Proper Placement Affects Your Future
“Arise, go to Zarephath…and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”
—1 Kings 17:9
Proper placement profoundly affects your future in several ways. We’ll use the rest of this section to examine each of them in turn.
The first is that proper placement releases supernatural provision. First Kings 17:3–4 describes such provision:
Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.
During a famine, God gave Elijah clear instruction, saying, in effect, “Go to Cherith. I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” God told Elijah that if he moved to the right place, supernatural provision would show up. Divine supply follows divine placement. If Elijah had been any other place but the right place, the ravens would not have fed him. God holds your place of supernatural provision—God has a “there” for you!
Just about the time Elijah thought he had God all figured out, suddenly the brook dried up and the ravens stopped bringing food. I once preached a sermon called, “What to Do When the Brook Goes Dry and the Birds Won’t Fly!” In it, I explained that the only reason God lets the brook dry up is that He wants to drive you back to your source. We are to seek God’s face, not His hand. We want a handout, but God wants a face-off.
Don’t fall in love with a method and forget that God is your source. The brook wasn’t Elijah’s source; God was. We get married to a method, anchored to a memory, but we must be open to change. When the Holy Spirit wants to do a new thing, we have to get away from the old wineskins. In this case, God gave Elijah a new plan: “Go to Zarephath….I have commanded a widow there to provide for you” (1 Kings 17:9).
Prayer:
Lord God, I am thankful for the examples of supernatural provision that You have given us in the Bible. I believe that You can and will provide for me today as faithfully as You provided for Your servant Elijah. Help me to rest secure in the knowledge that Your perfect placement will release Your supernatural provision in my life. Amen.
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