Now I Know for Sure . . .

Enters Elijah stating . . . “There will be no dew or rain during the next few years UNLESS I give the word!"


Next, Elijah camps by the Kerith Brook, where God commands ravens to bring Elijah food and where he is to drink water.


But one day, the Brook dries up . . . after all, remember, there is no rain until Elijah gives the word!!


Elijah's next stop . . . the home of a widow. Elijah asks the widow for a cup of water . . . and, OH, by the way . . . bring me a bite of bread, too!


The widow tells Elijah that she has only a handful of flour and a little cooking oil that she was planning to cook her and her son’s last meal. Elijah’s response: “Don’t be afraid! Cook your last meal but bake me a little loaf of bread first and there will be enough food for you and your son.”


A choice needed to be made . . . hmmm . . . last meal for my son and me . . . or obey God? She chose to obey God! And because she chose to obey, there was always flour and oil left in the containers each day, no matter how much was used!


Wasn’t this proof enough for her?  Evidently not; because in verse 24 . . . after the widow’s son had been raised from the dead . . . her comment was, “Then the woman told Elijah, NOW I KNOW FOR SURE that you are a man of God, and that the Lord truly speaks through you.”   (Emphasis added.)


Flour and oil never running out = miracle in my book! 

Wouldn't that be proof enough of God's power?  Or was she thinking, my son and I will be dead either way, so does it really matter who eats the last of the food?


Isn’t that the way we are today . . . many miracles each day while we spend our time looking for the miraculous!

Lord, let us not strive after the miraculous but open our eyes to see your miracles in our daily lives!

Who Am I . . . That the Lord . . .

David made huge mistakes during his life, but he fully understood that God had never left him. 2 Samuel 23 begins with, what is subtitled in my bible, “David’s last words.” David, writing out of his relationship with God, said of himself . . .

. . . a man to whom God gave success
. . . a man anointed by God
. . . sweet psalmist of Israel
. . . Spirit of the Lord speaks through me; his words are on my tongue
. . . an everlasting covenant with me . . . eternal, final, sealed
. . . (He will) constantly look after my safety & success

David was able to rule effectively because first . . .  God ruled David’s life!

David delighted in God’s word . . . God delighted in speaking to and through David!

David could have spoken regret over all the times he “missed it” in his walk with God. Instead, he chose to speak what God had done in, through, and for him.


2 Samuel 23 continues naming David’s mightiest men and David’s thirty might men . . . God’s own Green Beret or Navy Seals or Special Op(eration) forces . . . God’s elite!


Thank you Father, for always being with me.  Because of Jesus' blood, I am a woman with purpose . . . God’s plan and purpose for my life . . .

. . . a woman to whom God has given success
. . . a woman anointed by God
. . . a sweet psalmist
. . . God’s word on my tongue
. . . confident of His eternal, final, sealed covenant with me
. . . God ruled
. . . God focused
. . . part of God’s special op forces!

A Casting Call with Purpose

Wanted: Women with purpose
Needed: Strategy, Faith, Compassion

God has set His casting call for the greatest show on earth; and throughout the ages, many have answered -- men and women alike.

The scenes in 2 Samuel 20 unfold to the general sights and sounds of men running around fighting, a "good for nothing" blowing a ram's horn and mustering soldiers to desert King David, military leaders being late, military leader killing said late leader, and the sounds of a seige ramp being built against the walls of the city of Abel - a city known for it wise, sound decision-making inhabitants, a "mother city" of Israel.

Amidst all the noise and fevered emotions of the soldiers preparing the seige under the command of Joab, himself probably in an angered tizzy, sweating and furious -- amidst all that commotion, a "wise woman" (unnamed other than "wise" or "shrewd" depending on the translation) pops up on the city wall and calls out for Joab.  She pulls him up by his boot straps, so to speak, and asks him why he would "want to mess with God's legacy like that?"

Joab tells her he is just after one man in particular; Wise Woman finds out who and tells Joab, "Sounds good.  His head will be tossed to you from the wall." 

She presents her ideas to the city; they all agree, over the wall goes his head, Joab's army goes home. 

City saved.

A woman with purpose.

Several acts later in the story played out by King David and his cast, another woman steps onto stage to play a part she probably never expected to play:  A Mother Bereft of Her Sons.  Rizpah's two sons she bore to King Saul were taken and handed over to the Gibeonites, who hung them beside five grandsons of Saul.

This woman took up her purpose for this brief season in her life, laid out a burlap blanket near the bodies of her dead sons and shoo-ed away the birds circling during the day and the beasts who tried to snack at night.  She kept watch over her sons' bodies until finally King David heard about her great act of compassion and went himself to collect all seven bodies, as well as exhume the bodies of King Saul and Jonathon in order to give them all a proper burial at the family burial grounds.

Her act of compassion stirred King David to an act of compassion.

A woman with purposeful compassion.

Both of these women could have run from their situations and curled up in fear and anguish of soul.  They could have succumbed to the thought that they couldn't do anything to change the situation -- especially in the face of an invading army of angry men or the face of a decree from the king.

But these women marched forward with purpose, acting in the sphere of influence that God had given them, in the calling that God had placed upon them --- one as a woman giving counsel in her city; another as a mother to children in a family torn and hurting.

The situation we're facing might seem impossible and hopeless.  But God.  He has spoken purpose into each of our lives and is just waiting for us to rise up in faith so that He can work miracles through us.

How will God use US to save our city?  To bring peace to our families?

Women With Purpose.  We accept the casting call.

God's Dwelling Place

“I have never lived in a house, from the day I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until this very day. I have always moved from one place to another with a tent and a Tabernacle as my dwelling.” (2 Samuel 7:6)

God’s presence is no longer confined to a tent or a building! God’s Holy Spirit lives in me . . . in every person who professes Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  God is unchangeable but He is mobile . . . never leaving us or forsaking us!

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself . . .” (1 Cor. 6:19 NLT)

This verse is so powerful in the Message Bible . . .

“Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.” (1 Cor. 6:19 Message Bible)

This verse in the message bible is worth memorizing!