God Will Sustain You // Priscilla Shirer
Priscilla Shirer from @Going Beyond Ministries brings an encouraging word on how God will sustain you in the midst of uncertainty.
#priscillashirer #church #bible
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hey there it’s a privilege to have an
opportunity to be with you
again today thank you so much for
including me in your
service i hope you’re encouraged uh the
last time we were together it was
mother’s day and i felt especially
grateful to be able to share that
holiday with you and now to be invited
to to do it again
is something i’m very grateful for thank
you to your pastors leaders
um and to you for allowing me to sort of
come into your
spiritual life in this way i’m praying
that the word of god is rich for you
today that god speaks to you he always
does right he speaks to us through the
scriptures
so i’ve already been praying that and
now i want to open us up in a word of
prayer together and let’s see what god
has to say to us
lord jesus i thank you so much for lake
point i thank you for the work that you
are not only doing through their church
but the work you’re doing in them
in us lord thank you that as the family
of god we can know that you are not
bound by space
you’re not bound by time you don’t have
to be in one building father you can be
with each of us equally
right now in this moment wherever we are
so would you take this one message
would you divide it up multiply it
several thousand different ways
so that every single one of us right now
will hear the voice of god
in jesus name amen
so here in dallas where i am there is a
little half marathon that takes place
once a year
it takes place around the holiday time
frame so it’s in december
and it’s called appropriately so the hot
chocolate run
the hot chocolate run is just fun you
know folks come with christmas lights
around their hair
and or on their heads and they’ve got
light up shoes you know it’s fun it’s in
the dark
and the run whether you do a mile or
three miles or i think there’s a five
mile track as well
the run goes through an area of town
known as the design district when you
get to the end of your run you get a
bunch of sweets
hot chocolate being one of those so i
enjoyed doing this for several years
along with my sister
and her children we’d bring out all our
kids and we’d do the run together
we’d walk it or run it either way we
just have a good time
one of the things that most that i most
remember about this run
is that it took place in an area of
dallas called the design
district now i have known about the
design district my entire life i’ve
borne and raised here in the city and so
i have seen a huge billboard off of one
of the major freeways in dallas
highway 35 and that freeway says or that
billboard says
divine design district so i’ve known
that that is where the designers are
it’s for people who are artists or
craftsmen interior designers and
decorators
people who are artisans they’ve got cute
little shops down there
and i’ve seen it and known about it from
afar have you been known people
that have worked there and people who
the regular rhythms of their life are in
the design district
but i’m always just on highway 35 headed
from one side of town racing past
to the other side of town so the run the
hot chocolate run
was the very first time that i ever went
through it
and when i went through it by foot
walking through jogging through
interacting with others and enjoying
myself through it i saw some details
about dallas i’d never seen before
there were some cute little shops and
restaurants that i took note of
places that i made note of their address
so that i could come back later and
really engage and see what they had
inside their stores
man i really grew a greater appreciation
for the design district
not when i saw it from afar but when i
had to go
through it right now
god is allowing many of us to go through
it didn’t he
we’ve been through some stuff not only
individually we’re going through some
stuff
in whole communities whole churches are
going through some stuff
whole nations the globe is going through
some stuff but i found that it is not
until i go through something
that i actually see nuances about god
about his character
about my relationship with him it’s
actually not until i go through
something
that i discover more completely his
promises and not only
seeing them outworked in other people’s
life where i come to actually expect his
truths to be
applicable in my own life it’s when i go
through something that i actually
develop character and have some frame of
reference for what it means to have
endurance and a life of faith it’s when
i go through something that i become
better acquainted with the holy spirit
now he’s not just a theoretical being
but now
i recognize the fruit of god’s spirit
effervescent
in my life i see the patience outwork
the self-discipline the kindness
i learned what it’s like to walk in the
rhythms of grace i don’t know all that
from a billboard
just experiencing god far away
seeing his name and and maybe
experiencing religious activity far away
i don’t get to know god intimately i
don’t get to have a friendship with him
like that
but man when we go through stuff all of
a sudden
there is a friendship that developed
with that develops with god
that carries us over the long haul so if
today meets you at a time where you’re
going through some stuff would you know
that this is an opportunity
for you to have your eyes your spiritual
eyes
wide open to learn and to see
and to engage in every opportunity to
get to know god in a way you otherwise
would not have
opportunity this is one of the main
things
that drew me to a study of elijah
elijah is really the premier prophet of
the old testament
his story sort of begins in the book of
first kings if you have your bible and
you want to
turn there with me you can you know if
you actually still use a bible with
paper pages like i do
or your iphone your ipad any manner of
eyeness will get you to first kings
because in this particular book of the
bible we get to see
elijah emerge onto the scene now this is
a guy
who really has some highlights in his
life that we all recognize
just like the heroes of scripture that
we really admire you know like moses and
the whole red sea business or like
joshua
and the walls of jericho coming tumbling
down the highlights that we remember
in regards to gideon or jonah all of
these heroes of the scripture esther
and ruth we remember the highlights for
elijah
the mount carmels of their experience
and what i’ve discovered is that when
i’m reading in the pages of scripture
and admiring folks whose faith is worthy
to be
admired and to be gleaned from what i’ve
noticed is that
oftentimes it’s the mount carmels that
dazzle us
it’s the flashy display of god’s glory
the
unforgettable big stage experience of
god’s presence and power
that really does draw us to people and
oftentimes it will blind us
to what they went through to get there
it will blind us to the things that they
had to navigate the roads they had to
walk down
the journey that they went on with god
to get them to the place where in
elijah’s example
he will stand flat-footed on mount
carmel just a couple of chapters after
he is first introduced
and he will say to his own countrymen
and to those that were supposed to be in
covenant relationship with yahweh
he will look at them squarely in their
eyes and unapologetically challenge them
he’s going to say make a decision choose
who you’re going to follow
stop having one foot over here in the
world of idolatry
and another foot over here in the
worship of yahweh
if you’re going to be loyal to him then
be loyal to him and him alone
and he will stand flat-footed in the
face of those who were worshiping idols
those who were antagonistic to the one
true god
and he will challenge them and he says
build your sacrifice and i’m going to
build mine
and then we’re both going to pray and
the god who answers by fire
he’s the one who is god what kind of
courage
and boldness do you have to have to be
the only one willing to stand up
in the midst of hundreds and even
thousands of people surrounding you
and be unapologetic and unashamed about
what you believe
i don’t know if you notice or not but
we’re living in a day and a time
now more than ever then it’s going to
take a lot of courage
and boldness to be unapologetic and
unshifting and
unwavering in what we believe as
followers of jesus christ
and when elijah was committed to yahweh
even
in the face of so much adversity fire
fell from heaven
god’s presence and power was seen in an
unforgettable way
so when we think about elijah most of
the time that’s what we think about
but i don’t want to talk to you about
mount carmel i want to talk to you about
what elijah went through before he
ever got there because that’s how his
character was built
that’s how he garnered the kind of faith
that could allow him to stand
on mount carmel that’s how he developed
the kind of prayer life
that garnered the attention and the
favor of god that the sheer
discipline and consistency of praying of
believing god
of trusting he went through some stuff
to develop that kind of relationship
with the lord
and it all begins in first kings chapter
17
after he has shown up on the scene and
appeared to the king of the land
to declare the judgment the drought that
was coming to the nation of israel
first kings chapter 17 verse 2 says
the word of the lord came to elijah
saying go away from here now
turn eastward hide yourself by the brook
cherith
which is east of the jordan
stop right there sometimes
the journey that god takes us through it
begins in the place of separation
not in public but in private
here is elijah who is arguably the
the most important figure in history at
this moment
without him the worship of yahweh is
going to fizzle and it’s going to die
underneath the legislation of an evil
king
and his wife jezebel who have now
legislated the worship of idolatry
without this lone voice calling people
back to the worship of god
that it could completely be lost he is
arguably
the most important person in regards to
the agenda
of yahweh in this moment and god speaks
to him and said where i need you
is not in public where i need you is not
in what you would consider to be the
place of most
significance and notoriety i need to
relocate you and re-situate you
to a private place to an unexpected
place
where i can develop you i need to
separate you elijah
from the place of power and so he says
i’m going to prepare you
by separating you i’m going to prepare
you by taking you to a little lone brook
where you won’t be found and for about
18 months
scholars say he is separated to this
lone little
brook of water where he sits alone with
god
and the development that we often need
for god to do
things in us requires a separation it
requires a severing
a walking away from certain things here
we find elijah
sheltered in place for 18 months
quarantined for 18 months just
him alone with god some of us lost our
cool after about 18 days of this
shelter-in-place business right
well here we find him for a year and a
half
separated away from the habits the
patterns
the experiences that would have been the
normal of his life
he is separated and shut aside
at at cherith and there he has an
opportunity to experience god in a way
he would otherwise not have
now here’s what’s interesting the root
word that is used in scripture
to derive the name of this brook which
is cherith or
it is often pronounced kirith depending
upon how you’re pronouncing it
the original word is a verb that verb i
want to tell you what it means
it actually means to sever it means
to eliminate listen it means
to cut off a part of the body
think about how violent that sounds even
gruesome
at least painful
he’s calling elijah to walk away knowing
that the severing is actually going to
be
painful and sometimes when god calls us
away
to himself it feels painful for many of
us
this separation from the normal rhythm
of our life that we’ve been required to
all of us undergo in some form or
fashion the pulling away from
the daily routine the pulling away from
relationships and not being able to see
people
face to face as we once did the pulling
away from the normal rhythm of our
everyday life
it has felt like severing for many of us
it’s felt
painful because we were used to gaining
our sense of significance or
acceptance or approval in that
particular way
and now because of realities that many
times are outside of our control
god has caused us to have to sever our
relationship
to certain things sometimes going to the
brook that god is calling you to
requires a separation that feels like
cutting off a part of the body
where a relationship we are severed from
feels so difficult to pull ourselves
away
but if you will yield to the separation
if you will honors honor god’s
conviction in your life
because see sometimes it’s not that god
mandates it it’s just a
whisper of the holy spirit that says
separate yourself
come away from here for just a little
while
those habits those patterns those
relationships
those places where you have rooted your
significance
those ambitions those goals come
away from here and in separating
yourself you will find
that there are some things that are
going to happen at this brook cherith
that you would miss out on if you didn’t
come away
and obey and surrender to this
particular season that i have called you
to
elijah’s journey to mount carmel begins
in private it begins separated from all
of the things that he has once known
how is god calling you to separate
yourself
clearly there are some things that all
of us have been mandated to shake
some habits and patterns and routines
and busyness
some relationships that have had to go
as the world starts to open up again the
question is
are you going to just go right back to
normal
or will we take the opportunity to seek
god and ask him
how is he calling us to maintain some of
these distances
some of these separations so that we can
remain consecrated
and set apart unto him god says to
elijah and he says to many of us
separate yourself it’s here at this
brook
that i’m going to prepare you for the
mount carmels that are coming that
original
word that i told you about um that verb
is also found in genesis 15.
the reason why i want you to know this
is because it’s one of the most vibrant
um and beautiful times that it’s used in
the old testament
and it was used in regards to abraham
ancient abraham and his relationship to
yahweh
that verb that means to cut or sever
hang with me here because i want you to
see how it’s used here
it shows us how god shows up in our
lives when we are willing to yield to
the separation
in genesis chapter 15 abraham is saying
to god listen you’ve promised me so many
things
you have said that my descendants are
going to be as numerous as the the stars
that are in the sky
and he says how will i know that what
you’ve promised me will come to pass how
am i gonna know
and god speaks to abraham in a language
he’ll understand he says i’m gonna cut a
covenant with you
back in the ancient world when two
people or two nations would make an
agreement with each other
they would cut a covenant that’s what
they would call it
not just making a covenant or making an
agreement they would call it the cutting
of an incu
of a covenant the reason why is because
they would sacrifice an
animal to seal the covenant and what
they would do kind of gruesome
really gruesome really is take this
animal they would dismember they would
sever the parts of the animal and they
would lay the pieces out strategically
on the floor
and then one of the parties that was
making the promise that was
going to have to follow through on the
agreement that party
would then walk between the pieces of
the severed animal
and as they walked through they were
basically saying may my life be is the
life of this animal if i don’t make good
on this covenant that we are cutting one
with the other
well in genesis 15 god says abraham i’ll
make a covenant with you
so you’ll know i am who i say i am and
that i’ll do everything that i say that
i will do
he says to abraham get the animal
prepare the animal
and abraham does that he lays the animal
out and then in one of the most
beautiful theophanies
that is a god sighting in all of the old
testament
he says that a deep sleep falls over
abraham
god causes this human to fall asleep so
that it will be not
by works but only by grace and while
abraham is asleep
the scripture says that god himself
shows up
and he moves between the pieces sealing
the covenant with abraham
do you see that abraham is the one that
did the separating
the severing the violent gruesome
cutting
but in doing it god showed up
and he moved in the pieces
if you and i will yield to the
separation
if we’ll sever the things god’s asking
us to sever walk away from the things
god’s asking us to walk away from
if we will trust him with the separation
he will come
down and move within the pieces we’ll
experience him in a way we’ve never
experienced him before
we’ll see him in a way we’ll never ex
see we’ve never seen him before
if we like elijah will come away to the
brook cherith
we will discover new aspects of
god that we’ve never experienced before
elijah’s about to see that happen and so
are you
and so am i because it says that when
elijah goes to the brook cherith
god says to him verse 4 it shall be
that you shall drink from this brook now
let me tell you why this is important
because you remember there’s a famine in
the land
the drought is going to cause a famine
and for three years people are going to
be doing everything that they can
to find water to be able to sustain them
and in this aggregate
society agrarian society rather they
were going to need to be able to sustain
their
their livestock it was their livelihood
without rain the harvest would not grow
and in amidst all of this judgment and
amidst all of this drought and famine
god says to his servant if you separate
yourself you need to know that in the
place of separation i have already made
plans to sustain
you do you know why you want to yield to
the separation
do you know why even though it feels
hard to sever that relationship you
ain’t got no business being in
or severing that um that interest in
that ambition or that endeavor that you
know is the wrong road that you’ve been
walking down
the reason why you do it is because in
the place of separation god has already
made plans to sustain you
he has already made plans to make sure
that even if everybody else is thirsty
in that place you will know what it’s
like to be sustained by the hands of
your great god
and you’re gonna need that because
listen mount carmel
is coming it’s coming for you and it’s
coming for me
where we’re going to be called to a
position where we’re surrounded by
people but actually
we’re all alone because we’re the only
ones that are willing to stand for
righteousness
in the midst of the darkness you’re
going to have a need to have a track
record of what it’s like
to be sustained by the hands of god so
that you can have
confidence when you’re on the mount
carmel of your experience
god says to elijah i got your back i’ve
already made plans to sustain you
so yeah you might be a little bit lonely
in the place of separation
but it’s when you’re lonely you see what
it’s like to have god as your friend
it’s when you are tired that he becomes
your strength
it’s when you are hungry that you
experience the bread of life
it’s when you are insecure you discover
what it’s like
for him to sustain you as your security
when you are empty you realize what it’s
like for him to
fill you up you learn what it’s like to
trust
in the sustaining power of your great
god
he becomes your provision and your
provision alone
and in this increasingly post-christian
culture
you’re gonna have to have some backbone
that draws on the power
and the strength and the sustaining
power of your god
he teaches you that in the place of
separation
he assures you of that in the place of
separation
not only do you want to go ahead and go
to the brook where he will sustain you
but even more than that god says to him
in verse 4 i have
commanded the ravens to provide for you
there
in the place of separation he says now
everybody else is going to be scavenging
for food
but not you elijah if you will in if you
will trust me
and entrust yourself to the place that i
have called you to
severed away from things and it makes
you particularly
uncomfortable because you’re away from
habits and patterns and peoples
and perceptions of what you thought your
ministry and
life would look like elijah if you will
separate yourself
not only will i sustain you there but
i’m going to do something more than that
i’m going to flat out surprise you with
how i’m going to bring bread and meat to
you in the morning he says
and bread and meat to you in the evening
i’m going to make sure that not only
is your thirst quenched but i’m going to
make sure that you are thoroughly
nourished
with everything that you need to be able
to keep you strong
even while you’re in the place of
separation so he says i’ve commanded
ravens
to bring meat to you bring bread to you
and to take care of you now let me tell
you why this is so
surprising because he said a raven
could have been any old kind of bird you
know a dove would have made more sense
you remember back when noah was
wondering whether or not the floods had
receded
he sent out birds several times the
doves
returned but when he sent out the ravens
the ravens didn’t come back
because ravens don’t come back ravens
are restless they’re
unsettled species of animals and not
only that
they’re ravenous that’s where we get the
term from they’re greedy birds
they will literally take prey out of an
unsuspecting
bird’s mouth another bird they will
literally steal
food from others because they are ravis
and will eat anything at any time
any place anywhere so what makes
yahweh’s sustaining power so surprising
and so miraculous
is that he didn’t use any old kind of
bird where maybe someone could explain
this miracle away
but he used the most unsuspecting
unreasonable
surprising species of bird to make this
point
that when you and i will yield to the
place of separation
not only will he sustain us there but
y’all he’s going to surprise you there
he’s going to bring in resources to take
care of you
from means and from resources that you
never even considered
you never even thought possible when you
were praying that prayer asking god for
that miracle
asking him for a solution for a remedy
for the difficulty that you’re having in
your
parenting or raising your children or in
your marriage or on your job or in that
classroom or that courtroom or that
struggle that you’re having in your own
health you never even prayed a prayer
like that
because you had no way of knowing that
god could do something
so unbelievably miraculous as that
but in the place of separation not only
does he sustain you but he starts
surprising you
he starts showing you ephesians 3 20 and
21 now unto him
who is able to do exceedingly abundantly
above and beyond anything that he can
ask that you can ask
or that i could ask or think to him be
the glory in christ jesus
and in the church he surprises you
you’re going to need to know what it’s
like to be surprised by god
to have some things that were so
unthinkable happen in your life
that now you have a track record with
god you’ve got some history with god
you’ve written down a couple of things
that you saw god do that you can tell
your children about
and your children’s children about about
the time your god
just plain old flat out surprised you
did something for you in a way that you
never even
considered you need some history with
your god
that history comes in the place of
separation where you watch
god sustain you and where you watch god
surprise you but not only that
we find out a couple of chapters later
that for these 18 months that elijah is
tucked away at the brook
we find out that king ahab has sent a
search party
all throughout israel he’s been looking
for him he’s so mad at this prophet
for pronouncing this judgment that he
set out a search party searching the
kingdom every which way that he can
to find elijah and hopefully put him to
death
him thinking that elijah’s life was
specifically connected to the
to the drought and to the famine so he
thinks if i kill him then this judgment
will be over
but what can only be described as a
supernatural hedge of protection
is over elijah so that he is so tucked
away in the place of separation
that he doesn’t even realize that while
he is there
not only is he being sustained and not
only is he being surprised
but he is being shielded from dangers he
does not even know
exists it’s not until three years later
that he’ll meet a guy named obadiah who
will tell him the king has been looking
for you for three
solid years sometimes we don’t even know
until hindsight
when we look back that we recognize god
was protecting us from dangers we didn’t
even know existed
that we realized the prayers that he
didn’t answer and the way we wanted
that we realized that when we didn’t
come out of that place of obscurity as
quickly as we would have preferred
to actually the reason why he left us
there
is because if he let us out too soon
there would have been ahab’s we would
have run
into and so he protects us he shields us
he puts a supernatural covering over us
so that we are protected
and shielded in the place of separation
i want to encourage you that if you feel
like
you are ready to come out
from the brook chair ready to get away
ready to be further exposed rather ready
for this anonymity or excu
obscurity to go away so that you can
come out
into the full expression of what you
feel like your ministry is supposed to
look like or
the the revenue your business is
supposed to yield
or the way that your family dynamic is
supposed to look
if everything in your mind is supposed
to look different than it does right now
but because of this pandemic or because
of the unrest that we’ve seen
or just because of the dynamics you’re
facing in your own life
you can clearly see that the holy spirit
is still calling you to this place
of either mandated separation or just
the clear conviction of the holy spirit
to separate you unto himself for a
specific reason
remain there until he releases you
because it’s in that place he’s gonna
surprise you
in a way you will never forget it’s in
that place that you were gonna be able
to eat from his hand
and drink from the water that he
provides for you there
and it’s in that place that in hindsight
you will look back and realize
your god was protecting you all along
be encouraged let’s pray
lord jesus i thank you for elijah’s
example
i thank you father for the opportunity
that we have to know that you are
preparing us
even right now for the mount carmel’s
yet to come
help us not to devalue the significance
of
this part of our journey but help us to
honor you with every single day
every single peace every single
opportunity that we have
to see you more clearly and to
experience you more fully
in jesus name amen
amen <3