The Glory of God's Whisper [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. When you really know where you're going on a mission from God, you're not thinking about yourself so much. But when you're aimless, you wake up every day going, what am I supposed to be doing? What's my role? What am I supposed to be doing? Why am I here?

What am I doing? 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 Rinaldo 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 Alan Wright Ministries.

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Here's Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? If ever you go through a time in your life in which you feel aimless or confused, God wants to speak to you. And not just in the big and grand ways that make you admit that God is real, but I'm talking about in the language of a whisper, the language of intimacy where God comes near and He's close to you and He speaks not just direction but the affirmation of His love for you. And we come to such a story today in the life of Elijah as we're studying the life of this miracle man whose life points us to the true miracle man Jesus. And today I turn you again to 1 Kings chapter 19 where we come upon a scene where Elijah having in chapter 18 won this huge victory at Mount Carmel where God's glory has come down in fire upon the wet altar and proven himself to be gone. And in the next scene we are surprised to see that Elijah was running for his life afraid because one woman Jezebel had threatened him and how even this great man of God becomes so discouraged. And God came via an angel and fed him and he came out of that suicidal depression and he went to Mount Horeb and this is the story. I want to just read a couple verses and then we're going to as the message goes along go through each line of this text or this story. At 1 Kings 19 I pick up reading at verse 8 and he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb the mount of God. There he came to a cave and lodged in it and behold the word of the Lord came to him and said to him what are you doing here Elijah? I must break the silence I know I'm a coward to do so but I am being blackmailed and today I answer the blackmailers I would not normally give in to such pressure but I simply must I'm sorry forgive me for caving in to such demands. You see what happened was in January on a frozen Friday night one of those very cold nights my wife and daughter and I were finishing up watching some show on the television it was about 11 30 pm and we heard a thud on the back deck and all of a sudden my daughter Abigail cried out we're being rolled and I jumped up and I cut on the backyard lights to see the trees everywhere fences yard just completely littered with toilet paper everywhere and as the lights came on Abby had jumped out on the deck she saw somebody scurrying like a cockroach into the shadows we went in the front in the back trying to find the perpetrators and we could not find them the next day I went out and cleaned up of hours of cleanup I found the packaging these toilet paper rolls according to the package were super-sized twice as big as a normal roll and I found evidence for at least 48 of them in my backyard and then sometime afterward a week or few weeks later my wife called me she said you have received a strange envelope in the mail primitive handwriting on the front she said shall I open it I said yes open it up and inside was the blackmail letter it is one of those where every letter has been cut out from a magazine to spell the words you know like a serial blackmailer would do and it read Pastor Alan we are the people who rolled your yard please put us in your sermon and we won't do it again and then it says make it good thanks they've cut out four miscellaneous pictures of men in there and so here it is in the sermon and it's good right some people think that god's voice is sort of like that that if you were to really hear from god that it would be something like you know have you cleaned up the mess and will you do these things and if so I won't bring that kind of mess in your life again and I'm here to tell you that's not the way of god I get I get a little bit of understanding of how god might feel because as pastor I've come to realize over the years that oftentimes if I call somebody that I don't regularly talk to all the time and the pastor the senior pastor calls they think something must be wrong this past week it happened to me twice I won the first I was just at the wake forest basketball game on it was on valentine's night actually it was a late game and I looked down the road from me and I saw a friend a parishioner and his wife sitting down the row I tried to get their attention I couldn't get the attention and I looked over and this this parishioner and and I caught him in the middle of the basketball game I caught him in a big yawn and so I tried to get his attention again to make fun of him and so he did so so I called and he didn't answer and then a little bit later in the game I called again he didn't he didn't answer the game got over and 11 15 and riding home and my phone rings and he said I see that you called and he said I know it's so late I'd call you back but but you know my wife she saw you'd called twice she said it better it must be an emergency call him and I said it is an emergency I saw you yawn at the Wake Forest basketball game an emergency then another time this week and a dear precious lady in the church and she called and she said I see I see that you called and I said I don't believe I called you and it must have been one of those accidental dials of the phone and and she said well good she said I thought maybe somebody died you know and so let me just say you know if I call you it might be good actually I don't maybe maybe nobody's died maybe maybe there's no emergency I know a little bit how God must feel about this that's all if God comes and shows up people like oh no it's it's God he's got something to say to me and today's story we see just the opposite don't we this discouraged and depressed prophet who had really run from the Lord and become so depressed that he didn't even want to live anymore and God came and fed him and what we're going to see today is that having been encouraged and strengthened by the Lord he's still aimless and confused and God comes and speaks to him in a wonderful way that's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series it's a great idea to start each day with a dose of good news and we'd like to help when you make a gift this month we'll send you Alan Wright's new devotional journal Everyday Miracles as our way of saying thanks for your partnership also free digital access to all the Elijah messages currently airing so please make your gift today and start looking for miracles all around you 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 today's teaching now continues here once again is Alan Wright it's a well-known a beautiful story where we learn about God's still small voice so what happens at verse 9 is that he came to a cave and lodged in it and behold the word of the Lord came to him and he said to him what are you doing here Elijah you know you need to always pay attention when an omniscient being asks you a question and God knows everything so if he asks Elijah a question it's not because God needs information it's because Elijah needs transformation it's interesting within the Jewish culture especially amongst the rabbis as a common practice to answer a question with a question once a student came to his rabbi and said rabbi why is it that whenever I ask you a question you just answer it with a question and the rabbi said ah so what's so wrong with a question you know Jesus did this he he often did this I might come in and say something like good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life and instead of immediately answering Jesus said why do you call me good because you see you get asked a question and it it makes you think which enables you to grow sometimes our children you know they come and they might have an assignment to write an essay or something and and since I'm sort of the writer and the family they might come to me and say I can't think of anything to write this essay on and what should I do it on well you know I could think of five good ideas right then but instead of just saying here's what you should write it on and here let me give you an outline that doesn't help this child does it you say well what are you interested in regarding this era of history what makes you curious what causes you to pause what disturbs you about this subject that you what are the things that surprises you this is how you're going to discover what you should write about in other words you you want to ask a question because you want them to be able to grow right so part of this is that that God wants him to grow and I think the second part of it is he asks a question because God cares you know sometimes if you take time to listen if you just ask somebody a question and just listen you might give them the most precious gift that they have ever had just a caring friend somebody there's God becomes Elijah's therapist at least for a few moments Elijah what are you doing here tell me what's going on with you Elijah I'm listening and even though Elijah's words are not accurate and his feelings are not really grounded in truth they're still feelings and something we try to remind ourselves in our home is that feelings are feelings and therefore they're valid if you want to tell somebody how you're feeling we're not going to immediately seek to disqualify that but sometimes what we need to do is just listen and if you could listen before you tried to fix somebody it might really help them and you know God does that with this ask a question but I think thirdly it's a question that is designed to help Elijah admit his aimlessness at this point in his life because the question what are you doing here is in the first place to say Elijah what are you doing what are you doing well I'm just here in this cave talking to you God I mean what are you what are you what are you doing well I won this great battle at Mount Carmel it was amazing how you showed up there God that was awesome and then you know I did get discouraged but now I've come a long journey 40 days journey and I've come I've come here to mount her I know I know all that Elijah but what are you what are you doing in this season of your life maybe eventually you had to kind of admit to himself well I'm not really doing anything right now I don't know what to do getting in touch with his aimlessness and he's not just saying what are you doing he's saying what are you doing here you know I always assumed that Elijah went to Mount Horeb which is probably the same place as Mount Sinai where Moses got the 10 commandments and I always assumed that Elijah went there because God had told him to but the more I studied this text the more I realized that that's not really the case Elijah when God says what are you doing here Elijah doesn't say well you told me to come here and furthermore as I began to study it it says he traveled 40 days 40 nights which could be a figure of speech just meaning a really long time or it could be literal but in either event it was more time than what was needed for him to be able to travel there what are you doing here he says you know it's interesting if you if you think about this if you could see this on a map you would realize that that what he did was he started at at at Mount Carmel with this huge victory and then he he runs 17 miles to Jezreel nearby where Ahab had had a summer home and then he gets discouraged he goes 100 miles south to Beersheba into the wilderness and God comes and feeds him with supernatural food and with the strength of that food the text says he traveled 40 days to Mount Horeb which Sinai is at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula 200 miles to the south so he's now 300 miles south of Mount Carmel but if you look at the text where does God tell him his real ministry is going to be next he says you're going back to Damascus you're going to anoint a king there he's he is over 300 miles away from anywhere that God had a plan for him and what's interesting is that this whole journey down through the Sinai peninsula that it says was 40 days this is the same wilderness that the people of God wandered in for 40 years after they'd refused to take the promised land so what has happened here is that in a journey that even if he were to go the 200 miles from Beersheba down to Mount Horeb we know that it was expected in that time according to a unusual text in Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 2 this says that from an area near Beersheba down to Mount Sinai that it is about an 11 days journey and Moses should have taken him 10 or 11 days to journey down there but he spent 40 days what has he been doing he's just wandering until he finds himself at a cave on Mount Horeb maybe he's just said to himself well this is where Moses came this is a holy mountain he's just going aimlessly that's what this is a picture of is the aimlessness of the mighty prophet and how God comes to speak to him now we come to verse 10 hey Elijah said I've been very jealous for the Lord the God of hosts for the people of Israel forsaken your covenant thrown down your altars and killed your prophets with a sword and I even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away there's a whole lot of I and me and my language isn't this isn't it I've been very jealous for the other people hadn't been but I have been and even I I only am left and they can try to take my life away and it's an odd thing that we could become self-absorbed and aimless at the same time but actually they go hand in hand don't they because when you really know where you're going on a mission from God you're not thinking about yourself so much but when you're aimless you wake up every day going what am I supposed to be doing what's my role what am I supposed doing why am I here what am I doing and so God comes to him mercifully in the middle of this man's life that's without direction verse 11 and he said go out and stand on the mount before the Lord and behold the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind sounds like me like a tornado like a tornado that would have just swept him away if he hadn't been in a cave and after the wind and earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake the ground shook could have been a huge rock slide everything's like it's falling apart the Lord wasn't in that and then after that a fire but the Lord was not in the fire there is a tornado an earthquake tectonic plates are shifting and a fire that is not a little campfire to warm himself by but a brush fire that is unbridled and consuming everything in its path the forces of nature demonstrating the glory and the power of God and yet God manifest all of these grand things and then reveal himself in the midst of it in the midst of it this mountain where Moses had met with God and the people weren't even allowed to touch the mountain because it was too holy and Moses was meeting with God this mountain where God put Moses in the cleft of a rock and all the greatness of God seen but that's not what Elijah needed at the moment Elijah already believed in the greatness of God he had seen God do great things what he needed was something altogether different it is possible to have seen the greatness of God and even be used by God for great things and feel distant from him Elijah you've experienced some very dramatic things that's wonderful but a walk with me the Lord is saying isn't about you having a Mount Carmel every day it's about you being close to my heart and me speaking to you knowing that God is powerful and awesome is important but that doesn't heal your heart something more intimate is needed Alan Wright this is today's teaching putting a bookmark here the glory of God's whisper in our series miracle man Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and our final word today unlock the power of blessing your life discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing if you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement get Alan Wright's daily blessing it's free and just a click away at pastor alan.org it's a great idea to start each day with a dose of good news and we'd like to help in James 5 we're given these jaw-dropping words Elijah was as human as we are and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall none fell for three and a half years Elijah the man whose prayer called down fire on a water drenched altar defeating 450 wicked prophets and whose intercession revived a widow's deceased son was just like us an ordinary man who was used by God for the extraordinary God's word is clear if the Lord could use Elijah miraculously he can also do wonders in and through you if you yearn to see more of God's power in your life you'll love pastor Alan's devotional journal everyday miracles it's a one-month journey through the stories of Elijah and his successor Elijah that include daily devotionals from pastor Alan questions for reflection space for journaling and a daily prayer of faith this beautiful spiral bound book is the perfect tool to get you into the word and to build your faith day by day when you make a gift this month we'll send you Alan Wright's new devotional journal everyday miracles as our way of saying thanks for your partnership also free digital access to all the Elijah messages currently airing so please make your gift today and start looking for miracles all around you 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 is this teaching saying that miracles can be simple and small or I should I say might often be in the simple things it can be in the simplest of things and Elijah who is used by the Lord in such powerful and extravagant ways glorious ways maybe has his greatest miracle when this small little whisper comes to him and he knows it's God because the greatest miracle of all Daniel is that we've been invited into an intimate and personal relationship with God in which we can actually dialogue with the creator of the universe and boy it's a busy world isn't it and to hear God's still small voice in the midst of it is well it's a miracle yeah today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries