KJB Daily Devotion – Following Jesus
Through Every Chapter
Date: Thursday,
April 14, 2016
Chapters: 1
Kings 19-21
Message: 1 Kings: You Are Not Alone

Hello
My Friend,

The closer we get to Jesus returning the
harder it is getting to find other God fearing Christians among us.
This ought to not be surprising to faithful Christians as we are told
from the word of God that this is going to happen. In a world full of
corruption and persecution of the church it is easy to hide in the
shadows so we do not draw attention to ourselves, but we must realize
that while God will allow us some time to hide, we have work to do.
Remember, you are not alone, you have someone walking with you daily,
and that is your Lord, Jesus Christ. “Go
ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am
with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” -
Matthew 28:19,20.

One thing that every Christian who
proclaims and teaches the truths of God’s word can never avoid is
people trying to stop them. Elijah probably thought that once he
showed the people that there was only one God and had the four
hundred prophets of Baal killed that the people would be flocking to
God. What he got was the opposite, after Ahab went and told Jezebel
what happened she had a bounty out for his head. Now, here is Elijah
hidden in a cave, hiding for his life. And who shows up to get him,
God.

“And it was so, when Elijah
heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and
stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice
unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have
been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of
Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and
slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and
they seek my life, to take it away. And the LORD said unto him, Go,
return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou
comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria: And Jehu the son of
Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son
of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy
room. And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of
Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu
shall Elisha slay. Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all
the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath
not kissed him.” - 1 Kings 19:13-18.

“Yet
I have left me seven thousand in Israel,” Let me tell you,
this past month I have had so many issues with the IFJ website, from
pages getting lost to the blog being erased, to running out of
storage space, it has been a challenge. With all that is going on in
my life right now on top of the website issues it would be easy to
just hide and forget about it, no one care right? Wrong, I discovered
that I had over two thousand registered users on my blog. We may feel
like we are all alone, but we are not, God is always with us, and He
actually places us where we are for one reason only, to keep telling
the truth. Discouragement comes when we feel like we are all alone
and our efforts are for nothing, but never forget that nothing we do
for God is vain. “Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of
the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the
Lord.” - 1 Corinthians 15:58.

God uses many means
to get the world to see that He not only exists, but is always in
control. While Elijah was dealing with his issues, God used the king
of Syria to show Ahab and thirty-two other kings that He is not only
God in parts of Israel, but everywhere.

“And,
behold, there came a prophet unto Ahab king of Israel, saying, Thus
saith the LORD, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold, I
will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou shalt know that I
am the LORD. And Ahab said, By whom? And he said, Thus saith the
LORD, Even by the young men of the princes of the provinces. Then he
said, Who shall order the battle? And he answered, Thou. And they
slew every one his man: and the Syrians fled; and Israel pursued
them: and Benhadad the king of Syria escaped on an horse with the
horsemen. And the king of Israel went out, and smote the horses and
chariots, and slew the Syrians with a great slaughter. And the
prophet came to the king of Israel, and said unto him, Go, strengthen
thyself, and mark, and see what thou doest: for at the return of the
year the king of Syria will come up against thee. And the servants of
the king of Syria said unto him, Their gods are gods of the hills;
therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them
in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. And there
came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus
saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the
hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all
this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the
LORD.” - 1 Kings 20:13,14,20-23,28.

“Their
gods are gods of the hills;” These foolish men thought that
there were gods in a particular regions, and that they could defeat
Israel in their own territory. They failed to realize that there is
only One God, He is everywhere, and in control of all things. No one
can escape judgment from God, they can pretend that He does not
exist, ignore Him, but He is always in control, and every person will
acknowledge Him one way or another. “Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above
every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of
things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.” - Philippians 2:9-11.

There
are times when people lose their lives defending the word of God, it
is sad to think of so many people who were killed already this year
by the hands of terrorists out to destroy God’s faithful. It takes
the strength of God to stand up and boldly proclaim Christ today, and
while none of us want to die in the hands of our enemy, one thing is
for sure, while we are safe in heaven, God will avenge us. There was
a godly man named Nebat, he lived next door to Ahab, he was wrongly
accused and sentenced to death by Jezebel because Ahab wanted his
vineyard and Nebat would not sell it to him. Elijah meets with Ahab
to tell him his and his families fate.

“And
Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he
answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work
evil in the sight of the LORD. Behold, I will bring evil upon thee,
and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that
pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel,
And will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of
Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the
provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel
to sin. And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall
eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. And it came to pass, when Ahab
heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon
his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. And the
word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Seest thou how
Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before
me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will
I bring the evil upon his house.” - 1 Kings
21:20-29.

“Seest thou how Ahab
humbleth himself before me?” Sooner or later, every person
finds out that they need God, many unfortunately find out upon their
death, which is too late. Every now and then, God reaches someone
before they die, and that is always His intention, that none perish.
Ever hear of last rights? Well, Ahab had his last rights given to
him, he took it, and God spared him the grief of seeing his entire
family destroyed. It's never too late to be saved until we die, none
of us are exempt from judgment, but we can be saved from the eternal
death judgment, and that is through our faith and belief in the Lord,
Jesus Christ, God never gives up trying to get a soul to repent and
receive His Son. “For all have sinned, and
come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the
forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his
righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus.” - Romans 3:23-26.

Jesus
Christ Revealed: Today, Jesus is revealed through the
angel of the LORD (19:5-7) who is always with us, and the unnamed
prophet who prophesied victory to King Ahab (20:22). God controls our
victory, “The sting of death is sin; and the
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” - 1 Corinthians
15:56,57.

Today's Prayer:
God, You know my heart, You know my faith, and You know my desire to
love You with all my heart, mind, and soul, but there is not a day
that goes by where I am not being challenged to change what I
believe. People mock me, tease me, and constantly try to test me to
see if I will stand by You or fall. Lord, give me Your power and
strength to get through this and every day standing tall. Even when I
slip, I know You are there to pick me up and get me back on my feet
again. Let me not lose sight of You in anything that I do. I ask this
in Jesus; name. Amen.

God Bless You, I am praying for
you,
Christina

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