Alignment
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Alignment: Elijah
1 Kings 17:1-7; 18:41-46
1 Kings 17:1-7; 18:41-46
How many of you know someone who just came into your life one day, and you knew absolutely nothing about them, but something about them drew you to them?
We read about one of them in this story, Elijah. Who was this man from God? Where did he come from?
Elijah came from the tribe of Tishbe and the land of Gilead just west of the Jordan between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. His name means “My God is Yahweh!”
That is the extent of what we know about Elijah’s past. Now, we know that he rebuked Ahab, Israel, and the false prophets.
Elijah had gone far beyond philosophy and its uncertainties. He had found God! Elijah had not found a religious theory. He had found the very key to life and eternity.
God the Creator made us for Himself. Our hearts and beings will never be satisfied until we find our satisfaction in God Himself. Long before Elijah stood in Ahab’s presence, Elijah had met God. That made his salutation to Ahab significant: “I stand before God. God is here with me. I stand really in His presence, not yours.”
1 Kings 17:1; Psalm 95:6–7
Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,
We see Elijah’s alignment with God through God’s:
Divine Direction
Divine Dependence
Divine Care + Elijah’s Obedience = Aligning to God
Divine Supplies
Divine hand
Divine Direction:
Divine Direction:
When we pray, we try not to align God with our desires but to align ourselves with His Will.
Elijah understood God’s will about pronouncing the rains and dew to stop. Deuteronomy 11:16-17
Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.
King Solomon had anticipated such an occasion. 1 Kings 8:35
“When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them,
The announced drought resulted from their sins of following a false god (Baal). Baal was the god of rain.
Elijah prayed fervently for the rain to stop. James 5:17
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
Divine Dependence
Divine Dependence
Elijah depended on God to hear him.
Elijah depended on God to direct the hearts of Israel.
Elijah depended on Yahweh as the true God of Israel, not Baal. Yahweh was going to keep His promise of Israel. 1 Kings 8:15
And he said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to David my father, saying,
The house was built for the Lord of Israel, but Ahab and his predecessors rejected Him.
The Lord God lives, not Baal, and Elijah knew this. God defeated the false god by shutting the heavens at Elijah’s request.
Divine Care
Divine Care
Elijah knew that his dependence on God would also lead to God taking care of his needs.
God directed Elijah to His provisions that were already in place for Elijah to survive.
God’s care is His promise to His people to always care for them.
God had commanded the Ravens to feed Elijah. One of the many birds that were “unclean” to eat was used to feed God’s prophet. Leviticus 11:15
every raven of any kind,
At the brook, God would provide sustenance for His prophet in the most unlikely way.
Divine Supplies
Divine Supplies
When God directs, and we depend on Him, His care brings supplies only God can provide.
Where in the world did the ravens get the bread and meat?
When we are doing His will and aligning ourselves with Him, we can live a life with this saying:
BUT GOD!!!!!
Think about the widow’s jar of flour, 1 Kings 17:16
The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
Obedient:
Obedient:
If Elijah were not obedient to God, he would not have experienced the awe and power of Yahweh.
Why is prayer powerful? Because the God who is there is all-powerful and answers prayers that bring Him honor and glory. Those who love God know His power. Romans 8:26
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Those who do not trust God ask wrong and become angry when He does not answer. James 4:3
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Alignment:
Alignment:
If we align ourselves with God, there are things we need to clean up before we can approach Him with a request.
1. We should humble ourselves. James 4:6
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
2. We should ask for forgiveness. Matthew 6:12
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
3. We should become dependent on Him. Matthew 18:3-4
and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
