TEXT: Deuteronomy 32:10
INTRO: God has a school…a place of learning…like no other place of learning. Your wilderness may not be in a literal desert at all. Does God know where you are? Does He understand? Yes, my friend… His schooling includes time in the wilderness. That is where He prepares, speaks, cares, and gets our attention!
BUT GOD DOES NOT FORSAKE!!!
Moses, the Apostle Paul, Elijah, all graduated prepared to do what God had called them to do from the beginning, But first Elijah must graduate from Dry Brook School, and Empty Barrel School down at Zarephath. God isn't correcting His prophet, He is perfecting and preparing Him.
OUTLINE:
ELIJAH'S TEST (1Kings 17:17-18 (NIV))
- A Dead Person - The son suddenly dies! Isa. 55:8-9, (My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways.)
- A Distraught Parent - Now her dreams are destroyed, and Her heart is broken and her world is shattered. She was walking in her Wilderness!
- The widow thought she was passing through a wilderness of correction. She failed to see was that she was in a wilderness of perfection.
- A Discouraged Prophet - What an effect this must have had on Elijah!
- We are never more vulnerable to the attacks of the flesh and the devil as we are when we are discouraged.
Never discount what the Lord is doing in you, through you, to you and around you. He has a plan, and you’re a part of that plan, all will be well!