Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: I have begun a prayer adventure of my own through difficult circumstances driving me to the realization that I was praying like an unbeliever. I was praying like Christopher Robin who was saying his prayers like a little boy. I was just not growing in that area of my life for years.

Yes, I've grown in all sorts of other areas of my life, but until three years ago, I had not really grown in the matter of prayer. It was as if I thought, "Well, I know enough about it. I do it enough. It's operating enough in my life to sort of coast to heaven like this." I was suddenly brought to the realization that that's my choice. I can go on with a mediocre, pretty good prayer life if I wish until I go to heaven and it'll be all right. Or I can grow. If I'm going to grow, I'm going to have to work. Prayer that works is prayer that works. That's a play on the word. You have to work it for it to work.

There's a little book in the bookstore that's called "Children's Letters to God." I use just one each time. This is one that I just opened here as I was looking through it. "Dear God, I'm doing the best I can. Mark." Isn't that cute? That's a letter that a child wrote to God. "Dear God, I'm doing the best I can." I thought about that and I thought that's the same as my prayer life. "Dear God, I'm doing the best I can." And God says, "Well, it's really not good enough." I don't want to hear that sometimes.

If I really intend, like Elijah, to be powerfully effective, to work wonders as in prayer God moves in answer to my prayers, then doing the best I can isn't going to do it. Many, many ways to change our world, and I believe believing prayer is the most powerful. The earnest, heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available, dynamic in its working. That's the amplified Bible. The earnest, heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available, dynamic in its working.

The Epistle of James talks more about prayer than any other epistle. James was nicknamed "Camels Knees." Did you know that? Because his knees were so calloused through kneeling on them all the time. I wonder what my nickname is. "Smooth Knees," maybe. I hope not. Camels Knees. What a nickname. Incredible. Who was his mentor? Who was his model? Elijah.

Elijah is a man, James 5 tells us, just like us. So it doesn't let one of us escape. You say, "Well, I could never learn to pray like Elijah who prayed and the heavens were shut up and it didn't rain, and prayed and the heavens were opened and it rained, and prayed and fire fell on all the things that mighty Elijah did." You know all the stories. How could I ever pray like that? Well, if the Bible had said Elijah is a man nothing like us, then there wouldn't be much hope. But if we are like him, in fact the old King James has it "of like passions," if we can be like him in our passions, we can be like him in our prayers.

There isn't one of us that cannot take advantage of the power available, dynamic in its working. The power, another translation says, that works wonders. Do you need wonders working for you? Do you need wonders working for you in your family? Do you need wonders working for you in your own life and heart? Do you need wonders working for you in your ministry? Well, that's what we're going to be talking about.

We believe about the power of God, but we don't believe it's released through prayer. That's one of our problems. So many times we believe in the power of God and we think it's released through programs, or we think it's released through organization, or hard work, or activity. All those things come after prayer or should do.

The secret of the power of great people on their feet is gained on their face before God. I knew that, but I captured it for myself a couple of years ago with a little phrase in my prayer journal that simply said, "God, you have made me effective in measure on my feet as I speak. Now make me as effective on my knees as I am on my feet."

As I've studied the lives of people who have changed their world with their Christian service and as I've got into their autobiographies and biographies, I have discovered that if they are effective on their feet, it's because they are just as effective on their knees. That's a huge challenge because you tend to think of prayer as a gift and it's not mine. This is my gift. That's my gift. I do a bit of praying on the way. But whatever your gift is, if you could say to God, "Would you make me as effective on my knees as," and then put your gift's name in there, you are going to have an incredible effect and you're going to change your world.

I read nearly all of E.M. Bounds' books. I can recommend classic books, E.M. Bounds. In one of them, he's a preacher, but he is known for writing about prayer. But he did have a church and he had an incredibly effective ministry. At one point in E.M. Bounds' life, he said he decided to speak to God about men before he spoke to men about God. That would be a rule of his life: to speak to God about men as much as he spoke to men about God. And I wrote that down in my little prayer diary.

How could I do that? Well, it was probably going to mean sleep deprivation, which it has meant for me. But that's better than God deprivation, I've discovered. That's better than prayer deprivation. And if we are going to speak to God about men, then we'll be able to speak to men about God with a new power, a new dynamic, a new energizing sense of virtue has gone out of me.

As we kneel before God, and may I just make a point in passing, posture is sort of sometimes helpful. I can hardly stay on my knees very long because I have a back problem. And yet there are other postures that help me, like being flat on my face before God. That's a favorite posture of mine. And that's the posture apparently Elijah took. The fervent, and the word is stretched out flat on your face, effective prayer of a righteous man avails much.

I was in Jerusalem visiting with 200 people that we'd took. But we were all visiting together the Church of the Nativity. And there's a little tiny door. And if you want to go and see the Church of the Nativity, you don't just have to bow your head, you have to bend double. It's the only door. Why is this little tiny door the only entrance to the mighty Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem? Basically, it's because there was a conqueror who was not a Christian. And as he rampaged through the country, they made the little door very small. They knew he would conquer, but they weren't going to let him ride in on his horse. And not only were they not going to let him ride in on his horse, they were going to make him get off his horse. Not only were they going to make him bow his head, he was going to have to bend double to enter the place where Christ was born.

Posture in a sense can be helpful. Kneeling says, "I need help." Kneeling says, "I'm not sufficient of myself." It's like bowing the head in prayer, I suppose.

I always remember bursting in rudely to the senior student of our college at Cambridge where I attended. It was an all-girls college in those days. And Grace was on her knees. She was a graceful girl named Grace, wonderful Christian woman. Married the man who became Bishop of Liverpool, in line for the Archbishop of Canterbury actually. But then he was the top sportsman in Britain. He was our cricket captain, winning our cricket matches all over the world. He was at Cambridge too, and Grace and David Shepherd fell in love. It was sort of world news because he was very famous. And here was he falling in love with Grace, and she was head student and had all these talents and gifts and was incredibly bright and intelligent. But there was something else about Grace. And I discovered the element that made Grace Grace and put her head and shoulders above every one of us in that college when I burst into her room that day and found her on her knees.

I had never seen anyone on their knees. I'd never seen anyone pray. I was not a believer at the time. But I remember that was the beginning of my journey to Calvary. And I remember standing absolutely wiped out at the sight of this incredibly beautiful woman kneeling. She didn't get up. She didn't say, "Oh," and sit hurriedly on her bed and close her Bible. She just looked at me, staying kneeling, and said, "Yes, Jill. Can I do something for you?" And I threw the note I had brought on her bed and muttered something and slammed the door and leant against the wall outside, furious. Absolutely furious. How dare she make me feel like this? Well, what had she made me feel like? It was the beginning of huge conviction of sin and my walk to Calvary and to Christ.

She was as effective on her knees as she was on her feet. Or she was as effective on her feet as effective as she was on her knees. And I discovered that that day. There was a secret. There was a correlation between the fact that she was the best senior student the college had ever had and that kneeling position saying, "Here I am, I can do no other. Here I am and I don't care whether Jill Briscoe and any other obnoxious student that I have to deal with is rude enough to do what she's just done or not."

Now when I think of Elijah, what comes to mind? Fire on the mountain. Rain filling the valleys. Taking on the establishment. One man against a nation. Power. Personality. Rough, tough, John the Baptist type stuff. That's what I think of. And you know, the funny thing is, I never think of Tishbe. Do you ever think of Tishbe?

Now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe in Gilead said to Ahab, "As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, "Leave here, turn eastward, hide in the Kerith Ravine east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there." So he did what the Lord had said. He went to Kerith, east of Jordan, and stayed there, and the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. Sometime later, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him, "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food."

Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe lived at Tishbe. James 5 happened at Tishbe. James 5 did not happen on Mount Carmel. James 5 being the effective, stretched out, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. All that happened when God did this incredible nature miracle happened when he was at home in Tishbe before he ever put one foot outside the door. And he was as effective on his feet as he had been on his knees, you see. He had been on his knees, which made him effective on his feet. It's at Tishbe you start. And that's encouraging.

That's absolutely wonderful. You don't need to be at the end of your ministry, at the height of your ministry, you don't need to be trained. You start in Tishbe. You start at home. Elijah had a job. He was probably a shepherd. He was busy. He had a home, he had a family. Probably a rough little stone house, not too much space. He lived outside a lot and he found time and space to learn to pray prayers that would change his world and change his economy. When he prayed that the rain wouldn't come, he changed his economy when God answered that prayer. That's what changed the economy.

He was isolated, yes, but he kept in touch with his world. And if we're going to be potential world changers through prayer, we've got to keep our hearts in touch with the times first of all. We've got to keep our hearts in touch with the Word secondly. And then we've got to take the Word and keep that in touch with the need, the era, the bad things, the evil that's happening in the world. Let me just touch on those three points.

Keeping your heart in touch with the times is hard when you live in Tishbe. It was totally isolated. There were no telephones, there was no radio, there was no television, there was no email, there was no website. There was Tishbe and there was a man Elijah and there was his God, and that's all you need. Now people talked and news traveled, and he made sure that he heard the people that were talking and the news that was traveling so he'd figured out what was happening in the rest of the country. He kept in touch with the times.

And it says he became very jealous for the Lord God of hosts. Where did that happen? In Tishbe. Mount Carmel was dreamt up in Tishbe before he ever put a foot outside his little stone house. You've got to feed prayer by information. You have to keep your heart in touch with the times.

I have started a very practical little exercise. I would recommend it to you. It's helped me a lot. When I watch television, I pray about what I'm watching. Now you can do this very simply. You're watching a program, it's a real-life situation. Close your eyes, 30 seconds, take it to God, pray about it. "How do you want me to think about this, Lord? Oh, that poor woman. What must the family... Is there a Christian in sight? Lord, do this, do that." You've got to keep your heart in touch with the times. You've got to feed prayer with information. And I am finding it is the most exciting way to watch television. And you can be a world changer, you can be a situation changer, you can give God access to the situation through prayer simply as you sit in front of your television watching the news every night. That has made it really exciting for me to watch the news. It really has.

As Elijah heard the news, as he kept his heart in touch with it, his heart became jealous for the Lord God. What is Jezebel doing in our country? How could all these people be in apostasy? What's happening to the prophets hiding in caves instead of standing up to be counted? And his heart became so worried and jealous for God, it fueled his prayer. So you keep in prayer touch with your world in this way. As Elijah heard what was happening, he prayed for leaders too. He prayed for Ahab, he prayed for Jezebel. I believe he did. Do we pray for Jezebel? Do we pray for Hitler? Do we pray for Mussolini? So you keep in prayer touch, and something happens to your heart because you are getting involved in this powerhouse. You are becoming the avenue, the access, that God's power through prayer can come through you into the situation and make a difference. And I believe Elijah prayed for King Ahab. He was the king of Israel, and he'd been told to pray for his leaders and kings as we are told. He was a world changer, but not in a good way. He was a world changer was King Ahab in a bad way. So you keep your heart in touch with what's going on.

Prayer is a very powerful thing, and that's another thing I love about prayer. There's no barriers. You can go anywhere you want in prayer. Maybe you'll never go to Africa, but you can in prayer. Maybe the folks in Ireland can't come and join our prayer meetings, but they can in prayer. And what's so exciting is you can join together, and the effect of corporate prayer is a powerful thing.

Now we're talking about Elijah's individual prayer life mostly in these sessions. I remember as a little girl listening to Churchill's speech. "We'll fight on the beaches, we'll fight hand to hand, we'll fight in the streets, we'll never surrender." And I remember saying to my mother, "What's he talking about, Mommy?" And she said, "Well, the enemy's coming and we have nothing to stop them. And so they're going to come across the English Channel or that's what they're intending to do. And at the moment, they've pushed the entire British army onto the beaches of Dunkirk."

And so Churchill, after his famous speech the next day as he broadcast every day on BBC and everybody's radio was tuned in all day, on all the time because that's how we were going to know when the invasion had started, that and the church bells. Church bells were not allowed to ring in England because that was a signal the invasion had started and so I never heard a church bell until after the war.

As we tuned into Churchill the following day after that famous speech, he said, "I have bad news. The entire British army, every single man, is trapped without means of access or escape on the beaches of Dunkirk. It's over for the British army. Yea God, however," he said, "let's pray. And today, or tomorrow," I think he said, "will be a national day of prayer. No one will do any work except the essential things. And everyone will go to church."

So England went to church. The only time I think it's ever happened, the entire nation went to church. And I remember my mom taking my sister and I by the hand out into the road, and we had to walk the whole road length round the corner to the nearest church. But we couldn't go more than round the corner because the church was full and the people were filling up a whole street from the church to the corner kneeling on the ground. Now that's a sort of memory you never forget. You never forget.

So England prayed. You know the story how every man or woman, but mostly men or family, along the coast, the southern coast of England who had a vehicle that would hold two or more got into it and rode, motored, sailed across the English Channel and rescued half a million men under the bombing and strafing for 10 solid days of the Luftwaffe. It was a miracle. But the bigger miracle was it was during that day or in that period of time shortly afterwards that Hitler said to his commanders, "We're going to attack Russia." And every single one of them said, "You're crazy. We've got them. They're done. There's nothing to stop them. We're ready. The army will be in our hands. We'll just bomb them to bits for the next two weeks and they're done. And then we'll go go get England. What are you doing turning around and withdrawing all the troops and attacking Russia? It's crazy." Was it crazy or was it prayer? But he did, and that was the turning point of the war. It's the turning point of I believe saving the world from Nazism, the whole world. What happened? People prayed.

The power of prayer is an incredible thing. It stops evil. We don't believe it. We believe politics can stop it. We believe negotiating can stop it. Well, all these things come after prayer, don't they?

So we keep our hearts in touch with the times and we keep our hearts in touch with His Word. You see, Elijah knew that in Deuteronomy it said, "When you come into the land of promise, Israel, and you do not obey me and you turn and you worship other gods and you leave me, then I will withhold the rain and you won't have your crops, and this will be the sign of my displeasure." Four or five times in the Old Testament, God has laid that out. It's in their law. It's been passed on down their history. They know.

Because Elijah was in touch with the Word as he was in touch in prayer, he knew that he could claim this promise of God. This wasn't an idea of Elijah's, "Well, I know what can we do? I know, we'll play a little miracle game here and we'll stop the rain and then we'll start it again with my magic prayer wand." No. He knew what God's plan was. And he knew Israel knew. And if there was a famine and if there was rain, they knew it was a sign of divine displeasure. Maybe this way they could say, "Why is God withholding the rain? Well, we know why He said He would. He said He would if we started serving other gods and that's what Ahab and Jezebel have got us to do."

So you see, when you keep your heart in tune with the times and you keep your heart in tune with the Word, then you'll know what to pray. So many people say to me, "I don't know what to pray." Be women of the Word. Be soaking in it, in prayer, and then you'll know the correct things to pray for people, big and little.

Keep your heart in touch with the times. There was such turmoil in the times, politically, religiously. It was a mess. Let me just give you in two minutes a rundown of the history of what had taken Israel up to this point from Solomon.

Solomon had followed David, right? Solomon had taken Israel to the height of a place where Israel had never been before. But the rot set in at the end of Solomon's reign. He loved many women. His heart went after other women, and with the other women that he married came the other women's gods from the different countries. And so Solomon played the fool at the end of his life and he turned away from God, incredible thing, and the rot set in.

When Solomon died, the kingdom split. Jeroboam took 10 tribes. He was the one that oversaw. This man was Solomon's public works minister. Big man, because Solomon had done many public works. Rehoboam took two tribes and the whole thing was split. And Jeroboam, who was over the 10 tribes who'd been close to Solomon, desperately tried to keep the thing together as it was beginning to disintegrate as this nation was beginning to disintegrate. So what he thought I'll do, I'll split the nation because I don't like this. I'm out of control. If they all go up to Jerusalem and go on worshipping Jehovah, I'm going to lose control. What I'll do is I'll split the religious church down the middle.

And so at one end of the country in Dan, I'll build a temple. At the other country in Bethel, at the other end, I'll build a temple. And in each one, I'll put a golden calf reminding them of what God did in the desert. Well, what happened was they started worshipping the golden calves. They didn't go up to Jerusalem, all the things that God had told them to do in the temple. And when Jeroboam died, it says in the Bible his epitaph was this: "Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin." He caused them to break the second commandment: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Revolution, bloodshed. A military man took over. His name was Omri, and his son was Ahab who did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel before him. He wanted to keep Tyre off his back, so he married the king of Tyre's daughter, Jezebel.

She was under the power and probably hypnotism of the priests of Baal. And when she left the palace to marry King Ahab of Israel, they said to her, "Make sure that you bring our religion and rites into Israel and you win Ahab as a convert and the nation for us." And so she built a temple in Ashtartu, which was the Windsor of the land. She supported 450 priests from her own private pocket. She persuaded Ahab to build a temple with her to Baal in Samaria, which was the London if you like. So she had Windsor, she had London. And she made a large enough temple, the first megachurch in the Bible, megatemple. You can read about it in 2 Kings 10 verse 21. Thousands of people. A lot bigger than anything we've got in America just for Baal worship. She built that in Israel. That's what she did.

Insolent, greedy, licentious, debased prophets came in with her. The fires of persecution were lit and she began killing prophets of God left, right, and center. They were hunted, they were killed, they were tortured. Obadiah, who served Ahab, his right-hand man, was a secret believer. He got a few of them away and saved their lives, just a hundred. That was all. But as Hebrews tells us, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, and tormented. That was the period that that verse in Hebrews refers to.

But God, but God was preparing a weak man, a man of like passions as us, as His all-sufficient answer. And Elijah became the rain man. He became the rain man. Where did all that happen? In Tishbe. That's where he learned to pray down the fire on Carmel. That's where he learned to shut up the heavens and open them again through prayer. That's where he learned the courage he's going to have to take Ahab on. So you've got to learn to pray at Tishbe. You have no idea what Carmel awaits you around the corner. Then you've got to confront the king at Jezreel.

Elijah's prayer was answered about the rain. And as he prayed on, seeing the famine begin, he decided it was borne upon him that he'd better go and tell Ahab why all this was happening to make sure Ahab connected the natural disaster that God had allowed with the spiritual disaster that Ahab had allowed. He had to make sure he got it, that he wasn't just saying, "Oh well, you know, this isn't anything to do with me." How is he going to make sure he got it? That this thing was because he had prayed? This thing was because God was working in the dark, beginning a work to turn the whole nation to God. How is he going to make sure Ahab wasn't saying it was coincidence, Ahab wasn't putting something else? He had to go.

So he left Tishbe and he traveled on foot many, many, many miles to Jezreel. And he confronted the king in his own palace, this rough-hewn shepherd, probably never been out of his little village before. Didn't know he was a prophet. He was just a shepherd. But he traveled out there because his heart was on fire, jealous for the Lord God of hosts. And he laid it on Ahab just like you see in verse one: "As the Lord God of Israel lives, whom I serve, there won't be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word."

I can see him standing in that court rather like Paul in chains before Agrippa, this rough-hewn John the Baptist type. And there was Jezebel, and there was Ahab, and there was a whole lot of them, and there were the prophets of Baal. And this brave man, where did he get all that guts, this little country boy? Where did it all come from? Well, his credentials are there. He was living in the spirit. He was standing in the throne room. He was strengthened by God. It's all there in that verse. "As the Lord God lives." He was living a life in the spirit and power of Elias as Zechariah talks about him. He said, "Here's John the Baptist, my baby. He's going to go before Jesus in the spirit and power of Elias."

Everybody that thought about Elijah knew that he had spirit and he had power. He said, "As the Lord my God lives." Where are we going to learn to pray not only to change our world, but to become the world changers because we've prayed the prayer and become the answer to our own prayers? We're going to learn it as we live in the spirit. "As the Lord my God lives." In other words, Baal is dead. He is not there. We're going to find out. My God lives. Jehovah is the God of rain. Jehovah is the God of fertility. Jehovah is the God of fire. We're going to find that out. As my God lives, He lives in me. And you know, that's what's going to happen when you and I become men and women of prayer.

"As the Lord of Israel lives," that's your credential for becoming a praying dynamo. As you stand in the throne room, I stand in His presence. I'm His servant, I'm His personal representative. Standing in the throne room, in His presence, He will tell you where to go. He will tell you what to do. I am absolutely amazed at the detail of what Elijah was told to do. You go here, this will happen, then you go there. Now it's time, this place, that widow, those birds. I mean, it was just incredible.

And that's what's so exciting when you're in the heart of the will of God. Where do you find all that out as you stand in His presence? "As the Lord my God lives whom I serve, I stand in the throne room." As you do that, then God is going to move you out among the people, and faith will make you all that you will become through prayer.

But there's got to be one thing that happens: you have to go to Kerith. God is going to take you at some point on the way to Carmel, on the way to really seeing blessing. He's going to take you to Kerith. And He's going to bury you in a ravine or a gorge. I don't know how He's going to do it. Maybe He'll lay you aside in sickness. Maybe He will take you out of your situation. Maybe... I don't know, maybe.

But He has to get you to a place where He can deal with you and where you can learn some of these lessons. And there, fed by ravens, can you imagine? Where do ravens get their food? I don't know if I'd want them to feed me, thank you very much. But there, fed by ravens, totally dependent on God, lying in Kerith, he was prepared for Mount Carmel.

You know, it's an amazing thing. God takes you to many, many different places in order to prepare you. And if you can only recognize, if you could learn to recognize Kerith, you're going to be in good shape when He tells you to go and face Ahab or go to Carmel or do whatever.

Let me tell you a story. I don't think I've ever told this story before. But I had just been newly converted. I was still a student and we went down to the south of England in my summer holidays to do a Scripture Union kids' camp. It was called a CSSM, Children's Special Service Mission. And you built a sand pulpit on the beach and got the kids to help you decorate it. And the team of students would every day at 11 o'clock gather parents and children up and down the beach and say, "Would you like to come? We're going to have a little service." And then you would have a little evangelistic children's service, but the parents would bring the kids and they'd be listening too. And this was evangelism. And these things go on even today all around the beaches in England.

So I went and I shared a room. It was the first Christian service I'd ever done as a believer, new believer, with a wonderful girl. And she was a mature Christian. I was learning so much. And then one day she said to me, "Jill, I really feel weird. I feel really strange." So everybody was going out and I said to the leader, "I'll stay with her." And I stayed and I used my facecloth to wash her face and stayed with her and she got worse and worse and her temperature got up and we got the doctor and he said, "I don't know what's happening here."

And so I stayed up with her all that night and held her hand and everything. And then two days later, she was diagnosed with polio, infantile paralysis we used to call it. And of course now you have an injection to stop you getting paralyzed with that. We didn't have that then. And so they immediately put the entire party in isolation. We had to walk half a mile to get our milk. The milkman would leave it at the end of the street and we were shut up in that house, probably 30 of us, for six weeks, quarantined.

So this was quite an experience. It really was. It was an experience for me because I had been the one who was then isolated within the house because I had been the one who had been in physical touch contact, and it was contagious with this girl. And so at the end of this time, they let us all go home. I had driven on a little motorbike which I had. My father sold them and he wanted me to be an advert so he gave me one of these motorbikes and said, "Use it." And so I'd driven all the way down England on this motorbike. I got on my little motorbike and I drove all the way back up to Liverpool. And on the way, I began to get sick. I really and I thought, "Well, it's because it's raining, it's because I'm behind all these cars and the fumes are..." Well, by the time I got home, I was in a bad state.

And so they got the doctor and they said, "Well, we don't know, but we know where she's been. We know she's rested for six weeks and that means she probably won't get a bad dose of it, but we can't tell for a few weeks." Well, my parents were going to Austria and they had to go. It was a big business thing and they didn't know what to do with me. The hospital wouldn't have me even in the isolation wards because it was too dangerous for contagion and they didn't know whether I had polio or not.

And so my father said, "Well, we'll just have to find somewhere for Jill to go until we get back." So they found a place and it was an old people's home. I suppose they thought it doesn't matter if the old people get polio on the way to heaven anyway. And so this old people's home said that would be fine if Jill wants to come and stay in a little house and it's sort of hospice place and it'll be quiet and she can be totally isolated there.

So I entered this old people's home for another six weeks until all this was sorted out. My parents went off to Austria. And you know, I looked around and I said, "Oh, Kerith." I mean, it was so unexpected the way it... It wasn't that ravens were feeding me, but it was sort of nearly as weird. I can tell you it was just really odd, the whole thing. The way God provided and the way He took me to that weird special gorge. The Lord says, "Called aside." The world says, "Laid aside by illness." But God says, "Called aside for stillness."

And it was in that old people's hospice home in my little tiny isolation room for six weeks that I learned more about prayer than I've learned in a lifetime. And God prepared me for Carmel, which happened shortly after getting out of that place, and that's another story. But God prepared me. And if only you can look around your life whenever you find yourself in a deep ravine with the brook drying up on you, provided and all your provision, all the props knocked out from under you one by one. Does that ever happen to you? Have you ever had the props knocked out from under you? Don't panic. Don't say, "Oh, I've got to get support." Just say, "Kerith. This is Kerith. This is Kerith." And I'm going to learn how my prayers are going to make a difference once God says, "Time to go to Zarephath, it's time to move on."

Pray with me if you will. Heavenly Father, thank you for the life of Elijah. Thank you that we have to learn the hidden life. Thank you that we have to learn to be effective on our knees before we can ever be effective on our feet. Thank you that, yes, there are times You'll tell us to go and talk to Ahab and then You'll pick us up and You'll isolate us and You'll take us out of the limelight and You'll put us flat on our back and You'll take us to all sorts of strange places. Help us to recognize the brook, the ravens, the place. Help us to thank You for it. Help us to settle in. Help us to learn what You want us to learn because there's Carmel ahead. There's Ahab and Jezebel ahead. There's a world to be changed ahead. Teach us, Lord. We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.