Marcus Mecum - Extreme Times Call for Extreme Measures
1 Kings 19, and let’s look at verse 3. «Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. 'I have had enough, Lord'». Anybody ever prayed that prayer? I’ve had enough. That’s it. I’m done.
Then he said. «Take my life: I am no better than my ancestors'. Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, 'get up and eat'. He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, 'get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you'. So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached horeb, » or Sinai, «The mountain of God. And then he went into a cave and spent the night».
Let’s drop down to verse 11. «Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, 'what are you doing here, Elijah'»?
What a great question during the fast, to ask yourself. «He replied, 'I have been very zealous for the Lord my God'», I’m almost done, I promise, «'Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too'. The Lord said to him, 'go back the way you came, and go to the desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint hazael, anoint jehu, anoint Elisha.'» and then it goes on to say that there were 7,000 people in Israel that had not bowed down, 7,000 like minded people were left in Israel that God was calling Elijah to.
I want to talk to you on «Extreme times call for extreme measures». Extreme times call for extreme measures. Elijah fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. I think we could all agree that’s extreme. If you’re doing a 21 day fast, you’d be like, «I hope he’s not calling us on a 40 day fast». It’s extreme. But extreme times call for extreme measures. Moses would fast twice, two back to back 40 day fast. He fasted for over 80 days, that’s extreme. But extreme times call for extreme measures. Of course, Jesus would fast for 40 days and 40 nights because once again, the time that he was living, the mission that was on his life was extreme, and it called for extreme measures.
So, only three people in our Bible that we know fasted for 40 days and we just talked about them, Elijah, Moses, and Jesus. And subsequently, these three people would find themselves on the mountain of transfiguration, which let’s us know that when you are in an extreme time, and you take extreme measures, it will lead you to extreme heights. When you look at their lives, God’s plan was so extreme, it was so unusual, it was so great, it was so special that it would take extreme measures or an extended time of fasting.
So, this let’s us know, the more extreme the dream, the more extreme the goal, the more extreme the vision on your life, the more extreme the burden that God’s given you, the more extreme the passion it is that God’s given you, the more extreme that is, the more extreme the measures should be. And I say this because I know there are people all across this room that you are facing extreme situations. You are facing extreme challenges, you’re needing to make extreme decisions. They’re not normal, they’re not average, we’re not talking about that you chipped a nail. We’re not talking about, you know, you’re a little upset because you stubbed your toe, we’re talking about life altering things you’re up against, and because of the extreme situation it calls for extreme measures.
When you look at the life of Elijah, he had come to end of himself. The Bible is clear that he was so overwhelmed, so exhausted, so disappointed and depressed, he’s completely emotionally spent, he has nothing left to give, he’s lost all meaning, he’s lost all sense of purpose on his life. He’s living in fear, he’s hiding, he’s on the run, and on top of that, he’s dealing with rejection and loneliness, and it reaches a boiling point, where he says, «God, I’ve had enough as a matter of fact, I’m so far to the end, I’m just asking that you take my life».
And that extreme place, that extreme problem, that extreme season of his life led him to take extreme measures where God would say this is not normal, what you’re going through Elijah. This is not an ordinary situation and I’m gonna need to take you on this 40 day fast. I’m gonna need to take you on a journey that’s extreme because of how extreme what you’re facing is. And so, as Elijah begins to go on this journey, there are three things that God reveals to him during this extreme season. And we’re going to go through them quickly together. Are you ready? Say, «Uh-huh».
Number one, divine rest precedes a long journey. Remember Elijah wants to die. He’s so exhausted, he’s asking God to take his life. He’s suicidal. And God’s response was to send and angel and this was what the angel said, «You need to go to bed». God didn’t say, «Quit whining you big wimp. You weakling. Get back up, get in the game, learn to play hurt, tough it out, try harder, push through». No, the angel said, «Here, take a little bite to eat and go to bed». Then he woke back up, and you know what the Bible says, «Here, take a little bit more to eat and go back to bed again». In other words, God’s message to Elijah was, in this next season, it’s not do more, it’s actually do less. Ecclesiastes would say, «A live dog is better than a dead lion».
And so, God’s looking at the mighty prophet, Elijah. He’s looking at the one who called down fire on the prophets of Baal, and he said, «I get that you’re mighty, I get that in many ways you see yourself as a lion, but you’ve been stretched so thin that if we don’t back up a little bit and teach you, you’re not superman, that you need some rest, we’re going to have nothing left to give». I’ve never talked to a hopeless man that’s well rested. Some of us think that fasting is, «I’m gonna beat myself up, I’mma teach myself a lesson because my lack of performance. Last year was so severe, I didn’t do this, and I should’ve done that, and why didn’t I do more». And we’re beating ourselves up and we’re calling it fasting. That’s not fasting.
The book of Hebrews says, «The reason we don’t enter into God’s rest is our unbelief and our disobedience». It goes on to say that «On the seventh day, even God rested». So, it’s important to understand that Elijah’s fasting journey included rest. This is why Jesus would come to us and say, «Come to me, all of you who have a heavy burden and I will give you rest». This why he would say, «Cast your cares on me, for I care for you». You can’t carry it, and cast it at the same time. And at some point, you and I have to learn fasting is not fighting, fasting is not striving, fasting is resting, fasting is surrendering, fasting is actually resting, saying, I’ve been too hard on my body, I’ve been too hard on my mind, I’ve been too hard on myself, and at some point I’ve got to let God release me from the performance trap I’ve been captured by and trapped by.
And I just gotta make the decision and say, «God, I’m gonna rest in you». Rest is a spiritual thing, rest is a divine thing, and you need to be rested for the long journey ahead of you in 2024. I don’t know what challenges await you, I don’t know what opportunities await you, but what I do know is that you need divine rest to make sure that you have strength for the journey in front of you, this is why I love giving God January because the Bible says, «If you put God first, all these other things will be added to you».
You’ve been chasing success, you’ve been chasing money, you’ve been chasing stuff, you’ve been chasing a spouse, you’ve been chasing that car, that house, all that stuff, that stuff, stuff, stuff. But if you’ll just put him first, everything that God wants to have in your life, it’ll be drawn to you. Not 'cause you’re going after all this stuff, but because you’re going after him. And you can rest in that. There’s a sense of confidence that comes with, there’s not one thing that the enemy can hold back from my life that God has destined for me if I’ll just learn to put him first.
Number two, Elijah would learn that the journey would be one of preparation and transformation. God says the rest is for the journey in front of you. That’s what this fast is for, that’s why it’s so important that you capture it, that you cease it, that you wring everything you possibly can out of it. That you don’t get caught up on the three weeks or whatever your time is. That you get more focused on the rest of your year. There’s strength that you’re going to need, is what the angel told Elijah for the journey in front of you. It would be a 40 day fasting journey, where God would take him from that low place, that depressed disappointed, discouraged, literally, not even wanting to live place to a high place that he called the mountain of God.
In other words, at some point, God wants to take you from whatever low place you’re in and he wants to take you to the high place, but there’s a journey of preparation and transformation that occurs in times like we’re in, of fasting. Some would say it’s extreme to fast like you are, but what I’m saying is that that extreme measure that you’re taking is because of the extreme places that God’s wanting to take you. Forty is symbolic of preparation and transformation. The Talmud would suggest that it takes forty days for an embryo to form in its mother’s womb. The rabbinical tradition says that it takes 40 years for a student to comprehend the wisdom of his teacher or mentor.
Noah, in his days, God would send the rain to cleanse the earth, and that transformation took 40 days and 40 nights. The children of Israel come out of Egypt and they’re in the wilderness for 40 years, preparation and transformation to head into the Promised Land. So, 40, when you see it is about preparation and transformation. God prepares you to transform you. Not for just any reason, but it says, «For the high places». I love this. High places, you cannot go unless you’re prepared for them. So, if you’re in a low place, whatever it looks like, a low place spiritually, a low place in your relationships, a low place emotionally, a low place physically, a low, whatever it might be. If you’re a low place, there’s preparation, and transformation that you go through, at some point you surrender to the preparation so God can take you out of that low place to the high place.
Ephesians 6:11 says, «You put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the enemy, for we battle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers and rulers of darkness in heavenly», or many translation say, «In the high places». «Therefore put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand your ground». What’s the Bible saying? It’s preparing you. The full armor is preparing you. It’s getting you ready for the battles that exist in the high places. At some point, you make a decision to say, «I don’t wanna just be a civilian in God’s kingdom».
At some point you realize that there’s a battle being waged, there’s a war right now raging, and I have to put on the full armor of God. I have to prepare, and I have to transform from just being a normal, everyday, just show up to church and spectate Christian, and say, «No, I gotta put on the full armor of God and be transformed», to do what? To go into the high places and do battle. Some of you have said, yes to Jesus. You come to church, you serve, you pray, you give, you read your Bibles. But you haven’t let God take you to the high places. The places that require that you’re prepared. They require that you’re transformed because there’s battles that need to be won in your life and in your family.
Four different kings in the Old Testament refused to tear down the false idols and altars that had been built in the high places. One of the thing that fasting does is it prepares you and it transforms you for the high places, the places that are so easy to ignore, the places where the enemy’s got a stronghold in your life. The places where the enemy’s got a stronghold in your family. The place where the enemy has just got that sting, he’s got his claws in you, and you just can’t seem to break free from it, and it’s plagued you your whole life, and it’s affected your family. And now, it’s potentially even affecting your children or your children’s children. And this is where Paul said, «I press toward the Mark of the high call of Christ Jesus».
There’s a pressing, there’s a preparation and there’s a transformation that takes place. This is why God promised all throughout the scripture, he’ll make your feet like hinds feet that you may tread upon the high places, that’s like the feet of a deer that are safe, and secure, and stable in the high places of life. In other words, God has not just called you and I to the low places. God didn’t just called us to submit and surrender to whatever we’re going through, God’s called us to rest of course, and to be strengthened so we can go through the journey, the long journey of saying, «Prepare me, transform me into your likeness so I can fight whatever battles, and so I can overcome whatever strongholds have gotten a hold of my family».
We think high places, we think heavenly places, we think babies with cloth diapers, little angels playing harps, floating around on clouds, little dove wings. And they show up to pamper us and take us to this spa-like treatment. But Daniel said, «When I went to the high places, there was a spiritual war going on and the future of a generation was at stake. And so, I had to pray and I had to fast for 21 days». Moses goes on a 40 day fast and God takes him to the high place. One of the things that had to be dealt with in the high place and we see it in the life of Moses, it’s very clear that his whole life was filled with anger and violence. We see him killing the Egyptian early on, and it leads to decades of detour, where he’s missing the assignment that God has for him.
And then, he goes out into the wilderness with children of Israel and God says, «I want you to strike the rock once, » and he gets frustrated and he hits it twice, just out of anger. And as a result God said, «Because you’re disobedient you don’t get to enter into the Promised Land». Once again, undealt with emotional temper tantrums were going on in his life, and so, then God takes him up the mountain, 40 days of prayer and fasting. He gets up there, God takes his finger and he writes on the tablets of stone, the commandments. And Moses comes down, his face shining with the glory of God, he has put a veil on his face. He gets down there and the people are worshipping a golden calf.
And there again, he erupts in anger, throws the Ten Commandments on the ground, they shatter into pieces and God says, once again, get back up that mountain another 40 days of prayer and fast, you gotta get back up there. There’s some undealt with things you have to prepare and you have to be transformed. And Moses, because you’re unwilling to do it, you gotta go back again and you’ve got to deal with that thing. God was wanting to raise up a man that could help be a moral compass to a hurting generation, but before he could use him in that way, he had to prepare him and transform him and say, you’ve gotta tear down that idol of anger, that idol of frustration, you gotta tear it down.
You cant live your life just blowing off steam all the time, just hotheaded, just all the… no you, at some point, you’ve gotta tear that altar down, or it’s gonna stop you from your assignment. Jesus, during his 40 day fast, two thirds of the enemy’s attacks were in the high places. First it was on the pinnacle of the temple. The second, it was on a very high mountain, showing him the kingdoms of this world. And every time the enemy came at Jesus, it was to establish or to try to get him to believe a lie. And of course, Jesus refused those lies by speaking the truth, by speaking God’s word.
When you repeat what God says, you’ll never be wrong. And victory happened in the high places because Jesus was prepared for the high places. Before he left in the power of the spirit, before he went to Calvary, before he took on the cross, before he took on the grave and he conquered hell and came out with the keys of life, he went through a season of preparation and transformation. And if Jesus went through this kinda time, I’m gonna help you, you and I will go through times of preparation so he can get us ready for the places that he’s calling us. Elijah gets to the mountain of God, tornado-like winds are ripping through the mountain, it’s being tore apart all around him, earthquake hits, the mountains crumbling all around him. Same time lightning hits and a forest fire is roaring all around him.
And then the Bible says, «God speaks to him with a gentle whisper». I love the wording. Gentle. God knows when our nerves are shot. God knows when our world is falling apart all around us and is burning up all around us, and he speaks gently to us, but not passively. In a gentle way God says, «Elijah, I’m gonna tell you the truth. You believed a lie and it’s led to depression. It’s led to rejection, it’s led to isolation. It’s led to you being eaten up with fear, it’s led to you saying I don’t even wanna see another sunrise».
So, God says, «What are you doing here? What lies have been built up in the high place of your life, Elijah? What are you doing here»? Feelings follow believing. So, if I have wrong feelings, it’s a result of wrong believing. And until I believe right, I’ll never feel right, and I’ll never choose right. This is why you’re born looking like your parents, but you die looking like your decisions. Because if you feel wrong, and you believe wrong, you choose wrong. So, when you fast, it prepares you and it transforms you, to do what? To take on the lies that have been built up in the high places of your life.
And I’m believing during this fast, I’m praying and I’m fasting for this church during this time of preparation and transformation that we’ll not stay in the low place. But we’ll say, «Okay God, I’m willing to go to the place that you’ve called me». And it will go to those high places and will tear down that spirit of heaviness, and depression in our life that’s in the high places. Many of you need to tear down that spirit of fear and phobia and compulsive disorders and psychological conditions that just plague you, and you can’t live, and you can’t thrive, and you can’t step into all that God has for you because that spirit has a grabbed a hold of you.
Some of you need to go up to the high place and tear down the unclean spirit of lust and pornography and sexual addiction and all kinds of sexual appetites, homosexuality, gender confusion, adultery, fornication, we could go on and on. But you gotta tear that stuff down. It don’t just happen without you preparing and transforming, and go and in the name of Jesus, say that has to come down. You gotta tear down that lie of addiction, and chemical dependency. You gotta tear down the lie of unforgiveness, and bitterness, and say, «You’re not gonna rule my life and my future». I know that you love Jesus, I know you have a heart for him, but it’s time to get victory in the high places. Why? Extreme times call for extreme measures.