1 Kings 17:22 – And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.

1 Kings 17:23 – And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.

1 Kings 17:24 – And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.

Hello readers, the story of Elijah and the widow. Elijah, what a man of God. He arrived on the scene and told wicked king Ahab there was going to be no rain anymore in the land. Then God told him to go into hiding by a brook, where God sustained him and provided for him. There is going to be no ministry towards others if you first of all haven’t proved God in private. Private victory will lead to public ministry. If you first of all aren’t saved, if you first of all haven’t obeyed God yourself in your own life, if you haven’t gotten victory and deliverance in your own life, if you haven’t learnt to trust and rely solely upon God’s word yourself… you won’t be sent to any Zarephath.

God sent Elijah to a widow in Zarephath. Jesus himself referred to this story in the gospel of Luke, saying there were many widows in Israel but God sent Elijah to this widow. God knows the one person who is seeking him. Even a nobody widow in a nobody place, a place beneath Israel’s contempt. Often it’s the nobodies that will believe the gospel, the people that have got it all, that live so large, that are so fat on the grace and blessings of God, that are so indulged in a life of pleasure and sin… they’ve got it made… and they don’t need God.

She was collecting two sticks… one for her and one for her son. What a picture of the gospel. Two sticks didn’t seem much to start a fire a cook a meal… but the cross of Jesus Christ, that surely will be enough for your salvation. Anyway, God provided for this woman and her son. But after a time, the woman’s son fell sick and the Bible says there was no breath in him. Through Elijah, the son was revived… and the woman said because of this, she knew that he was a man of God, and that the word in his mouth was truth. This is the point of the blog today.

Resurrection is proof of God’s power. If you don’t have resurrection power in your life, you haven’t been saved. There are many things in life that only God has the power to do. Only God has the power to raise the dead. You know before we are saved, we are spiritually dead. We are slaves of sin. We cannot say no to sin, we live in them, we are sinners by birth and by nature and by choice. It takes God’s power to raise the dead.

What verifies truth is resurrection power. What verifies truth is life. You see, all this world has is death. Death awaits all of us. It’s a sure sign of a curse. Death reigns not just physically, but spiritually. Everything dies. There are many people who say they’re Christians, but they have no life in them. They have never been raised from the dead in Christ Jesus. Their life shows no power of God, no power to put life where there was none. The Bible says when we are saved we are free sin. And because of our freedom from sin, we can become the servants of righteousness. Many people don’t live holy, they aren’t righteous, they aren’t good, they have no markings of the Holy Spirit’s presence in them… because they aren’t saved. They’ve never experiences this resurrection from the dead.

You know what proves who the man of God is? Resurrection power. See, the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to save people from their sins and deliver them from it. This woman cried unto Elijah, she said “art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?“. When the gospel is preached, it brings our sin to remembrance. When you tell people they are sinners, it revives sin in them, and it slays them. God’s word revives our knowledge and conscience of the fact we are sinners. People don’t want to hear that though do they.

And it’s very well saying oh you’re a sinner. But that just leaves us where this son was… dead. We are all dead and hopeless without Christ. The breaking of the law carries the sentence of death. Something has to die. Someone had to die for you. Jesus Christ died for you, and he exchanges life for death, he gives beauty for the ashes of our sin cursed lives. Elijah proved he was the man of God through raising the widow’s son from the dead. A Bible preacher is the man of God… there are many fakes and phonies and wannabes and posers out there, but the man of God is proved by the life giving power of the message of God he proclaims. It wasn’t Elijah that raised the boy from the dead… it was the Lord God to whom Elijah cried out to in prayer. How necessary is prayer in the salvation of souls… we underestimate it so massively. Jesus said his house would be called a house of prayer, but we don’t believe in the power of prayer. It’s the prayer of faith that raises the dead, just as Jesus prayed at Lazarus’s tomb.

Just like Aaron’s rod, what separates truth from lie is the resurrection. Romans 1:4 – And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. See, the resurrection from the dead, that’s what it all hinges upon. That’s what our salvation hinges upon. If Christ isn’t alive, the whole thing is dead. But Christ rose from the dead. And he will raise you from the dead. We who are dead in sins, God can raise up with Christ in newness of life. A true Christian is someone who has been raised in newness of life. They have Christ’s life running through them, just like the sap of the vine that runs through the branches giving the branches life and yielding fruit on those branches.

Look at your own life. Is it full of sin? We get to thinking we are pretty good, but we really aren’t. Our lives are so full of lust, pride, bitterness, envy, hatred, rebellion. Only God can conquer that in our lives. No amount of do better can change the state of our heart. It takes the Creator to create a new heart in us. It takes the Saviour to wash away the guilt of sin. It takes the Lamb of God to pay the so very high price for our sin. Now I know. You see, when God’s done something for you, when he’s saved you from your sins… now I know. See, God wants to get you to that point. The “now I know” point. There are so many things only the Lord God can do in our lives. Only the Lord God can forgive us, only the Lord can birth new life in us, only the Lord can give us victory over sin.

Her only son died. No breath in him. God’s got to kill some things in our lives before we will experience resurrection. He has to slay our pride, our self righteousness, he has to convince us of our lost state, our inability to save ourselves, our inability to do anything about it other than cry to him for salvation and deliverance. The death wasn’t so much fun, but the life sure was. God’s going to use our real lives to prove himself to us. He proves who he is, and he proves who his messengers are. There are a lot of false preachers and teachers out there… and they have no life giving capacity. Because they don’t preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ, they don’t produce true converts with a true salvation. God doesn’t honor that. There were many prophets at Jezebel’s table, but there was only one Elijah. One man with the word of God in his mouth, rather than a whole heap of lies. See, the only way your mouth is gonna speak truth if you’re saying what God’s word says, when you’re in line with the word of God, when you’re sharing and preaching God’s word to others. And Elijah’s off in Gentile land while Israel is having their dead religion. Boy they had a lot of prophets, but they were all fakes, they were phonies.

If you get saved, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ… you will arrive at “now I know”. Because many things in your life will happen which only God can do. Only God can deliver us from our sin. Only God can take us through this long impossible journey of life. Truth stands alone from lies, and God’s word is with power. God’s word has power to save your soul and transform your life. Nothing can substitute for you laying hold on truth for yourself. You can read about it, know about it, but until you get saved yourself, you won’t ever arrive at “now I know”.

A lot of people search for truth their whole life, but never find it… but that’s because they weren’t truly seeking it. Truth isn’t impossible to find, it’s found in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He can forgive you of your sins, and he can raise you from the dead. He can put new life in you. But that’ll take you getting to an end of yourself, getting to the end of your life of loving and serving sin. You know it’s the truth when it’s your own reality, when you’ve been saved from hell, when you’ve been saved from the slave master of sin, this world and the devil. Jethro, Moses’ father in law said to him, now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods… because of Israel’s mighty deliverance. God wants to take you to a point where you know for yourself, and he will. Not intellectual knowledge, but heart knowledge… knowledge from having been saved from your sin. Believe on his Son, and taking you through the life of a saved child of God, forgiven and delivered… all things that only God can do in your life… then you will know that he is God and his word is truth.

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