Embedding and Integrating Powerful ‘God Encounters’ Into Your Life
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Supernatural encounters change lives IF our lives change.
This thought is all about how to embed and integrate powerful God encounters into our lives so that change is enduring.
Lessons from the prophet Elijah who had just had some extremely powerful breakthroughs in his ministry:
He prayed for rain and it came after a 7-year drought.
He had just called down actual fire from heaven.
He had just taken out 850 pagan prophets in a showdown.
He had supernaturally outran the king's chariot.
But in 1 Kings 19, we meet Elijah on his Monday after a powerful Sunday in church or on the day after the conference finished or the weeks following an addiction is broken off your life, or days after miraculous physical healing. From this chapter, we can glean 8 lessons from Elijah that will help us embed and integrate ‘God encounters’ into our life so change is enduring.
ONE
1 Kings 19:2 So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.”
Lesson 1: Be careful whom you let speak into your life immediately after a powerful encounter with God
- You can choose whom you tell, you can choose where you go, you can choose what you look at (social media) you can choose when to open your emails etc…
TWO
1 Kings 19:3-4 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. Then he went on alone into the wilderness, travelling all day.
Lesson 2: Don’t travel alone
Position great people in your world and do the work to keep them there
If you are travelling alone, that’s on you
Leading lonely will lead you astray / into the wilderness
THREE
1 Kings 19:4 “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.”
Lesson 3: Don’t compare YOUR God’s encounter with the experience of others
God meets you right where YOU are at. Just because your experience with God wasn’t like those that others have had doesn’t discount its supernatural power at work in YOUR life!
Don’t compare THIS experience to those you’ve had in the past…”in the good old days God use to . . .” God is up to something new…!
FOUR
1 Kings 19:5 Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!”
Lesson 4: Keep your rest
FIVE
1 Kings 19:6-7 He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again. Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, “Get up and eat some more, or the journey ahead will be too much for you.”
Lesson 5: Keep your healthy habits
The supernatural encounter of the angel in this part of the story is ironic because it took the supernatural to remind Elijah to do what was natural….eat enough food and drink enough water for the journey, not too little, not too much and get MOVING! Healthy lifestyles and healthy habits help to embed and integrate those unique and irregular experiences into our lives.
SIX
1 Kings 19:11-13 And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
Lesson 6: Keep listening to God
SEVEN
1 Kings 19:15-16 Then the Lord told him, “Go back the same way you came, and travel to the wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive there, anoint Hazael to be king of Aram. Then anoint Jehu grandson of Nimshi to be king of Israel
Lesson 7: Keep serving God
EIGHT
1 Kings 19:16 and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from the town of Abel-meholah to replace you as my prophet.
Lesson 8: Look for Legacy
