Clinging to the Promises of God

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Guest (Male): Clinging to the promises of God on today's Leading the Way.
Dr. Michael Youssef: I want to tell you most assuredly that whenever you bring your effort into an alignment with God's purpose for your life, you will be blessed. Whenever you fulfill the condition of the promise, I want to tell you you can safely claim that promise and God will give it to you.
Guest (Male): We thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef and listeners across six continents for Leading the Way audio. Today the storied life of Elijah, his trust in God and victory through obedience. Hey, if you'd like to know more about Leading the Way and how to stand right with Dr. Michael Youssef in generosity, perhaps by becoming one of his frontline mission partners, give us a call at 866-626-4356. Or you can visit us at ltw.org. Okay, more on that later. Right now listen along to Dr. Michael Youssef and this episode of Leading the Way.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Will you open please the word of God to 1 Kings chapter 18 beginning at verse 41. And here we're going to see Elijah clinging to the promises of God. Some of God's promises are conditional promises. By that I mean the fulfillment of these promises depend on something that I have to do, you have to do. But then there are other promises that are unconditional promises. Secondly, I want you to remember this. Some of God promises are personal promises. They are limited to one person at a given time. But then there are other promises that for all believers all the time. Now have you found 1 Kings 18? And here immediately following that magnificent event, that incredible supernatural event, incredible intervention of God by a fire falling from heaven supernaturally that licked everything inside stones and woods and sacrifice and water. Right after that there on Mount Carmel, Elijah tells King Ahab verse 41. He said, get home quickly because the rain is in the forecast. If I would translate it literally, it might not make sense, but here's how it sounds. I hear the feet of rain approaching. Has you seen it by faith, here heard it by faith or here heard it literally? It doesn't really matter. Ahab goes down to eat and drink. Where does the man of God goes? He goes up to Mount Carmel in order to kneel on the promises that God has given him. He went up to pray. Listen carefully, please. The promises of God plus prayer equal the fulfillment of the promises of God. Let me put it another way. Keeping the condition of the conditional promises of God plus trusting that God will fulfill them equal the intervention and the fulfillment of God's promises. The promises of God are always certain, always certain. But they may not mature in 90 days. I have often said that when God makes a promise, faith has to believe it. Hope anticipates it and then patience awaits it. I'm going to make a confession. I know the Bible said confess to one another and I'm going to confess to you publicly. When it comes to God's promises, I'm okay with that. We even when it comes to believing it, well I'm okay with that too. And even when it comes to hope anticipates it, it's a little hard, but I can go along with that. But I have the hardest time with the last one. Patience quietly awaits it. I want to tell you I literally have calluses on my hands for pounding on the doors of heaven. I'm going to get back to that, not because I want to, but I want to be faithful to the text, so I have to deal with it. What kind of a promise did God make to Elijah? It's very new text. Can you find it? God made him a conditional promise. Where is it? What's the conditional promise? He was there in Zarephath with that widow and God said to him, go down, show yourself to Ahab and I will send the rain. That is a conditional promise. God is saying, Elijah, if you do that, I will send the rain. Remember it hasn't rained for 3 and 1/2 years. But Elijah's obedience was the condition of the fulfillment of God's promise. You know, there are so many promises in the scripture that are conditional promises. I find myself frustrated when I see Christians are confused about this issue. Running around claiming the promises of God, listening to those naming it and claiming it, blabbing it and grabbing it, top preachers and when it doesn't happen, they get devastated and they say, what is happening? What is happening is that you have not understood the biblical principle here. You have not understood how God works. Most Christians today love to claim the promises of God, but they want to escape the conditions. But God must be true to his word. God set those things in motion and he is not going to change them. The Bible said you sow and you reap. And what you sow is what you reap in kind. Now the Bible said give and it will be given unto you. Now of course there's a period of waiting between the time you sow and the time you reap. I've never seen a farmer going out there and digging the seed to see how it's doing. To be sure there is a time and sometimes there are setbacks, but I will tell you they are as true as God's own word that if you sow, you will reap. The kind of things that you sow, you will reap. And if you sow cotton, I've never seen a farmer who sow cotton and reap wheat or corn. If he sows wheat, he gets wheat. If he sows cotton, he gets cotton. This picking and choosing, well I'll believe this and I'll believe this, but I'm not going to believe this and I'm not going to I'm really going to ignore this because somehow if I ignore it's going to go away. And it's a cafeteria Christians and I'm going to pick and choose. I am just going to go along the cafeteria. I'm going to pick this. Yeah, I like this and I don't like this and I don't like this. I like this passage. I don't like this passage. God's word is one word. I was thinking about this and thought of this three sisters who went to a wedding for the first time. They've never been to a wedding before. And when they came home from the wedding, they decided to play a wedding game. One was going to be the bride and the other one is going to be the groom and the other one is going to be the minister. And as the bride and the groom role playing here sat standing next to each other, the minister who wasn't playing the role of the minister, she said to the bride and she said, would you take this man for richer or for poorer? And the little girl said for richer. Oh, how like adults that we pick and choose and we want to believe that part, but we don't want to believe that part. Proverbs 3 5 and 6 is a conditional promise. The Bible said that if you commit your ways to the Lord, he will bring it to pass. And if you want to pilot your own ship, your own way and then when you get into trouble, you cry out to the Lord, Lord, why aren't you not blessing my plan? When I have violated the condition of the promise, I should not expect a fulfillment of it. 1 John 1 9 that is often rattled by carnal Christians almost like just dialing 911. You know, get into trouble, just dial 1 9. I didn't realize that. 1 John 1 9 I just noticed it now. The carnal Christians go and live any which way they want to live and then it just gets where 1 John 1 9 says as if you confess your sins. Sure, it's a conditional promise. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You say, but I confess all the time. No, you don't. Lip confessions without determination to change is a cheap repentance that does not obligate God to forgive you. Confession must include a decision to forsake. Some of God's promises are not only conditional, but they are personal promises. There are personal promises and there are universal promises. This promise here for Elijah was a personal promise made for a specific person for a specific period of time. You will make a mistake. You get into trouble when you try to make a personal promise to be a universal promise. Now you understand the principle. You see how God works and you say, well now Lord, I want you to speak to me in this way. You can learn from that and that's what we're doing this whole series. See understanding how God works. And we often think that we somehow have to spend hours in prayer convincing God that he should bless what we're trying to accomplish. Instead of spending hours in prayer trying to discern what is God's will in my life. I want to tell you most assuredly that whenever you bring your effort into an alignment with God's purpose for your life, you will be blessed. You have God's word on it. Elijah understood that whenever prayer aligned with obedience together with the promises of God, he was going to see an answer to his prayer. Whenever you fulfill the condition of the promise, I want to tell you this is the true naming it and claiming it. Whenever you fulfill the condition of the promise, you can safely claim that promise and God will give it to you. God cannot lie. He cannot deny himself. Now if you're spending many a night on the side of your bed instead of sleeping in it, I want to tell you, listen to me. I'm going to tell you from the heart of experience. Instead of sitting on the side of your bed asking God for what you want, save the time, save the energy and begin to ask him what does he want? Ahab went down to eat and drink, but Elijah went up to kneel on the promises of God. Both men saw the hand of God working mightily. Both men saw the power of God manifested together with the thousands upon thousands of people. Both men experienced the greatest supernatural intervention since Exodus. One went down in a brutish and animalistic way to eat and drink and the other went up in humility before God clinging to the promises of God. You know, I hear people say, oh, if we just see more miracles in our day, people would believe. I tell you they will not. I submit to you that there are miracles happening all around us every day, but the spiritually blind will not believe and will not see it even if it is done in the most magnificent way. You remember Jesus telling the story of Lazarus and the rich man. That is not a parable. That is a true story. Jesus Christ who pre-existed with the Father before the foundation of the world telling us a true happening. This man referred to as a rich man was a man who self-centered. He didn't have a thought of God. He didn't have a thought of God's kingdom. He thought only of himself, his successes, his comfort. And Jesus said there was a man by the name of Lazarus who trusted God. He didn't have a thing in the world, but he believed God. He put his trust in God. And both died. One went to heaven and one went to hell. And after a few moments in hell, I want to tell you something. The rich man turned out to be a great evangelist. After a few moments of torment, he yelled out to father Abraham. He said, father Abraham. You see, he thought that his ethnicity, he thought that his Jewishness was going to get into heaven. So he called out to Abraham, the father of the Jewish night. He said, father Abraham. And when he finally realized that it's too late, he then please send Lazarus, let him rise from the dead so that my family would believe and not come to this place of torment. You remember what Jesus said Abraham told him? He said if they don't believe the Bible, even if somebody would rise from the dead, they will not believe. There were miracles right before Ahab, but it did not scratch his heart. The spiritual blindness was there. Miracle made no difference. But there's something else here that I want to tell you about Elijah's prayer. When Elijah went up to pray in Mount Carmel, he prayed specifically, right? Can you find it? There is no prayer recorded here. It's not recorded in this passage. But listen, the Holy Spirit who's the author of the Bible from beginning to end does not record it in 1 Kings 18, but he records it in James chapter 5 verse 17. Listen to it. Elijah was a man just like us and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for 3 and 1/2 years and again he prayed and heaven gave rain and the earth produced its crops. That's where you'll find it. What do you think Elijah was praying? Oh God, bless everybody everywhere. Go to sleep. So most Christians do. I am convinced in my heart he was praying, oh Lord, you promised me that if I stood before Ahab, you will send the rain. I know you're going to keep your promise, Lord. Do you know why prayer is such a burden to so many Christians? I want to tell you why. Because of the ambiguity of our prayer. There's so many Christians who look upon prayer as a task. Oh, the hard work of prayer. We feel the task is too heavy. We end up praying that prayer, God bless everyone everywhere. Amen. I know there are some Christians out of false sense of reverence. You know, they are afraid to be specific with God. I hope I put an end to this fallacy because when Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10 verse 30 that the hairs on your head are counted, it does not mean that he simply knows how many. He knows that. But when he said there are numbered meaning that he knows which hair that fell in the brush when you brushed your hair this morning. That he has chronological records of every one of your hairs. And if God is that specific and details with you, you need to be that specific and detailed with him. As much as I'm not big on details, I want to tell you when it comes to prayer, you better find a different Michael because I pray specifically and in details. Elijah prayed specifically, but he also prayed obediently. He also prayed clinging to the promises of God. And then he prayed persistently. Here's that part. That's the challenge for me. Jesus taught that it is not the length of prayer, it is not the language of prayer, it's not the posture of prayer, whether you're kneeling or standing or on your head or whatever. But it is the persistence in prayer that he taught again and again in the scripture. I confess to you, I don't understand everything about persistence in prayer, but I know that it is the word of God. And I told you I'm going to get back to the subject of my greatest challenge. Patience, perseverance, persistence is always too convicting for me. But I seldom bring you a message before God has already penetrated deep into the well of my soul and this is no exception today. And Jesus said in Luke chapter 18 when he told about the woman who persisted with the unjust judge because that woman was beating on his door and beating on his door, finally said, well I might not be a godly person, but I will answer her because of her persistence. Jesus himself in Gethsemane, he persisted in prayer regarding the will of the Father. This side of a nation woman who came to the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of her daughter, she persisted in prayer until Jesus answered her. Do I know everything about persistence in prayer? I really don't. But everywhere in the scripture where you encounter biblical teaching about persistence in prayer, it is there is something I see in the scripture somehow that persistence and prayer and the promises of God belong together. I'm not talking about personal desires or wants. I'm talking about God's promises. Well, how did Elijah persist in prayer? Look at it there and mark it in your Bible verse 43. Put persistence next to that verse. He sent his servants to look for a cloud and he didn't send him once. He didn't send him twice. He didn't send him three times. He didn't send him four times. He sent him seven times. After the first time he could have given up. After the second time he could have said, well God is not going to answer me. After the third time he could have said, well you know, I had enough victory for one day. After the fourth time he could have said, oh, I must have misunderstood God's promises. After the fifth time he could have began to doubt God. After the sixth time he could have become angry with God as so many of you are. But he was persistent in prayer even to the seventh time. So he prayed specifically, he prayed obediently. He prayed clinging to the promises of God. He prayed persistently and then he also prayed expectantly. He believed with all of his heart that God is going to keep his word. And that's why he kept sending his servant seven times. He really did. He believed that God is going to do it and he would have been shocked if God didn't. And you know why he was expectant? You can tell because as soon as the servant came back and he said, well there is a piece of cloud in the sky as big as a man's hand and literally it can also mean as a heel of the foot of a man, it's the same thing. It's a tiny cloud. You know what Elijah was doing? That's expectant prayer. He was handing out umbrellas. And you know, if you look at this passage real closely, you're going to notice that Elijah would have been absolutely surprised to his wits if God didn't answer his prayer. Many of us would pray and pray and pray and when God answered prayer, we we just saw surprised not Elijah. And that is why we are reading about Elijah. Why? Because he persisted in prayer because he was not surprised when God answered his prayer. Finally, I want you to notice one thing here. When God fulfilled his promise, Elijah stayed humble before God. I have seen it in the Christian community. There's some Christians who don't know how to handle victory. Yeah, they can handle a crisis, but somehow they can't handle victory. They can't handle blessings. I've seen others when when victory and blessing come they begin to take credit for it. Well, it was my hard work. It was so and so and it was this and it was that. And I've seen others who after victory and a blessing come we put natural face on it. It would have happened anyway. Please listen carefully. You do not need to be a great theologian to know that this kind of attitude does not honor God. Elijah after the victory, he tucked his cloak and he ran before King Ahab. Now you might have missed it because you got to understand this is an act of humility. It's an act of submission. In the Middle East when you run before the king is a form of subordinating yourself to the king as a servant. Hey, listen. Elijah could have said, I got Ahab exactly what I wanted him. I got him on the run. He didn't do that. He could have said, listen Ahab, you are out and I'm in. But he didn't do that. You know why? Because Elijah was adamant that everybody must know that this great act is God's act, not Elijah's. Let me ask you this. What are you doing with the conditional promises of God? Are you refusing to keep your end of the bargain, rationalizing why? Are you refusing to keep the condition of the promise? Or have you simply just given up?
Guest (Male): Thank you for being a part of today's Leading the Way audio episode with Dr. Michael Youssef. Does it feel like your life has gone off the rails? Have you ever strayed from God and his promises? Maybe you'd like to talk with someone about spiritual things. Well, we invite you to begin that conversation with one of Leading the Way's pastors or counselors simply by filling out a contact form. Go to ltw.org/jesus. Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef is listener supported. There are several ways that you can stand with Dr. Youssef and support Leading the Way's gospel impact around the world. Consider a generous one-time gift or become a frontline mission partner. Those are the friends who give monthly. Or you can join the community of cornerstone partners, those who give in and through their estate. Learn more at ltw.org. Or you could always get connected with a Leading the Way team member. Just call us at 866-626-4356. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.