“Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
“He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too…”
“….Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel — all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” 1 Kings 19.

Sin ought to grieve your heart. Whether it is sin that is still present in your own life, or whether it is sin that surrounds you.

Today I also experienced a deep sense of sorrow. Like Elijah, I have also felt a bit lonely in the battle against a monstrosity called religion.

Yes indeed, at the end, Elijah was not as alone as he thought, it however felt that way!

He wanted nothing more to do with what had been polluted and stained – he sought to be with the LORD.

Do you also feel the same way?

Do you feel sorrowful over the wickedness of our world, and the seeming unwillingness of many to follow God?

Does it bother you that so many who are called Christian are simply having a happy-go-lucky attitude while the world around them is drowning in sin, concerned with no one more than with themselves and their own well being?

Does sin impact your heart with sorrow at all?

Do you feel the Father’s heart, or are you as blaze as the hundreds that you pass every day?

Interesting that there were in fact a so called “prophetic schools” with so-called prophets training “prophets” at this very moment of time in Israel.

Yet God never spoke a word to them when He called on Elijah to summons a drought.

Neither does God mention them when He tells Elijah that there are seven thousand people who had not kissed Baal’s feet. Nor are they any more than observers, when God announces Elisha as His Anointed prophet through a Mighty sign.

Could it be they were praying for an outcome in the nation?

Could it be that they prayed against the Word God had released through Elijah, asking God to break the drought while he was resting at the brook?

Could it be that they dismissed his words and considered him to be a false prophet, as was the case with Micaiah?

“Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did the spirit from the Lord go from me to speak to you?” 2 Chronicles 18:23.

There may be many who are dressed as we are, speaking the same words we speak, preaching from the same Bible we use, doing the same things we do, yet there remains that what man cannot see and which God alone knows – the condition of every man’s heart and the authenticity of their soul.

Are we carrying His Heart, or no more than His Words?

 

~ Johann van der Hoven

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Johann van der Hoven is in South Africa. He has been serving the Lord in ministry since 1991 and has hosted numerous apostolic revival meetings in South Africa and in South America. He also currently pioneers a organic church planting movement across South Africa. For more information about him and his ministry visit www.sonsofsovereignty.com or Revival.

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