Tony Evans - Living Faith
There's not too many of us who haven't felt like God made a mistake, and we wanna challenge it. Maybe we're too scared to say it, but we know what it is to feel it, to think it, and to even talk to other people about it. In fact, when something like this happens, you're too scared to feel too good about something nice that happens to you. 'Cause you get a little worried that something gonna go wrong, it's not gonna be real, or it's gonna be snatched back. So you want a challenge flag. Such is the case of our next experience with the prophet Elijah as we look at experiencing the supernatural. Our goal is for the supernatural to become real to you, through you, for you, and from you, not merely as a theological concept, but as an experiential reality based on the Word of God.
Now this woman has a lot to shout about. I mean, she was down to her last meal. The prophet comes along, tells her what God says, she does what God says, and all of a sudden, she's living large. All of a sudden the last meal becomes an introduction to a whole bunch of meals because of the promises of God. That had to be an exciting house to be in, to see that supernatural move of God. But wouldn't you know it? Just when there's something to shout about, just when you wanna get your praise on, just when you wanna celebrate the goodness of God in the land of the living, we come to verse 17. In chapter 17 verse 17 it says, "And it came about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick, and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him".
Wait a minute, God saved this boy's life. He was down to his last meal, and he and his mom were gonna starve to death. God performs a miracle, he feeds them, and after a passing of time, the boy gets sick, and his sickness gets worse, and worse, and worse, until there is no breath left in him. That's another way of saying he died. His sickness was so severe that life escaped him. That's our problem, that's the situation we're in. When God saves you yesterday and kills you today. So now that we have our problem, this woman shares her perspective. "So she said to Elijah," verse 18, "What do I have to do with you, oh man of God"? I hope you heard that. "What do I have to do with you"? Translation, "I don't want nothing to do with you". "What do I have to do with you"? I don't wanna. "Yeah, I know you the preacher, I know you the man of God, but I don't want nothing to do with you". "You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death".
So she's got a bad situation, she's feeling guilty over her sin that she thinks has caused this situation. So let's get this straight, her circumstances were controlling her theology. She was believing what she was believing because she was feeling what she was feeling. She's feeling disappointed, she's lost her son, she wraps those two up in a nice bow, and she concludes that I'm gonna believe this because I see that. I see my son's died, you're reminding me of my sin, and that's why I'm in this mess today. Let me start by saying, never let your circumstances determine your theology, because when your circumstances control what you believe rather than what God says controlling what you believe, you will always succumb to your circumstances when those circumstances are negative.
Now, let's make this clear, you do not skip the reality of your circumstance. The boy had lost his breath, the boy was sick, the boy died. So you don't skip and make up something that's not true, but the truth of her circumstance was dictating what she was to believe about God, about Elijah, and not only about God and Elijah, about her past. 'Cause her iniquity is all up in her face now. So here we have a dilemma, a dilemma we've all faced or know others who faced it. Elijah then takes over, verse 19. "He says to her, 'Give me your son.' Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living and laid him on his own bed". We got a hurting mama here, and any mother in this situation is gonna be hurting. But we've got a man of God here, and he says, "Give me your pain. Hand me your problem".
Let me say something to you, everybody needs somebody in your life who cares enough about you to pick up a burden that's too heavy for you to handle. Everybody needs somebody in their life who loves you, cares enough for you, understands your pain, who's close enough to you. The Bible says, "Bear ye one another's burdens". The great tragedy is if you don't have someone or if you refuse to be the someone. We have two extremes today in God's kingdom. We have people who're struggling with God, who won't allow anybody in their circle to pick up their burden, and we've got Christians who are too selfish to be a burden bearer for somebody else.
But this struggling woman had somebody close enough, even though she was struggling theologically and struggling spiritually, who didn't just give her a sermon, he gave her a hand. He said, "Hand the boy to me". If the kingdom of God, if the church of Jesus Christ is gonna be authentic and real, then you're gonna have to have both parties, you're gonna have to have hurting people and you're gonna have to have men and women of God who pick up the burden when it is crushing somebody and life has done them in. He says, "Hand the boy to me". He takes the boy upstairs to his room or his apartment, and notice what happens.
"He takes the boy upstairs and he called to the Lord". Some version says, "He cried out". Now he's gonna pray a prayer here. He prays a prayer, he calls to the Lord, "O Lord my God". "O Lord my God, you have also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying by causing her son to die". So what he does is he brings the problem to God when she can't. Prayer is earthly permission for heavenly intervention. Prayer is calling on heaven to address something on earth. It is calling on eternity to speak to a situation in time. He says, "I need you to intervene on behalf of this woman who's in too much pain, too much theological confusion and spiritual frustration to intervene on her own or to meet you on her own, so I need you to do something". "Then he stretched himself," verse 21, "Upon the child three times".
Oh, wait a minute now. He prayed, so first of all, he says, "I'll bear the burden, this is too much for you right now". He then says, "Now Lord, you are over life and death, and you allowed this to happen, you caused this to happen". And then he lays on top of the boy, bounces back, comes back a second time and lays on the boy, bounces back, comes back a third time and lays on the boy. Now, why? The number three in the Bible is used of restoration and resurrection. He lays on the boy 'cause we're dealing with, watch this, a dead situation. That means a situation that has no life of its own, and that no human being could resolve because the thing has totally collapsed. He has no breath, he has no life left in him. That means he needs restoration or even stronger, he needs resurrection.
Why does he place his body on the boy in order for this to occur? Let me translate, "Lord, he needs life, he needs breath. I'm gonna lay my life on top of his death, and I give you permission to suck my breath from me and exchange it and pour my life into his life so that he can piggyback on my life, 'cause he has no life of his own". You need somebody in your life, who's not only willing to pray for you, but who's willing to be part of the solution to the very problem they're praying for. He didn't just say, "I'm praying". He said, "I'm gonna give something of myself so that God can use me to help answer the very thing I am praying for". That's why the Bible says, "Faith without works is dead".
You don't just wanna talk to God about it, you want God to use you to the extent that he can to do something about the thing that you are praying for. We got Christians everywhere that says, "I'm praying for you, brother, I'm praying for you, sister, I'm talking to God". Well, that's half of it, but the other half is, are you stretched out? What are you doing within the capacity that God has given you? Because you're in the vicinity of my need. She didn't just go out in the street. The man of God was in the vicinity, had a relationship 'cause he got them fed, and now was willing to become part of the solution. God is looking for people who will talk to heaven and stretch out on earth, who will reach to glory, but also be usable in history.
So he reaches up in prayer, but then he stretches out in sharing his life for the life of the boy who was lost. It says, "He stretched out three times, and he called to the Lord and said, 'O Lord my God, I pray you let this child's life return to him.'" Verse 22, "The Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him, and he was revived," okay. She piggybacked off of the spirituality of somebody else, because this is spirituality she didn't have right then. She piggybacked off of Elijah's spirituality, and it says at the end of verse 22, "The child's life returned". We read earlier, God took him. We read now, God gave him back.
So what you just read was God reversing a decision. Stay with me now theologically. God took him, God gave him back, in between taking him and giving him back was a prayer and a stretch. The prayer and the stretch caused God to hear and reverse a previous decision to take him. I want you to try God at a whole 'nother level for the supernatural. I want you to see God reverse a call in your life. Something that it looked like he said no to, something like it looked like it could never be fixed, something that looked like it could never be changed, and because there was the right person calling on God and stretching out on the need, God reconsidered and reversed his decision. Well, how can a changeless God change his mind? Though the way a changeless God can change his mind is that you are now appealing to another part of his nature.
If you're looking at this part of his nature, like looking at the sun at night, if you change locations, then you will be on the other side of the sun appealing to another part of his nature. So it's not that the sun has changed, it's that your rotation around it has changed so now you are appealing to another point of his nature. "God, you've got the right to destroy him, but I remember what you said in Genesis. You said in Genesis, 'I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,' and that you're gonna keep your covenant, so while your wrath is just on this side, I'm gonna spin around a little bit and come to another location of where you are so that I'm now facing the sun of your grace, the sun of your forgiveness". That's why repentance is so important, 'cause repentance means to change your mind in order to reverse your direction.
So when I have disobeyed God, and now his just wrath or justice comes against me, but I don't want it anymore, I do an earth rotation, and I kinda rotate myself around to another location in order now to sit in front of his grace and mercy, because I have repented of my sins, and now the changeless God changes his mind because I've relocated my position. So you can get the changeless God to change his mind when you are in right relationship. She couldn't pray that way 'cause she was too conscious of her sin. She got Elijah to pray and do a rotation for her. This was an exception because a prophet couldn't touch an unclean thing, and if you were dead, you were considered unclean, okay.
So you couldn't touch anything dead without becoming unclean. But he lays out on the boy because God uses exceptions. God recognizes exceptions, he has his rules, but all through the Bible he makes exceptions. He will do something, you remember the ravens, the ravens, that was an unclean bird, that was an exception. In other words, he had a unique spin in this situation, and so God makes exceptions when we cry out to him and stretch on him and seek him. And watch this now. Oh, I like the way this thing ends up, 'cause it ends up sweet, watch this. So what we have in verse 23, is Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper room into the house, gave him to his mother, and Elijah said, "See". I need to do a sermon on "See". He says, "See, look at this, girl. Can you see"? He says, "See, your son is alive".
Oh, wait a minute now, she's downstairs, he goes upstairs. God performs a miracle that she not a part of. She too messed up to be a part of it, she's too theologically confused to be a part of it. But she had in her circle a man of God who would act on her behalf, and watch this, who would be the deliverer of the miracle she needed. Okay, but it's not over yet, 'cause in verse 24 it says, "Then the woman said to Elijah, 'Now I know.'" Oh no, she didn't. Girlfriend says, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the Word of the Lord is in your mouth is truth". Wait a minute now, a few verses ago she called him a man of God, she identified him as a man of God, but she identified him as a man of God while being mad at God and telling him to get outta the house. So she recognizes his position, but she says, "Now I know".
Okay, watch this now, if she is only knowing that now, that means she did not know it before, 'cause she says, "I know now that you are for real". But wait a minute, didn't you just have a miracle when God fed you? How come you didn't know it then? When God fed you and you ran out of food? What do you mean you know it now after God came through for you a long time ago? What do you mean you know it now after God fed you when you didn't have any food? What you mean you know it now after God gave you a job, put food in your stomach, gave you a raise? What do you mean you know it now? Something happens in our lives, even though God did something for us yesterday, over time we forget how good he is and how powerful he is.
So guess what God does? He lets something die, he lets something go south, he lets something not do well to remind us that he's a right now God, he's not just a yesterday God, he's not just a tomorrow God, he's a right now God. So he puts you in a situation where you need him right now. He puts you in a situation to remind you that the God who came through yesterday, hadn't died on you, hadn't gone to sleep on you, he lets things die. Oh, one other thing before we close. You say, "This is the Old Testament". Not quite, 'cause in Hebrews chapter 11 when we talked about the hall of faith, it says Abel had faith and Noah had faith and Abraham had faith and Moses had faith and Sarah had faith, but then you come back down to verse 35 and it says, "Folks had faith where the women had their loved ones brought back to life".
Guess who he's talking about? He's talking about this woman. But wait a minute, it gets sweeter than that. When Elijah raises up this boy, there had never been a resurrection in the Bible before 1 Kings 17. 1 Kings 17 is the first resurrection in the Bible. Now why am I telling you that? That means that Elijah couldn't look back and see where God had done it before. He couldn't look back and find a testimony of somebody God had raised from the dead and say, "Because he did it then, he can do it now". He didn't look back and find a reference point for resurrection. So I love that, 'cause even though your situation is unique, even though you can't point to anybody who's been where you are, God may wanna use you to be the first person he does something special with, he does something new for, he does something supernatural for, he wants to use you to be the first in a line of miracles. So either be an Elijah or be a widow, but hook up so we can see the supernatural. Because he says in Hebrews, "What he did in the Old Testament, he's good for today".
It is important that we keep faith alive, to have a living faith, a faith that has life in it, a faith that works, meaning we bring God's perspective into the equation. It's not just that I believe something because I believe it. In fact, if you do not have an object of your faith sufficient to what you're believing for, then your faith may very well be a dead faith, that is, it has no life attached to it because it has no actions attached to it. If you want to see your faith come alive, what faith act are you doing to demonstrate you're serious about what you say you're believing? If your faith is only in your speech, it won't live. If it's in your feet, it will become alive.