The Faith Walk

Jonathan Evans: When you ask believing and you receive, when you see the Lord's power actually be in your life and it's not just saying about, it's not just something you heard about, but it's something you actually experienced in your own life, nobody will be able to tell you nothing as it relates to the truth of God's word.

You'll be able to say with confidence, "Now I know that this thing is true."

Guest (Male): You are listening to The Faith Walk with Jonathan Evans. In a moment, Jonathan will continue today’s message. But first, to thank you for your support of this ministry, Jonathan has a couple of special gifts for you.

The first is the audio series that you’re currently hearing called "House of Prayer: Building a Real, Consistent, and Intimate Prayer Life Through Honest, Private Communication with God." The second part of this gift is a devotional called "Kingdom Family," written by Jonathan and Tony Evans. It covers real-life topics for parents and kids to explore together throughout the year. I’ll tell you more about these later in today’s program. Or, you can call right now at 1-800-800-3222 or visit TonyEvans.org to learn more. Now, here’s Jonathan with part two of his message, "Resurrection in the Room."

Jonathan Evans: It is true that God judges sin, but it is not true that God pulls you up for the purposes of throwing you down. She was just provided for. If God was trying to bring her sins to remembrance, He wouldn't have provided for her a few verses earlier. Now, He may be trying to teach her, draw her, show her, persevere her, but He's not trying to crush her.

You need to understand that God's not bringing you out of Egypt for the purposes of just dropping you in the wilderness. That's not His purpose. God is not doing this just to crush you. For those of you who are mad at God, you're mad at the same God who's not trying to condemn you or He would have never sent His Son to save you.

We don't serve a God that's trying to puppet you for His enjoyment. He's not just doing it to hurt you. My Bible says God is near to the brokenhearted and He saves those who are crushed in spirit. If God was trying to condemn you, it's hard to pray to a God who you think is the culprit of your challenge.

Just because your circumstances are a rollercoaster does not mean the faithfulness of God are the tracks. He's not just taking you on a rollercoaster. He's trying to show you and grow you so that you can know the great God that is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that you can ask or think.

But she says, "You're the culprit. You're trying to hurt me. What do you want?" Many of you brought the card and the concern is still in the seat because not only do you not trust Him, you think He's involved in hurting you. This is important to note because you'll start saying, "Well, I guess that's just what I get. I guess I deserve it. I guess my sins have found me out. Based on how I live, I just need to deal with the reality of it and not pray that the reality can be changed."

Mark 6:52 says the disciples just went from the feeding of the 5,000, then they went out into the water and hit the storm. They panicked in the storm. They saw Jesus walk on the water. Then this is what Jesus says in Mark 6:52: "For they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their hearts were hardened."

Have we not learned? Why do we not pray? Because we haven't gained any insight. Our hearts are still hardened. They've become hardened by the situations that we face and we haven't gained any insight into who God really is in our life. We've seen what He's done for other people, but we don't believe that can be our testimony. We've seen what He's done in scripture, but we think that's just a long time ago and He doesn't do it now. If He did it before, He will do it again.

So the widow is complaining to Elijah. She's in there and she's like, "What do you want from me? You killed my son. You did this to me." Elijah is listening. She keeps continuing and then he says, "Are you finished? Can I talk now?"

Look at verse 19. Elijah says to her, "Give me your son." Her son is no longer breathing. She's complaining about it. She's worried about it. It's dead. The son is dead. She's not praying because it's too severe for prayer. So there's no need to pray for it. It's already over.

Elijah says, "Are you finished? Okay. Give me your son." Elijah said to the widow, "I hear you. Now give me your son." The son is the thing that's dead, desolate, depleted, and destroyed. Elijah says, "I know you don't think it's worth it. I know you don't think that the power of God can heal it. I know you don't think God can do anything with it. But let me show you something. Give me your son."

For those of you who have a son, that is the thing in your life that's destroyed, desolate, and depleted. You don't think God can do anything with it. God is standing before you today and He's saying, "Give it to Me." In other words, that marriage, give it to Me. Your family, give it to Me. Your addiction, give it to Me. Your depression, give it to Me. Your anxiety, give it to Me. Your career, give it to Me. Your finances, give it to Me. All of it, whatever you think is the worst, that's what I want. Give it to Me. Give Me your son. Don't accuse Me. Give it to Me. Don't run from Me. Give it to Me. Give Me your son.

The son was located on her bosom. She's complaining, but look at what verse 19 says. He says, "Give me your son," and he took him from her bosom. That's the problem. That situation is still dead because it's on your chest and you're coddling it. That's what people do. We take our problems and we coddle them and complain to God, who has all power and sufficiency.

He's looking at you and He hears you talking. He knows it's a bad situation. He's saying, "Are you finished? Now give me your son. Get that situation off your chest." How do you know it's not on your chest anymore? Because you no longer feel the weight on your chest. Many of us are frustrated and stressed to the max. You're in the hospital with heart palpitations. That's going to keep happening as long as that situation stays on your chest.

The prophet Elijah says, "Give me your son," and he went and took the son off her chest. A lot of us are holding. Why do we feel like our problems are best held in the coddling of our own arms? There's no power in your arms. You're running around trying to change everything, trying to make this happen, making all the phone calls, trying to use your own intellect to make your kid understand they need to trust Jesus and come back home. You're trying to use your own brain and your degrees to make this situation change and you are losing your mind. Why? Because you stepped into God territory and your humanity can't handle that territory. Give God your son.

She is holding the child on her bosom, complaining to God and believing God is the culprit of the death of her son. Meanwhile, through the prophet Elijah, the prophet Elijah is saying, "No, no. Give me the boy. Get it off your chest."

Draw near to the throne of grace, for there you will receive mercy and find grace in your time of need. Draw near to the throne of grace, for there you receive mercy and you find grace in your time of need. It starts with giving God your life. How do you give God your life for salvation, but you won't give Him your problems? He's good enough to save me from the depths of hell, but He's not good enough to save me from my circumstances in history? He can revive it.

But some of us trust us more. God is saying, "Are you finished?" Don't bring the card and leave your concern. Elijah takes the child. Notice that she didn't give the child. Elijah went and took it. So I pray, Lord God, that Your Spirit would go before me and take the children. Take the problems off of the chest of the people.

Even still, she had to have been willing to let go. Some of us are complaining while lacking the willingness to even let go of it. Elijah says, "Give me your son." Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living.

Why didn't he heal the boy downstairs? I was wondering why you had to go to the upper room. It seems like extra work. I'm not carrying the baby upstairs. I'm just going to do it right there. Downstairs was the working quarters and storage. Upstairs was the living quarters. The boy was not going to be healed by human effort or if it was going to be in storage and never come out. The boy was going to be healed in living quarters.

Elijah took the boy up because that's where living quarters are. They're not downstairs where you are. That's where you hold the baby. They're upstairs in living quarters. As long as the problem stays downstairs where you are, it's going to look like you look, like a problem. Until it goes up to living quarters, you don't stand a chance. A lot of us have our problems and we just keep storing them downstairs. As long as you store them downstairs, they'll be dead in your storage.

The Bible is teaching us to give it to God. Colossians 3 says set your heart on things above where Christ is. I lift my eyes to the mountain from which cometh my help. In other words, when we're praying, we're sending it up to living quarters because in living quarters, I don't know if you know it, but Christ makes intercession for us. When He makes intercession for us in Hebrews 7:25, He's doing it in living quarters so that you can receive it back down where you are.

Guest (Male): More of The Faith Walk with Pastor Jonathan Evans in a moment. Have you ever had a consistent, authentic prayer life? Building a real, consistent, and intimate prayer life through honest, private communication with God can change your life. Today, when you give a gift to support the ministry of the Urban Alternative, Jonathan wants to give you two life-altering resources.

The first is a copy of his series, "House of Prayer," encouraging you to pray persistently, seek God’s kingdom first, and allow prayer to transform your heart to align with God’s will. The second part of this gift is a devotional called "Kingdom Family," written by Jonathan and Tony Evans, that offers simple, engaging lessons that parents and kids can explore together throughout the year.

Both the devotional book "Kingdom Family" and the four-part audio series "House of Prayer" are a way of showing appreciation for the continued support of listeners like you who make this program possible. Get all the details online at TonyEvans.org. Again, that’s TonyEvans.org. Or, you can call our 24-hour resource record line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you. Find your way out of distractions and into God’s purpose for your life. Now, let’s get back to Jonathan with the rest of today’s message.

Jonathan Evans: I lift my eyes to the mountain from which cometh my help. In other words, when we're praying, we're sending it up to living quarters because in living quarters, Christ makes intercession for us. When He makes intercession for us in Hebrews 7:25, He's doing it in living quarters so that you can receive it back down where you are.

So we've got to understand why Elijah goes up. He's going up because that's where living quarters are. A lot of us are so grounded that we're no heavenly good in receiving what God is trying to do in our lives, and we trust earth more than we trust heaven.

He called on the Lord and stretched himself upon the child three times. He called on the Lord and said, "O Lord my God, I pray you, let the child's life return to him." This is his prayer. This is what we're going to do. I want you to notice how he prayed. It says that he stretched himself on the child three times. After the third time, the child's life returned to him.

In other words, he didn't stretch himself on the child one time. He didn't stretch himself on the child two times. He stretched himself on the child until the change came. This is not something that he was going to stop doing, like, "Let me do it once and then let me roll out." If a situation needs to be revived, we have the faith to stretch ourselves on it over and over again until the change comes.

But that's not it. He stretched himself on the child. This is called transference. You'll notice in Acts 20, when the boy fell out of the window seal and he died, it says Paul fell upon him. In other words, he fell upon the child because they believed in transference. He was saying, "Lord, take whatever you need from me and transfer it to the child. Take my life and give it to his life. Deplete me if you need necessary in order to deliver him." So this was, "He needs whole healing, so I'm going to put my whole body on the child."

He did it three times. He laid down on the child three times to transfer his life to the child's life. He laid down on the child three times to transfer his life to the child's life. I know somebody who laid down three days in order to transfer His life to our life. The person who laid down three days to make the transfer from His life to our life went up to make intercession for us, not just so that we can be resurrected for the newness of life in heaven, but so that we can experience the abundant life on earth.

This is the first resurrection in scripture, which is a type of what Jesus would come and do. He would lay down three days to do a transference to His people so that we can be resurrected, not just us, but also our lives, our circumstances, our situation. We're saved in eternity for eternity, but also saved in history.

But not if we'd rather coddle. We can have a former provision that doesn't execute itself in present power. A lot of Christians don't experience the power of God, not because they haven't been saved—He laid down His life for the purposes of resurrection—but because they don't believe the same power for resurrection is the same power that can revive in your current situation.

Elijah goes up and lays down on the child three times. The child is revived. Then it says in verse 23, Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room. My prayer is that the prayers we send up will come right back down from the upper room alive. That the prayers we send up to the one who makes intercession, the mediator—Elijah is mediating the relationship between this widow's circumstance and God's power. There's only one mediator between God and man and it is the man Christ Jesus.

He's making intercession for us. If we're willing to let go of the child, get it off of our chest and put it into the hands of the Master, I bet you, your right down things up here and right down things this month in your journal and throughout the year, you'll see things that were dead that have gone up that come back and hit you alive as we experience our situations being revived.

He closes with this. The woman says, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true." Through prayer, you get confidence. You can go before His throne with confidence. Because when you pray and you see the Lord execute on your behalf, when you ask believing and you receive, when you see the Lord's power actually be in your life and it's not just saying about, it's not just something you heard about, but it's something you actually experienced in your own life, nobody will be able to tell you nothing as it relates to the truth of God's word.

You'll be able to say with confidence, "Now I know that this thing is true." My dad tells an illustration. Some of you may know, but some of you may not. I've got to make sure I say that it's my dad's because some of you know it and if I don't say it is his, you'd be like, "Stop stealing your daddy's stuff."

There was a little boy who went shopping with his mother. The boy said, "Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?" The mom said, "No, boy, we ain't getting no chocolate chip cookies." He said, "But you don't understand, I need some chocolate chip cookies." The mama said, "We ain't getting you no chocolate chip cookies. I came in here to get dinner and make sure we got the necessities that we need. Sit down in this cart, we ain't getting you no chocolate chip cookies." He said, "Mama, you don't understand, I've got to have some chocolate chip cookies."

Mama said we ain't getting no chocolate chip cookies, we're just not doing that. They got to the checkout line and he asked one more time. He said, "But Mama, please can we just go back and get some chocolate chip cookies? I need, I've got to have, and I want some chocolate chip cookies." She said, "You're not getting no chocolate chip cookies. Respect what I said."

The boy said, "Okay." He stood up in his cart and prayed in the checkout line. "Lord Jesus, I need some chocolate chip cookies. You said in your word you will supply my needs for your riches and glory. Lord, I need some chocolate chip cookies, but my mama won't get me no chocolate chip cookies. So can you provide for me some chocolate chip cookies because I know that you can do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that I ask and all she thinks."

Everybody in the line said, "Why won't that woman get that boy some chocolate chip cookies?" She was so embarrassed, she ran back, got the chocolate chip cookies, and put them in the basket. The boy said, "Thank you, Jesus, because I knew that you would come through." What's the moral of the story? God is calling us to check up before we check out. Because if an unrighteous judge will give someone who persists what they need, how much more will a righteous Father, hearing the prayers of His saints, give them what they need when they call on Him? God is calling us to call on Him because when we do, these circumstances won't just be cards, they'll be us experiencing overcoming our challenges.

Guest (Male): That was Pastor Jonathan Evans. Before you go today, I want to remind you that we have a couple of special gifts for you: a devotional book called "Kingdom Family" and a four-part audio series, "House of Prayer." The devotional "Kingdom Family," written by Jonathan and Tony Evans, is a practical, easy-to-use guide designed to help your family grow spiritually together through short daily devotionals that fit naturally into busy routines like dinner time or bedtime.

We are also including Jonathan Evans' "House of Prayer" audio series, helping you build a real, consistent, and intimate prayer life through honest, private communication with God rather than outward performance. Both the devotional called "Kingdom Family" and his audio series "House of Prayer" are a gift to you to thank you for your donation to help support the ministry of the Urban Alternative. It’s our way of showing appreciation for the continued support of listeners like you who make this program possible.

Call 1-800-800-3222 anytime or get all the details online at TonyEvans.org. Again, that’s TonyEvans.org. Or, you can call our 24-hour resource record line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you. Thank you for listening to The Faith Walk with Jonathan Evans. The Faith Walk is produced as a part of the Urban Alternative, a ministry of Dr. Tony Evans.