1 Kings 18:41-44
“Then Elijah said to Ahab, ‘Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.’ So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, ‘Go up now, look toward the sea.’ So he went up and looked, and said, ‘There is nothing.’ And seven times he said, ‘Go again.’ Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, ‘There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!’ So he said, ‘Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’” NKJV
There is a rarely mentioned aspect of the dynamics of the Kingdom of God, and it’s lack of awareness, has caused some people to engage in unnecessary divisions and strife. Many times, the problem is a matter of altitude. In the Scripture above, we see an example of the difference in spiritual altitude of two people that could not see eye to eye initially. There wasn’t a dispute between them in this case, but Elijah and his servant could not see the same thing due to their difference in elevation which kept one from seeing what the other could already see.
This didn’t make Elijah the prophet, whose spiritual elevation was of the mountain top level, better than his servant in the eyes of God. But Elijah’s spiritual altitude, demonstrated in the Scripture above by a natural altitude, showed that he could see things before his servant could see them, and for this reason, it might have taken his servant some pressing in to be able to see what the prophet could see.
Elijah’s spiritual elevation allowed him to hear that an abundance of rain was coming. However, he needed his servant’s due diligence to ensure he would see the cloud, at least a small one. This would prove that the rain was coming in the natural and would help him agree with the one that could already see and hear it in the spirit and was preparing for its manifestation with prayer.
I remember when my son was still young, that we shared an apartment with one of my sisters. One November morning I was praying and the Lord told me to start packing because we were going to move. After I heard that, I told my sister what the Lord had just told me and proceeded to start gathering items to start packing. My sister responded that she would not start packing until she heard the Lord say that to her.
Indeed, my smart sister was not just going by my word. I needed her agreement to prepare for the move but didn’t push her to do what she did not hear at that time. Well, not until March of the following year did she hear the Lord tell her to start packing, and when she did, she started right away. The also curious thing about that is that we all had to wait two more months before we knew where we were going and heard Him say that it was time to get a moving truck.
I was patient with my sister who didn’t think I was crazy—she just wanted to hear the word of the Lord for herself and I gave her room to do that. That way, there was no strife or dishonor between us. In the same way, the Scripture says that it took Elijah’s servant seven tries to reach the altitude of his mentor that enabled him to see the rain cloud that was going to end the famine in the land because the root cause of the famine had been dealt with.
Elijah already had faith for the rain to come because he could hear the sound of the torrential from where he stood spiritually. But he also waited patiently for his servant to follow his instructions until he too could have the faith for it. This is something that the body of Christ needs to learn to recognize whenever two or more cannot see eye to eye about an issue.
The disparities between what some can see or hear spiritually and others don’t yet see or hear should have some asking in what lies the difference and to what could they attribute the lack of agreement and unity. The answer to the first question could be our different positions or ranks in the body of Christ. The second answer is that we need to learn about our differences in altitude and levels of maturity due to our positions in the same body.
However, a position of leadership in the body does not guarantee the highest spiritual elevation. The highest ranks like the apostolic and the prophetic offices have the highest spiritual altitudes, but they also have the greatest amounts of responsibility towards the body and they exercise their faith according to what they see or hear from their top of the mountain level.
This can very easily cause misunderstandings with others that ignore this characteristic about the body of Christ. Nevertheless, this fact doesn’t excuse them from having to seek to understand others and apply their faith for solving the issues they’re disagreeing about with those who see things differently. We cannot apply faith for the issues we relate to more and rely on walking only by sight about other things when the Bible says that the just shall live by faith. Habakkuk 2:4 says,
“Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.” NKJV
Unfortunately, many in the body are willing to dispute about an issue they don’t understand, without inquiring why others see what they see. Getting to the point of understanding the issue and even reach some level of agreement requires that we first hear a word from the Lord about it. That can only happen when we seek Him to know His perspective on the situation.
That way, we can hear what God has to say about it which can help us grow our faith levels because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). When we choose to live by faith in the Lord because we heard Him speak about the issue to us, and seek to respect how God speaks to others and what He may be saying to them, we can avoid unnecessary strife and dishonor.
During times like this, we cannot play doubting Thomas who was skeptical because he had not seen that Jesus rose from the dead. Before he could experience His resurrected presence for himself, he rejected the testimony of ten of his fellow disciples who had already experienced the presence of the Savior. Therefore, Jesus Himself met him at his point of unbelief and rejection of the testimony of others and came to show him the evidence of His resurrection.
John 20:24-29 tells us this,
“Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ So he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’ And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, ‘Peace to you!’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.’ And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” NKJV
Verse 27 says that Jesus admonished Thomas for his unbelief. And in verse 29 He calls blessed those who have not seen and yet have believed. To this, another question we could ask ourselves is what is influencing what we see or hear, or our lack of seeing or hearing in the spirit realm that is causing the disagreements? Another way of stating this question is what manner of spirit are we really being of?
Luke 9:51-56 discloses,
“When the time was coming near for Jesus to depart, he was determined to go to Jerusalem. He sent some messengers ahead of him, who went into a town in Samaria to make everything ready for him. But the people there would not welcome him, because he was set on going to Jerusalem. When James and John, followers of Jesus, saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven and destroy those people?’ But Jesus turned and scolded them. [And Jesus said, ‘You don’t know what kind of spirit you belong to. The Son of Man did not come to destroy the souls of people but to save them.’] Then they went to another town.” NCV
Whose narrative can we say we’re focused on hearing? Is it that of the Spirit of the Lord or one that comes from the demonic, from fear, pride, or from a reluctance to be a changer of the status quo? Compromise with idolatry kept the people of Israel from escaping the famine that was in the land. For that reason, the passionate prophet asked them how long would they remain torn between one minute agreeing with God’s side, only to find themselves the next minute following the side of the idolaters. 1 Kings 18:21 explains,
“Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people [of Israel] did not answer him [so much as] a word.” AMP
Thus, we have learned here that our spiritual elevation and maturity as well as what influences us, has a lot to do with what we see or hear spiritually. It also has to do with how much we’re willing to understand the perspective of others about the situation, and whether or not we can accept and believe that what they testify to, does indeed come from God.
As always, to God alone be all the glory.~
Images from a Google Images.
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