When God questions us

……. What doest thou here, Elijah?
(1Ki 19:9, 13)

When we get into a rut, our natural tendency is to question God. Perhaps He is questioning us in the still small voice.

After a great demonstration of the Power of God of hailing down fire, killing the false prophets of Baal and having received answered prayer for rain to quench the drought, one word from Jezebel sent this great prophet fleeing for his life. Faced depression and even asked to die. His race wasn’t over yet. We know this because an angel fed him so that the 40 day journey to the mountain of God must be made. The Heavens stood still in silence through out this time.

Why did the LORD asked ‘what’ and not ‘why’? ‘Why’ would be asking for a reason which the LORD wasn’t interested in. For He knew the fear and depression Elijah was going through. God was opening Elijah’s eyes to the inward condition, not the outward reason.

We like Elijah in many ways allowed the external to determine our destiny. God is interested in building what is inside a man or a woman. One word from others sends us flying into the wrong direction. Jesus warns us that in the last days there we will hear of wars and rumors of them. Jesus tells us not be troubled, meaning these things shouldn’t shake us.

The answer Elijah gave the LORD is full of ‘I’. We are very like this man, full of self which is easily over come by the eternities of our lives. God allows us to go through the things that Elijah had to go through to awaken us. He will, by His grace, give us the miraculous energy to go up to Him not away nor around our circumstances. We must remember that God doesn’t come down to our level; we have to climb that ‘mountain of God’. Let Him question us, our answer betrays our true self.

Notice that Elijah muttered the same thing twice with each questioning of the Lord on ‘What’. Surprisingly God’s Word to him each time was ‘go’. God’s Word at that crucial moment was as powerful as ‘Let there be light’. Jesus great commission to us was also ‘go…’. God’s command to Abraham and Isaiah was also ‘go….’. The Word ‘go’ fulfills His will. His will accomplished through those who are called according to His divine purpose. That is how we run our race to completion. When we pray ‘Let thy will be done…’, our response is to just to ‘go’.

After hearing the Word ‘Go’, the will of God unfurls before us and reminds us that we are not alone. The seven thousand who didn’t bow their knee to Baal are our great cloud of witnesses (Heb 11). Strange that the commandment involved 3 things, but Elijah only accomplished one, this was the anointing of Elisha. When we hear the Power of His Word and obey, God ensures that whatever we do has a multiplying effect; like the breaking of the 5 loaves and 2 fishes.

God allows us to come to our wits end; He remains silent, and then asks us what is on the inside. Let’s His Word command us that we will finish our face to win the crown of Life. Unless we receive His Word, we will fall into man’s words (or rumors) and face the consequences. We have to be governed by what is our inward stature in Christ in order to be robust against man’s words (or rumors).