A Lesson From Ahab

Ahab was one of the evil kings who ruled over Israel during the period of the divided kingdom. In fact, he may have been the worst king out of some pretty terrible kings.  First Kings 21:25-26 says, “Surely there was no on like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the LORD, because Jezebel his wife incited him. He acted very abominably in following idols….” After the Lord’s anger was full, he sent Elijah the prophet to let Ahab know that both he and his wife were about to face gruesome death. The Word of the Lord was not “iffy.”  Elijah made the absolute statement that they would be destroyed. What happens next blows my mind. 

The Bible says, “It came about when Ahab heard these words, that he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and fasted, and he lay in sackcloth and went about despondently.  Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 'Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me?  Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days….'” 

Much could be said about this passage, but I come to it in a time when God has been reminding me repeatedly of the power of fasting. You won’t find a strong man of God in the Bible who didn’t regularly fast as a part of his prayer life. Reading through the Old Testament, it seems 8 out of 10 stories of God’s power involved fasting at some point. Name a famously awesome Bible character. He fasted and saw God move as a result. Somehow we skim over this, but look again and you’ll see that God responds to prayer and fasting like nothing else.  

In the New Testament, fasting is no less prominent. John the Baptist and his disciples fasted.  Jesus fasted, and said that later His disciples (that’s us) would fast. Jesus once indicated that sometimes prayer alone would not suffice, but that fasting would be needed to get the job done (Mark 9:29). There is something very powerful that happens when we add fasting to our prayer life. I know this both from reading the Word of God and by personal experience.

However, the point I want to make here is finer than just that Christ followers should fast. The point is that if Ahab, perhaps the most evil king of Israel, could basically change the plans of God through a season of desperate prayer and fasting, then what if those of us who are righteous in Christ were to fast as seriously? Someone will want to debate whether God changed His plans. Just read the story. God said he was going to do one thing. Ahab fasted and prayed. God said he would no longer do what he was going to do. Say what you want, but God’s heart was moved and He did something differently because of Ahab’s season of prayer and fasting. What if we fasted and prayed as desperately as evil Ahab?

We are not desperate enough.  We are not asking enough.  We are not fasting enough.

Really God?

I woke up thankful today.  Not thankful for the usual stuff… family, possessions, freedom, etc., but thankful for the ministry God has given me.  I’m blown away.  I am now the pastor of First Baptist Church of Longview, Washington.  How again did I come to this opportunity?  Really God?

I could tell you all the reasons I shouldn’t be here, but then you might not respect me as much.  I could tell you about my inadequacies and all of the ways that I “don’t fit the mold.”  I could point out that my experience was weird… a worship pastor turned church planter… now become a large church pastor.  How did I come to this position?  Seven staff members?  Really God?

I remember a few years ago feeling a call to go “where no one else is working,” as Paul put it in 2^nd Corinthians 10:16.  And now, here I am, thirty hours from “home” in the “least reached” portion of the United States.  I know that God called me here as a part of something huge… perhaps even another great awakening.  I know God has big plans for the Northwest.  I feel it in my soul.  The crazy thing is that He called ME here to be a part of His big plans, perhaps even to help lead this move of His.  God called me to one of the bigger churches in the region… a church with crazy potential.  As if I were some great evangelist or amazing leader.  God, couldn’t you have found someone better? Really God? 

Who am I?  I am but dust.  I am an unknown pastor.  I am a nobody in the twitter-verse with less than a hundred followers so far.  My name would not appear in the “Who’s Who” list of Christian leaders, if there were such a thing.  I was unknown in Missouri.  I am unknown in Washington.  I have no desire to be known… unless being known is a necessary evil that comes with doing great things in Christ. 

And so here I am on the cusp, I believe, of a great move of God, and I believe God wants to use me in a BIG way.  Why else would He have placed me in such a position of influence and potential as I now find myself.  It’s crazy.  Me?  Really God?

Lord, I surrender to Your plan.  I have nothing You need.  All I can promise is that I will strive with everything I have to follow your lead.  Nothing You ask of me will I refuse.  I don’t deserve to be here.  I have done nothing to earn this opportunity, therefore I will not live as if I were entitled to it.  Instead, I lay it back down at Your feet.  I return what You have given me.  Like Moses, only in the fact that I feel inadequate, and that I offer you this rod of mine, hoping to take it up again as the Rod of God.

I am Yours.  Lead me.  Really God.  

He's Got This

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. ⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. ¹⁰ “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; ¹¹ So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.  Isaiah 55:8–11 (NASB95)

Whispers of vision. Thoughts of leadership. Decisions to make. Ideas that are larger than life. Plans that need implementation. Each of these mental exercises take turns haunting my “down times.” Having attended a retreat for pastors and wives this week, and being on the front end of a new position in a new church, my heart and mind are chock full of vision for the future. 

We were asked this week, “If money were not an issue and you had no opposition, what would you do? Where would you lead your church?” Wow. I think Pandora’s box just opened in my mind, and I am dangerously close to getting lost in my own little world of what could be. This sort of “visioneering” (ala Andy Stanley), can be a good thing, of course, but NOT if in having vision, I take the all-too-natural track of thinking it is up to me to make it happen.

Just then, my thoughts shift….

What of the drug problem in my community? Can those whose minds are lost in drink and drugs even receive the Gospel in truth? Or will they only return to their squalor and bring more shame to the name of Christ? Can He break through these lifestyles of sin? Are we to become a center for overcoming addictions, then?  And though the fields are white for the harvest, how many will ask about our position on homosexuality as a prerequisite to even listening to our message? How many will reject us for this single moral stand which we nonetheless cannot abandon. And what about the fact that the huge poor population in my community thinks my church is for the rich or, at best, a place to get a hand out? And what about those many Christians who I can’t seem to convince to come to church? What about the traditionalists in my own congregation who live to protect that which is not sacred at the expense of that which is? What about the legalists who want to haggle over questions of the Law?  What about those in my church who treat unbelievers as if they were the enemy rather than lost sheep or longed-for prodigals. What about my own limitations… and the fact that no matter what I do, I will often be misunderstood, misquoted and even lied about? What about the fact that many are still waiting to see if I am “worthy” of being followed? What about the barriers to our growth, the removal of which, might feel like cutting off an arm or a leg…?

Eventually, I always come to this intersection of vision and reality where I find myself standing still.  What can I do about all of these seemingly insurmountable barriers to the vision of God?  I can become an instrument instead of an instigator.  I can trust the promise of Isaiah 55 (above). I can turn my ineptitude into a resolve to surrender to God’s higher, more powerful ways.  Meanwhile, I can pray and I can preach. 

Really?  That’s it?  Just pray and preach… and leave the rest to God?  Pretty much.  I don’t see anything in Isaiah 55 or in the book of Acts or anywhere else that says the vision is my responsibility to achieve. What exactly is my job anyway? And what am I to do with all of this Godly vision for expanding the Kingdom of God?

What did the first pastors do?  They prayed and they preached. As they were faithful to those two things, God changed the world through them (see Acts 2 and 6).  More and more I am understanding that these two things (prayer and preaching), together, ARE my calling.  As I pray and as I preach, I can trust that God’s Word will not return void, and that in His time, as I am faithful to ACTUALLY pray and preach HIS WORD, the fruit will come.  YES THE FRUIT WILL COME.  The Lord is faithful, and HE will do it.  Amen.