Scripture Reference 1 Corinthians 2: 4-5

⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Kings 18: ¹⁶ So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. ¹⁷ When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”

¹⁸ “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals. ¹⁹ Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

Life Lesson: Let’s face it, if it were up to us we would say what we thought we should say when we thought we should say it. Let the Lord be sovereign over your tongue, what you say and when you should say it. There is great power for those who wait upon the Lord to speak the truth.

Just prior to the record found in the above text we are informed by Obadiah that Ahab had been searching far and wide for Elijah, vs 10 and yet Elijah was nowhere to be found. Many impulsive believers today might think, “O that’s terrible! Why was Elijah remaining hidden? He has the Word of God!  He should have been speaking it!” But those people would be very wrong in their thinking. Elijah was doing what he was supposed to do and that was to wait upon God for His directives and not to just go about spouting off whenever he felt so inclined to do so. There was and there is power for those who will obediently wait for God’s timing to speak and to confront.  There are those who go about saying what they think whenever they feel like it, but those individuals are usually the source of contention and division within the Body of Christ, James 1: ¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

Elijah appeared before Ahab to speak God’s message at God’s directing, not at his own. Until that day he held his tongue and he waited. I have to admit it is very difficult to live this way. I struggle with it and it is very evident that most others also struggle with it and so we need to check ourselves that we do not allow a person speaking out of their own convictions to manipulate us to quickly react to them. Choose to wait upon the Lord. It’s okay to walk away and to hold your tongue. You don’t owe anyone a reason for that! It is the God-ordained way to live. And when you do inevitably speak, if God so leads, do so as one speaking the word of God. And by the way, I understand that feeling of needing to defend yourself, or immediately set the record straight – to call it as you see it. However, those quick, knee jerk responses are often the very thing that gets us into trouble and reduces our witness to carnality.