We’re starting a new series on what some would consider one of greatest men of God recorded in all of scripture.  His name is Elijah.  He was like a rock star to the Hebrew people.  James 5:17 reminds us, “Elijah was a man JUST LIKE US.”

Let me give you the context of the time period.  When Elijah was alive, the Northern Kingdom had experienced seven consecutive evil kings, spanning about a hundred year time period.  Now, let me just let this sink in for a minute.

This was a time in which Elijah lived.  In fact, there was a very evil king named Ahab, who was married to a wicked woman named Jezebel, some say the most wicked woman who had ever lived.  And under their reign, the Bible says that “Ahab did more evil in the eyes of God than any of those before him.”

During these times of idolatry, when these evil kings would turn peoples’ hearts away from God and would turn them to the false gods, the god of Baal and the god of Asherah, and people would often sacrifice their children to these false gods.  They would go into the temples and engage in sexual activities with prostitutes and call it worship.  The scripture says under Ahab’s reign, he was more evil than anyone before him.  This is a very dark, dark time of corruption.  We’re talking about major scandals, tremendous idol worship, and God said, “Enough is enough!”  Interestingly, though, God didn’t raise up an army to take a stand against the evil king.  Instead, God does what God often does, and that is, He raised up one person to take a stand, one man.  And I would argue that in today’s world, God may want to do something very similar where you live.  God may raise up one teenage girl to take a stand in her class against all others for sexual purity.  God may raise up a young business leader to take a stand for integrity in a business that’s lacking integrity.   God often raises up one person to make a big difference.

Elijah’s name means,  “The Lord is my God.”  And  immediately, when God raises up this prophet to stand down the king, by his very name alone, he’s making the testimony, “The Lord God is the one true God.”  Let’s pick up the story.  The first time we see Elijah in all of scripture, verse 1 of I Kings, chapter 17.  At the very beginning of this story, we don’t have hardly any background on the prophet.  We simply know him as where he’s from.  That’s how he is identified.  Like “Darrell is from San Antonio TX. ” Verse 1, “Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead,” he’s identified with where he’s from.  That will change soon.  “He said to King Ahab, ‘As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve,’ “ and you can see he’s going straight toward these false gods.  “The Lord who lives, whom I serve,” he says, “there will be neither be dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”  Now, if this was a movie, the music would go, “bum bum bum!,” because what just said was one of the most strategic, prophetic judgments against the land that you could imagine.  He said, “For the next months and years, no rain and no dew.

This would have been an economic shutdown.  In this agriculturally driven economy, no rain shut everything down.  In our world, it would mean you can’t get gas at the gas stations.  The banks are not only lending money, but you can’t get your own money out.  You won’t have electricity at your home.  Life as you know it just ended.  There will be people starving death.  Unemployment will reach record highs.  People are going to be dying all over the place, and  this man of God stands down this evil king and says, “No more rain.” The battle is on.  The man of God stands strong.  Let’s see him fight.”  But instead, God does something different.  He takes Elijah into a season of hiding.  God takes Elijah away, so He can do so much more in him.  Why?  Because there’s so much more God wants to do through him.  And we are going to watch as God shapes this man in a very deep season of preparation. Like Elijah,

GOD IS DOING SOMETHING IN ME SO HE CAN DO SOMETHING THROUGH ME

Many of you, will identify with the preparatory work that God takes Elijah through.  Three seasons of preparations;

• The first one: ISOLATED PAIN

God takes him through what we will call a season of isolated pain, where he is very alone.    Verses 2 and 3, we pick this up.  Verse 1, he says, “No more rain.”  Verse 2, “Then,” immediately after that, the Bible says, “The word of the LORD came to Elijah: ‘Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of Jordan.’ “   This word in the Hebrew, Kerith, it means, “cut off,” or it means “cut down.”  It means to be cut off from the source, to be cut off from the blessings, or very literally, it means to cut down like you would chop down a tree.  And you could almost sense what God is, is saying here.  It’s as if God is going to say, “I’m going to take you through a season of breaking.  I’m going to cut you down.  I’m going to humble you.  I’m going to teach you to be totally dependent on Me, and I’m going to humble you privately before I use you publicly.  I’m going to do something in you that’s very, very deep, so later on, you can do more than you ever thought possible.  I’m going to take you down privately, so I can use you publicly.”  A lot of times, people are in what I call the Kerith Ravine.  They’re in a season of pain.  They’re going, “Where is God?  Where is God?” and the reality is, oftentimes God is right there doing a deep work in you.

Some of you, you’re there.  You’re there, and you could be there on purpose.  You’re in the Karith Ravine.  You’re in that period … Elijah was there for months, all alone, nobody to talk to.  No one understood the Karith Ravine, where God was breaking him.  A. W. Tozier, the great writer, said this, “It’s doubtful that God can bless a man greatly until He’s hurt him deeply. ”  Those of you who are in the Karith Ravine, be encouraged.  The more that God breaks you, the more that God is preparing you — the isolated pain, the season of the Karith Ravine.

The second thing that we see God take Elijah through as He’s shaping him, molding him into a man of God in power, as He takes him through a season of what we would call:  TOTAL DEPENDENCE

Total and complete dependence, where Elijah cannot depend on anything at all but God, and God alone.  Verses 4, 5, and 6 says this.  God says, “Elijah, you will drink from the brook that I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.  So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of Jordan, and stayed there.  The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.”

We’ve got God’s Heavenly catering service.  These birds go out and find bread and meat, and every morning and every evening, they deliver them straight to the prophet.  What was God doing?  God was very clearly and very distinctly saying that no matter what, and for always, “I will be faithful.  You can count on Me to provide for you.”

Many of you right now, you are in a season where there was something you used to trust in for your security, and it’s been taken away.  And you don’t have anything else to trust in, but the giver life and giver of all good things.  And you are having to learn that when everything else that you used to believe in fades away, God will forever and always be faithful to you.

A single mom knew this well.  She would pray every day, very loudly in her apartment.  She would pray to God and worship Him for His provision, and she lived next door to an atheist, who hated hearing her prayers through the very thin walls.  And she would worship God, and the atheist would come over and say, “Lady, you’re a fool.  There is no God.”  And one week, there was more month left than money, and she was crying out to God, “Oh, God, you’ve always provided for me.  You’ve always been faithful.  I know You’ll come through again.  Oh, God, please provide food for my children.”  And the atheist had had enough, and so he immediately went to the grocery store, bought several bags of food, brought it back over to the woman’s apartment, put it right on the front of her door, knocked on the door, ran and hid in his apartment.  She came out.  She saw the food, “Oh, God in Heaven, You’re so good.  Thank You so much.  Oh, it’s so amazing!”  And he jumped out and said, “You fool!  There is no God.  God didn’t do that.  I did it just to prove to you that there is no God,” and she worshipped God all the more.  “Thank You!  Oooh, God, You provided for my needs, and You made the devil pay the bills!”

Forever and always, God says, “I will be your provider.  When you can’t depend on what you used to be able to depend on, I will deliver what you need.”  Here’s the cool thing about it is, God didn’t give him two days worth of food.  God didn’t give him a weeks’ worth of food.  God didn’t give him a three-month supply.  What did God give him?  Enough for the day, enough for the day.  Some of you, you are going to learn that right now.  You are in a season where you’re hurting and you’re alone and you’re afraid, but guess what?  God delivers enough for the day.  You, you’re uncomfortable, and you’re afraid, but God says, “I will be your comfort for today.”  You don’t have much, but God says, “I will be your provision for today.  You feel very weak, but God says, “I will be your strength for today.”  Your friends leave you, but God says, “I will be your friend for the day.  I may not bring more than you need, but I will bring exactly what you need.  I will be your daily bread.”  And Elijah learns to depend on God for that day.  God is teaching him.  He’s breaking him.  He’s cutting him.  He’s humbling him.  He’s teaching him total dependence.  When he, when he has no ability to provide for himself, God is teaching him, “I will always be your provider.”

And the third thing that God does is, God takes him through a season of what we can call:  COMPLETE OBEDIENCE

 There’s isolated pain.  There’s total dependence, and then, there’s a season of complete obedience.  Verses 7, 8, and 9, the story starts to break down.  “What is God doing?  He told me to go do this, and now, it, it’s all changing.  What’s going on, God?”  Verse 7, the Bible says, “Some time later,” what happened?  Help me out.   “Some time later, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.  Then the word of the LORD came to him:  “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there.”  Now, let’s put ourselves in the prophet’s place.  It’s been months that he’s been by this ravine, and it’s been feeding him daily water.  And God told him to go there, and then the brook dries up, and God says to move on.  In my mind, I’m starting to think, “ Okay God, where are You?  What’s the purpose of being here?  You, gave me water from the brook.  Now, the water dries up.  Did I do something wrong?  You’re telling me to go on.  Did I miss You the first time?  Am I hearing You, God?  I don’t quite understand.  The brook dried up.  Why would the source of what used to feed me dry up?”  And he’s going to learn that the same God who gives water can take water away, because often, God may cause the brook to dry up to give us the courage to leave where we are and to go where we are supposed to be.

You may think,  “Oh, my brook is drying up.  I used to be able to trust in my job, but I’m not so sure I can trust in my job, anymore.  I used to have this nest egg.  I had a 401K.  Now, it’s a 201K.   My brook’s drying up.  I used to be able to trust, and I had all these good friends and then, boom, they turned on me and my friendship brook is drying up.

You’ve heard it said, “God guides by what He provides,” and He does.  But, I believe, God also often guides by what He does NOT provide.  God, the same God who gives water, may cause the brook to dry up to give us the courage to take a step of total obedience.

God says to the prophet Elijah, “Go to the Karith Ravine.”  “Huh?  Why there?”  “And be fed by the ravens.”  “What?”  And the brook dried up.  “Huh?”

Eventually God causes him to go into the region of Sidon. He moves, and then he travels across a barren land.  And he comes to Zarephath,  and sees a widow, who God says is going to provide for him.  And so he humbles himself, and he says, “Mam, I’m really thirsty.  Could, could you give me some water to drink and maybe a little snack, ‘cause I’m kind of hungry?”  And the widow looks at him and goes, “Are you, are you the only guy that doesn’t know, it hasn’t rained!  We’re dying.  There’s a draught here.  I’m a widow.  I’ve got one son.  He’s back at the hut.  I came out here to get some sticks.  I’m going to go make the last meal.  I’ve got a little bit of flour left, and I’ve got a little oil in the jug.  That’s all I’ve got left, enough for one last meal.  We are going to eat, and then we are going to die.”  And because of what God is doing in Elijah’s life, he says, “No, you’re not.”  And he looks at an impossible situation and speaks faith into it.  And he says, “The flour that you have will not run out.  And the jar of oil will not run dry.  Go back and bake me some bread.”  And she does, and they ate the bread, and the flour did not run out and the oil did not run dry.  And, and, and they, they ate, and they ate for weeks and months.  God again, supernaturally provided for Elijah in his unconditional obedience to God.  Then one day, tragedy struck, and the son died mysteriously.  The widow is crushed, as you would expect, and said, “Is this God’s judgment on me because I turned against the one true god, to these false gods?  Elijah, did you come here so this would happen?”  And Elijah, because of all that had happened, because God was shaping him, did something that to our knowledge had never happened before in history.  There’s no record of this in the Bible.  He takes a dead boy, carries him up to the upper room, puts his body on top of him, looks up to Heaven and says, “God, I’m asking You to do it,” and God raises a dead boy to life.

Why did this happen?  Because God took him to the Karith Ravine, where he was cut down.  God took him to a season of total dependence, where he couldn’t depend on anything at all but God, and God alone.  Then, God dried up the brook, so that he would leave where he was, to go to where God ultimately wanted him, so once again, He could perform a miracle and raise the dead back to life.  God used the hard things to shape him into a true man of God.  Next week we’ll see, as God gives him the faith and courage for one man to stand down four hundred and fifty false prophets, and asks God to send fire from Heaven to prove God’s goodness.  Why could Elijah have such faith?  Because he had been through the Karith Ravine, depending on God, obeying God.

Some of you right now, you are in a season of, of deep pain, and God may just say, “I’m doing something in you, because one day, I’m going to do more through you.”  Verse 1, Elijah was described as Elijah the Tishbite.  He was known with where’s he’s from.  Twenty-three verses later, he’s not known for where he’s from, but instead, for Whom he’s from.  And look at how the story changes.  Verse 24, the end of the story.  “The woman, He’d just raised her son.  She, she says to Elijah, “Wow!  Now I know that you are a,” what?  “Now I know you are, you are a man of God and the word of the Lord from your mouth is truth.”  God may allow you to go through the Karith Ravine, so one day, someone could look at you, say, “Now, I know.  I see it.  I see it.  I see. You are a man or woman of God.  Now, I see it.  You are child of God.  Now, I see it.  You are a man of God.” And, I’ll tell you right now, I praise God for all the pain and all the shaping experienced, and all the hurt, and all the brokenness, and all the supernatural provision, and all the unconditional obedience, because I pray that when people look at me they wouldn’t say, “Oh, there’s Darrell , that guy from San Antonio.”  But instead, they say, “Oh, there’s Darrell.  He’s not perfect, but we know he is becoming a godly person.”  In becoming a godly person, God will do something in you before he does something through you.

www.Upwards.Church

Message Audio/Video and Outline: https://upwards.church/leander-campus/watch-now-message-videos

Watch Messages: YouTube-Upwards Church

Facebook: Upwards Church

Read Along Daily Bible Reading: YouVersion (https://www.bible.com/organizations/370f8a6e-16bc-464f-8c43-0b7623fd2952)