God’s Word came to Elijah, along with the promise of protection and provision, after he stepped out in faith and acted on the initial word he had been given.
“And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, get you from here and turn you eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. .And it shall be, that you shall drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there” (1 Kings 17:2- 4).
God made supernatural provision for Elijah. As you can imagine, Elijah was in trouble with the king once the word about the drought actually started to come to pass. Ahab began to look for him, so God hid, protected, and provided for him during this period of time. Notice where the Lord sent this provision: “I have commanded the ravens to feed you there” (1 Kings 17:4).
God made provision for Elijah, but it wasn’t sent directly to him. The provision was sent “there”—to the place the Lord told him to go. Whenever God tells you to do something, He makes full provision for you. There’s always an ample supply for anything the Lord tells you to do. Yet, I have seen people who have stepped out on a word from God and didn’t see everything work out. Instead of seeing the provision, they suffered many problems instead.
This makes you wonder, if you are honest and bold enough to admit it, What happened to these people? Was God faithful? God sent the supply to where He told Elijah to go, not to where he was. He didn’t send the provision to Elijah directly. He sent provision to the Brook Cherith. I am not exactly sure how God speaks to ravens, but He didn’t send them to where Elijah was. He must have given them a grid coordinate somewhere along the Brook Cherith and told them to take the food there.
The supply was sent where God told Elijah to go. If he had stayed right where he was, the Lord still would have supplied the food because verse four says, “I have commanded the ravens …” The Lord had already spoken to the birds instructing them to take the food for Elijah. It would be there, even if Elijah wasn’t. God’s provision wasn’t dependent on Elijah’s obedience, but Elijah’s ability to receive God’s provision was. Those ravens were going to bring bread and flesh every morning and evening and pile it high beside the water. Yet, if Elijah had failed to go where God told him to go, he could have starved to death while wondering, God, where are You?
I stepped out on Your Word, but where’s Your supply? God provides for us every single time. He loves us and has made abundant provision for everything we need, but that provision isn’t sent to where we are. It’s sent to where we’re supposed to be. Therefore, if we aren’t obedient and don’t follow through on what He has told us to do, we can miss His supply.
The Lord sends our provision to where He tells us to go, not to where we are. If we make a wrong turn or don’t ever move off the line of scrimmage, we aren’t going to receive. And it’s not the Lord’s fault. He’s always faithful to give, but we have to be in the right place to receive.
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The provision isn’t where you are. It’s “there”—it’s found while you’re out doing what God has told you to do. Many people are waiting to see the provision before they step out, but God said, “I have already commanded the ravens to feed you there” The Brook Cherith must have been at least two or three miles long. How did Elijah know which spot to camp at along the brook? He knew he was in the right place because God had already spoken to the ravens, and they could certainly fly there quicker than he could walk. Therefore, he knew he was in the right place when he saw the provision of bread and flesh. God had already sent the provision. All Elijah had to do was obey. “So he went and did according to the word of the Lord” (1 Kings 17:5). Obedience matters. God gave Elijah a word. He knew there was going to be a need in Elijah’s life for protection and supernatural supply, so God made the provision and sent the ravens. What would have happened if Elijah hadn’t obeyed? God’s provision would have just lay there rotting, and Elijah could have starved. There is a place for obedience. Obedience doesn’t change God’s heart toward you, but if you aren’t obedient, you can certainly make it hard on yourself.
God has a purpose for you. He has put a call on your life. Supernatural provision has already been sent to accomplish whatever God has told you to do, but it’s “there.” The problem is that we aren’t all “there” yet. We are doing our own thing, in our own timing, and in our own way. But there is an anointing on being obedient to God and doing what He says.
The Lord asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. That didn’t make sense. It looked like he was killing the promise, but that was “there” for him. It was what God called him to do. You can look at all the major characters in the Bible and see that God asked just about every single one of them to do something completely illogical. Yet, what He was looking for was just an act of obedience. That’s where the supernatural power of God comes into play.
You can probably think of something like this that the Lord has asked you to do. That’s just how He operates. God has already sent your provision “there.” If you’re missing out on His supernatural supply, it’s because you aren’t “there.” You aren’t doing what you know in your heart God has called you to do. Even when you step out, take a risk, throw caution to the wind, and do everything God tells you to do, it will still often take a great miracle to see something happen. It’s still hard. But if you aren’t even doing what you know in your heart God has called you to do, then you don’t stand a chance at experiencing success.
Hearing from God and acting on that word is simply a necessity if you ever want to see His power manifest in your life. The Lord will never do anything to destroy you. He might do a few things to test you, but He will never do anything to hurt you. There’s a tremendous blessing and anointing in being “there” and doing what God has called you to do. Are you “there?” If not, why not? Do what the Lord tells you to do.
Your place called “there” is not necessarily a specific geographic location. It’s often more an attitude of wholeheartedly moving toward doing what God has said for you to do. “So he went and did according to the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the Brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook” (1 Kings 17:5-6).
There was a supernatural supply of bread and flesh, but there was also a natural supply of water. The water wasn’t a supernatural supply. It was already there and had been for thousands of years. It was natural. When God calls you to do something, the provision is not totally supernatural. There are also natural things that will meet your needs.
You need to keep things in balance. You will find yourself in a ditch if you’re always looking for your needs to be met in a totally natural, human way. When you do this, you look to yourself and the pressure is on you to provide. In the same way, you will find yourself in a ditch if you just expect God to rain down provision out of heaven while you refuse to do anything according to natural wisdom.
