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1 Kings 17: 8 – 16

Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.” And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in you hand.” But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.” Then Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth.’”

This is not the story you expected when you saw the title, but you will see that this woman, like the widow in Luke 12: 44, gave all she had, the very last of her provision. The widow woman of Zarephath was in the midst of a drought and a famine. She was in hard economic times, not unlike many of us today. When the economy is bad, like it was in Zarephath, people need to hear from God.

The story actually begins with God telling Elijah to go to Zarephath because He had appointed a widow there to provide for him. When Elijah arrived in Zarephath, he found that his “provider” was so broke and destitute that she was gathering sticks to make a fire so that she could use the last handful of flour and the last bit of oil to make a bread cake for her and her son to share. Her after dinner plan was for them to lay down and die. She was done. She had no more money and no prospects. As far as she was concerned it was all over. This is to whom God sent Elijah for sustenance. Now how was the widow supposed to care for Elijah when she couldn’t even care for the needs of herself and her son? God knew that this woman needed a miracle. That is why He sent his prophet and a prophetic word to her.

I want you to notice the first thing that Elijah said to the woman when she told him she had neither meal nor oil. He said, “Do not fear.” Fear is the first thing that has to be dealt with in hard times of any kind. Often, when an angel would visit someone, the first thing the angel would say is, “Fear not.” We’ve got to get that fear out of our environment so that faith has an opportunity to work. Faith and Fear are opposites so you can’t have a faith environment where there is rampant fear. So, fear was the first thing Elijah had to deal with in order to get this woman’s miracle to her. How was she going to walk in faith and make a cake for Elijah as long as she was gripped by fear? She would have been unable. But faith took hold in her, and she did as Elijah said. And she received her miracle. Her flour bowl was constantly full as well as her jar of oil. She was, therefore, able to support Elijah as well as feed herself and her son.

The first step to your financial breakthrough is to rid yourself and your household of fear. Don’t mind what the economists and broadcast media tell you. Use the newspaper as kindling if you must. Those sources are going to be sources of fear, not faith. And where do you find faith? “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ (Romans 10: 17). You’ve got to hear God and what He says about your situation. God’s word has got to be your final authority like it was for the widow woman rather than what the media says or the way things look. Facts are situational. They can change today and no longer be the fact at all.

Second, don’t be afraid to give. Do you see that the widow’s own miracle was in her seed. God sent Elijah to her so that He could give her a miracle. She sowed the last of her flour and oil into the Kingdom of God by feeding it to God’s prophet and God made her flour bowl and oil vat bottomless. That was some well invested flour and oil!

Listen because God is calling out to his kids. God may be speaking to you right now. He wants you to be free of financial care. He desires to have your cup runneth over. Take some time to listen to God and then hearken to the voice of the Lord.

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