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The opening of this passage shows us a powerful moment of faith realized. In 1 Kings 17:24, the widow woman tells Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth."
Notice the shift in her statement: "Now I know." She wasn't sure before. She had questions. When things didn't go the way she expected, she became uncertain about who Elijah really was. But when God showed up—even if not when she wanted—He was on time. And in that moment, her doubt transformed into absolute certainty.
"Don't panic. Don't panic. Don't panic."
We've all had moments when things got out of control, when circumstances didn't align with our expectations, and we weren't sure what God was doing. But when He showed up, we could only say, "Now I know."
Here's the first truth we need to hold onto: Don't lose your mind when you lose your miracle. It's entirely possible to be good, to be in God, and still have what once blessed you say goodbye. My grandmother used to say, "Every shut eye ain't closed, and every goodbye ain't gone."
In this passage, the widow's only son becomes severely sick and dies. When this happens, she runs to Elijah in deep distress. Look at the shift in her tone. In verse 18, she says to him, "What do I have to do with you, O man of God?" Notice the change in her personality. She was excited when he first arrived, but now that circumstances have shifted, she's picking at him. She's essentially saying, "I don't get it. Why did you come to my house just to bring all this negative attention? Why did you show up at my place just to cause things to fall apart?"
Her real message is: Why have you shown up at my house to bring my iniquity to my remembrance and take my only son and cause him to die? She had been good to Elijah. She opened her house to him. And now everything seems to be falling apart.
But Elijah isn't moved. Elijah is accustomed to being part of major moves of God.
Let me tell you what we know about Elijah. He was a prophet in Israel after the kingdom divided. He was from Tishbah—called Elijah the Tishbite. He exposed and killed all the prophets of Baal. He performed many miracles. He talked with God on Mount Sinai. He showed up with Jesus at His transfiguration. And he never died—he was taken up and appeared glowing just as Christ did.
Elijah experienced many great things in his life. I want to take episodes from his life and paint them as a panoramic expression—something you can reflect back on when times get hard, something that will remind you to say to yourself, "Don't panic."
In the first episode, we discover that regardless of our conditions, circumstances, or situations, we all have faced trying times. But here's what matters: we all have an exception in our life.
What is the principle of exception? The principle of exception is knowing that you're the person who is excluded from a general statement or does not follow a general rule. Because of the favor of God on your life, ordinary doesn't apply to you.
Everybody might be losing their mind except you. Everybody might be falling apart except you. Everybody might be falling down except you. Other folks might quit, but not you. Somebody else might change their mind, but you have an exception.
Look at this widow woman. She's about to have her only son taken from her. Elijah asks her in 2 Kings 4:2, "What shall I do for you? What do you have at your house?" And listen to what she says: "Nothing except..." Nothing except a jar of oil.
There are times when the nothing you have becomes the something you need.
The jar represents life. The oil represents abundance. She's in debt. She's about to lose her children. But she doesn't realize what she possesses.
The jar represents her life. The oil represents abundance, health, energy—the vital ingredient for a good life. Jesus said, "I would that they might have life and life more abundantly."
When she says "I have life abundantly," she's really saying, "I have life in supernatural overflow." When something overflows, it means it's been filled with too much. She's saying, "I don't have nothing but a whole lot of life."
Jesus said, "I want you to have life." In Hebrew, that's Zoe—the God-kind of life. The kind of life where everything you need is readily available.
When we realize what we don't have, we need to recognize what we do have. When I have nothing else in my life, I always have my faith.
Let me tell you an embarrassing story. My wife Angela and I moved to Birmingham. I was working a great job—for the Federal Bureau of Investigations in the northern district of Alabama. But God called me off that job by faith. I had maybe 65 to 70 church members at the time. Things got tight. I lost my car in a wreck and couldn't afford insurance.
I was driving our church's 15-passenger van.
We had what they called a Fourth Sunday fellowship where all the pastors would show up. They'd arrive in Cadillacs, Mercedes, BMWs—slam their doors and walk away. My wife and I would pull up in that 15-passenger van. I'd get out my side, walk to the back, pull out a step stool, walk to the passenger side, put down the step stool, help my wife down, and then walk back and put the stool away.
I didn't have much, but I still had faith. I'd look back at that van, and both of us would say, "I wish I had somebody up in here." When I ain't got nothing else, I still got my faith. Every time we'd leave home, we'd take time to say, "I wish I had somebody up in here."
You ain't got everything you want, but you learn how to work with everything you got.
Elijah tells the woman, "Go borrow some vessels. Not a few. Go borrow vessels." Listen carefully: Sometime you got to know the difference between complacency and capacity.
Too many of us have grown complacent with nothing and we've given up the capacity to have everything.
He says, "Go borrow some jars. Not a few. Go get every jar you can find." She borrowed every jar she could get. As long as she brought a jar before the oil, the oil kept flowing. But when she ran out of jars, something happened.
The original text doesn't use the word "stop." It uses the word "stayed." Let me explain the difference.
When I was working with the Fed, we had a drug dog. The dog would take orders. If the dog was on assignment and got close to finding what it was looking for, the handler would say, "Stay." The dog would lock in place. No matter who ran past it, no matter what happened, it focused on what it found and it stayed until the handler said, "Stop." When he said stop, it looked for a new assignment. But when he said stay, it locked in.
The Bible doesn't say the oil stopped. The oil stayed. I dare somebody up in here to get a little bit more capacity. Because if you go back to the oil and put your capacity under the flow, you will find out it's still flowing. The oil never stopped. It just stayed. God is looking for somebody with capacity to be blessed.
I often say to God, "Help me recognize on earth what's real concerning me in heaven." In heaven, I'm healed. In heaven, I'm forgiven. From a heaven perspective, I'm whole. From a heavenly perspective, I got it going on.
But Jesus said, "Thy kingdom and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." When you begin to recognize what's real about you in heaven and make it real concerning you on earth, you give birth to what God called glory.
The definition of glory is when something is happening on the earth side while something else is happening on heaven's side, and you yield what you're doing on earth to what God is doing in heaven. When you yield what you're doing here to what God is doing there, you give birth to glory.
Whereever glory shows up, favor follows. I said wherever glory show up, favor follow.
In Matthew 9, there were two blind men. Their eyes didn't work. But although their eyes didn't work, their ears did. Although their eyes didn't work, their feet did. Although their eyes didn't work, their mouth did.
Stop complaining about what's not working and start working what you do have.
You need to give God glory for what you got.
So we understand that we don't have to panic. This is the foundation: we have an exception, and that exception is rooted in God's knowledge, God's power, and God's provision.
In the second episode, Elijah receives orders from God. God says, "I need you to take a move. I want you to go down to Zerapath." This is amazing because Zerapath is the territory of his enemies.
I wonder—is it possible that you hadn't really gotten everything God has for you yet because all your enemies hadn't showed up?
Much of what God wants to do for you has been done in the dark. But this next move that God is about to bust into your life—everybody's getting invited to the coronation.
David said, "He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies." The word "prepares" bothered me. If He prepares the table before I get there, is He preparing it in advance or waiting till I arrive? But this much I know: this level of preparation is being made on the table itself.
Sometimes when the table is being prepared, you can't sit down.
My wife took me to dinner for my birthday at a nice restaurant. We arrived early, but some of my family showed up late with their families. When we walked in, the lady at the door said, "Mr. McClure, we have your table prepared." I went to walk toward it, and she said, "But wait a minute. I can't seat you until everybody gets there."
You can't get to this next level and have God start blessing you until everybody that laughed at you shows up. Until everybody that criticized you shows up. Everybody that talked about you shows up. You don't get to this next level until all of them show up.
But there's something else about the table. The table is being prepared. The word "prepared" combines two words: "pre" (before or in advance) and "pair" (to thinly slice).
When the writer says He's preparing a table, He's making thin slices at the table because everybody that shows up won't be allowed to sit down. This next level you're going to, everybody you've been running with ain't going to be able to hang at your table. Non-tithers can't get there. Backbiters can't get there.
I'm glad God is taking the pressure off me for the invitations, because I'm not good with exclusion. The only folk that get to sit down are the ones that God invited.
He says, "Go to Zerapath." This boy is going to a city inhabited by his enemies. He says, "Find a woman." He gets there and at the gate there's a woman gathering sticks.
Zerapath literally means to smelt, to refine, or to test. The prophet had been at a brook called Kith, where he was watered during everybody else's drought and fed by a bird that should have been feasting on him. He experienced miracle after miracle. But then the brook dried up. When you lose your miracle, stay in touch with God. Nothing's going right.
He sees a woman at the gate gathering sticks. He asks her, "Excuse me, bring me a glass of water." As she walks to get it, he adds, "While you're at it, do me a favor. Bring me also a little cake in your hand." It's amazing that in the first episode God dealt with the house, but this time He's dealing with the hand.
I wonder tonight as you came before God, what did you bring from your house in your hand? What is it you are bringing? The woman's response was classic: "I have no bread. All I have is a handful of flour and a jar. I'm just gathering some sticks so I can cook what I'm going to cook it and die."
The prophet simply said, "Go do what you going to do. But bring me mine first." He's teaching the woman the principle of first things first. Everything first belongs to God. This is the principle of first fruits.
If you put your first in God's hand, the rest of it will be controlled by God's hand. If you give God your first, God will give you His best. The first governs the rest.
If the root is blessed, the fruit will be blessed. If you give God your first, everything that's connected to what you give will be multiplied. Everything you have left will always be more than what you started with.
Because you gave God your first, everything that comes through your hand after your first, God says, "I'm going to bless it." I need to prophesy to somebody right now: you might as well get ready and start packing because you gave God your first. You've been believing God for a little house, but God doesn't have little in His vocabulary. He's about to bless you like you've never seen before.
When you give God the first, it causes a continuation clause to be upon everything else in your life. I gave God my life. Therefore, my wife and my children will always be blessed. I believe that every child in the bloodline will be blessed regardless of thirty years from now, a hundred years from now—those I'll never see or meet. I believe they've already been set up to be blessed because we practice giving God our first.
When you give God your first, you're practicing a principle that God practices. When God wanted a forest, He planted a seed. When God wanted man, He sent His son. God realized that if He sows His son, He can have all men. It's called the principle of redemption because God gave His first. You're saved this morning because God practiced the principle of first.
How many of us when we wake up in the morning bless God first? How many of us when we get money bless God first? How many of us make blessing God the first thing we do every day?
First Kings 17:14 says, "For thus says the Lord God of Israel, if you'll give me your first, the bowl of flour shall never be exhausted, nor shall the jar be empty." Here's the miracle: the jar never filled up. The miracle is it never ran out. If she went to it today and got some, it looked like the last drop. But when she went back in the morning, another drop was in there.
You ought to go ahead and bless God because you're in a season of never running dry. You're in a place right now that no matter what you need or how much you need it, God is always going to allow your all never to run out.
We learn the criticality of conversation. When the prophet asks, "What do you want? What do you have in your house?" we got to learn how to stop talking so little, teeny weeny, minute, and minuscule. You got to learn how to talk big with God. God ain't mad at folk who talk big. Matter of fact, God talks big.
I like to talk with God. I said, "God, that's my property." He said, "Mike, that's your property." He said, "Well, Mike, the earth is mine and the fullness thereof." I said, "God, look here. That's my part." He said, "Well, the cattle on a thousand hills belong to me." I told God, "I just laid a new driveway up that side." He said, "My streets are paved with gold."
Can I find me somebody that understands God is not mad when you learn how to talk big? I like talking like God. I'm everything God says I am. I can have everything God said I can have. I'm a child of God. I can talk in superlatives.
Time has passed and it's been happy quietness in the life of Elijah and the woman he's living with. Everything's been going well. But all of a sudden, the boy became sick—so severely sick that there was no breath left in him.
You're sick when you can't breathe. Breath is important. See, communications travel on the transportation system of breath. Shalom means peace. The word peace literally means to have your foot planted firmly on the neck of all your enemies. If you can put your foot firmly on their neck, you can choke them. If you choke them, they can't breathe. If the enemy can't breathe, he can't speak. If he can't talk, you're in control.
Go ahead and just start stomping and demonstrate prophetically that your foot is planted on the neck of all your enemies.
Anything I have I can lose, but I don't lose me when I lose it. The text takes a tragic turn of events in the life of this widow. She loses her son. The death occurred after she was obedient to the word of God. The death occurred when she was living her best life.
Even when you're doing all you can for God and things go crazy, don't panic. Stick with God. He's still got you. You've been tithing. You've been sowing. You've been praying. But you still been losing. Understand the principle of removal. Anything I have can be taken from me. I can lose it. But I don't lose me when I lose it.
I'm not my stuff. I'm an anointed man of God. I am what God says I am. Your faith can't be in stuff. Your faith got to be in the Sovereign. You got to love God regardless.
The principle of reaction moves from your heart before you engage your head. Reacting is emotional, but responding is emotional intelligence. You're just moving off how you feel, not according to your faith. How many folk can I be honest? You made some moves based on your feelings and they got you in trouble.
The other day we were sitting at home watching church, and we happened to be watching Rock City. Somebody on the TV said "we are" and the crowd said "Rock City." My five-year-old granddaughter jumped up off the couch and said, "Rock City!" and went crazy. She goes to my church—she's never missed a Sunday that she's been breathing. But I reacted instead of responding. I moved out of my heart, absent of emotional intelligence. She ain't but five. I said, "Pack your stuff. You got to go."
I packed up, told her mama she got to go. I didn't put my intelligence in it. I looked at my baby and said, "Baby, I thought you went to my church." She said, "I go to Rock City." I said, "When you left Revelations?" She said, "The last time I heard you sing." I said, "She said, 'My pastor can preach and sing.'" You can preach, but you sure can't sing. I had to wait. I had to gather myself because that thing bothered me.
It's interesting to note the definite change in the woman's attitude. She reacted to Elijah: "What do I have to do with you, oh man of God? What's going on? I thought you had power. I thought God sent you to fix my situation." She reacted wrong.
How did you react the last time hell broke loose in your life? How did you react the last time things didn't go in your favor? She said, "You come to me to remind me of my iniquities and to put my son to death. What's wrong with you, old man of God?" Maybe she had some skeletons in her closet.
First, she thought that because the prophet was in her home, she was immune to problems. Can I talk to some intercessors today? As powerful as your prayer life is, you're still not immune from problems. There are times you're going to pray with. There are times you're going to pray for. But then there are times you got to pray as. When you begin to pray as, you're not only dealing with your own stuff, but you got to deal with somebody else's stuff. And they say you didn't think they had any stuff. And the stuff they're dealing with is greater than the stuff you ever had to deal with.
You better make sure you learn how to respond and not react. Reactions come from the heart. But response comes from the head married to the heart.
Second, she felt guilt and thought perhaps she was to blame. How many times when trouble broke loose in your life, you started finding stuff you did wrong? God does not play tit for tat. God is not an Indian giver. God doesn't bless you and then, because you tell a story, come back and take the blessing away. God doesn't beat you down because you didn't pray as long as you did last week. That's not how God works.
Stop allowing your emotional trauma to perpetuate everyday drama. Stop going through the same thing over and over again when God has already delivered you. He's already set you free. He's already made a way for you. When God told Israel, "You'll never see this enemy again," He meant it.
I've been forgiven. I ain't guilty of doing nothing. It's impossible to be judged righteous and guilty at the same time. When God forgives us, He doesn't forgive us for what we did. He forgives us for what we're going to do. He forgives us for what we've already done.
My whole life has been smeared and splattered with the blood of Jesus and I ain't guilty of none of my own ways. The woman was literally thinking, "What have I done to displease God? What did I do to deserve this?" She's literally saying to herself, "Where did I mess up?"
Don't lose your mind when you lose your miracle. Many times it's not about you. God says, "I'm walking to and fro in the earth. I'm looking for one of y'all that I might show myself strong. How can I show myself strong unless I deposit myself in a vessel that's weak? How do I make you whole? I catch you broken. I feel you not when you're full, but when you're empty, I come in when times are going crazy and I bring sanity. I got you."
Whenever you're suffering, your mind will start telling you that you're just dealing with some random pain or some meaningless pain or it's caused by some sin, and it causes you to start living in guilt and filth. One of the worst states in the life of man is to live your life in guilt and fear, walking around every day feeling like any moment could be your last.
Somebody needs to know this ain't about you.
The principle of response is having a desired outcome—a victorious moment over your victim's mentality. Remember, reacting is emotional, but responding is emotional intelligence.
He said to her, "Give me your son." Then he took him. I want you right now by faith to give God every dead thing in your life.
The principle of response is having a desired outcome—a victorious moment over your victim's mentality. Remember, reacting is emotional, but responding is emotional intelligence. When you react, you're letting circumstances control your actions. When you respond, you're choosing your actions with wisdom.
Elijah demonstrates this principle perfectly. He said to her, "Give me your son." Then he took him. This was not a reaction born of anger or frustration—it was a response rooted in compassion and purpose.
I want you right now by faith to give God every dead thing in your life. Don't just act like you're responding—actually give it up. This area might be cool, but you've got a dead area over here. Whatever is lifeless, whatever has stopped producing, bring it to God.
Her tone was somewhat caustic. It's important to see that Elijah did not react to what she said. He responded with positive compassion, with positive action. He said, "Give me your son."
I'm talking to somebody right now. You've lost everything, but just give me what you got left. Give me your broken heart. Give me that life that's been trampled under the foot of men. Bring it to me.
The Bible says, "Then he took the boy from the woman's bosom." He took what meant most to her in life. See, you don't know if you really love God until you can give God what means the most to you.
He took the boy and carried him up to the upper room where he was living. He laid him on the bed. The Bible said he spread out on the young boy—face to face, chest to chest, waist to waist, knee to knee. He covered every area of this child.
