Only God< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

1 Kings 17:1-6, 19:1-9

When trouble is in the making, only God can hide and keep you. Elijah set the land in trouble by asking rain to cease from falling. After stopping the rain, God commanded him to go and hide. 1 Kings 17:3 ÒGet away from here and turn eastward and hide by the brook Cherith, which flows into the < ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>Jordan.Ó In GodÕs command for Elijah to hide, there was also provision for preservation because it was of God. 1 Kings 17:4, ÒAnd it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.Ó Is there any area of life that you have been hiding? If it is of God, the signs will be there for you, peace and provision will not be missing during your hiding season. The same Elijah ran when fear located him. He ran when God did not ask him to run. After the Mount Carmel miracle, Ahab reported Elijah to Jezebel how he had executed the prophets with the sword. As a result of the report of Ahab, Jezebel vowed to kill Elijah. 1 Kings 19:3, ÒAnd when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.Ó Can you imagine such a mighty man of God running without God? 1 Kings 19:4, ÒBut he himself went a dayÕs journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, ÔIt is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!ÕÓ When you run under the command of fear, you will be exhausted, frustrated, and you will have lack where you are not suppose to. Remember what the Lord has done for you in the past, God has brought you this far and He will not fail you in the future. 1 Kings 19:9, ÒAnd there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, ÔWhat are you doing here, Elijah?ÕÓ Only God can hide you and not yourself. Allow Him to be God in all. 

Not Enough< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

Isaiah 29:13-14, Luke 8:19-21

It is not enough when you hear and not do what you have heard in the word. Are you religious, or are you a believer? If what you are hearing is not evident in your life, it means you are not living the word. Hearing the word does not qualify one as a believer.  Hearing the word and doing the word is what qualifies one as a believer. JesusÕ response to those that went to deliver a message that His mother and brothers were looking for Him was a clear message that just hearing and not doing the word is an error; it is incomplete and will not count one as a believer. Luke 8:19, ÒBut He answered them and said to them, ÔMy mother and My brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.ÕÓ It does not matter how much or how often you draw to Him, the word has to be in you and you need to do what the word says. In these days, drawing to Him should never be a yardstick in measuring or identifying one as a believer. Today, so many are drawing unto God with their mouth while their heart and ears are outside. Matthew 15:8, ÒThese people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.Ó  Ask God for the grace to open the ears of your heart that will enable you in His word. You hear the word of God with the ear and you listen with the heart.

Not a Letter< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

2 Corinthians 3:6-18

The word of God is not a letter, it is Spirit. John 6:63, ÒIt is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.Ó How have you been receiving the word of God? Have you been receiving it lightly, or seriously as a letter or Spirit? If you have been receiving the word of God as a letter, it will weigh you down, and you will be better off not to have received it than to receive and be weighed down into stagnation with no motion in life. However, if you have been receiving the word of God as Spirit, you will have life and the word will make you a rider rather than a pusher. The word will be carrying you around and above in this wicked generation. The letter kills. 2 Corinthians 3:6, ÒWho also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.Ó Ask God for the grace to be spending valuable time on the word of God. It is when you receive and believe in the word that you will become a believer because you will be living what you have received. The word of God would mean less to you until you no longer receive the word only as daily bread, but also as oxygen. You can do without bread 2 to 3 days, but without oxygen, you are dead. Today, carefully consider desiring and asking God for the grace to increase you with the zeal for His word that is life, not letter.

Reception with Celebration< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

1 Thessalonians 2:1-16

When you hear a preacher preach, how often have you claimed by saying you receive it, and after claiming to have received the word, nothing happens? No changes, no results, but yet you continue to claim ÒI receive it.Ó The word of God is true, it has not failed and it will not fail except if you fail to live by what is required. 1 Thessalonians 2:13, ÒFor this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.Ó  The word that you claimed to have received is not working because: one, you have failed to welcome the word. Can you think of what and how it will be when you receive a message that one million dollars has just been deposited into your account? When you truly receive the word as you frequently claim, you will celebrate it. Two, if what you claim to have received is scripturally based, then do not let anything deny your reception and celebration of what you have received. When the measure of how you welcome what you receive matches up with the celebration at the time of reception, then what you receive will work effectively for you.

The Good Hand of God< ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

Exodus 3:19-22, 1 Kings < ?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>18:41-46

By the good hand of God, the children of Israel were delivered from the bondage of over four hundred years. It was also the good hand of God that saw Ezra through in his journey from Babylon back to Jerusalem. Ezra 7:9, ÒOn the first day of the first month he began his journey from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.Ó Have you ever thought about the hand of God? What you know to be available for you is what will work for you. What you do not acknowledge cannot be activated. The hand of God is always available; it never falls short or becomes too tired to deliver. 1 Kings 18:46, ÒThen the hand of the LORD came upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.Ó At every given time, in any given situation, the hand of God will not fail especially for those that know to call for His hand. The hand of God will not just deliver, it will also make you an overcomer over all that gather or stand against you. Ask for GodÕs hand with the expectation of getting a result. He is a faithful God, and if you will begin to ask for His hand in your going out and in your coming in, you will begin to come from behind and be ahead in all of your endeavors.