carefully in James 5 it says the fervent prayer of the
righteous. Righteous is not the problem because you can get forgiveness and
righteousness as a gift. II Cor. 5:21Jesus was made
our righteousness for us. He was made sin so that we can have His righteousness
we become righteousness. It is a gift from God. You and I are righteous to pray
the prayer of a righteous one. But not all the righteous ones are fervent. It’s
the fervent, fervent is continual prayer with all your
might. How long? Till the answer comes. If you pray
one hour and the answer didn’t come, then pray for two hours. If it didn’t
come, keep on praying three hours, four hours, five.
Seek the Lord with all your might. And the answer will come if you are
persistent. If one day is not enough spend two days. Two days is not enough,
spend three days. If three days is not enough spend 21 days. Pray with all your
might onto the Lord. And God’s power will soon come upon you. You will taste those power like nobody else have tasted before. God has
some power in store to keep in your life. And He will put power into your
situation.
The second thing that Elijah did was that he came
before the Lord. He prayed for the soul of the child to come back. You know
what Elijah was doing? Elijah was creating the future. He had no time to hold
on to the past. He took the word of God; he took prayer; he took the Spirit of
the living God and he creates the future. The future is yours to conquer. The
future is yours to build. What we will be tomorrow depends on what you do in
the present. If in the present you spend all your time holding onto the past
your future is doomed. Disasters await you, dearth awaits you, all the kind of sufferings awaits you. All the afflictions
await you. All the darkness awaits you. But if you would take the word of God,
you would take the love of God, you would take God’s power, and with God’s
revelation you began to pray with all your might. You began to shape your
future. Creatively you began to bring that before God. You don’t wait for the
future to just drop by. You create the future.
Elijah took the power of God and changed the
future. Because the present continued will become the present
future. The child was dead. If nothing is done the child will remain
dead. You can cry all you want but the child is still dead. You can complain
all you want but the child is dead. You can blame everybody but the child is
still dead. We need men and women of God who will take the weapon of the Spirit
of God and create the future. Create your future. If you don’t do it the devil
will do it for you.
Take the things of God. The revelations God has
spoken in your life. Write down those things the prophecies that are good for
you that have confirmation in our heart and your spirit. Write them down; see
them and pray over them. Fast over them. Seek the Lord over them. People take days off to go on a vacation. You take days off
to go on a vacation with God. Any vacation with the Lord is a very nice one. I
took all those things that God has said about the future and bring it before
God. I pray and fast and seek the Lord. God will never forsake you if you don’t
forsake Him. Take the things God has said, and then fast, pray and seek Him
with all your heart and you will create your own future. The revelation He has
given you. Don’t do it in your own strength. Don’t do it in your own flesh. But
take what God speaks for you that are in line with your spirit and your
conscience and build them up for your future that God has for you. And for
every single one of us God has planned a bright future. Put away the dark part.
Everyone of you has a dark part. But everyone of us has a bright future.
Thirdly Elijah when he came before the Lord unlike the woman who pass responsibility on others, Elijah took the responsibility on himself. He took it as his responsibility to wake the son from death. He didn’t tell the woman that it was her responsibility. He took that upon his own shoulders. Like a donkey to take the burden that others cast on him and bring it before the Lord. When you take responsibility for your own healing then you would do with all your might. When you take responsibility for your own financial life then you would do something in your own life that God can work out for you. Take the responsibility and bring it before God. It is in your hand you hold the miracle in your hands. In other words you are the one who will determine the outcome. Thank God for health, thank but it’s in your own hand lies the responsibility to do some thing. When you stand before Jesus at the judgment seat, nobody can blame you even your closest father, mother or your wife for their life. Everyone has to face God for their own life. God regards each one of us as having our own sacred responsibility of life.
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