The Widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17)

The First Book of Kings, Chapter 17, says the word of the Lord concerning the prophet Elijah:

“.... then the word of the Lord came to him, saying: ‘Arise, go to Zarephath of Sidon and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.’ So Elijah arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, ‘Please bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.’ And as she was going to bring it, he called to her again and said, ‘Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.’ And she answered, ‘As the Lord your God lives, I have no baked bread, only a handful of flour in the jar and a little oil in a vessel; and now I was gathering two sticks so that I might go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and then let ourselves die.’ Elijah said to her, ‘Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first—everyone say, “me first”; it sounds good and Pentecostal to make you say that—make me a small cake first, baked under the ashes, and bring it to me; and afterward you shall make some for yourself and your son. For the Lord, the God of Israel, has said this: The flour in the jar shall not run out, nor shall the oil in the vessel diminish, until the day the Lord sends rain upon the face of the earth.’ Then she went and did as Elijah had told her, and he and she and her household ate for many days. And the flour in the jar did not run out, nor did the oil in the vessel diminish, according to the word that the Lord had spoken through Elijah.” May the Lord bless His word to us. Amen.

Well, for those who have joined us recently and perhaps were not here either last Sunday or the Sunday before, as we were saying, we are in the midst of a time of reflecting on the subject of stewardship, specifically applying it to the financial campaign we have to build our sanctuary, which we know the Lord has called us to do. God has called us to build this sanctuary for Him, which will be, in a sense, I believe, the culmination of many years of our church building.

I believe that ever since we arrived here, we have been in the process of building something. How interesting that God has called us to be builders! And I do not believe this is a coincidence, but rather something prophetic about our church, because one of the passages I like most in the entire Old Testament, and which I believe God gave us years ago, even before we came here to Boston, is the one that says they shall rebuild the ancient ruins and raise up the rubble of many generations. And God has called us to be a building church. In fact, when we were going to design the church logo, one of the images that came to mind was..... Do you know what a logo is? It is the symbol of the church, which at present is a stylized lion. When we were considering different ideas for the logo, the symbol of our church, the idea of a crane occurred to me—a crane in the shape of a cross. I do not know whether you have seen those very large cranes that have a slight, subtle suggestion of a cross. The idea was to make a crane in the shape of a cross and have that as the symbol of our church. Because look: ever since we have been here, they have been building the Big Dig and all the highways and all these things, and here we are.

First we built—we renovated this building—then we began renovating the other one over here, and now, with the Lord’s help, we are going to build a sanctuary. And I believe there is something there about God having called us to be a church that is always building, rebuilding things, renovating things, renewing the city, renewing lives, and helping to rebuild lives; and that is the work of the church: to be a rebuilder. And we are part of that. So we have always been involved in building something, and I believe the Lord has spoken to us in that way, prophetically telling us: You are builders; you are rebuilders of ruins; you raise up things in which people see no value and put them to work again so that they become a source of blessing.

And I believe that is our sanctuary. Sometimes, when I read sermons from past years—as I did recently while gathering the sermons about stewardship that I have preached over the years, which I keep in different places, organized by books and so forth—I was able to retrieve sermons whose outlines I prepared in ’95 and ’94, when we were just beginning to build this place here. Sometimes I laugh at my innocence, because in one of them, when we were beginning to build here, I said that I hoped we could have the building finished in six months. I wrote there, “Ha!” I put that in the sermon because the truth is that innocence can sometimes be a sad thing. It took us a little over two years to do it, with a great deal of work and tremendous effort, and for much more money than we had thought, although still far less than it would ordinarily have cost to do it.

But one of the things I also see when I read those sermons is that I speak there about God having called us to be a church, and I encourage the brothers and sisters to work and give to construct this building, which would be a blessing to the city of Boston. And I speak about God allowing us to establish relationships with the city and with the city government, with other churches, and so many other things, brothers and sisters, that I say, “Wow, glory to the Lord!” because it has all come to pass. And what we were saying—where did that come from within me? I do not know, because in truth nothing suggested that that little dark church over there in Cambridge could ever develop any of the relationships or have the impact that God, in His mercy and to Him be the glory, has allowed us to have in the city of Boston, or establish those relationships. And I know that we still have not seen anything compared with what God is going to do through you, through this congregation, by means of His Holy Spirit within us, if we remain grounded in the word of the Lord and do things humbly, as God desires.

But truly, at that time no one imagined that God would allow us to be builders and edifiers, together with other churches in the city, in order to bless our community. And now we are in the process of constructing this building, which I hope will truly be the last—never say, “I will never drink from this water”—but I hope it will be the last thing God calls us to do for a good, long time. And this is the construction not of bricks, as we say, but of a vision for the city of Boston. During these weeks, I want to encourage my brothers and sisters to reflect on what God is calling you to do. Each one of us is one of the bricks in that building. Within you there may be one brick, and perhaps many more bricks, for the construction of our building. Every one of us must see ourselves that way. And I am speaking here especially to the brothers and sisters who identify with this congregation. If you are visiting us or are not yet on that wavelength, do not feel that I am referring to you; we respect where you are on your spiritual journey. But I believe that those who are more mature in the Lord, who identify with our church, who are members or love our congregation and are nourished here—I encourage you not to fall short in this great undertaking God is allowing us to carry out, which is to build a sanctuary for the Lord that will enable us to be an even greater blessing to the city. And for that process, we have been speaking on these Sundays about stewardship. Through these teachings, I hope to build within us an attitude of faith—of faith and generosity toward the Lord—and to enlarge our vision so that we may see everything God wants us to do, because if you look in Scripture, when God has a great project, He chooses men and women.

The first construction project in the Bible was the building of the Tabernacle, when the Hebrew people were in the wilderness. And notice that although God sent manna from heaven for the Hebrews to eat, and did not allow their shoes to wear out or their clothing to fall apart on their bodies, nevertheless, for the construction of His Tabernacle, God did not send a completed Tabernacle down from heaven. Instead, He commanded the people to give, and different people brought different things. Some brought fabrics, others brought metals, some contributed their craftsmanship, and others brought wood and various things for the construction of the sanctuary. God used His people, and He used Moses to impart to the people the vision of a Tabernacle. And then there were other construction processes in Scripture, such as Solomon’s Temple and the other temples that were rebuilt after the destruction of the first Temple, the walls of Jerusalem through Nehemiah, and so many other construction projects. We always see that they are preceded—that is, before the construction there is always a call for the people to give to the Lord in order to make that work possible—because the Lord likes to build in cooperation with His children. And when we receive those calls, we say, “Amen, Lord, I am here. I want to be part of that.”

You remember..... what I am placing there in the hearts of my brothers and sisters: that God would enable us to have 200 people or families, or family units—200 individuals or households—who will commit, over two years, 24 months, to giving the Lord 5,000 dollars for the construction of our sanctuary, which amounts to about 50 dollars a week for two years. I know that some of you spend that much on cappuccinos alone each week. If you simply stop drinking those cappuccinos—which are only going to make you gain weight anyway and turn your teeth yellow—give that money to the Lord, so that you may see a great sanctuary built for the glory of God. There are so many things we can do, brothers and sisters, which, if we really examine them, are not matters of life and death. And if we say, “I am going to deny myself a little here and a little there,” look, you will be blessed. Those old suits sitting there that you have not been able to wear for five years may suddenly fit you, and so many other things may happen, because you will have found a creative way to give to the Lord. So that is our request.

Now, we want everyone to be able to give, and that is the second goal God has placed in our hearts: that everyone who identifies with the Lion of Judah congregation may give something to the Lord. If the Lord has not given you the ability or the faith to give in that way, do not feel bad; do not feel singled out or looked down upon, because that is not the idea. You can give something to the Lord. We can all come before the Lord with something in our hands, so ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten you about how you can give to the Lord, in what way, and to what extent. Then that is between you and your Lord; no one should judge you for it. On the contrary, the Lord blesses what comes from the heart. The Bible says that we should not give to the Lord out of obligation or guilt, but with joy. So give the Lord what you can give with joy, while someone else perhaps gives with pain. That is all right; there is no problem with giving to the Lord with pain as well. That is important too.

And the third thing, the third point—and with this I will finish the preliminaries, because I am providing the context for what we are preaching—is that there may be people, perhaps there are people in this congregation, and I know there are, who will be able to give more than 5,000 dollars over two years. Perhaps God has blessed you in some way, or will bless you in some way, and perhaps God may place it in your heart to say, “I want to honor the Lord with something beyond those 5,000 dollars.” If God places that in your heart, I assure you that we will not resist it. Bless the Lord and bless His people in that way. So if anyone feels led by the Lord to give more than those 5,000 dollars, please, we encourage you to consider that as well and to ask the Lord to enlighten you concerning it.

There you have the preliminaries. Now let us turn to the word of the Lord. First Kings 17. Brothers and sisters, the Bible is full of references to this principle of giving. I have been making a list of texts from which to preach on these Sundays, because I truly want to bless your lives and teach you principles for provision in your lives, so that you may live prosperous lives in every area. I have found dozens of texts because the Bible continually speaks about this concept of giving and receiving, about how we have a God who wants to bless his people, but also a God who has established certain laws, certain principles, certain ways in which we can unleash his blessing upon our lives. And those texts are everywhere. In fact, brothers and sisters, let me tell you that this text we are going to study here this morning is not merely about receiving food, nourishment, or money. I believe it refers to any miracle, any divine intervention you want to receive in your life. It may be the solution to a family problem, an emotional problem, a mental bondage in your life, an emotional wound within you, a problem with a child or whatever it may be—a problem involving material provision, housing, money, work, or studies. This applies to all those dimensions of life. It concerns what one needs to receive in order to have a prosperous and blessed life, and how God has established spiritual principles through which his blessing can be unleashed. For if you look, God is a God of order, and God has established physical principles which, when scientists discover them, enable them to act upon reality and lift airplanes weighing tons so they can travel through the air, send submarines into the depths of the sea so they can travel along the ocean floor, build cars that race over the surface of the earth, and use laser beams to operate on something as delicate as the pupil of an eye. This is because scientists have discovered the physical principles God has embedded in nature, and by discovering those principles and putting them into operation, they can take advantage of them.

I maintain that the same is true of spiritual principles. God has established spiritual principles and has given us a map for discovering them, which is called his word. By putting those principles from his word into practice, we can, like scientists in the physical world, also receive blessings in the spiritual world. And here, for example, we have one of those little maps in this very rich passage, the passage about the widow of Zarephath. It says here that God called Elijah to withdraw for a time from Ahab and Jezebel, those evil rulers who wanted to kill him, because through Elijah God had said that no rain would fall upon Israel until Elijah gave the word. And so God asked Elijah to hide for as long as necessary. Elijah hid by the brook Cherith—you know the story—and there, for many days, God provided his prophet with bread and meat through ravens and water through a brook. One day, the Bible says, the brook dried up and there was no more water because there was a drought in the land. Then God said to Elijah, “Okay, Elijah, now leave this place,” and that is where our passage begins, “and go to Zarephath in Sidon.” It was a non-Jewish land, a people who were not Hebrew. “Go there, to that city, and there,” says the Lord, “I have commanded”—look at that—“I have commanded a widow to feed you, support you, and sustain you for as long as necessary.”

I can already see something there, brothers and sisters, and it is this: God is a provider for his servants, for his children. All teaching about stewardship says first that God is the owner of everything that exists, as we saw last Sunday, but another principle of stewardship is that God provides for those who honor and fear him. And no matter how great the scarcity in a land may be, brothers and sisters, God is powerful enough to provide for his own. I know there are people who love the Lord and suffer poverty in other countries, but from my own family’s experience I learned one thing: when God enters a home, its negative financial circumstances change and blessing begins. I can say this because when my mother came to know the Lord Jesus Christ many years ago in the Dominican Republic, our family’s financial circumstances were very adverse. But I remember, from when I was a very small child, that when my mother came to know the Lord, something changed in our lives and God began to provide for us in a beautiful way. I could explain it to you, but that is not the point. The point is that when Christ enters the life of a family, processes of blessing and prosperity begin, if that family is faithful to the Lord and applies the principles of faith.

That is in Scripture; it is not said in order to manipulate people, no. I see it on every page of Scripture: God provides. The Bible says, for example, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.” I believe that if God dropped me on the moon, I know I would find a tree of some kind there from which to eat, if necessary, because that text is there and reaches all the way to the moon itself. “I have not seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.” Now, could we believe that, brothers and sisters? How difficult it is to bring our minds into line with God’s promises! But God is a providing God. In fact, one of the names given to Jehovah in the Bible—what is it? Jehovah Jireh, which in Hebrew means, “Jehovah is my provider.” The very essence of God’s character is to provide for his children. That is why he provided the Hebrews with manna in the wilderness, provided them with water from a rock, provided them with clothing and shoes, provided them with his power, and provided them with the cloud of smoke by day to guide them and the pillar of fire by night. Listen to me, not even MapQuest had service as good as that cloud and that pillar of fire. It was a map through which God guided his children to where they needed to go, because God is a provider in every dimension of life, if we believe it. He provided for his servant Elijah, and when the water ran out he said, “Now go; I have another option for you.” There is always another option.

I have discovered that in life, brothers and sisters. My motto is: there is always a solution. Do you know what I practice in my life? When there is... it may be something very simple and small, but my motto is: there is always a way out, there is always a solution to every problem, because God is the solution to every problem in life. God is the door that opens when everything seems dark and reason cannot suggest any solution. God can provide in our lives if we believe, if we trust in the Lord. Just imagine: he used ravens to provide for his servant, and now he uses... Notice that it is interesting how, throughout Scripture, we see that God often uses something that seems incapable of providing in order to provide. Notice, he provided water—from what? From a rock. In the feeding of the 5,000, he provided food through whom? Through a little boy with five loaves and two fish. God always... likes to provide through things that appear arid and barren. Here he provides through a widow who was not even receiving Social Security, the poor woman. There was no welfare in those days; there was no Social Security, no food stamps, nothing, brothers and sisters, not even credit cards that someone could at least swipe and say, “I’ll figure out later how to get out of that mess.” Nothing. This woman was destitute, and the Lord likes to provide in unexpected ways.

How many have received something in life in an unexpected way or through someone who did not seem capable of being a source of a solution for you? God loves to do that, because God is a God... He has a sense of humor, I believe. He even does it that way so it will be evident that it is for his glory, that it is not man but he who, ultimately, truly provides. And God says to Elijah, “I have given the command for this woman to feed you.” Now, he does it through a complex, zigzagging process, because when Elijah arrived there in Zarephath, I think he expected to find a woman wearing a mink coat and riding in a limousine—a rich widow who might even marry him if things went well—or something like that. But when he arrives in Zarephath, notice that God has said, “I have given the command,” and when he gets there, the first thing he sees is a woman who is completely broken and depressed because she is nearing the end of her life, and all she has left is a little handful of flour and a few drops of oil to make a pancake without even any milk. And to make matters worse, this widow does not even know who Elijah is. “And God told you what? You’re crazy, man; go see a psychiatrist. Me, give you food? But this is the last thing I have left. I’m going to eat it with my son and then lie down and die.” How interesting!

Brothers and sisters, that is the heart of the matter, you see. God makes declarations in the spirit which must then be brought to pass in the world of time and space. And many times, it falls to us to participate in the miracles. Sometimes God declares things in the spiritual realm and through his mouth, while in external reality nothing seems to agree with what God has said. That is where we often become the protagonists in the second part of the drama, because God has declared his spiritual principle, but now it falls to us to work it out and to be part of the miracle. We would like God’s principles to go from “a” to “b” to “c” to “z,” period—a direct, straight line—but God does not work that way. God works through complex processes like the one that takes place here. He has said, “This woman will provide for my prophet,” but the details of that process will be worked out through the interaction between Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. That is the kind of God he is. God is an economist. He says, “This is what will be done. The details? You take care of those,” just as great executives do. How awesome the Lord is!

And then it falls to us, depending on our faith, you see? By saying, “Let this widow provide for my prophet,” God has already declared a principle that is reverberating through the spiritual atmosphere, but now the prophet’s faith, the widow’s faith, and the dialogue between them come into play. That is how it is, brothers and sisters. Many times God has said to you in your life, “That dream you have—I have declared that it will be fulfilled. That economic or financial project you have—I have declared that it will succeed. That desire you have to study and become a professional woman, even though you are 40 years old and have three children and spend the rest of your time washing dishes and cleaning the house—I have given the command for you to earn a master’s degree. Or to learn to speak English. Or to own your own home one day.” God has given the word, you see? But now it falls to us to go through a process of faith so that what God has declared in the spiritual atmosphere may become a reality. And that is where many of us often fail. We do not believe God, or because the process becomes a little difficult along the way and things do not go well the first time we try, we immediately give up and say, “Forget it. God is not faithful. God does not fulfill what he promises.” Then we lick our wounds for the rest of our lives and call God unfaithful, when what God wanted was for us to put in a little more effort, learn, and get something out of it.

Do you see? Here God is not merely interested in having this widow feed his prophet and fill his stomach with bread and water. No, God wants something more. God wants the prophet to learn certain things, and the widow also to learn certain things about faith and the spirit, and for her to be blessed together with her entire household. Because when God works, his processes often involve not only us but also others around us. And if we act in faith, we are blessed, and so are others who witness the process of faith we are living through. How precious the Lord is! Isn’t he? How complex God’s way of working is! He wanted to unfold a drama between Elijah and this widow.

But let us not forget this, brothers and sisters. The principle I see as important here is that God is providing. God has given an order: “My prophet cannot go hungry. My prophet must be blessed. Even though others are going hungry because of their wickedness and lack of faith, I want my prophet to be blessed.” And here, brothers and sisters, is another very important principle: when we give to the Lord, we must always give from a position of trust and faith that he is our provider. The mindset underlying our act of faith must always be: God is powerful and faithful to provide for me. Do you see?

Notice that whenever God calls people to give, there is something that seems to say to them, “Do not be afraid,” or, “Do not worry; I will give to you.” Look, for example, at Luke chapter 12, because these principles are everywhere, not only in the Old Testament. Luke 12:32 says, “Do not fear”—say it with me, brothers and sisters, “Do not fear.” Again, “Do not fear, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.”

Look at the promise there. He says, people of Lion of Judah, do not be afraid, do not worry, do not be anxious about tomorrow. Do not go around with that anxiety in your lives and that idea that your life is something fragile, that when you least expect it you are going to lose your job, be thrown out of your home, get sick, or lack the money to pay the water or electricity bill. The Lord says: Do not fear; I am your provider. Do not fear, little flock, because your Father has been pleased to give you the whole kingdom—everything. God has promised you everything. I live as though the earth belonged to me, because it belongs to my Father, who loves me, and I try to live that way, with that confidence that God is my provider. He left those passages there in Scripture, about Elijah and others, to teach that He can do the same with me.

And then look at what follows. After saying that it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom, He says: “Sell what you possess and give alms. Make yourselves purses that do not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.” You see, first He establishes a background of provision and promise and faith. Do not be afraid. It has pleased Me to give you the kingdom, and now look at the consequence of that. Therefore, sell what you have, give alms to the poor, be generous, because you have a line—you have an unlimited line of credit. It is like when banks give someone a card that says: limit, 100,000 dollars.

Brothers and sisters, we have a line of credit in the kingdom of heaven, and therefore God says: Dare to be generous here in this life. Give. In every way you can, help the poor. Help people in need. Give your time generously; give your energy. I like energetic Christians, brothers and sisters. Listless people, as Caribbeans say, are not saints I am devoted to, because I believe God wants people with an excess of energy, because they know that God has much more of that energy. God is power, and when you give to the Lord... look, you will not lack anything. Believe it. Make every effort and be courageous, says the Lord, because I will be with you wherever you go. In other words, launch out, dare, do things, undertake things, because I am with you. And from the place you gave, there is more, so that you can receive even more.

The problem is that we do not believe God, and we are conservative with our energy, our time, our money, and our possessions, and we are always miserably counting the few little coins we have... and God says: Do not be stingy. Give. Because I have been pleased to give you the kingdom. Dare in the name of the Lord. So often there are so many opportunities, brothers and sisters, for us to serve someone or give something to someone, and we do not dare because we are thinking... Someone calls us, depressed, and says: I am going to shoot myself, brother; I am depressed here. You say: Well, yes, brother, please, let us talk another day because I have to go to sleep. I am tired and have to get up at five in the morning. Instead of saying: Well, I am going to comfort this brother; I am going to talk to him because, even though I am sleepy and lose an hour and a half of sleep, the Lord will restore it to me early tomorrow morning.

So we are always thinking out of fear, about what we do not have, instead of thinking about the God who has said: I have more where that came from. There is more; there is an unlimited treasure. Dare. Give your energy, give your time, give your talents, invest in My kingdom, because there are no limits to what I can give you.

And that is why many of us, brothers and sisters, live mediocre and limited lives, in which God’s provision does not reach us, and it is because we have very tiny little wires through which only a tiny bit of God’s blessing can pass. I have learned that the more I give, the more God gives me. The more generous I am in the Lord, the more generous God is with me. That is why God says: Do not worry; give.

Look at what Elijah says to the widow. Look here at the human mindset and God’s mindset. Elijah sends the widow to get him a little water. That is the banana peel for her to slip on. “Get a little water.” And she apparently had plenty of water: “Of course, no problem.” And then, almost as an afterthought, he says: “Oh, and please, if you can, bring me a little cake made with that flour and that oil.” She says: “Oh, no, not that. I cannot help you with that. That simply cannot be done,” as a man we knew when we were little used to say. “It cannot be done.” Why? Because she says: The only thing I have is a little flour and a little oil, and that is reserved for my son and me, and we have already decided that with that we will lie down and die, because there is nothing else. Do not tell me anymore (34:41) that there is no more grass, as Dominicans say. Notice that she is thinking about her limitation. She has not heard the word of the providing God. She does not know the providing God whom Elijah knows. So she is thinking only about her limitations. She is thinking about what she does not have. She is operating in what I call the scarcity mindset. Christians can operate from two zones: the zone of scarcity or the zone of abundance and provision. The carnal, rational Christian operates only by thinking that if I give to the Lord, I will not have enough. If I take that money out of my account, I will not have enough to pay the bills or to complete the project I had in mind, or whatever it may be. You see, one thinks with a scarcity mindset, and that can be seen throughout Scripture.

For example, when Caleb and Joshua and the other ten spies return from the Promised Land, the ten unbelieving spies tell the Hebrew people who had sent them: Look, gentlemen, do not even bother going to Canaan. That place is full of people who are six, eight, and seven feet tall, and they have biceps that not even Arnold Schwarzenegger has, and they have chariots and metal spears and gigantic horses; and when we looked at those very tall people, we saw ourselves as freaks—as grasshoppers, it says, as tiny little things. That is the scarcity mindset. It is the mindset that sees only the limitations in life. It is the mindset of the person who thinks only: Well, but no one in my family has ever had money. There has never been a professional among us. What is this about me saying I am going to buy my house or go to college? It is not possible. Because that person is thinking from scarcity.

It is the idea that arises when the Lord tells you, Give to Me first, as Elijah tells her; dare to honor Me with your tithe. Dare to honor Me with a pledge, and I promise you that you will not lack anything. But the person says: Well, perhaps that is for those other people, because that person earns 50,000 a year, but I earn only 24, or 20, or 18. I cannot do it. Because one is thinking about the limitation; one is thinking according to the flesh. One is thinking according to reason. Like this woman, who thought only: I have just one little handful of flour left, a little oil, and now I am going to die; so how can I give this man what belongs to me? Do you see? That is the scarcity mindset. We see the scarcity mindset throughout Scripture.

When the Lord tells the disciples, You give the entire multitude something to eat, they say: We are supposed to feed all these people? Look, even if we had 20,000 dollars, we could not buy enough bread; what is more, even if we had the money, where would we buy it, if there is not a bakery anywhere in this whole area? The scarcity mindset. But the Lord, who knows the providing God, tells them: Go around, start looking, and see what you can find. Five loaves, two fish. Bring them here. He blesses them, prays over them, and the entire multitude eats, with twelve baskets full of bread and fish left over. Why? Because the Lord wanted to teach them a lesson: Do not live according to the scarcity mindset. Live according to the mindset of faith.

Brothers and sisters, there is something that happens when you live according to a mindset of faith and possibilities: your life becomes something magnetic, drawing blessing and prosperity and opportunities. Brothers and sisters, I try in every way possible to cultivate a mindset of possibilities, and I have discovered that, secretly, it is as though there were a magnetism that attracts possibilities, that attracts blessings. I wish I had time to give you examples of this, but look, just one, even though our time is running out, because these things are important.

For years God had placed it in my heart to construct that building, and I wanted to begin long before the neighborhood situation became complicated by all the condominiums that have moved in here, because I knew the neighborhood approval process was going to become much more difficult. Nevertheless, there were so many legal obstacles and so many difficulties in the process, which I knew would arise, that I lost my nerve for a long time, and I waited and waited and waited. Because I did not dare tackle it; it seemed impossible. I remember one day when Meche and I were in our kitchen at home, and I said to her: Meche, if one day you see that project come to fruition, and you see the city approve our construction of that building, say that you have seen a miracle. She herself agreed that this was so. Because there were things there—impossibilities that did not even come up—that could have prevented that building from going forward if they had known about things they could use against us. And yet, one day I said: Lord, if this is from You, the only thing I can do is begin to walk by faith. And if this is from You, You are going to solve the problems, and You are going to bring down the giants, and it is going to happen, and the city will give us the permit. And you know, I began to pray and decided in my mind: Okay, we are going to undertake this.

One day the worship team—they remember this—the worship team was invited to Roxbury Presbyterian Church to play there at a prayer and worship gathering of several churches, and that was a few days after I made my decision. And I said to the Lord: Lord, the first thing I need is an architect, someone who will draw up these plans for us at a very low price and who will be one of the very best people in the city of Boston. And do you know what? That Sunday, tired and exhausted after the services here at the church, I arrived there just as the service was beginning. Our group was playing, and as I walked toward the seat I had found, behind the seat where I was going to sit was Glenn Knowles, a Christian architect whom I had met years before in Cambridge, at the American church that shared the building with us. And Glenn Knowles is a Harvard graduate and works for one of the best architectural firms here in the city of Boston, a distinguished man in the field of architecture with a heart for serving the Lord. And when I saw him, I said in my heart: This is my man; this is the man God has placed there to do this work. I began talking to him, and we agreed to meet, and the rest is history. There are the designs, which cost us a fraction of what that kind of work normally costs. Glory to the Lord.

And throughout the process, this man was my advocate, my architect, and my fellow warrior every time we went into the lion’s den with a neighborhood group or a city group, because when the Lord provides, He provides in a big way. But it required me to leave behind my mindset of difficulties and obstacles and exchange it for a mindset of possibility, and to dare to take the first steps of faith. When you begin to walk in the name of the Lord, the river opens before you, because that is what God is waiting for: a move of faith. He is waiting for us to dare, for us to break this mindset of limitations and impossibilities and of “this has never been done before,” or “no one in my family,” or “I do not have it, I cannot, I do not know,” and for you to say: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, as the Apostle Paul says.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And you can break all the chains the devil puts on your mind, in your life, and in your circumstances. It all depends on your believing the Lord, daring, and having what is called a mindset of possibility. And that is what I see in Joshua and Caleb. The Bible says that they had a different spirit from the others. And when those ten spies said, This is impossible; these people are enormous, they are far too big for us, Joshua and Caleb said: Do not be afraid of them, because God has delivered them into our hands, and we will devour them like bread, Joshua and Caleb said. Because greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. I believe that people who are in Christ and whose faith is active think that way. The God who is within me is greater than any circumstance. I am going to press forward, no matter what. God will make a way. That chorus (43:09) says: God will make a way where you think there is none. That is true for the one who believes, brothers and sisters. Hallelujah! But you know that in the process there are often obstacles, because that is the God we have.

Not long ago we heard a teaching by a writer named Elbridge who speaks about the God of dramas and the God who creates dramas. I love dramas. My doctorate is in literature, and I love dramas; I love the plot of a novel, or even of a poem or a short story. God likes dramas, and in dramas—look at television comedies, for example—the boy meets the girl and they fall in love, but if they got married right away, the movie would last five minutes. But what happens? No, along comes a woman he knew ten years ago, and he starts talking to her on the street, and the first woman, the one who fell in love with him, sees them talking and immediately thinks that he has left her, and a tremendous mess breaks out. And the next 45 minutes are spent trying to resolve that little problem that arose to stretch things out, and there we are, crying into our Kleenex or eating popcorn left and right, because the plot is getting juicy, isn’t it? Until finally they get married and live happily for the rest of their lives, right? Because that is the essence: the plot is the complication; that is what makes a drama, and God loves it. God is the novelist par excellence.

So God tells us, “I am going to bless you; I have given the word for you to be blessed.” Then you believe the Lord, and that is where a process begins that may last years, months, or weeks. There will be difficulties, giants whose heads you will cut off, seas you will cross, maidens you will rescue from terrible giants; but you will reach the goal because God said, “You will reach it because I have said so.”

“Cross over to the other side,” the Lord Jesus says. While they are on their way to the other side, they encounter a raging sea and a storm, and the Lord, there on His throne praying, sees them and, in the middle of the night, walks toward them, gets into the boat, and says to the storm, “Be still, be quiet.” And the storm becomes quiet, and they reach the other side because the Lord said, “You will reach the other side.” God is complex in His processes. Many times we allow ourselves to be intimidated by the complexity of the processes and lose heart, and then we miss the opportunity God wants to give us. Never give up because the process becomes arduous along the way. Say, “No, what the Lord is doing is teaching me things. He wants to bless me beyond the little goal I had.” The Lord’s goals are always much broader than your little mind can conceive, my brother, my sister. God loves journeys; He loves processes. The Christian life is always the same thing, what He says: “Leave your land and your relatives and go to a land that I will show you.” That is the process of faith in its very essence. And every time God gives you a dream, a word, a goal, a plot, launch out in the name of the Lord. Like Abraham, you will have some scares, you will make mistakes, you will do things you never thought you would do, but you will reach the goal because the Lord told you, “I will be with you wherever you go.”

Brothers and sisters, I wish I had more time to develop all these themes. Perhaps we will continue next Sunday. But what matters is that we see this here. This woman is tested. Elijah tells her, “Go and get something for me first.” He says, “Give to me first.” We must give to the Lord first.

Say with me, “We must give to the Lord first—first.” When you give to the Lord first, you receive. Elijah tells her, “Give to me first, and afterward you will have food to eat, not only today but tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and next week and next month, until bread once again grows in the land.” That is how God works: you dare to act in the name of the Lord. Nothing guarantees that you will make it—only the word of God. Firstfruits are a concept found in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. “Honor the Lord with your firstfruits.” Give to the Lord first.

Proverbs 3:9: “Honor Jehovah with your possessions and with the firstfruits of all your produce, and your barns will be filled with abundance, and your vats will overflow with new wine,” says the Lord. Your barns will be abundant and full, my brother, my sister. But honor the Lord with your possessions; give the Lord the firstfruits. Do not give Him the scraps (48:06); do not give Him the tail end; do not give Him what is left; do not give Him your surplus; do not give to Him only after you have paid for everything and know that everything is fine and everything is covered, and then give the Lord whatever remains. No, you must give to the Lord first; you must set aside His portion—His first.

If you have faith that your God provides, give to Him first. Dare to do it in the name of the Lord. I do not think your life is as extreme as this woman’s. That is also why God chooses extreme situations: to illustrate His principles clearly, in the purity of the artificial tube that He constructs. This woman has nothing. She has nothing left. She is at the extremes of her life. Most of us are not in that extreme position. And that is where the Lord tells her, “Give to Me, now, first. Risk your life. Risk your provision. Risk your hope. Risk your dreams. Place them on the table of sacrifice. Give to Me first, and then you will see whether I am Jehovah, whether I am faithful, and whether I fulfill what I promise or not—whether I have the power to bless you and open the sea before you or not.” Honor the Lord with your possessions. There you have a principle that is more exact than the principles of gravity or any other physical principle. The one who honors the Lord first, who puts the Lord first in his life, who loves the Lord with all his heart, with all his mind, and with all his strength; the one who does not worry about himself but is concerned about the glory of God; the one who, whenever there is a need, says, “I am here because I have a direct line of credit with my Father,” and gives to the Lord in every situation, or gives generously in his life in the name of the Lord—that person will prosper, will be blessed, and will never lack anything. Listen to what I am telling you: write it down, put the date on it, and put it to the test, and you will see whether or not God is faithful in your life.

Let us stand. Glory to the Lord. Do not let that word escape from your heart, because I believe it is a word God has given me this morning for you. Those are principles from the Bible; those principles are not in the human heart. Those principles are divine principles. If you want, buy that cassette and listen to it again, because it is a seed of faith that God plants in your life. God wants to bless you. God wants to provide for you. God wants to bring you out of your lack. God wants you to have an expansive life, a life of achievement, a successful life. But there are spiritual principles, and God tells you, “Take a risk; dare to risk.” If you do not take a risk, the blessing will not come, says the Lord. You must always take risks. David took a risk when he hurled himself at Goliath—a brute, with a tiny boy going up against that great giant. Nothing but a few stones and a sling. What guaranteed David that he would return unharmed? Nothing. The great soldiers did not dare to take on Goliath, but David risked his life because he loved the Lord and loved the glory of God. The rest is history.

You are a David, whether you are a man or a woman. You can do great things in the Lord. You can live a prosperous life. Your future—the trajectory of your life—will rise. Your children will be blessed. You will attain things you cannot imagine. The best times of your life are ahead of you, but first you must believe the Lord. If you remain in the realm of limitation, the realm of lack, the realm of timidity, the realm of poverty, the realm of “I can’t, I don’t know, I don’t have,” God will not activate the word He has given to bless you.

Every believer lives in the realm of achievement, success, and possibility. Some do not realize this because they remain only in the realm of potential. They do not apply the principles of Scripture, and therefore their life is always small, their children are small, their family and their house are small. But if we dare, brothers and sisters, to live in the realm of possibility in God, and if we dare to risk and to die—because before every resurrection there must be death. If there is no death, there is no blessing. Whenever God wants to bless you, He kills you first. In some way, small or great, He kills you—I assure you. There must always be a crucifixion of the mind, reason, the self, pride, self-sufficiency, or whatever it may be; but God always asks you for something. “Sacrifice that to Me first. Die, and then I will bless you; I will raise you up. You will be far greater than you were when you began.”

Brothers and sisters, may the Lord cause our minds to be revolutionized today by the word of God. Let us bow our heads. Receive, in the name of Jesus—receive, in the name of Jesus, the word of faith. Receive, in the name of Jesus, the word of possibility. Live your life; live your life believing in the God of miracles, the God of provision, the faithful God, the God who says that the whole earth is His. He owns everything, and He wants to use His power on your behalf. Receive the word of faith. Renounce the small-minded mentality. Right now say, “I renounce the limited mentality, the ‘I can’t’ mentality. I renounce the mentality of smallness and limitations, and I embrace the spirit of possibility in Christ. I can do all things. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Hallelujah! Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, God; we worship You, Lord.