God's Man for Life [Part 1]

Allen Wright, pastor, Bible teacher, and author of his latest book, The Power to Bless. Hi, this is John. If you were the phone company, I already sent the money. If you are my parents, please send money. If you are my financial aid institution, you didn't send me enough money. If you are my friends, you owe me money.

And if you are a female, don't worry, I have plenty of money. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, Miracle Man, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I'd like to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries.

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Here's Allen Wright. Are you ready for some good news? If there is a drought or famine, you must remember that God can make it rain. And He used Elijah to make it rain through his prayers and then told us in James 5 that Elijah is just as human as you and I are and God used him. God can make it rain in the famine. But while the drought continues and the famine is severe, until such time He makes it rain, God will provide for His children. We're in 1 Kings chapter 17 for a word from the Lord that if you get this down in your spirit, it will change your life. 1 Kings chapter 17 where we are learning about this miracle man Elijah and how he points us to the true miracle man Jesus and we pick up reading at verse 1 of 1 Kings 17. Now Elijah the Tishbite of Tishbe and Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives before whom I stand there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word. Ahab we're told in the scripture was more wicked than all the kings of Israel that had preceded him and Elijah knew the word of the Lord from Deuteronomy that had said if my people disobey me then I'll shut up the heavens and there'll be no rain. So in an idolatrous land where there began to be worship of Baal Elijah had prayed James says fervently that it wouldn't rain so that God's Word would be fulfilled and that through the fulfillment of God's Word of judgment against idolatry that the people would turn to God and so that's what's happening at verse 2 and the word of the Lord came to him depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith which is east of the Jordan you shall drink from the brook and I have commanded the Ravens to feed you there so he went and did according to the word of the Lord he went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan and the Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening and he drank from the brook and after a while the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land the word of the Lord came to him arrived go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and dwell there behold I've commanded a widow there to feed you so he 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 her and said bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink and if she was going to bring it he said to her and bring me a morsel of bread in your hand and she said as the Lord your God lives I have nothing baked only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug and now I'm gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son that we may eat and die now I just said to her do not fear go and do as you've said first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me and afterward make something for yourself and your son for thus says the Lord the God of Israel the jar of flour shall not be spent and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth and she went and did as Elijah said and she and her household ate for many days the jar of flour was not spent neither did the jug of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah sometimes people are a little bit confused about provision I chuckled to the story of a young man who wanted to ask a woman's father for the young lady's hand in marriage and so it was that this fine young Christian man met with the father and the father said well tell me your plans he said well I'd like to marry your daughter I love her very much and he says well he said tell me what kind of work do you do and the young man said well I don't actually have a job but I study I study the Bible and I'm a very student of the Bible and I said well that's that's wonderful I'm glad for your studies but how will you afford to get her a nice engagement ring and boy said well I'll be committed to my studies and the Lord will provide if I said okay well how are you going to provide a home for her and food for the table he said I will I will be committed to my studies and the Lord will provide and he said what about when you have children how will you be able to provide for them and raise them and educate them and again he said I will I will trust the Lord I'll be committed to my studies and the Lord will provide well later on the father was talking to his wife and the mother said to him so well how did the conversation go he said not very good he said not only does a young man not have a job or any prospects but evidently he thinks I'm God there's one more there's one more this is a guy's outgoing message on his voicemail hi this is John if you were the phone company I already sent the money if you're my parents please send money if you are my financial aid institution you didn't send me enough money if you are my friends you owe me money and if you are a female don't worry I have plenty of money I want to talk to you about miraculous provision from the Lord and we're going to see in Elijah's life some principles of the gospel at play that I think will be a profound encouragement to you but as you think about how it is that the Lord provided for Elijah and how it is he provides for you I ultimately want to point you to the power and significance of what it means for Jesus to quote Deuteronomy and say that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God it is a deep revelation it is powerful and it'll change your life there's so much rich beauty and principle in this incredible story about Elijah who prayed for a drought and then experienced the drought and then experienced the day three and a half years later when the rain came and the famine ended and the first thing that I want to highlight for you is that here is Elijah who prayed that God would not make it rain because this is what God had said in Deuteronomy about what happens when people are in idolatry and rebellion his people and so is praying this according to the Word of God and then the Lord worked this miracle through Elijah's prayer and the people were all suffering from this famine and what I want to highlight for you is that Elijah though he was used by God in this miraculous way and his prayer life was used by God in a miraculous way that Elijah was not given a free ticket out of the famine in other words the drought that he prayed would come to pass upon the land was a drought he himself would experience he felt the same thirst that others did he saw the same Brooks dry up that others did he watched the livestock become emaciated just like others did he saw the impact and he felt it and the roof of his mouth grew dry and he was in need if God didn't provide he would not make it see God is like this because you're a Christian doesn't mean you get a free ticket out of the troubles of the world it means that God gives you an assurance that he's gonna care for you in the middle of every famine which to me is of profound reassurance when I read the newspapers in our day and see the drought of morality and the drought of love for God and the drought of truth and something in the flesh wants to sink and I remember God's grace is sufficient that's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything is there someone you love who seems stuck you'd like to help them but how what's missing blessing we all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives you can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book the power to bless which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release until now the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales but this month Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation when you give this month you'll not only receive the best-selling book but you'll also receive a free five session video course in which Pastor Alan teaches how to bless and covers content not found in the book the video course includes a detailed study guide perfect for personal growth or small group discussion make your gift today and discover the power to bless the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty that's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty or come to our website pastor Alan dot org today's teaching now continues here once again is Alan Wright Paul was once given a a battle in the spirit that wouldn't leave him alone I don't know why there's any real confusion about what the thorn the so-called thorn in the flesh it's a symbol of thorn and we're told what it is it's a messenger of Satan and so I said in 2nd Corinthians 12 so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations a thorn was given me in the flesh a messenger of Satan to harass me it's a demonic persecution to keep me from becoming conceited and three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me but he said to me my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness therefore Paul said I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me see Paul wanted to the thorn remove he wanted this is what he's asking the Lord for Lord I know everybody's facing spiritual battle but this is intense everywhere I go I'm facing the same spiritual battle fighting in the spirit against could I just could you just lift this so that I could just have a vacation from it could I just have a ticket out of the normal stress of having to put the armor of God on every day and stay prayed up and stay full of the word and live and walk in the spirit could I just take a vacation from that and just be excused from the severity of spiritual battle and Lord said no because that very spiritual battle is the thing that is making you hunger and thirst for me God says but what I will do is I'm gonna give you grace and aren't you glad because everything that Paul learned about grace he taught it to us and he wouldn't have known it this is our God he's a God who might let Joseph be in prison but the text says the Lord was with him in prison this is a God who let there be a famine in the land and Elijah was in that famine and the Lord was with Elijah if he never let you experience weakness how would you ever know his strength if you were never hungry why would you ever draw near with an appetite for his grace the Lord provides in the midst of the difficulties of life we experienced the same kind of grief that people of this world experience but the Lord provides in the midst of it I was thinking for some reason this week of my father's death and I had on the morning of that day I had gone by to see him at the skilled care facility I knew his condition had worsened in recent weeks and I didn't sense there was anything imminent that was about to happen and I visited him in the morning and I went about my business that afternoon and had a number of things that were going on and then that evening and it was growing dark and I don't know if you ever had a moment like this I just I couldn't shake it I'd already seen him that day but I just couldn't shake it and I turned my wife I said I just I feel like I need to go back over and see dad she said well you just you just saw him I said I just feel like I need to go back over I don't I just go back over you know I went back over and and there he was seeming about the same as I'd seen him that morning and I was just standing by his bedside and my oldest brother David called about something else he wasn't calling about dad you know my oldest brother David he's only a few years older than me but he was very important in my life because you know I was the youngest and my dad mom broke up and dad wasn't around and my oldest brother was like a dad to me in a lot of ways just a few years older but he was always there for me anyway he called and we were just talking about something else I said I'm here visiting dad and while we were talking on the phone and we didn't talk we don't talk on the phone that often and while we were talking I noticed a change in dad's breathing and I interrupted our conversation I said David something's happening with dad his breathing's changed and so David just stayed on the phone and I held my father's hand and his breathing became more labored and slower and I wept and I had my brother on the phone and so my father wasn't alone when he died and I wasn't alone while I held his hand we grieve we experienced the same famines that the world does but right smack dab in the middle of it God does miracles for his children and he provides you can count on it it comes in such unexpected ways this is the second thing I see here that is so powerful about this story is that it is like God has almost almost comically provided for Elijah in a way that if Elijah were to sit down and write down the top hundred ways that he would have imagined that God would provide for him in the middle of the famine these two ways wouldn't make it getting provided for by birds or a poor widow these are not the things that you would expect I mean in the first case he instructs him to go to this brook it's one of the last remaining brooks that still has a trickle of water in it I guess the Lord was just saying I know of a brook and it's going to be the last one to run out of water and you can go drink that water so he's there and he can drink the water of the brook and God arranges and commands the text says to send these birds to come and bring them food in the morning and food in the evening and what's interesting is these aren't just any birds these are Ravens they are scavengers they are like crows and this is an unclean animal to the Hebrew people you're not supposed to eat them and the idea is just funny that this bird that the Hebrews can't even eat is the one that's bringing food to this Jewish prophet I mean everyone thinks they go to the brook and I'm gonna bring some nice chickens over there for you you know but instead he sends these ugly Ravens that Elijah would barely want to touch much less eat and every morning and every evening the birds provide food for them birds are a symbol of that which is insignificant helpless so much so that Jesus to make his point said consider the sparrows of the air not one of them falls to the ground without my father's permission so that which is weak and unclean brings them food and then the Lord tells them to go to Zarephath of Sidon now if you were a Jewish and you knew your Bible you were reading this you you would go what because Sidon is the hometown of Jezebel and Zarephath is just in that region and so Jezebel who is the symbol of idolatry and love of worship of Baal who financed 450 prophets of Baal is the picture of everything that's gone wrong with the nation because Ahab the king of Israel had married this woman Jezebel it's it's like a symbol of everything that's awful I don't know what you could imagine would you say it's like go to go to sin City I'm gonna provide for you there and so he travels to the epicenter of Baal worship and he is supposed to find this widow you know that in the ancient Mid Eastern culture the widow was considered the most vulnerable of all people it was an intensely patriarchal society and a widow had no real way to take care of herself but this woman had a son they would not yet grown so she not only had to care for herself but she had to care for this son and not only was she a widow in a pagan land but she was a poor widow Alan Wright can feel the setup coming and there's good news on the way and you can catch the conclusion of this on our next edition in the series miracle man and today's teaching placing a bookmark here God's man for life Helen is back in a moment with additional insight on this for our life and a final word today stick with us ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything is there someone you love who seems stuck you'd like to help them but how what's missing blessing we all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives you can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book the power to bless which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release until now the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales but this month Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation when you give this month you'll not only receive the best-selling book but you'll also receive a free five session video course in which Pastor Alan teaches how to bless and covers content not found in the book the video course includes a detailed study guide perfect for personal growth or small group discussion make your gift today and discover the power to bless the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor Alan org Alan God's man for life we've placed a bookmark here but I can tell there's encouragement there is hope for us we've been saying this a lot even through this early part of this series that just like us right these these heroes of the Bible are men and women like us just like us and when you see that God used Elijah and yet James reminds us he's just like us then you read these miracle stories in a different way and we're gonna see one today and it's a powerful story of provision and I think that if you're in a place in your life where you need provision today's for you today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries