Focus: Divine Provision

Text: 1Kgs.19:8

"And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God."

God provides for His people. He is our source, supplier and sustainer. We matter to Him. We are His primary concern.

The psalmist says, "These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season" (Ps.104:27). He says again, "The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season" (Ps.145:15). Even in the wilderness, God furnishes a table for His own people. In famine, He causes us to have plenty.

Looking at the hungry multitude, the Lord Jesus Christ says to His disciples, "Give them to eat." He wants us to be well fed and well led. Take it from me that God has commanded someone somewhere to take care of you - and to help you. God will not let you be stranded in this life. 

His watchful eyes are on you, and He knows what to do to get you out of a tight corner.

Let's look at Elijah, and see how God provided for him in times of need.

At the start of the great famine in Israel, God said to him, "Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan… So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan" (1Kgs.17:3,5). God told him what to do and where to go, and he obeyed accordingly.

Then God said to him, "And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there" (1Kgs.17:4). Having obeyed, God instructed RAVENS to feed him there by the brook. Not one raven, but many. Ravens are greedy animals, but they didn't let their greediness keep them from obeying God's orders. The Scripture says that "the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook." They complied with the divine directive and provided Elijah with breakfast and dinner on daily basis.

Later on, we read that the brook dried up, and when that happened, God said to Elijah, "Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee" (1Kgs.17:9). God told him where next to go, and in that place God had already prepared another vessel to use. This time, the vessel was not a raven but a human being, and indeed a woman. God moved from an animal to a human being. I believe that the woman's food was tastier than the animal's food. The human touch was different. The woman's kitchen served better food than that of ravens.

God knows how and when to take you from one level of grace to another. I believe that God will step up for you. He will raise your level, and each time it will be sweeter than ever before.

The final incident took place after Elijah had left the widow's house in Zarephath. Our text bears that out, and this time, the vessel that God used to provide for Elijah was different from the first and second vessels. God used an angel to feed Elijah.

The angel woke him up from sleep and gave him food to eat. The angel did that twice. Elijah needed food that could sustain him for the long journey that he was to embark upon.

The food was a "cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water," and it was on the strength of that food that he traveled for 40 days and 40 nights. That's over a month journey. Two times meal from an angel's kitchen sustained Elijah for the journey of over one month. What a God!

God can use anything and anyone to help you. God fed Elijah through a raven, a woman, and now an angel. Grace functions in levels. Every new level has its own grace. You can grow in grace. You can rise to new levels of grace. You can graduate from grace to grace. You can go from grace to grace. God has grace in abundance. Obedience is the key of access to higher realms of grace. Every time Elijah obeyed God's instructions, higher grace happened to him. He was lifted to new experiences of divine grace.

Get ready for new levels of divine provisions. Ravens will serve you. Men and women will serve you. Angels, too, will serve you. After all, angels are ministering spirits to those who are heirs of salvation. The psalmist sings, "Man did eat ANGELS' FOOD: he sent them meat to the full" (Ps.78:25). Hallelujah!

Get ready for all that God has in store for you through grace. Grace houses all of God's blessings. God will initiate you into the higher order and greater heights of His grace. Even now as I speak, He is immersing you into the rivers of grace. You will experience a new baptism of grace. Only trust and obey, and you will enjoy the provisions of God from one level to another.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter