I HAVE COMMANDED

"I HAVE COMMANDED"

Recently my attention has been directed to this phrase which is used several times in Scripture. There are some places where the Lord issued commands, and the people involved knew nothing about it. Look at two incidents in the life of Elijah:

I Kings 17:4 And it shall be, [that] thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.

If you understand ravens, you will know that it had to be God who caused them to bring meat to the Prophet regularly. Perhaps they wondered what it was all about, the same as we do when we are used of God for a specific purpose.

The poor widow woman is a classic example of a person being under the Command of God, and not being aware of it at all.

I Kings 17:9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which [belongeth] to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

Feeding a Prophet was the farthest thing from her mind as she was picking up sticks that day. She was a woman laden with sorrow and grief. Her husband was dead, and her best efforts to keep body and soul together were failing. This was it. The end had come for her and the boy. I wonder, could she have been crying when the Prophet approached her? Or was she singing victoriously, knowing that her pain was, at last, coming to an end? Who knows?

One thing is certain. It wouldn't make any difference if she gave away the last cake she had meal for. It would only shorten the misery for them.

She didn't know about God's command to her to feed the Man of God. She had, non-the-less, been commanded by God to do it.

All this makes me wonder about some of us. Are we under command from God to do a specific thing for Him, and perhaps are not aware of His command to us?

Could it be possible that God has ordained that we do differently than we are now doing-- that we go with His Word where we are not now going?

Are we SURE we are doing the bidding of the Lord?

Isaiah 13:3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, [even] them that rejoice in my highness. Are we included here?

Acts 13:47 For so hath the Lord commanded us, [saying], I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

Also, I am wondering if, perhaps, we may be doing or saying some things for Him which He has NOT commanded us to do or say.

Jeremiah 29:23 Because they have committed villany in Israel, -- and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; saith the LORD.

Jeremiah 14:14 Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.

Do you ever wonder about some of the things we are being taught today, such as "Health and Wealth"? Is the Gospel being "short circuited" before we hear it?