Divine Impulse – Expecting The Miraculous

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God Said No

We moved from Orlando to Houston in June 2012, just in time for summers’ heat and humidity. My husband, Sam, accepted a job there as an interim pastor. We knew we would be there for two years and then God would move us somewhere else.

Two years and two months later, we shared our last Sunday with that amazing congregation. The next weekend, we were off to Boca Raton, Florida, where we just knew God would send us. As soon as we walked into the church for the weekend of interviews, God clearly said “No.”

Over the next nine months, Sam had interviewed with multiple churches and each time God said no. The church in Houston had given us a generous gift when we left, but with each no, we watched the bank account getting lower and lower.

God Provides

We had multiple trials come at us during that time, too. Our son got sick, had to spend a week in the hospital, and then diagnosed with Graves Disease. After the doctor released him, Sam’s mother passed away, and we went to Wales for the funeral. One thing after another kept coming at us. But with each trial, we experienced how God provides.

With each day, wondering if Sam would have a call to another church, God reminded me, “I give you what you need for today.” Every day I witnessed His mercies. Whether it was a friend who paid for flights for our family to travel to the funeral, a gift of money in the mail, or someone calling to pray with me. God provided for all of our needs.

God’s Miraculous Provision

1 Kings 17 reminded me of God’s miraculous provision. Within the list of kings, one evil one after another, we get a snapshot of God at work behind the scenes. This is our first introduction to Elijah the prophet. There was a famine in Israel and God instructs Elijah to go to Zarephath and then tells him, “I have directed a widow there to supply you with food” (1 Kings 17:9 NIV). He goes and finds her picking up sticks.

Elijah asks her, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink? And bring me, please, a piece of bread” (1 Kings 17:10-11 NIV). The widow, whom we are never told her name, replies, “As surely as the Lord lives, I don’t have any bread – only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die” (1 Kings 17:12 NIV).

Here is where the story gets good. We sense how the famine has taken its toll on her. Elijah encourages her to cook the bread, and says to her, “For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land’” (1 Kings 17:14 NIV).

God Of Abundance

God not only provides the oil and flour for that meal, but God provides for them over and over. Each time she makes bread, God refilled the jar and jug with more flour and more oil. I love that we have a God of abundance. There is no end to what He will give.

We read of Him pouring manna from Heaven to feed the Israelites. (Exodus 16:31)

Jesus fed 5,000 men and their families with just five loaves of bread and two fish. (Matthew 14:13-21)

God takes the little we offer and turns it into abundance.

Raised From The Dead

The chapter continues with the son of the widow becoming ill and dieing. Elijah takes the lifeless body to his own bed and cried out to the Lord for this boy. Elijah lays himself over the boy’s body three times. Each time crying out to God, saying, “Lord my God, let the boy’s life return to him” (1Kings 17:21 NIV).

I encourage you to close your eyes for a moment and try to envision this scene. Elijah lies on the boy in a position of humility to God. He pleads for God to restore the breath in this boy’s body. We are not told how long Elijah has lived with this family, but he has obviously grown close to them. He has experienced their kindness and together; they witnessed God’s miracles. I can’t help but think that he loved this boy and wanted desperately for him to survive for both his sake and for the heart of the woman who had done so much for him.

In verse twenty-two, God restores life into the boy. Elijah carries the widow’s son back to her and they celebrate what God has done.

Divine Impulse

I love what Matthew Henry says regarding the scene. “He earnestly begs of God to restore the child to life again. We do not read before this of any that were raised to life; yet Elijah, by a divine impulse, prays for the resurrection of this child” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary).

A divine impulse. I love that. If there were other moments where God raised someone from the dead, prior to this, we do not have a biblical record of it. Had Elijah heard of this happening before, or was it, like Matthew Henry said, a divine impulse?

What struck me the most while reading this is that as I read the scriptures, that God will provide; I believe it and expect it because He says He will do it. So why do I not expect God to raise someone from the dead? I read God has done it, and I believe He has done it, so why is it so hard to expect it? Both are tremendous miracles.

Expectancy

I go back to something I have mentioned multiple times regarding healing. You can read more about it here in my printable on healing. When we experience the power of God move in something like healing, we understand it better and expect and hope for God to do it again. It builds our faith. The more times we witness God heal, the more and more we expect it and doubt a lot less.

When we experience the power of God move in something like healing, we understand it better and expect and hope for God to do it again. It builds our faith. The more times we witness God heal, the more and more we expect it and… Click To Tweet

Many of us have experienced God’s provision in some form or another. We pray and we see God provide. It is not always in a way we expect, but for many of us, our human minds can grasp and accept this. We have experienced it more, which leads to a higher expectancy.

Have you ever witnessed someone return from the dead? I have not and my expectancy is pretty low. I know God can do it, but because I have not experienced it, my expectancy meter runs low.

I have heard stories of God moving in power in our modern world by growing lost limbs and bringing people back from the dead. To too many of us in the western world, this will seem crazy, but to other countries that have nowhere else to turn, but to God, they are seeing His power move.

God’s Power

I pray for myself and anyone else who wants to join me. Don’t you want to see God’s power move in these miraculous ways? I pray for boldness and desire for a divine impulse to pray for someone for the miraculous.

When I hear others share their stories, it encourages me, and boosts my expectancy meter. I don’t want to fall into comfortable Christianity. I want to experience all God wants to show us and see the miraculous as a sold out follower of Jesus.

I don’t want to fall into comfortable Christianity. I want to experience all God wants to show us and see the miraculous as a sold out follower of Jesus. Click To Tweet

“I tell you the truth: whoever believes in Me will be able to do what I have done, but they will do even greater things, because I will return to be with the Father.”

John 14:12 The Voice

Let’s expect greater things together.

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