SHOW NOTES
Embracing the Supernatural, pt3
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 170
God initiates some miracles. God has partners in His miracles. We see the manifestation of those miracles, but God is also always seeding the ground and doing something behind the scenes as well.
We pick up the miracle with Elijah confronting the prophets of Baal (which was not his idea, but something God told him to do).
1 Kings 18:21
Elijah came near to 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 did not answer him a word.
We see here the agenda for the miracle: God is going to give Israel a chance to reclaim their identity. Elijah is going to put Baal on trial.
1 Kings 18:27
It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside…
This is one of the funniest verses in the Bible. A lot of scholars believe that the Hebrew intention of what Elijah was saying was “…maybe he has gone to the bathroom.”
1 Kings 18:27-28
It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.” So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them.
There was no god that would answer them.
Now let’s go back a little bit…
1 Kings 18:17
When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is this you, you troubler of Israel?”
When Ahab meets Elijah, he realizes that when God works through Elijah, it causes him problems. There is a prophetic place in the supernatural that disrupts the flow of society.
I love Elijah’s response here. It is critical.
1 Kings 18:18
He said, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and you have followed the Baals.”
With every miracle, there is an agenda. With every miracle, there is a platform. When God does something supernatural, He wants his people to step up, own it, and declare that God did it.
I had a situation some years ago when I was on trial for contempt of court for not testifying against some pro-lifers in a civil matter. The judge was very antagonistic towards me. When I was supposed to go back before him after being arrested, he suddenly became ill. He was never able to return to the bench–not just for that trial, but never again. His last act was issuing a contempt order for me. I had a reporter ask me what I thought about it. I asked him what he thought about it. The reporter then asked me if I thought God had something to do with it. I replied, “Yes, I do think God had something to do with this.” I took some heat for that. But I think when God intervenes and does something, we have to step up and own it.
When God does something, we need to be prepared ahead of time to use the platform of that miracle without equivocation. We don’t have to explain how God does something or know all of the whys. We do have to give God all the credit.
In verse 18, Elijah tells Ahab that it was him (Ahab) who caused all the trouble, not Elijah.
1 Kings 18:19
“Now then send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
Why would Ahab agree to this? Ahab has everything to lose and nothing to gain. I think he really believed that whatever was going to happen, Elijah would be humiliated and the people would throw their allegiance to the king with their whole heart.
When you are dealing with oppressive forces, we often automatically assume that people know what they are doing in the negative sense. But the truth is that they really believe in the nastiness that they are propagating. There are people who really believe in racism. There are people who really believe in eugenics, believe in abortion, believe in sexual identity transfer, and so on. There are people who really believe this, and they will agree to a showdown.
Ahab agrees to bring the people together, thinking it would end with the humiliation of Elijah. God, through Elijah, humiliates Ahab. Then something very prophetic happens.
1 Kings 18:31
Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.”
This miracle was about calling people back to God. There was a divided kingdom. But God was calling His people back to Him. He was reminding them of who they were—the stones, the altar, the sons of Israel. That is what this miracle was all about. This miracle was a challenge for them to get their identity from the God of Israel, not from Baal. God gave them an opportunity to make a decision. The prophets of Baal went down, and they responded to the calling to return to the God of Israel.
What’s happening in your life that you can use as a platform to declare that it is God who is moving and doing things?
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
