How to operate as a Nation changing Prophet - Elijah Part 4
- Sue Sinclair
- Mar 14, 2024
- 4 min read
The story of Elijah is found in 1 Kings and has so much to teach us about faith amidst adversity and how to operate as a nation changing Prophet.
In the last blog I shared about Elijah telling the widow woman not to fear. The Bible has at least 365 verses which tells us not to fear; there is at least one for every day of the year. Elijah doesn’t just tell the widow woman not to fear but he then restores her hope. God never wants to leave us stuck in fear. He wants to fill us with life giving hope, even when we have not seen the breakthrough come yet.
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Elijah asked the widow woman to do the impossible and then empowered her through three promises in God’s prophetic word. "For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:
1) The jar of flour will not be used up
2) The jug of oil will not run dry until the day
3) The Lord gives rain on the land”.
Even now after a long period of drought Elijah did not lose faith in God releasing rain at the right time! Often, we miss God’s timing for our breakthrough because we can’t cope with the discomfort of being in the desert in a time of drought.
Every day we need to allow God to position us, so we can be a voice that can release the word of God, to make the hopeless hopeful, the impossible possible and the starving fed.
Elijah asked the widow for all that she had to make a small cake for him and as she did this, the Lord’s miraculous provision was released. The bin of flour was not used up and the jar of oil did not run dry.
This nameless widow chose life and was saved. She made the cakes and brought the first to Elijah and what was the result of her faith? There was food every day throughout the famine for Elijah, for the woman and her family. Just one step of faith can release life for so many.
A spirit of poverty keeps us poor! It’s not just a lack of money or resources, but also inferiority and disadvantage. It causes us to believe we don’t ever have enough to be generous in giving when we have enough to give financially or spiritually. We cannot believe or expect that our abundant God would want to bless us, and we can be unwilling to receive?
I found it very easy to believe that God wanted to bless other people, after all we have a generous God. However, I really struggled to comprehend that God would want to bless me or my family. We had experienced serious financial difficulties for most of our lives and almost lost her home at one point. I must be honest and say I had no hope of anything ever changing.
I was invited to a family wedding, so I toured the local charity shops and found a lovely dress for £5. I was so thrilled with my bargain and that it had not cost me a fortune. A friend asked me if I had an outfit for the wedding and I proudly told them I had bought a bargain dress from the charity shop. With great kindness my friend challenged me, “Do you not think that God would want to give you a new dress?” Indignantly I replied I was very happy with my £5 dress! Suddenly God broke into my world and showed me that I had a strong poverty mindset which was stopping God from blessing me. I quickly repented and asked God for forgiveness and from that moment my life began to change for good! Although I still love a bargain!
How often do we withhold from the Lord, holding on to the little we have when the Lord has told us to give? We need to sow our little bit of seed to release the unlimited power of God to provide. The widow gave first and then saw the miraculous released.
Some years ago, a colleague in work was getting engaged. I had £5 in my purse and did not believe I could afford to give towards a gift. I felt embarrassed and ashamed, but God told me to give what I had. I was concerned as we had two little children, and I now had no money to feed them. The good news was that when I got home there was a full bag of shopping on the doorstep and an envelope with £25 in it through the door.
For me that was amazing, and I wept tears of joy and hope knowing I could trust God. However, there was much more to come…I was approached by a multimillionaire, who invited me to act on his behalf to distribute pots of money to Christians serving their communities. From that introduction we were blessed to start Liverpool Catalyst and to allocate £1.6 million across Merseyside over 15 years. We released funds to 176 projects which ministered to vulnerable women, the homeless, addicts, schools, drama outreaches, street pastors, food banks, prisons, refugees, children, and youth, and so many more. I truly believe this would not have happened if I had not repented of the poverty mindset and allowed God to set me free to bless these wonderful people and their projects. What a blessing for me to participate in this and for so many across Merseyside who benefitted
Don’t settle for a lie! Don’t settle for anything less than what God wants to give you! Don’t give up before the breakthrough comes. If you are a Prophet, choose to operate as a Nation shifting Prophet!
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