The prophet Elijah, James says, was "a man just like us." He's no superhero bible character, but simply a man whose life was yielded to God. "Elijah" means "the Lord is my God," and that summed up his life and mission. He is most famous for confronting the prophets of Baal and King Ahab, the king of Israel, but who did more to provoke the Lord to anger than did all the kings before him. He had led the people to worship Baal, who was believed to be the god of fertility and the lord of the rain clouds. Elijah declared a drought to remind Ahab of the true God.
What I see in 1 Kings 17 is that Elijah walked with God and was accustomed to taking "next steps" with God. I'd like to define a next step with God as a "revealed direction that makes perfect sense to God, but may not make sense to us. Such a step of obedience requires faith and results in God being experienced and glorified."
Elijah's first step was to declare the drought. Once he did that, the Lord directed him to take a "next step," to go hide in Kerith Ravine, and God told him that he had ordered the ravens to bring him food morning and evening and that he was to drink from the brook. The Lord had already taken care of his provision before He gave the order. Provision was in place and Elijah was simply to walk into it.
Later the brook dried up. If Elijah was a man just like us, he probably had a moment where he said, "Uh-oh. What am I going to do now?" But being a "the Lord is my God" guy, I assume he quickly re-oriented his thinking and moved into rest, wondering what the Lord would do next to guide him and provide for him.
Elijah's next step was given. The Lord instructed him to go to Zarephath in Sidon where He had commanded a widow to give him food. No, not "go to a wealthy landowner who is generous and is looking for a tax deduction," the kind of step that would make sense to us." Nope, go to a widow who was not even a fellow God follower. What Elijah found was not only a widow, but a widow who was broke, and who was preparing to die. Elijah invited her to take a step of faith as well, asking for her to make him some bread first. Their faith was rewarded as God never let the flour and oil run out until the drought was over. God was experienced and glorified.
In my walk with God, I want to get used to just taking "next steps" without having to know where the path will take us and how things are going to work out.
A couple of Sundays ago, I shared with our body how God has shown himself faithful to me and how I have grown in trusting him with next steps. I watched God give me a place to live for the three years of seminary after I took the next step of dedicating my life to His service. We saw the Lord lead us to Ellijay to work with students when we had never been youth ministers. And when God led us to help start CrossPoint, there was no visible financial support. We felt completely confident the Lord would provide. And he did! We experienced Him and God was glorified. For the two years before God provided with support from CrossPoint, He provided week by week, month by month.
Over the past five years of receiving a salary from our church, Michelle and I have had a desire to return to the days of ministering without receiving a paycheck from the church. And out of that desire, we have tried to come up with ways to make it work. I considered doing real estate on the side. Michelle did real estate for a couple of years. I thought of starting a business. But each time we felt like taking another full time job would compromise what we were called to do and what our church needed. However the desire didn't go away.
On Spring Break in March, Michelle and I got away for a night together. We were enjoying a morning relaxing and reading, and I sensed the Lord, saying, "Tim, it's time." I turned to Michelle and said out of the blue, "I think God is saying it's time to let CrossPoint know we want to stop taking a paycheck." She immediately said, "I think so too." We realized we both felt that God had been asking us to do this, and wanted us to simply step out and trust God and not to figure out how we could accomplish it ourselves. We immediately felt the rush of peace, excitement, and anticipation that comes from taking a step of faith and obedience.
We have some exposure to and relationships with people who have made similar steps in their journey of faith, and we have heard testimony of these people losing their material possessions in the process of entering into the abundant life of experiencing God. One day, after reading one such testimony, Michelle prayed, "Lord, PLEASE don't take my home. I love this house!" She realized that she was trusting God in many areas, but not with our home. The Lord asked her to rise early to talk to him about it. The next morning Father asked her to share what she was feeling. She told him how much she loved what happens in our home, that people feel welcomed, loved and cared for when they are here. What she heard Father say was, "Michelle, that's not about this house. That's about you and Me and what we do together. And we're going to be together wherever you are."
She surrendered her house.
That was huge. The joy I feel is incredible, knowing that Father has blessed me with a wife and partner in ministry that is willing to give up what is most precious to her materially. We know that this road is not going to be easy. There will be tests requiring more and more surrender each step of the way. What I truly believe, though, is that on the other side of this painful process is the abundant life we have always sensed was available but have yet to fully experience. Father is calling us out, and this step is the next one we've been asked to take.
Soooooo, here we go. Pray for us and watch with us how God brings himself glory!
