What we can learn from the story of Jonah

Jonah

Jonah is the next prophet we will look at again via Kim’s paraphrase version but I recommend you read it in the Book of Jonah.  Jonah was prophet/ watchman in a time when Israel was bitter.

2 Kings 14 (New King James Version)
²³ In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, became king in Samaria, and reigned forty-one years. ²⁴ And he did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. ²⁵ He restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher. ²⁶ For the LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter; and whether bond or free, there was no helper for Israel. ²⁷ And the LORD did not say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven; but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. 

Jonah was bitter and when God told him to go to Nineveh and tell them that if they did not repent that God was going to destroy them, He ran toward Tarshish.  Why did he run? Because He knew that if they repented God would have mercy on them and save them, Jonah didn't want God to forgive them.  He wanted God’s revenge not mercy for the people of Nineveh.  Remember I have said in previously that the job of a watchman is to watch and then warn, God takes this responsibility very seriously and isn't about to let Jonah off the hook. Jonah gets in a boat heading to Tarshish and God sends a storm Jonah just sleeps in the bottom of the boat while the others are crying out God why are we about to die in this storm and they go to the prophet and say Why is God doing this. 

They had the fear of the Lord and Jonah was a prophet, they knew that he would know what to do.   Jonah says it’s because of me throw me over the side of the ship and the storm will end.  Maybe Jonah chose to die rather then have mercy shown to Nineveh, but God had a plan also.  Bitterness causes many horrendous actions and reactions in our lives.  Our body adjusts to it by changing chemicals in the body, like dopamine, serotonin, Melatonin. These are the chief causes of many of the mental illnesses, including depression, Schizophrenia, Bi-Polar etc.  The Body tries to do something that the spirit should be doing. While there are any number of things that cause mental illness bitterness, fear, Jealousy and wounds are the chief ones.  Jonah felt all of them.  

Also the stress it takes to be bitter can drain us of energy, cause heart attacks strokes and many other problems. Bitterness hurts us much more then the person or thing we are bitter about. Jonah lived in a time when the people were in crisis all the time. He needed to learn forgiveness, grace, and mercy.  He could have run to Secret place of the Most High (Psalms 91:1) but instead he went the other way.
 So the storm comes because God doesn't give up on Jonah, and the men do throw Jonah overboard, and the storm stops.

God had prepared a fish to swallow Jonah up.  Poor Jonah, talk about “out of the frying pan and into the fire”. God is relentless for us He sends one thing after another to help us do what He knows we need to do.

So for three day God helps and protects Jonah in the belly of the Whale.  He protects him from stomach acids it had to be bad in the belly. Sea weed all over him and all the other disqusting things floating in a fishes stomach.

After three days in the belly of the Whale (Big fish) he cries out  Oh God out of my agony I cry out and God answered me. “Out of the Pit of destruction Sheol

 I cried out, and you heard my voice, for YOU cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, floods surrounded me, your waves billowed passed over me, I told you “I have been cast out of your sight yet I will look again toward your holy temple.” The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; {You just left me here God}

You even let weeds get wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains, this likely means that the big fish picked him off the bottom of the sea. The other possibility is that Jonah is just pouring out of his despair. 

The earth with its bars closed behind me forever. You left me there way too long and I could have died, if you hadn’t been God. Yet God you have brought my life from the pit O Lord, my God. When my soul fainted in me I remembered You, I prayed and went up to you, into your holy temple Okay it would seem the ranting is coming to an end for Jonah and now he is willing to hear God again. Then although grudgingly he says “I will sacrifice to You God, I will go to those selfish people who regard worthless Idols, have no mercy. I will sacrifice with thanksgiving and do what I vowed to you. Jonah has surrendered the to will of God.

Then the whale vomits him out.  Now this poor guy covered in fish vomit, sea weeds and other disgusting things goes to Nineveh.

There are hundred of stories that could be told about all this but I want to push on to the end of the story.  Jonah goes to Nineveh and tells the people to repent and they do and God forgives them, and they are saved.

What does Jonah do now? Jonah 4

Jonah was not happy and he became angry and he prayed to the Lord 

“God this is just what I said when I was at home so I fled to Tarshish because I know you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, one who chooses not to do harm.  The interesting thing to me here is that Jonah has already forgotten that God also just forgave and saved him. So now you can just take my life, for I don’t want to live knowing you forgave them. Just take my life I don’t care anymore it would be better if I was dead.”

  Sense of entitlement is something we often think as Christians, children of God that we are owed

And the Lord replies “do you think it is right for you to be angry?”

Jonah doesn’t seem to answer him he is discouraged depressed and feeling sorry for himself and is not making good decisions. And he goes out to the east side of the city, to watch what would happen to the city.  Now God is all that Jonah said he was, a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness,

so God prepare a plant a gourd to grow up and give him shade and Jonah was very thankful for the plant.  This is very similar to what we saw Elijah do when he ran away from Jezebel’s letter and I suggest he does it for the same reason; he thinks that God cares more for everyone else and not for himself.  The next morning God prepared a worm and it damage the plant and it withered. 

 It happened then that the wind began to blow and the sun beat on Jonah’s head so that he was hot and grew faint; again we see that Jonah wished to die. “God it is better for me to die then to live just take my life”

Then God challenges Jonah’s thinking,”is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”  Jonah answers “yes it is right for me to be angry even to death.”  Then the Lord answers and says, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not worked or made it grow you didn’t do anything to make it, and it came up in a night and was gone in a night.  Then why shouldn’t I have pity on Nineveh, that great city which is more then one hundred and twenty thousand people that can not discern between their right hand and their left hand plus their livestock?” The similarities between what Jonah did and what Jesus did are found in: Matthew 16 it shows us that the story of Jonah is symbolic of what Jesus does on the cross, but we never do see the end of the story of Jonah if he repented and decided to do the will of God in the future or if he just stayed in his sorrow, and maybe died.  

Jesus is the Garden of Gethsemane also pray Father if it be your will let this cup pass from me and this is the better ending Jesus, honored The Father and went to the cross to fulfill the will of the Father.

These are decisions every watchman or warriors will have to decide, your own agenda will never get the results you want; obedience to God will stir up our heart only if we let it.  Watchman or warriors need to see bad things the way God does as an opportunity to save the lost.  We need to choose to do the will of God and thus Honor God. This will free us of so many things that life will mean fruitful growth and happiness.

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Battleground of the mind Part 7

Battleground of the mind Part 7

 (Honor)

It shouldn’t surprise us that we struggle with the battle of our minds Jesus fought that battle on His knees in Golgotha the place of the skull.  His number one thought was “not my will but thine be done.” No matter the thoughts He was having it was the Kings will that was to be honored.

To continue with the thought sieve after is the thought true and entirely true? What part is true? What part of it can I change? What part do I just have to accept and trust that God’s grace is sufficient? Comes is the thought honorable?

Does a thought bring Honor to you or does it dishonor you, someone else or the Throne of God?

Is the thought Honorable does it show respect and is it of a high quality worthy of a child of the King? 

Is it the type of thought that honors a child of the King?

These are important questions because when you were born again you became a joint heir with Christ. Therefore you are of the royal family.  Every thought you have needs to show you, others and God respect. If it doesn’t then don’t allow that thought to take root.

Even if it is true if it's not honorable show it the door.

Here’s an example you think that you are seductive and should be able to flutter your eyelashes at anyone, have sex with anyone and party in any matter you like and can do whatever you like.

We have seen the problems with this in the Royal Family of Great Briton.  This type of behavior and thinking leads to scandals and causes huge problems for the Throne. Even adultery and divorce cause a lack of respect for the Throne.  The same is true of the Throne or the Church.  When you let your thoughts of entitlement become rooted in your mind it will ultimately become an action. 

Another area of dishonor that we don't always think about is prejudice, and judgement.  We need to think about our judgement of ourselves and others that it is honorable; Otherwise, we can actually put the Church in the limelight as an unjust place that doesn't treat People Like God would.  

Our thoughts and our actions need to bring honor to the King and the throne.  Perhaps the most interesting thing about dishonor is it usually starts because of things in the first sieve Truth.  We feel entitled because of position and not because of who we are to the King. When we don’t challenge thoughts to their truthfulness and discern and weed out the truth from the lies our mind tells us, then we lower our opinion of ourselves and then we continue with entitlement or anger, bitterness and using a scapegoat leading to unforgiveness etc

Blame is the biggest waste of time and energy our minds present to us.  It accomplishes nothing. Blame's primary purpose is to not have to deal with an issue.  If you blame someone or something then you have no responsibility to do anything about it.  Guilt it’s twin is also the same thing we feel guilty so we don’t have to do anything, about the thought or an issue. Instead when we feel guilty or blame or put blame on someone we need to stop and say to the thought, you are wasting my time so talk to the Hand…..

Any thought that comes and makes us dis-empowered or that we can do nothing about an issue must stop! What we do is repent fix the problem and seek forgiveness and move on.

If we don't act instead of blame then we cause exhaustion overload.  Nothing will sap your energy faster. 

This is the step that if we don't sieve our thoughts through that we start to build up a stronghold to protect that thought! We make it safe and unreachable. It makes us feel justified to have that thought.

With the thoughts we have about ourselves or others should fall under the mercy code of God.

Lamentations 3:

²² Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
²³ They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
²⁶ It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.

 

Great is thy faithfulness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgOlRpoA4hA

Elijah & Jezebel Part Two from the life of Jezebel

Jezebel & the Spirit of Jezebel:

In the last post we talked about Elijah and how he did mighty things and yet threw his ministry away and went to heaven because a personal note from Jezebel was just one thing too much.

Revelation 2:18- 23 

 ¹⁸ And to the angel (messenger) of the assembly (church) in Thyatira write: 
These are the words of the Son of God, Who has eyes that flash like a flame of fire, and Whose feet glow like bright and burnished and white-hot bronze:

¹⁹ I know your record and what you are doing, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your recent works are more numerous and greater than your first ones.

²⁰ But I have this against you: that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess [claiming to be inspired], and who is teaching and leading astray my servants and beguiling them into practicing sexual vice and eating food sacrificed to idols.

²¹ I gave her time to repent, but she has no desire to repent of her immorality [symbolic of idolatry] and refuses to do so.

²² Take note: I will throw her on a bed [^[a]of anguish], and those who commit adultery with her [her paramours] I will bring down to ^[b]pressing distress and severe affliction, unless they turn away their minds from conduct [such as] hers and repent of ^[c]their doings.

²³ And I will strike her children (her proper followers) dead [thoroughly exterminating them]. And all the assemblies (churches) shall recognize and understand that I am He Who searches minds (the thoughts, feelings, and purposes) and the [inmost] hearts, and I will give to each of you [the reward for what you have done] as your work deserves.

If we look back at the ways of Jezebel in the book of I Kings 15-19, Jezebel was the queen she had no special level of authority except that somehow she controlled the King.  How did she control the most powerful Man in the kingdom?  How did Jezebel get away with what she did?

The Book of Revelations tells us, by beguiling Tricking them convincing them that she was a prophetess and inspired them into practicing sexual vice and eating food sacrificed to idols.

1.                       Beguiling   (Verb) Charm or enchant (someone), sometimes in a deceptive way: "a beguiling smile".

2.                       Trick (someone) into doing something.

So that’s how she controlled the king and the army and the People to worship her above anything else.  She was beautiful but wore tons of makeup, jewellery she taunted the king with sex.

So here are some of the attributes of Jezebel in the flesh.

1.         She professes to be a Prophetess.

She has one goal to Control everything

a. She started by sexually controlling the King

b. She controlled the prophets of Baal through claiming to be the high most important Prophetess and with threats

c. She when she found a God bigger then herself threatened His Prophet

2.            She sat in a window and fluttered eyes at the men enticing them with Sexual Vices

3.            She was perverted in the way she dressed and presented herself 

4.            When her will was challenged she got furiously angry

5.            She continued to threaten and control the prophets until a little unknown Prophet named Jehu went and told her, the time to repent was upon her.

6.       She was destroyed by the eunuchs’.

  These were men some of which might have been  Castrated as children or might simple have been today what we call gay having no sexual attraction to women.  Therefore they were trusted to be with the queen knowing they would not touch her inappropriately.        





So here are some of the attributes of:

Jezebel in the Spirit.

1. She deceives herself and others that the prophetic working in her makes her the greatest and therefore she has the right to override every authority and every other prophet.

2. She uses sexual tricks to entangle the prophets the leaders even the Pastors, Teachers and leaders in the Church she actually will make some in a church believe she is the only one that speaks for God.



3. She believes that the prophetic working in her makes her the greatest and therefore she has the right to override every authority and every other prophet.
 Many of the things Jezebel will do is try to control leaders and churches through ungodly controlling Prayers

She sets traps and tricks to lure in leadership and destroy them.

2. She uses sexual tricks to entangle the prophets the leaders even the Pastors, Teachers and leaders in the Church she actually will make some in a church believe she is the only one that speaks for God. If that doesn't work she will falsely accuse them.

2. The spirit of Jezebel in the Church starts with the five fold ministry and flows down and precedes in the whole Church. If you see marriages falling apart because of infidelity, look to the top.         

 3. She dresses Perversely and will work hard in the church to get women and even more so youth to do the same.
You may even in this day and age find incest, human trafficking etc.
4. Jezebel really will target youth getting them to enter into impure relationship at ridiculously Early ages. 
This is what God said would happen to her
Revelation 2:18- 23  Take note: I will throw her on a bed [of anguish], and those who commit adultery with her [her paramours] I will bring down to pressing distress and severe affliction, unless they turn away their minds from conduct [such as] hers and repent of their doings.

²³ And I will strike her children (her proper followers) dead [thoroughly exterminating them]. And all the assemblies (churches) shall recognize and understand that I am He Who searches minds (the thoughts, feelings, and purposes) and the [inmost] hearts, and I will give to each of you [the reward for what you have done] as your work deserves.

***NB.***I am teaching about Jezebel and this Spirit now but later will explain further the ways she can effect our prayer life but for now I will just say that God never wants you to pray a prayer asking Him to override the will of someone else. Your ministry should never seek to be in control of other ministry, God gives each of us a gift and we should not try and be in control of someone else's gifting or ministry.

I Corinthians 12:12-26

Unity and Diversity in One Body

¹² For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. ¹³ For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into^[c] one Spirit. ¹⁴ For in fact the body is not one member but many.
¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? ¹⁸ But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. ¹⁹ And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
²⁰ But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. ²¹ And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” ²² No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. ²³ And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, ²⁴ but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, ²⁵ that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. ²⁶ And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Elijah & Jezebel Part One from the life of the Prophet

ELIJAH

“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”  (James 5:17, 18)

The story of Elijah is the story of prophets and watchmen.  They have enormous faith in God when it's about helping others and in advancing the Kingdom of God, but when it comes to themselves are not quite as confident that God will protect them. They also tend to be always in a state of seeing the spiritual and are often exhausted in doing it. Workaholics. 

They often don't know they can ask God to shut it off and give them rest, and they also are afraid if even for a moment they aren't in spiritual warfare that the world will come to an end, I call this the Superhero complex. 

So here is the Story of Elijah.

 I am going to give you a quick Kim’s Paraphrase of the story of Elijah, please read the story for yourself in, I Kings 15-19 
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Kings%2015-19%20&version=NKJV 

Elijah was the prophet in the time that Ahab was King of Israel.  King Ahab did more to anger God then any other King of Israel that was on the throne before him (I Kings 16:29-34), which is quite a profound statement since that Baasha, before him was pretty bad, and caused all of Israel to sin. Ahab was the son of Omri and he was the king for 22 years.

     Joshua's curse on Jericho

 King Ahab did the very thing that Joshua had declared a curse to do and that was to rebuild Jericho.  Joshua 6:26.  The curse said that anyone that rebuilt Jericho would lose their oldest and their youngest son.

After this happens the Prophet Elijah goes to King Ahab and says to him, “sorry but God is not very happy with you and guess what it’s not going to rain again until I say so.”   

Then God tells Elijah to go to the east and that He would send ravens to feed him. So he went and sat down by the river Kerith and the ravens came and fed him.

 Then the Lord sent him to a widow in Zarephath, now I am sure that Elijah must have been wondering just how God was taking care of him because when he got there, the widow it would seem, was ready to use the last little bit of flour and oil to make a cake for her and her son, and then die.  Elijah though knew that God had sent him there for “her” and tells the women bring me some first. 

 I am sure if he had just been thinking about how God was going to take care of him he might not have had the faith for this but it was about “a woman and her son”.  While the long and the short of it was her oil and flour did not run out until the drought was over.  So they didn’t go hungry but just a little time after Elijah comes again, her son was dead.  The widow was angry with Elijah “what have you done to me you saved us just so that you could remind me of my sin and then my son could die”.   

The thing about watchman or prophets they are always okay helping others and they often are blamed for what God does to show His Glory.  Again though Elijah sees the other person and takes her son lays on him and brings life back to him.  Now the woman is all “I knew you were sent from God you really are a man of God.”

Now Jezebel controlled King Ahab. Jezebel had Ahab to send the army to murder and destroy the prophet of God and it is at this time that God sends Elijah back to King Ahab and on the way he meets another watchman/prophet Obadiah.  He had with him 150 of the prophets of Baal who King Ahab had sent to find water in the all the springs in the land.  Obadiah it says greatly feared God.  When he sees Elijah at a distance he ran to him and bowed to the ground before him. 

 Elijah tells Obadiah to go back and tell King Ahab that Elijah is here!

Okay now, Jezebel has convinced King Ahab that Elijah must die so Obadiah is not to excited to go back and say he met with Elijah and he told Elijah hey man if I leave and tell King Ahab that then I come back and your not here he will have me killed, but Elijah assured him he would present himself.  

Again another watchman that is not too sure that God will take care of him but believes that God will take care of Elijah and does what Elijah tells him.  King Ahab goes out with the army of Baal and greets Elijah with “is that you trouble maker of Israel.”  The” accuser of the Brethren” always accuses the Prophets and watchman, with personal issues. Which may I add is why the first battleground a person that is a watchman, or warrior must first develop a personal relationship with God and win in the battleground of the mind.

Elijah says “oh no King you have troubled Israel more then any other in history.”  Elijah is also very quick to point out that it is Jezebel that is pulling the strings. 1 Kings 18:19  Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

So here is when we get all the prophets of Baal and Elijah on Mount Carmel and Elijah presents them with a challenge.  “Okay you guys I’ll tell you what, you build an altar to your gods and I will build one to LORD and which ever one comes down and devours the offering with fire, that prophet will be the prophet of the LORD of Israel.”  So the prophets of Baal they built an altar out of wood probably really dry ready to burn wood, they put the bull on it and I think they might be just a little afraid at what will happen if fire did not come down and devour it they likely did everything to make sure it would be easy for Baal to burn.  Then they danced around the altar and the cried out to Baal from morning to noon. 

 Now it’s important to see that Elijah is having fun because there is no doubt in His mind that God will defend His glory. My little input here--Watchman rarely ever have trouble trusting God for others or proclaiming the Glory of God if they clearly hear from God.

 He mocks the prophets of Baal saying yell a little louder maybe he’s asleep. The prophets of Baal cut themselves with knives and lances and still no fire came down.  

I love what Elijah does next, he prepares the altar for the Lord.  Elijah then he re-builds the altar of the LORD that was broken down he used 12 stones to represents the 12 tribes of Israel. Then he puts some wood on it and builds a trench around it big enough to hold 2 acres of grain he cuts up the bull in the manner of sacrifice (of Moses for the priest) and pours 4 containers of water over the bull and fills the trench.  Then he gets them to pour 4 more.  Now call me crazy but I think that Either Elijah or God were just messing with the heads of the prophets of Baal and with King Ahab.  Now then Elijah waits until evening and the appointed time of the sacrifice and says oh LORD hear me your servant, I have done all these things at your word and  that these people might know that You are the LORD God and that you have turned their hearts back to You again.

In Verse 33 we see that the fire of the LORD fell and licked up the burnt sacrifice the wood the stones and even the dust and all the water that was in the trench (my dad tells me that this proves that God preferred a good pot roast.) then the people fell on their faces and they said The LORD, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”

Then Elijah killed all of the Prophets of Baal. Then he told King Ahab “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain”  

1 Kings 18

It should be told at this time that in that time period if a prophet prophesied something and it didn’t happen they were stoned.  So now again, Elijah ran with his apprentice and got on his face before God and prayed for rain. 

And Prayed, sent his servant out to look seven times and then prayed again until his servant said I see a cloud the size of a mans hand and Elijah  told King Ahab he had better get home quick because there was going to be a deluge of rain. 
Vs :44  HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS STORY:

When King Ahab gets back and tells Jezebel what had happened she writes Elijah a letter:

Dear Elijah “So let the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”

Now perhaps this would be the normal response by the average person but see what Elijah does when a woman wrote him a letter. A man that knew the power of God to do mighty things and to protect him from both the prophets of Baal sent to kill him and so many other miracles is scared at the letter from a bitter controlling woman.

1Kings 19:3-9

³ And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”
⁵ Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” ⁶ Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷ And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” ⁸ So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.
⁹ And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁰ So he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

Now if you remember I started this chapter talking about how watchman and prophets fight with things like depression and a battle in the mind. Here is how that battle goes, first they start to believe that they are all alone and because of that they further isolate themselves by running away. As long as the battle is for God and His children or about someone else, they have immense faith but when the attack becomes personal they do not have the faith instead they tend to run away and hid. 
Because Watchmen watch one direction for long periods of time and are always the first line of defense, they forget that there are other watchmen, intercessors and warriors. There is always more.

The other thing about watchmen is that they don’t really believe that anyone else can do their job and it feels like an endless toil and they all tend to be very zealous and think they need to remind God of this because they don’t believe that God will take care of them personally.  Sometimes this is because they take on too much and burn out but more often it is because their thinking is blurred after looking into the spiritual realm too much. 

If you think about going into the forest and you think that there is a wolf in the woods so you decide that you are going to stay up night after night and protect your family as they sleep in a tent.  And as you are sitting there in the darkness you see things moving to the west of you.  So you stare and stare at the west until you almost become hyper vigilant, and will attack anything that moves, everything is now a threat because you are too focused on one thing, that is often what happens to watchmen. They focus on something in the spiritual world so long and see it through to conclusion, and then when the battle is over, they are still in that hyper vigilant state that when a personal attack comes it becomes exaggerated to the point of wanting to die, to run to hide etc.

For Elijah this is in a place where God in his mercy and grace lets him rest and again feeds him.

 God says “What are you doing here Elijah?”  God is very gracious He works on Elijah both at the brook and then sends him to a mountain and he shows himself as a personal God by talking to Elijah with a still small voice.  Rather then in the wind the earthquake or the fire. 

 He is trying to settle Elijah’s spirit.  God is being incredibly gracious to Elijah, maybe because he is tired or because he was faithful and I have heard many different perspectives on Elijah but God was gracious to him right up until the Chariots came from heaven and took him to heaven and uses Elijah as an example throughout the Bible.

        Before Elijah went to Heaven though he trained his replacement, he has passed on his ministry, he let his anointing fall onto another. One of the unknown watchmen that God had preserved for himself, and God whisked him away in a chariot of fire and now we have Elisha. And the real enemy of Elijah, Jezebel, was killed by a bunch of Eunuchs and an unknown prophet named Jehu. Read the whole story in 1 Kings.

 Interesting definitions

Ahab (means from deep roots) married to-

Jezebel (means A bold, vicious woman; ) the daughter of-

Ethbaal (means toward the idol or with Baal).

The Summary on:  Elijah the Tishbite

 “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. “(James 5:17, 18)
The Old Testament prophet, Elijah, is mentioned 28 times in the New Testament His legacy during the time of the apostles was popular for at least six reasons: 

1.  He was an ordinary man that God used to 
accomplished extraordinary things. As a young man, Elijah embarrassed the sulky King Ahab, which infuriated his wicked wife, Jezebel, Elijah  rebuked a nation almost totally given over to idolatry, and proved that Baal was no god, and absolutely not the LORD of Israel. 

2. Elijah was the first prophet in Old Testament times to raise a person from the dead 1 Kings 17:22

3. King Ahab repented because Elijah prophesied that ““The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall^[a] of Jezreel. ²⁴ The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Ahab and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field.”” So God changed his mind and said “See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house.”
4.  Because Elijah gave up because of the threat in the letter Jezebel wrote him Elijah trains up a new watchman/prophet in His place Elisha and because Elisha Watched when Elijah went to Heaven and saw what happened he received a double anointing of what Elijah had and did greater things them Elijah

5.  God took Elijah to Heaven in a chariot of fire without experiencing death 2 Kings 2

6.  The last two verses of the book of Malachi end with the promise of a coming Elijah: (Malachi 4:5, 6) Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” 

7.  Peter, James and John saw Elijah on the mountain where Jesus was transfigured. James "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse."
Elijah’s ministry lasted 24 years, but he is considered to be one of the greatest prophets in Old Testament times. His greatness had nothing to do with his family tree, his education, his personal wealth, or assets. In fact, James emphasizes this point by saying, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, " Let there be no mistake – Elijah’s greatness came from God’s greatness. This is because he dedicated his life in service to God and glorified His holy name and this at a time when such activities and behavior was politically and religiously incorrect!