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Elijah had been used of God to hold back rain from the people for over 3 years, because of their sins. Obviously, he was not well liked as a preacher. I can only imagine the stress he experienced during those years. Something struck me recently, however, that seemed to further complicate Elijah’s situation.
Consider 1 Kings 18:1 “After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”
According to a couple NT passages, this “After a long time” was actually 3 ½ years. The famine was 3 ½ years long. For 3 ½ years, the people apparently continued to sin, Elijah continued to hold on by faith, but God said nothing. God was apparently inactive, not speaking, even to His great servant Elijah.
Have you ever been there? Has the silence of God in your life ever been eerily strong?
Imagine you had been faithfully serving…God is using you…you are in constant communication with Him…and then suddenly…everything is quiet.
The separation must have seemed unbearable. Elijah is un-liked and unpopular; he’s an outcast from the people and the One he trusted most was seemingly absent. God would soon do a miracle through Elijah, but during this period, all Elijah could do was wait.
If you have been believer for very long at all, you have had periods where it seems God is nowhere to be found. We often call them periods of spiritual dryness. Sometimes I refer to it as being in a spiritual funk.
What should we do during the times of silence, before the miracles of God come through for us?
I’ve spent much of my walk with God waiting…
Waiting for Him to give direction…
Waiting on Him to open doors…
Waiting on Him to make things clearer…
Waiting on Him to supply the resources…
The waiting times are difficult to endure, but in times of waiting, I’ve learned there are 7 things I can do:
Years ago in a company I owned, there was a young man who worked for me who had tremendous potential. I believed in him so much that I personally invested in him and paid special attention to him. I thought his future with our company was worth the extra time. He never measured up to my expectations and we ended up having to part ways.
Every time I would meet with him to “encourage” him, he would say the same thing. “I’m doing the best I know how to do.” I have come to realize over the years that this response was actually his primary problem. He was doing the best he KNEW HOW to do.
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I like to see dreams and goals become reality. In my personal experience, and viewing the experiences of others, most of us have more ideas than we have reality. Figuring out how to make them successful is the hardest part of the process it seems.
I hope this post helps.
Here’s an example of how an ideas often become reality in my world. As an illustration for each step, I’m sharing a real-life example of how we made the decision to add our second campus, which launches this week.
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