“Boldness”

Last week I did a little blog on confidence and shared some thoughts on Elijah. Well, ever since then I have not been able to stop thinking about the various aspects of the little bit that I explored. Isn't it just like God to show us that there are so many complexities and revelations that can come from His Word? Not only does Elijah have incredible confidence he also has amazing boldness! Confidence and boldness seem to go hand in hand but mostly they seem to be a very necessary component of those that walk successfully with God. I don't know about you but I want to walk successfully with God.

The portion of this Elijah story in 1 Kings 18 that has stood out to me is in verse 33-34 where he throws water on his offering. The reason this stands out to me is because in verse 1-2 we are told that "for a long time…the famine was severe." This tells me that the people are in a state of drought and lack, that resources were in short supply, including water! If you begin to think about the picture presented here, it is really of a man out of his mind pouring the last ounces of water that they have to survive on his offering… This must have stirred up significant commotion!

We go on to verse 36, which shares that Elijah did what the Lord commanded. Elijah poured the last bit of water they had, in the middle of a drought with no indication of when the drought would end because he was commanded to by God… Sometimes the things God commands of us sound or are completely insane! The underlying purpose in it all is for others to see God. Elijah's insane boldness was so others could see God. Elijah's boldness was simply him walking in obedience to God. Immediately following Elijah's outrageously bold obedience we see in verse 41 that heavy rain was on the way and relief from the famine was near! So often I think we are at a stand still waiting for God to move but really God is waiting for us to be obedient so that He can move!

There are many things in this portion of scripture that speak so much to us as believers. One of the major components that I notice with boldness is back in verse 22 where Elijah says: "I am the only one…" I think one of our greatest hesitations is due to the fact that we are often standing alone in a moment where we need to be bold. Elijah was outnumbered and alone but still saw that it was far more important to be obedient and to walk in boldness, so he did. Another major component with boldness is how much Elijah saw or heard in the Spirit. Elijah knew that God commanded him to do the things that he did thus he had to have taken time to hear from Him. Elijah heard the sound of rain before there was ever any physical evidence of rain; he heard the rain coming in the Spirit! Are we listening for what we need to be obedient to, are we hearing what God is about to do? Boldness requires our action! We have commands to hear so that we can walk in obedience. We have rain in the distance that we need to know is on the way to relieve our drought so that we can welcome the rain in the natural. We need to have our eyes open so that we can recognize our responsibility to act in line with what God is doing in each moment as Elijah did. Our boldness won't exist without our action! Be bold and walk successfully with God!

 

 

“Confidence”

Having confidence in God's abilities is something I have wavered in repeatedly in my life. Most of the time I believe in my mind that God can and will do great things in and through my life but there is a disconnect between my mind and my heart. Sometimes I sense fear or a wavering of unbelief sneaking around within me. I want to be fully confident in God's abilities all of the time but that is not always the reality for me and I think for most people. I desire to be fully confident in all of God's promises.

A great example of the confidence I long to possess is found in Elijah! In 1^st Kings 18 the Bible reveals the kind of confidence Elijah had in God. Initially, in verse 21 Elijah is chastising the people to make a choice – "either God is real or he isn't but whichever you believe live accordingly!" How often do we need to get our lives in check to live according to what we say we believe? We believe or we don't, there seems to be no gray area here. Really we are to "Be Holy as I Am Holy!"

Elijah goes on to challenge them in a "my God verses your god deal" of whose god would show up in fire first. Elijah is bold enough and confident enough to say "look, here is the altar with my offering on it. Not only do I trust God to show up in fire on my altar but I am drenching it with water and confident enough to know that my God will show up in fire and he will dry up the water that soaks my offering and is pooled around my offering!" Now that is confidence! In today's systems that would be like us saying "hey, I know I have no money, no job and I have no idea what next month holds for me but I KNOW that my God will supply ALL I need!"

Then Elijah in verse 36 begins to pray so that God would answer and the people would know He is God. Sure enough, exactly as Elijah knew that He would, the Lord came with fire. It took Elijah confidence and boldness, it took him knowing and trusting God without wavering… this is an intimate relationship with the Lord, this is what I long for. As believers we need to be this confident in the promises of God, we need to walk intimately with Him.

Without skipping a beat Elijah moves on to the next thing at hand as if to say "good, now that you all know who God is let's get to work because a heavy rain is on the way". Again Elijah is fully confident of what God is doing moment by moment. Elijah tells his servant in verse 43 to go look for the rain clouds but the servant sees nothing. Elijah's confidence is so great that what is seen does not move him, he tells the servant to go back seven times! Never once, was Elijah moved by the fact that what they saw did not line up with what he knew God would do. How often are we so easily moved by what we see and feel? We need this kind of confidence to rise up in us and I believe it will as we draw near Him!

Once the rain clouds were upon them Elijah still continued to move with the Lord, he understood what the power of God in/on him could/would do and he was ready to do it! In verse 45 it tells us that Elijah "tucked in his cloak and ran ahead of the chariot…" Wow! Elijah recognized the power of God and was ready to yield to whatever God wanted to do. Elijah took physical steps to yield to God's power. Are we ready? Are we confident enough to trust and rely on God? Are we bold enough to stay the course no matter what we see or feel? Are we walking intimately with the Lord so that He can work through us that others could see who God is? I long to walk as Elijah walked fully confident of who God is, fully aware of what God would do and completely ready to yield to His plan!