The Drought Prepares Us for What Lies Ahead

Let us turn to Scripture. Let us go to 1 Kings, chapter 17. First Kings, chapter 17, verses 1 through 7. And we are going to examine a passage of Scripture that tells us about Elijah—how God speaks to him, how God uses him—and we are going to address the theme: the drought prepares us for what is coming.

First Kings 17, and we are going to begin by reading verse 1. Keep your Bible open there; we are going to pray, and then we will read the verse.

‘Father, we thank You because You are beautiful, Lord, because You make Yourself present in the midst of Your people when they determine to gather together to worship You, to bless Your name, and to listen and pay attention to what You have for us, Father, Lord. Father, at this hour we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ Jesus, so that everything, Lord, that You have determined Your Word—according to the purpose for which You send it today—should accomplish in us, may it be so this day. Lord, we are before You with open hearts, with our spiritual ears alert and attentive to what You have for us, Lord. We thank You for Your Word at this hour. Thank You because You are ready to speak to us once again. Amen, amen, amen.

Verse one of that chapter 17 says the following: “Then Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab: As the LORD God of Israel lives, in whose presence I stand, there shall be neither rain nor dew in these years except by my word. As the LORD God of Israel lives, in whose presence I stand, there shall be neither rain nor dew in these years except by my word.”

In this part of chapter 17 of 1 Kings, within the literary context of what is taking place there in the biblical narrative, we find that the prophet Elijah appears for the first time in the biblical narrative, and verse 1 in particular tells us, or records, a word from God given to King Ahab through the prophet. The following verses, verses 2 through 7, record the word—a word given to Elijah, to the prophet who has already ministered the Word to the king. Verses 2 through 7 record the word given to Elijah and its accompanying supernatural divine provision, as we will see later.

But to say a little more and situate ourselves a little more fully within the context of what is happening in the biblical narrative, I want to mention a few details so that we may understand the event Elijah is declaring here in this prophetic word. King Ahab has married Jezebel, a woman who does not serve the LORD but serves other gods. She is a non-Israelite woman. God had forbidden the Israelites, His chosen people, to join themselves to other peoples, because this would lead them precisely to… what? To become defiled, to turn away from their God, and to sin by going after other gods. This woman influences King Ahab, and she also has influence over the people. And Ahab himself, because he has been influenced, influences the people, and the people are led—they allow themselves to be led—to… what? And they are won over to worship other gods. In particular, at this point in history, this woman and King Ahab have turned to worshiping the god Baal—the Canaanite god of rain.

So a people who had known Almighty God, the one and only true God, allow themselves to be influenced by everything paganism brings, and at this point in history their hearts have turned away from the one true LORD, the God who exists and lives. They have turned their hearts away and are pursuing… what? The principles and paganism of serving and following… whom? The god Baal, the god of rain.

This means, then, that it is within this context that the prophetic word from God’s instrument, Elijah, comes to the people, and there the word said: “As the LORD God of Israel lives, in whose presence I stand,” and a time of… what? Drought is announced. The prophetic word is a word of judgment because of the condition of the people. When God sends judgment, it has a purpose. When God sends judgment, ultimately the judgment comes because of what the people have done, but God’s purpose is to bring the people back to Himself, so that they may serve Him and run the course they need to run. And I am clarifying what I am speaking about in this context so that we understand what is happening; I am not in any sense going to speak here about God entering into judgment or anything like that. We are simply situating ourselves within the context so that we may later apply certain truths to our Christian lives and to our life as a church.

So, in Israel’s case, the announced drought comes because of sin.

In our Christian lives, we experience different situations; we go through different experiences that may be like a drought or may involve other circumstances. What I want to present or develop this morning is that we are going to take the experience of how God deals with the people, and especially with Elijah, and apply it to how we should live through every experience that enters our lives in our Christian walk—living through it in such a way that we remain watchful and prepare ourselves for what God has next for us.

That is why I entitled this message: “The Drought Prepares Us for What Is Coming.”

For example, in our times, as a nation, we have been going through an economic recession from which, as you can see, we are beginning to emerge, and improvement is becoming visible; but even so, there is still… quite a long way to go, right? So there is a circumstance that, whether we as a nation are believers or not, we have to live through because we are in this world, we are in this nation, and it directly affects our family, our home, our budgets—our financial plans—and our finances. Worries may arise, as may the different circumstances that, as a consequence of this situation, affect our lives, affect what we do, and affect our plans. So every circumstance, whether it is like the example I am giving—which everyone in the nation is experiencing—or any other circumstance or experience that we go through in life, is going to affect us. But we have to learn to process everything that comes in such a way that we gain benefit and blessing from it in the Lord, and can then rise above it and set our sights on what God has next for us, allowing it to help us learn. Allowing it to help prepare us.

We must therefore maintain our faith and grow in faith, holding on to the Lord through the different experiences that enter our lives. It is interesting, returning to the passage of Scripture, that the prophet whom God uses to bring this word to Israel—whose name, as we already mentioned, is Elijah—has a name that means “The LORD is my God.” In other words, even his very name is already speaking to the people, to a people who have forgotten that the LORD is their God. The prophet’s very name is already prophetic for the people; it is reminding them, “I am the LORD, the God whom you must serve. Just as My servant, My prophet, serves Me, and the LORD—I, the LORD—am his God.” So the prophet bore a name that signified the message he was proclaiming, and Elijah was a man of prayer, a man devoted to God, a man devoted to pleasing God and communicating the word God gave him. Historically and theologically speaking, throughout Scripture we can say that Elijah became a figure of great importance to God’s people in Israel. He was of great importance throughout the biblical narrative we find in Kings, and he was of great importance—and remains of great importance even today—to the Jewish people. In the biblical narrative of Kings, we see an Elijah about whom the following chapters narrate and recount incidents of miracles, signs, and wonders that you may have heard about here in sermons—how God brought words and performed mighty deeds and miracles through this prophet.

So he proclaimed the Word, but God also used him as a wonder, with signs and miracles, because “the LORD is my God.” Elijah also represents what, among other things, continues to signify for the Jewish people to this day the announcement of the Messiah’s coming. So much so that Jewish people today leave an empty chair at their tables during Passover for when Elijah comes, because they are waiting for Elijah to come first, before the Messiah arrives, since as far as the Jewish people are concerned, the Messiah has not yet come.

So Elijah has historical and theological importance for the people of God, and for us as well today. The basis of the declaration of the Word that the prophet is giving is founded upon—the basis is—the LORD Himself, because he declares: “As the LORD lives, in whose presence I stand.” He does not communicate what he communicates merely because he felt like communicating it. He does not communicate it because the idea popped into his little head. He does not communicate it because he observed the condition of the people and said, “Oh! I should give these people a strong word!” Rather, he communicates it responsibly because, as a prophet, he first inquires of his God, and his God communicates the word to him. As an instrument faithful to the Lord, he is used to convey that which comes from the throne of God for the correction, in this case, of His people. And right here—although this is not today’s subject, let me mention just a little something. Sometimes I do that in sermons—right here we have a principle: Those whom God uses to give a specific word, whether prophetic or a word of knowledge, must be diligent and careful to minister what God gives us, not adding to it or taking away from it, and not giving it a tone that God has not given it, but being faithful and upright with what God communicates to us, because “the LORD is my God.” But let us return to today’s theme: “As the LORD lives, in whose presence I stand.” Elijah bases what he is saying on the fact that his God lives and that he himself—as a prophet and as a child of God—lives in the presence of God.

Here we see another point: those of us who serve the Lord, whether in the prophetic area or in any other area, must live before the presence of God in order to communicate or do what God commands us to do. It cannot be based on ourselves, but on the truth and the fact that we depend on… what? On what flows from heaven, on what flows from the throne of God, so that we may minister His blessing and His Word to His people.

But that phrase or expression, “As the LORD lives, in whose presence I stand,” also shows us that there is faith in this prophet of God; that he must have faith and believe what God is communicating to him, because if he does not have faith in what God is communicating to him, then what he is going to say, what he is going to proclaim, will be… what? A… what? Dead word. A word to which the people might not respond, even though it is a strong word. The prophet of God—those of us who minister to the Lord in any area, whether in the area of prophecy or any other area—must have faith in God and maintain our faith regardless of the area in which God uses us. We must minister in faith, believing the God who is telling us what we must do, the God who is guiding us to serve Him in the way we are serving Him. Elijah’s faith was based on who God is. Our faith in our walk with the Lord and in our service to God must be based on who God is. God is the only God; He is the true God; He is the LORD of Hosts. He is my King; He is our Lord; He is the Lord of the Church; He is the only God who reigns and lives forever. That is the basis of our devotion; that is the basis of our service.

And the main point is the reality that my God lives and makes Himself present at all times.

Israel had known a living God, a God who walked with them in the wilderness, who cared for them, who kept them, who provided for them, and who sustained them with food and water. He brought them through, first, the Red Sea, and then through the entire wilderness, and at a certain point He gave them the Promised Land. Israel saw the miracles and wonders of this living God. Israel had certainly known a living God, but at this point in history they had forgotten to maintain their faith, to place their faith in the living God, and had transferred it to Baal, the pagan god of rain.

“In whose presence I stand.” In whose presence do we stand? In whose presence do we dare to proclaim what we proclaim when we minister the Word? In whose presence do we communicate what we must communicate? In whose presence do we spend our time? Yesterday we spoke about being alone with the Lord, about drinking from the source. Where do we go to drink from the source? Elijah stood in the presence of his God. And that expression not only speaks to us of closeness to God, but also of a relationship, of an official position, and of confidence that what he is about to say is valid because it is backed by the God whom he serves and the God in whose presence he stands.

When we minister to the Lord, we cannot trust in ourselves; we have to trust in… whom? In the God who is giving us what we are going to minister, and we are in… what? In His presence. But that phrase, “In whose presence I stand,” also binds the person who says it—even, and I am speaking within the context of the people of Israel, under penalty of death if the pronounced word is not fulfilled. So what Elijah is pronouncing with his lips must be a word spoken while definitively believing God, in faith and in confidence in the God whom he is serving. For even his own life may be at stake if this word is not fulfilled.

So the prophet’s word becomes… what? the word of God Himself. It is interesting that in the final part of that first verse, when the word is proclaimed, Elijah declares, “There will be neither rain nor dew in these years,” and then he says, “except by my word.” Shouldn’t we say…?—isn’t there a traditional and official phrase that should say, “the word of the Lord—Jehovah told me”? It is interesting that the prophet is communicating the Word of God, but at a given moment he says, except by what? By my word, because he knows where he stands. Because he knows that my word is not my word; my word is the word that comes from the throne of God. So the prophet’s word and the word that comes from the throne of God come together and are one. This is the awareness, this is the confidence, this is the faith Elijah has when he communicates the word to the people. But we have to move forward in the biblical passage, and we have to continue, and so I want to repeat that the kind of judgment, the kind of word being announced, is a word of judgment in which what is pronounced? In other words: there will be a drought because there is neither rain nor dew. There will be no rain; there will be no dew upon the land. Palestine has a good pattern of rain and dew, but in the summer, if it were not for the dew, the vegetation would… what? Die. So rain and dew are equally important for us where we live, but for Palestine—as for any other place—rain and dew are important for sustaining the life of a population, of a region; and in Palestine—I repeat—particularly in the summer, if it were not for the dew, the vegetation, what? It dies. And so, when there are times of drought like the one being announced here in this prophetic word… what would happen? When there is no rain and no dew, famine comes, the vegetation dies, there is no produce from the land, the animals also die, and there is chaos in the land.

We see the need for dew, for example, when God speaks metaphorically to Israel and tells them, “I will be like the dew to Israel,” in the sense that dew… is what? Necessary. That dew is just as indispensable as rain. So rain and dew are used symbolically in the Scriptures to speak to us of God’s blessing, to speak to us of well-being, to speak to us of God’s presence among the people, to speak to us of prosperity—and let me clarify, prosperity in the biblical sense of the word, not as in a prosperity doctrine that is circulating out there and strays from biblical principles. Rather, prosperity in the sense of God’s care, blessing, and well-being for our lives. So what rain and dew represent is God’s blessing upon the people, and a word is being announced that says, “God’s blessing is being withdrawn” because of… what? Because of the condition of the people. But I repeat, that is not the condition of this congregation today; nevertheless, we will continue learning from what is happening here and observing principles that help us. On the other hand, when there is abundant rain and when there is dew, it means to the people of Israel that… what? That the people are blessed, that the people are in… what? In abundance, that the people are being favored by God because they are obedient. So when Elijah proclaims this word, the people understand what the prophet is saying, because the law had already been communicated to the people in the law of the Old Testament, and they had been told: “If you obey Me, the land will be blessed. But if you turn away from Me and worship other gods, the land will receive no rain; the blessing will be withdrawn.”

So when the prophet’s word comes, the people understand; they understand what the prophet is talking about. They did not need much explanation. And so, applying this phrase about drought to experiences in general, whatever kind they may be, that come into our lives, we might ask ourselves: What do we have to do in times of drought? What do we have to do when, for whatever reasons—reasons that life brings, such as the example I gave a little while ago of an economic recession, or reasons such as when someone dear to us dies—amid the different circumstances and experiences we go through in life, what do we have to do in times of “drought,” as I now say in quotation marks, representing any particular situation or experience?

Number One: hide ourselves in God. Verse 2 of this passage: “And the word of Jehovah came to him, saying”—remember that I told you at the beginning that in the first verse the word was for the people; from verse 2 onward, the word was for whom? For the prophet himself—and now verse 3: “Depart from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is before the Jordan.” In the midst of a night of drought, God already has His plan for the prophet.

In the midst of the recession that might come, God already had His plan for us. And I do not know whether this has happened to you, but in times of recession we have sometimes experienced more blessing than at other times. So, amid the announcement of whatever may come, whatever the experience might be—whether positive, negative, or somewhere in between—let us understand and live with our hearts trusting that God cares for us and that God commands us… to do what? To hide ourselves.

Now then, some years ago, when we were children, right? And we played hide-and-seek, do you remember? We played hide-and-seek and looked for a place, right? When everyone ran to hide and the boy or girl who had to seek remained in a place where they could not see where anyone was hiding, we looked for the darkest, most difficult place. What for? So that they would not find us. Because if they found me last, then it would be my turn to seek afterward; that was how the game worked, right? But usually there was some very clever and mischievous boy or girl who would hide in a place where, no matter how much you searched… now I do not remember what phrase we used, but eventually you had to call something out so that the child would come out, because no one could find them. Do you remember that? Just the other day, right? But do you know what? We have to hide ourselves. That is how we are called to hide ourselves in the Lord. God calls us to hide ourselves in times of drought, amid any experience that comes into our lives that we recognize will affect our lives in some way; God tells you, “Hide yourself in Me.” And God told Elijah, “Hide yourself by the brook Cherith,” and He gave him specific instructions: “which is before the Jordan.” And God tells us, “Hide yourself in your Cherith. I have a Cherith for you in the midst of the drought.” Being hidden in God means safety; it means God’s care. The apostle Paul spoke of that safety when he said, “Our life is hidden in Christ.” It is in Christ that we are safe; we are not safe in ourselves, but in Christ. So when God calls us and gives us instructions in those times of drought, we have to follow them, as the prophet Elijah did. We therefore see how, in the midst of an announcement of drought as part of God’s dealings with the people, God is also dealing with His faithful ones, with His prophet.

And now, yes, let us apply it even more directly to ourselves. God is dealing with us, His prophets, because this is a prophetic people. God is dealing with us, with His faithful ones, and tells us, “Hide yourself in Cherith. Because I am bringing new things, because I am bringing things for your life,” because what you are going through, or the experiences that come into your life, or that come to this church as a congregation, will lead you to the next thing God has. So we should live through those experiences in life, or experiences as a congregation, focused on benefiting from them, hiding ourselves in Cherith, in the presence of God, so that we may be prepared for what comes next in the Lord. “Hide yourself in Cherith.” In Cherith we have God’s protection, and the enemy cannot find us to harm us. Later we will see how God’s care was indeed upon the prophet’s life. Where? Hidden in Cherith. So when God commands us to hide ourselves, let us do it. Let us do it in faith and trust, because God is preparing us.

What do we have to do in times of drought? Trust in that sovereign care of God. Trust that God will do whatever needs to be done. Sometimes we go through tight situations in life, even financially, but we continue trusting that God is in control and that God will bring us through to the other side; and sometimes, when we least expect it, there comes God’s help. Sometimes we go through experiences that are a little tighter than others, but I assure you of one thing: God does not fail. God does not fail. People may fail us, but God does not fail us, and God did not fail the prophet. And it is interesting that in the following verse He goes on to tell him, “You shall drink from the brook. And I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” There God uses nature itself in His service to provide for the prophet. And the prophet is told, he is given instructions, that in Cherith he will drink God’s water. Elijah was to drink the water that God would provide at a time when there would be no water, at a time when there would be drought. God provides in the midst of drought, in the midst of experiences, in the midst of circumstances; God gives you what others do not have. But you have to go and drink from the water that God has already determined to provide in Cherith.

We spoke about water yesterday when we discussed the theme of drinking from the fountain, and we all know that water is indispensable to human existence, to being able to live; and biblically, water represents precisely that: life. Jesus Himself declared to the Samaritan woman—and we spoke about this yesterday—that “whoever drinks of the water that He gives,” would do what? “Will never thirst,” because that water gives what? “It gives eternal life.” Jesus also said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” Because He is what? The water of eternal life. So drinking divine water means life, but life for living an abundant Christian life, satisfied in God, in His presence, even in times of drought. God would sustain the prophet and give him water to drink at the brook Cherith. And we can imagine that, as the prophet saw God supplying his physical needs, his experience must have been such that his spiritual experience and faith must have grown. God’s provision in the natural and physical realm, or for the needs he had, must have worked within him; that experience must have worked within the prophet to strengthen even further the faith he already had. So regardless of the different experiences we go through in life, let us learn from them and try to find in them the positive side of faith. The positive side of what God has: to make our hearts steadfast in the midst of experiences, in the midst of circumstances, because

God is teaching us for what is coming next, so that we may make our hearts and our trust steadfast and keep moving forward.

Elijah was also given instructions that he would have to eat from the sustenance God was going to provide; that is, not only water, but he was also told, “And I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” God had already given instructions: to the brook, to provide the water, and to the ravens, to provide him with food. But it is interesting that God uses whomever He wants, however He wants. Because now we are talking about animals, about birds. Ravens are scavengers; that is, they feed on dead animals, on the flesh of animals—but for whom? To take it to someone else to eat? No; for themselves. That means, then, that God is going to perform the miracle of using the ravens to scavenge the flesh of animals, but instead of keeping it, to take it where? To the prophet. God was going to provide in whatever way He sovereignly saw fit and determined to provide for the prophet. There is a miracle of God right there. There is the miracle of the water that would flow from the brook, and there would be the miracle of God providing through animals that take what they find for themselves, not to carry it to anyone else. But in this case, the divine command came from Heaven, came from the throne of God, and the animals, the ravens, would bring provision. God sends you ravens and provides what you need, and we are speaking materially, about physical needs and other areas. God uses whomever He wants to use. In other portions of Scripture, in other biblical passages, ravens represent negative things, but on other occasions they represent positive things. In this case, God uses them positively to bless and provide for the prophet.

I have experienced God sending His ravens into my life over the years, even financially. I remember that in Puerto Rico there were about two years when we devoted ourselves completely to missionary work; we did missions for about ten years. But out of all those ten years, we spent two completely devoted to it, without doing secular work. And so we depended on God’s provision, and I remember that one day I arrived home and in front of the entrance door there were two packages, two bags or sacks of vegetables and food. We never knew who left them there. God sent His ravens. God sent His provision.

At that stage, during those two years—I don’t know whether I’ve told this before, but I want to tell it to illustrate what I’m saying—we had to pay the mortgage on the house, and we were 75 dollars short, and the payment was due the next day. That night there was a knock at the door. A pastor who lived two houses down from where we lived arrived with an envelope in his hand. He knew that we were doing missions, and it just so happened, right, that on that day God moved him to come to our house with an envelope and give us a blessing. And do you know what? When we opened the envelope, how much was in it? 75 dollars. God uses whomever He wants to use; He sends His angels, He sends His ravens, but He sends provision and supplies our needs. He supplies our physical needs, He supplies our emotional needs, He supplies what we need.

How many times have you received a call from a brother or a sister who says, “Let me pray for you,” or “I had a dream,” or “I’m concerned about you, and God has sent me this,” and it is precisely what you need? God sends and supplies in the midst of experiences, in the midst of the drought, in the midst of circumstances. In Puerto Rico, as I mentioned, we did missions for a long time; the church where we were continues doing missions to this day. I remember that, during the time we were there, there was a person who was not a believer, not an evangelical, let’s put it that way, who worked with an insurance agency that collected, after fires or floods or whatever the case might be, whatever merchandise could be salvaged and was in reasonably good condition. This merchandise was given to this person, and he was free to do whatever he wanted with it. And he would call us because he knew that we made missionary trips to Haiti and to the Indigenous people to meet various needs, and he would call us and give us some of that merchandise. God supplying through His ravens. And not only would he give us the merchandise, but then he would come and ask, “Where are you going? What do you need?” and he would write a check for sometimes one thousand, two thousand, or three thousand dollars. For what? To go and meet the needs of other places. God supplies even through unbelievers; God uses whomever He wants to use to meet our needs.

All these experiences we live through in those dealings and in that process of God cause us to maintain our faith and grow in faith during this process. God also tells the prophet that He would feed him—sorry, He had already told him that He would feed him—but then the ravens were not only going to bring him meat; the ravens would also bring him bread.

The next verse says, “And he went and did according to the word of Jehovah.” “He” refers to Elijah. Elijah obeyed. God gives him the instructions, and Elijah obeys. And then it says, “For he went and lived beside the Brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.” And what happens? Verse 6: “The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.” In other words, the ravens not only brought him meat, but they also brought him what? Bread. The word bread in Hebrew is the word “leham,” and it is translated by our word bread, but in the Bible, in Hebrew, it usually represents solid food in general. Not solely and exclusively what we know as bread, but solid food in general. So God is providing solid food for the prophet; He is providing him with what he needs in times of drought, when others would have nothing, but the prophet would. God has provided for you; even when others have nothing, we have had enough even to move forward with a project to begin a new building. God is providing; God is blessing even in times of drought.

So God fulfills the word He speaks to the prophet; He will also fulfill the word of drought that He announced to the people. The Scriptures tell us about someone who is the “bread of life.” Jesus is the bread of life, and the one who “comes to Jesus—the Scriptures say—will not hunger.” But that Bible verse does not apply only to the moment when we are converted; rather, we will not hunger in our Christian life. When we come to the Lord—and now I am emphasizing not being hungry in the spiritual sense—we will no longer hunger, because in the Lord we are satisfied. But we have to go to Cherith, because it is in Cherith that God will supply us with His bread and His blessing. We have to be obedient like the prophet Elijah. Scripture says that the “prophet went and did as God commanded him.”

Sometimes we want to receive the blessings of Cherith without going to Cherith and without doing what God commands us to do... We want to partake of the “bread of life” every day, but sometimes we do not go where we have to go. God sustains us in the midst of the drought, but we have to follow the instructions to go to our Cherith. God certainly sustained the prophet, and God certainly sustains us, but the prophet obeyed, and we have to obey. In the prophet’s obedience, we see a man who continues believing God, because if you do not believe that God will provide in the place He told you about, you will go somewhere else. The prophet maintained his faith and stood firm in the face of the announcement of drought. We have to maintain our faith, and we have to obey. It says that he “lived beside the brook”; he went and lived beside the brook. We are going to go and live beside our Cherith. We must do, take action, and act according to the instructions God gives. We cannot take another route.

Sometimes we hear the word and rejoice: “Oh, yes, Lord, You are going to take care of us, because You have spoken!” But afterward, when we have to follow the instructions and the details of what we must do, we slip off down some other little road; we take another way, another route. God does not fulfill what He promised, not because He did not want to, but because we did not do our part. God expects us to go to Cherith because God’s blessing and provision are in Cherith. We must do according to what God tells us. We must go where God tells us to go, and indeed, we already read that the ravens came and—what?—served him. God’s authority and word are fulfilled completely. God does not fail. That is one of the experiences, or one of the truths, that we learn in Cherith: the reality that God does not fail you. Have you seen...? Of course you have, that God has not failed you, and now God is speaking to one person in particular. If you have seen in the past how God has not failed you, the Lord tells you not to let your faith decline in what you are experiencing in the present. Because just as God acted in the past, so you will act in the present, and even more. You have seen. And the Lord also says to you, people, “Have you seen what I have done in your midst?” So, people, I will not fail; I still have greater things for you. You have seen, people, and you will see, the Lord tells you.

Returning to the Scriptures, we repeat: the ravens came and served him. The word proclaimed by God for the prophet was fulfilled. It was fulfilled because the prophet obeyed. From this we see that faith is linked to obedience. And obedience is linked to faith, because since we believe what God has said, we obey, and since we obey, we see that God fulfills what He has said. Obedience leads us to grow in faith when we see that God fulfills what He promised. Obedience leads to a greater process, to a greater stage of moving forward in seeing the reality of God’s fulfillment.

Biblical faith is faith that is linked to what God says; that is why I say obedience is linked to faith. Biblical faith obeys because it agrees with what God says. In obedience, I submit to God’s instructions, and then I move forward into what God has for me, while at the same time my faith in the Lord grows. We grow in our faith; we grow in the Lord because of the experiences we constantly live through as a result of obeying the word of God. But what happens? Returning, then, to the verse that follows, we find this: verse 7: “After some days, the brook dried up because there had been no rain on the land.” That Bible verse shows me that the first prophetic word given to the people was fulfilled. There had been no rain on the land. Okay?

God fulfilled the word of judgment for the people. We had already seen that God fulfilled the word of provision He had given the prophet, but now we could say that, for Elijah, God’s provision might be called into question. “Oh God, Lord, but how could You send me to Cherith, and now what happened? It had not rained; because it did not rain, it dried up, but You said that here I would drink from the brook. So what happened, Lord?” God provided for you in Cherith, but God takes you to another place because God has other plans, and in those other places He will provide for you as well.

Sometimes God sends us to Cherith, but we are going to be in Cherith only for a time. Then God has other places where we must go and also obey, and we will also enter the process of maintaining our faith and growing in God, but we have to move on from Cherith.

To God: “Lord, You failed me. The brook dried up,” the prophet could have said. But the prophet... what did he do? The prophet did not begin to complain, “But Lord, You sent me here, and the brook dried up.” No! The prophet simply continued following the next instructions God was going to give him. And we cannot go into the entire passage that follows; I am only going to read one verse.

It says, “Then the word of Jehovah came to him, saying, ‘Arise, go to Zarephath of Sidon and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.’” He had the experience of Cherith; he obeyed, maintained his faith, and his faith must have grown. But now we are leaving Cherith for another place. And in that other place, God already has provision. Every experience in our lives leads us toward a next place, and in that next place we will continue learning in preparation for another place God has. So we can say that every experience, every Cherith in our lives, should work within us to prepare us for what God has for us, to prepare us for what is coming. What came next for Elijah? We already read it; you have studied this passage about the widow of Zarephath. God provides for him through a widow who has a handful of flour and a little oil left; she has to prepare food for the prophet. But afterward, neither the oil nor the flour ran out.

And the prophet could have said, “Oh, Lord! But why didn’t You allow the brook to keep flowing with water and the ravens to keep bringing me meat instead of taking me to this woman who has nothing?” The prophet obeyed what seemed illogical, but the woman also obeyed. Every experience leads us to... what? To obedience and to growing in faith.

What else came next for Elijah? The resurrection of the son of Zarephath came. When the son dies, Elijah prays for him, and God raises him from the dead. What else came next for Elijah? According to the biblical narrative in Kings, the confrontation with the 400 prophets of Baal came. Do you remember? Israel had turned away and was worshiping the god Baal, the god of rain, and Elijah confronts them. He prepared an altar, poured water all around the altar, and told them, “Pray to Baal to send fire, so that it may consume the burnt offering.” But over there they performed every ceremony they could, and nothing happened. But when Elijah poured water all around the altar he prepared for Jehovah, the fire descended and consumed even the water. And it consumed the burnt offering, and through the fire Jehovah demonstrated that Baal, god of rain, is not truly the god of rain, because there had been drought throughout the whole land, and that God is God of fire, of rain, and of all nature, because He is the only God.

Each experience that came after the experience he had lived through led the prophet from glory to glory. Every experience we live through in the Lord, when we are obedient and maintain our faith, leads us to grow in faith and to live from glory to glory. Every Cherith prepares us for what God has next for us.

What else came next for Elijah? Let us turn to chapter 18—I am not going to dwell long on this biblical passage—but I want to mention a few things. What else came next for Elijah? Elijah’s trust and faith in God were tested for three and a half years after he declared the word that drought would come upon the land. Indeed, for three and a half years it did not rain on the land. The faith of a man in communicating a word: God fulfills exactly what was spoken through the prophet’s lips. But three and a half years passed. You know, the prophet’s faith had to remain firm during those three and a half years. But a moment comes when the time has passed, and God is going to send rain. And through the same prophet who declared drought, a word now comes declaring that rain will come upon the land.

Chapter 18, verse 41 says the following: “Then Elijah said to Ahab, ‘Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.’” All of this happens after the event in which Baal was defeated. The god Baal has now been defeated, right? Now that the people understand who Jehovah of hosts is, the word of judgment is withdrawn and the rain of blessing comes. It says, “For there is the sound of a heavy rain.” Here the prophet is declaring a word that the sound of heavy rain can be heard when there is no rain, while the drought is still present. There is faith in the prophet’s heart, and there is obedience. Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah went up to the summit of Carmel; bowing down to the ground, he put his face between his knees. He declares the word that God gives him to declare, and then he goes off to pray and bows his face between his knees; he bends down to pray and prostrates himself before God. And what might Elijah have been doing? Crying out for the rain to come. He declares the word and then cries out. That also lets us see the processes God’s servants go through. You obey; you declare what God says. Sometimes you are communicating a word without understanding why you are communicating it, but God knows. Yet you also go through your own processes in the Lord. And so, while Ahab is over there eating and drinking, verse 43 then says: “And he said to his servant, ‘Go up now and look toward the sea.’” And “He went up and looked and said, ‘There is nothing.’ And he told him again, ‘Go back seven times.’ The seventh time he said, ‘I see a small cloud, like the palm of a man’s hand, rising from the sea.’ And he said to him, ‘Go and tell Ahab, “Harness your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.”’” He sends the servant not once, not twice, not three, nor four, nor five, but seven times. Seven times in the Bible represents the fullness of God, and it is on the seventh time that the servant sees the small cloud announcing the rain about which Elijah had already given the prophetic word. And so, when the small cloud appears, Elijah sends word to King Ahab: “Prepare your chariot; get moving, because a heavy rain is coming.” And indeed, God’s miracle occurred; the prophetic word that the rain would come was fulfilled. Ahab, then, is given those instructions, and verse 45 says: “And it came to pass in the meantime that ‘the heavens grew dark with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain.’” In keeping with the word that went forth and was given to King Ahab—“Go and tell him that a heavy rain is coming”—God fulfilled it exactly that way.

When you are a prophet of God, whatever you proclaim with your lips that comes from the throne of God—exactly as it comes from the throne of God—God will fulfill it. And your faith will grow as you see God at work. People of God, whatever comes from the throne of God and you proclaim and determine to do, God will fulfill it, and you will go from glory to glory as you see God at work in every experience you have as a church. And it continues: “And it came to pass in the meantime that the heavens grew dark with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. And Ahab mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel, and the hand of Jehovah was upon Elijah, who girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab until he reached Jezreel.” There was a distance from the mountain where Elijah was to Jezreel. Ahab was traveling in what? In a chariot. Elijah was traveling how? It says Elijah ran. Well, the miracle of rain had just occurred after a drought of three and a half years. There is also another miracle here. Elijah is on the mountain; Elijah is running and has no means of transportation. King Ahab goes on ahead in accordance with the instructions he was given, but... Elijah arrives first.

God carries him; God moves him ahead. People of God, God moves you ahead. And perhaps you will arrive before many others who are running, or before many others who are riding in chariots, even though we may be walking, even though we may have only our own two feet. God moves us ahead because God is determined to fulfill His purpose in us. Every experience, church of the Lord—every experience, whether it is a drought or whatever it may be—that we live through in the Lord, we must live through it in obedience; we must live through it in faith, maintaining our faith. It will lead us to see God at work, and that experience prepares us for what is coming next. As we see in the biblical account of the life of the prophet Elijah, every experience after Cherith became an experience of what? Of going from glory to glory, of miracles and wonders, of God’s blessing, of God working tremendously and powerfully. But he had to go through depending on God where? At Cherith.

Church of God in this place, you have depended on your God at Cherith; therefore, God is taking you to what comes next. Therefore, God is taking you forward, and a heavy rain of blessing is drawing near. A heavy rain of blessing is coming for His people because we have been faithful at Cherith, because we have waited for God’s provision at Cherith, because we have battled against the barriers that rise up in our society. Because we have been obedient to the Lord, because we have entered each stage of the processes through which God leads us. We have been obedient; we have maintained our faith; we have grown; we have matured. It is God’s time to move us toward what comes next.

Church of God, you have been faithful in your Cherith; prepare yourself for the torrential rain that is coming. What is your drought? God is preparing you—now I am speaking in the individual sense—God is preparing you. Regardless of the experience or circumstance, let us learn to depend on God, to maintain our faith, to obey, and to draw closer and closer to God in our Cherith, and God will display His power. We will mature, we will grow in faith, we will advance in the Lord, and God will use every experience to prepare us for what He has next for us.

Please stand.

We worship You, God. We worship You, Lord. Blessed are You, God; blessed are You, Lord. Raise your hands to heaven as we listen to that melody. And say to Him, “Thank You, Lord.” Thank You, Lord, because I recognize that You have provided for me in my Cherith. Thank You, Lord, because You taught me to go to Cherith. Thank You, Lord, because there I found Your brook, because there I drank from Your water and ate of Your provision and Your bread. I ate that succulent meat You served me in times of drought, when there was not supposed to be any meat. Thank You, Lord, because in that experience at Cherith I learned that You are a faithful God. But let us also say to Him, “I thank You, Lord, because my faith remained firm, was sustained, and grew at Cherith, and now I am moving forward to reach, take hold of, and attain what You have next for me. Now I am moving forward to confront the prophets of Baal, the Baals of our society. Now I am moving forward so I can bless other lives with the wonders, signs, and miracles that You perform in my life and among Your people in order to bless other lives in need. Now I am moving forward to bless other lives by reaching them for You, Lord. Now I am moving forward toward what You have next for my life. Now I am moving forward toward the next thing in which You want to use me as Your instrument among Your people to serve You. Now I am moving forward as a church toward what You have next, Lord. Now I am moving forward as a church toward what You have determined in Your plan, because You have seen, Lord, that we have sought to be faithful to You and to maintain our faith in our Cherith; and now, as a church, You are taking us to what comes next, Lord.” Let us say: “Lord, here we are. Count on us once again.” We worship You, Lord. Father, I bless this people at this hour. I declare a word of blessing over this congregation. I declare a word of blessing over every life that is here in this place. I declare a word of blessing over every mother, every wife, husband, child, sibling, and family member. I declare a word of blessing over their lives, that they may be strengthened even more at Cherith and that they may continue moving forward toward what You have next for them, Lord. I declare strength for them; I declare even greater growth in faith; I declare blessing over Your people, Lord. I declare, Lord, that Your gifts will continue to be poured out even more among Your people.

I declare, Lord, that You will bring about even more healings, miracles, and wonders, just as You did through the prophet Elijah. They will occur, Lord, in this place, just as they have occurred in the past—and even more. Just as they occurred at Cherith, even more will occur, Lord, so that Your name may be exalted through Your works, Lord. I declare that Your word will be proclaimed in this place and that lives will continue coming before You to receive You and be transformed; may this place continue to be filled with new lives, with lives that come in need and whom You rescue and transform. Thank You, Lord, because You will continue performing the greatest miracle of all, the miracle of salvation, in this place. Thank You, Lord, for everything You are bringing next for this church. I bless them in Your name. Amen, amen, amen.

Sermon by Awilda Gonzalez-Tejera, recorded June 7, 2009, at Congregación León de Judá

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