| Chapter 10: Book: 'Live Like Elijah' by Don MacLaffety |
This chapter is based on 1 Kings 19: 19 pages 69 to 74
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| Elijah strode back to Israel, humbled and yet strengthened to know the love and grace of the Lord God. Yes, he had run the wrong way at the very moment God was ready to bring all Israel to a revival with Him. But Elijah knew God still cared for him as always. He was empowered to continue to work as a messenger of he living God. |
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| As he trudged across the hills and valleys of Israel, he may have smiled at the hint of green coming into the fields. The rains were breathing new life into the land. Small streams could be seen, gathering strength every day. |
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| "So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, while he was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on hm." 1 Kings 19: 19
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| Elijah threw his mantle over the shoulders of young Elisha and kept on walking, as if nothing had happened out of the ordinary Yet the meaning of the mantle was not lost on Elisha. He knew it was God's call to follow Elijah. "He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, "Please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you'" 1 Kings 18:20
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| Elijah tested the young man. He gave Elkisha a chance to back out of the call. He cried out to Elisha, "Go back again, for what have I done to you? ( 1 Kings 19: 20 ) But Elisha was ready to go and be who God was calling him to be, and "he followed Elijah and ministered to him" 1 Kings 19: 21.
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| Elijah had to humble himself to toss his mantle on younger shoulders. He had to submit to God's plan to rise up a young leader who would soon replace him. Elijah had to surrender to the truth that he was expendable and that God's work would go on well without him.
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| As I prayed out in the fields early one morning, God brought His prophecy in Acts 2: 17 to my mind: "'And it be in the last days.' God says, "That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind, and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy." To prophesy is to share the Word of God, by the power of God, to the people whim God sends you to share it.
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| "God, what do you want me to do about helping your sons and daughters to prophecy?" I asked God impressed me to start equipping children and youth to speak the written Word of God through practical preaching. I began with equipping two teenagers to prayerfully search the Word and speak the Word, and then God led me to do the same with children as well as other youth.
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| I required the child or teen to come with one or more parents, and we prayed together and planned the message God had given us from His written word. The child or youth prepared the message with me during five sessions. The parents coached the child in between sessions, and then I team-preached with the young person.
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| I met with resistance in one church. Some did not like children and youth preaching and teaching the Word of God. Some left and did not come back.
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| I remember Darla, a young, shy teenager in love with God and terrified of being up front. She was about thirteen at the time. I had noticed that she was watching across the room when I was preparing her big brother to preach with me in a few weeks.
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I walked across the room. "Darla, you seem very interested in what your older brother is preparing to do. Do you want to learn how to preach God's Word?" I asked. |
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| Terrified, she blurted, "I could never do that!"
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| "Darla, do you spend time with God in the Word each day and in prayer?" I asked gently.
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| Softly, he answered, "Oh yes, Most days I do."
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| "Then, I said, God has given you something ti share! Would you please pray this coming week about preaching the Word of God with me?" She agreed.
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