Follow My tracks

Just follow My tracks

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”

So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” 1 Kings 17:2-9

It was provision for a moment, not for a lifetime. At some point, it’ll be time to move into something greater. God is a God of forward, not backwards. You can’t have more doing the same ole thing. It does not work that way. When the brooke dries up, it’s time to move on. It’s not always that you’re broke or have done something wrong, it’s all in how you view it. What sustained you before isn’t meant to sustain you now or forever. When you are in the will of God, He will sustain you. Once a source is dried up, it can no longer supply you. That’s not working any more. God is taking you on to the next thing. The next phase and the next level requires something different, a little more faith. When Elijah was no longer getting his required daily required needs met at the brooke, God was taking him somewhere else. He took her to a woman who was on her last leg if you will. She had just one more meal that she’d eat, kinda like the last supper, before her and her son died. One last celebration. One last remembrance.

The brooke dried up! What now God? What will I do? Where will I go? God has another mission for you! It’s not the end as it seems. When we focus like this, we don’t focus on Him! God is our provider, He is the source, He is our sustainer. That thing was just one of the many ways that He will provide. We must trust and focus on the Source and the true life giver. He is our Savior, He is our guide and He is our friend. He won’t leave us or forsake us. Our dreams may have seemed to die but could it be that there’s something greater? That dream didn’t die, it was assigned for a use. For a season. God is a God of exceedingly abundantly and His thoughts and ways aren’t ours, but they are so much higher than we can even think or try to begin to imagine. Could it just be that He’s doing something bigger? We won’t know unless we obey.

Sometimes it’s all we can do to barely get by and sometimes there seems to be great abundance. Whatever the ebb and flow, one things consistent, God remains the same. He always has been, is and will be. He is actively watching over His promises to perform them. Has He given a specific promise to you?

He has already gone before us. Even when we don’t see it, we can rest assured: He’s working. 

God had something he wanted to do for and in this lady that Elijah would go to. He hadn’t forgotten about her, and He hasn’t forgotten about you. Sometimes it seems its too late or at the last minute that He comes through, but He is always on time. When you’re down to nothing, He’s up to something.

The lady and Elijah both had to use the same thing; their faith. Elijah had to leave the brooke and go to the place God would show him. Surely this wasn’t easy. He had the water brooke and the ravens fed him. Surely he wanted more but it seemed so unknown and would there be another brooke? God doesn’t always use the same things twice. There’s lessons to learn in every season of life, if we look and listen. Not only was God’s grace sufficient but His presence was no doubt real. Have you ever been in a hard place and felt so close to God that you didn’t want to leave that place, but you knew it was time to get up and move on? There’s more and it was there He was providing for the next move! 

God is not a man that He should lie! He will always take care of you but you must remain faithful as He is faithful and if you get off track, get back on again. My husband asked me to move a piece of equipment this week a pretty far distance. I was a little nervous because I didn’t know how to get back to where he was from where I was starting. I didn’t want him to get upset at me or put me to get in a dangerous spot (he’s notorious for getting us in tough spots, he has not this same kind of fear that I do). So he said, “just follow my tracks”. He doesn’t like to give a lot of info or answer a lot of questions. So as me and my son drove down to get the equipment, we looked for his tracks. We went to where the equipment sat and tracked his tracks from there. Isn’t that like God? He’s already gone before us providing the way but how many times do we think: “it’s supposed to be this way or that way. It’s not supposed to be this way. I’ve never done it this way. I’m scared. I lost my job. I’m afraid to move. I don’t know what to do!” On and on we go as we think of what it should be instead of what it shouldn’t be, or vice versa.  

We can trust our Father when He ask to us to move or when He ask us to stay, trusting that He has and is going before us to prepare the way, to clear the path and to set up the new! Think of it as an adventure and you’ll be more likely to pursue. 

We won’t ever get on the meat if we stay on the bottle. We’ll never do anything different until WE try something new. I’ve heard it said that God can’t steer a parked car and when we step out by faith that’s when he parts waters. That’s when we find the traces of His steps. That’s when we see the signs. We can have a vehicle all day long and study the road signs but until we drive the vehicle, we don’t get to where we want or need to go. And so it is with our lives. We must move on, we must keep going and moving day by day stepping and keeping in line with the Holy Spirit. Before He led His people by day with a cloud and by night with fire and provided supernatural food. He will only spoon feed us so long because He wants us to grow and use what HE has given US to use! To do! It proves our faith and trust in Him, and also what He put inside of us to do!!!! 

Needless to say, I made it there safe and sound. What was a small deal to him, was a little harder for me.

And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21

One thing I do know: He will NEVER leave or forsake you. He said so. So follow Him. 

So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

“ As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.” 1 Kings 17:10-12 

He arose and went! He obeyed when it didn’t make sense. He didn’t wait around to reason or to see, he went.

We must learn to hear and discern Gods voice and to follow His lead.

Now, The lady had to use her faith to give her last meal away/ why would God ask for the last???? Because she would have died anyway and He wanted to do something greater. There is greatness inside of you just dying to get out. But you can’t get more from the same. The old wasn’t working anymore. You must move. You must do. You must surrender. You must let something go. You must trust where you can’t do. This take faith. It requires trust in something bigger than you. Listen to me: FAITH DOES NOT MAKE SENSE and never will. If you don’t need faith then you aren’t required to trust. Faith is the substance of things HOPED FOR. The evidence of things NOT YET SEEN. But we BELIEVE for it when the odds are against us and it’s impossible. God is in the business of using the weak things of the world to confound the wise and taking broken things that no one else wants and making them Beautiful again. He can do anything. It requires and takes our faith to see them come to pass.

Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”

She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah. 1 Kings 17:13-16

The lady also went away and did what was asked of her. God wants you to trust Him. He wants to see your faith in action. He knows if you trust, you’ll follow. You trust what you fear. Fear God and not pleasing Him more than anything or anyone. 

So know that God isn’t punishing you! His plan will not take you where His provision will not keep you. He provides/ He gives us the seed and we sow, but ultimately He determines the harvest. Elijah knew when to move on. The lady learned to trust God. She did what the man of God asked her to do, she gave up her last meal and God turned it into supernatural abundance. Remember the lady that gave all out of her poverty when all the other men gave what was easy; out of their wealth? Remember the boy with the fish, willing to use what he did have and trusted God to multiply it? He does the same thing with seeds. From one seed comes many fruits as does faith with one act of obedience. 

What about Abraham? That surely didn’t make sense. The very son he waited on for so long  and was promised an mighty offspring from,  and then he was to just lay him down and sacrifice him??? The very thing God promised him! Let’s just be honest, who wants to face hard times. We do not ask for them or wish for them/ we do not wait for them or look for them/ but we do all face them. Trying times refine us. It doesn’t feel like it at the time but nothing is wasted unless we waste it. I truly believe that. God waste nothing. He uses everything. But He desires for anything that’s not meant for us to be burned off of us and melted down. We go through a process and I can tell you right now as I write this and am going through the process myself: IT DON’T FEEL GOOD & we wonder if we will ever make it out or if we will even make it out alive. We wonder if and how anything good could possibly come from this. This disastrous mess. It seems so intertwined and hard to separate. It’s just a big blob of mess we could never sort out or put back together again …... Kinda like when Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall. It’s too complex for us to figure out. And it is! It’s true!!! That’s why we need God!

But isn’t that where testimonies come from? Test! Isn’t that where babies are birthed from, growth and stages and lastly the most painful part, the departing out of the womb and born into something new? Isn’t that where messages come from? Messes! Listen God is doing something NEW in you. Don’t stop the process. Don’t delay and don’t abort the mission He wants to do IN and through you!!! It’s painful I know, but hold on and endure. Keep walking through. He’s still rolling stones and moving mountains too.

Things wasn’t always easy for the lady. In fact, she was soon tested again but this act of faith taught her that she could trust God and take Him at His word in. It grew her faith for the next and the next….She only grew stronger and stronger. That’s what faith will do.

If God says go, go, and immediately. If God says wait, wait in hope. If God says-stay, stay in faith. One thing is for sure: every word of God is tried and true. He will do what He says He will do. He says He will provide and He will be with you wherever you go and whatever you do. That’s why Joshua 1:9 is my favorite scripture. Not only the promise but the evidence that we are to continually move forward in growth. Everything is for a season and a purpose. 

The darkest hour is JUST before dawn, when it seems the deepest and darkest with no light or way of escape. Doesn’t the light shine brighter the darker the dark? Don’t believe me? Go get a flash light and shine it during the day. It makes no effect and gives no more light because there is light already, it don’t need more. God is turning your darkest night into the brightest day. The deeper the dark, the brighter you’ll shine in somebody else’s dark. The bigger the test, the bigger the testimony. 

Being confident of this very thing, that HE which hath begun a good work in you WILL perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

So it isn’t that He’s forgotten but He is refining and moving you!!!!!!

These aren’t just story tells or fairy tells but our faith in action really can move mountains. God is not punishing us, He’s actually trying to help us and give us an exchange. But we must let go of that thing that we think will save us. It actually wont: but He will. We are punishing ourselves by not letting go. We must hold only to Gods unchanging hand. 

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:19

He will make a way where there seems no way. 

Study Isaiah 43

God loves you. He wants to help you. He is with you. Forget about the former things. He is doing a new thing! Let’s participate. 

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. Hebrews 11:8

You may not know till you go… Had these not obeyed then, where would we be today? It’s not just about you but the kingdom. Someone is waiting on you and something is on the other side of your obedience. It may take a while to see and get to but you can rest assured and walk confidently because you believe that you’ll inherit the promise. To keep building on what they started to build. To continue on what was started and what Christ made possible to do. Keep passing on the baton. Someone is waiting on you! What will you do? You determine a lot for the next gen!

So, Just follow My tracks.

God’s left signs everywhere. I know your nervous, it seems scary and there are so many unknowns but I promise, He has gone before you! There’s nothing to fear. He’s already handled, tackled and conquered whatever it is that you might come across or face. No fear in faith. It’s not the absence of fear but having faith, and so going forward In faith. It ain’t back there, it’s ahead of you. It’s within you.

And the LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward (move on). Exodus 14:15

Won’t He part the Red Sea? He’s done it once and multiple times, won’t He do it again! Is He not the same? He just needs to SEE you go forth in faith. Go forward in it. Faith doesn’t make sense. It isn’t suppose to or it wouldn’t be required. Reason is doubt.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

Be honest before The Lord, He already knows your doubts and fears so confess: “Lord, I do believe, help Thou mine unbelief.” We need Him.

He’s never failed me yet

He goes before me

He Stands behind me

He is with me 

He promised to never leave me or Forsake me

I’m Hemmed in. Whom or what shall I fear?

Facing your fears head on takes courage, your faith breaks those chains and the truth sets you free. Faith in Action! For faith without works is DEAD and not faith at all. 

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. Isaiah 43:2

He never promised it be easy but that He’d be with us.

It’s Worth it not to stay the same and remain

I’m walking into my promises and not shrinking back In fear. My Hand is to the plow and my  eye is on the prize; surrounded by all of those who have gone before me.

Psalm 23 is the perfect example. It’s about the living, those who are walking through a hard time or dark season, but one who isn’t stopping. But instead walking by faith no matter how dark it is and no matter what comes their way. Let that be your prayer today. No matter what or who is against you don’t have to fear but can trust. Not only Is He for us but He goes before us and at last we shall dwell in His presence all of our days. Even when we don’t see it, He’s working. Even when we don’t feel it, He’s working.

He lives inside of us. We are the temple of the almighty God and His very same resurrecting power is with and in us.

It’s on the other side of Jordan that you will find the promises. Keep going. Keep growing. Keep moving on. This river that’s between you, can’t stop you, because He will make a way through. 

Last but not least the Kingdom’s within you - live like it. Perfect love is casting out all fear as you continue from faith to faith. Amen.