And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

(1 Kings 19:11-13 ESV)

In our text, Elijah had just come to this place from Mount Carmel where he saw God answered him by fire. Yeah! He prayed and fire fell from heaven. But when he came to this cave he thought that God will move in a similar way. And just like James says, Elijah was a man with a nature just like ours. We make the same mistake to think that God will always repeat the same things in the same way he did in time past. No matter why we miss him so often.

First, there came a strong wind, follow by an earthquake, than fire, but God was not in either the wind, the earthquake, nor the fire. We are so good at trying to mimic or reproduce things we have experienced in the past. But God is never in the things we try to reproduce, and that’s why we miss Him so often, because we expect Him to move in ways we’ve become accustomed to. If He doesn’t move that way, than He is not moving at all.

To Conclude let me leave you with these five reasons why we often miss what God is doing now:

• We tend to think that God will always move, speak, work the same way He did before. But Hebrews tells us differently. Hebrews 1:1 – “at sundry times and in divers manners.” (Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition). Sundry means – several or various. God is always working, all we need to do is work with Him.
• We tend to think that when God moves it must always be spectacular… a sign in the sky. Not always. Sometimes He speaks in a still small “voice…” 1 Kings 18:13.
• We tend to generalize too much in our use of scripture… such as, “God is the same yesterday, today and forever.” I agree… But a tumor removed by the hand of a doctor isn’t less a miracle of God than one removed by the very hand of God.
• We tend to misuse and abuse Gideon’s quest for a sign (Judges 6). We say, if it worked for him, than it must work for everyone. Not always! A certain guy had prayed to the Lord to bring a young woman into his life for marriage. But he kept asking for a sign. Finally he told God that the first woman to step food out of the side door of the church on a specific day when he got to church will be a sign to him that God had answered his prayer for a beautiful young bride. Well, he got there just in time for his grandmother to walk through the door.
• We have never developed a walk with God and trained ourselves to know when he is moving, how he is working, what he is saying and where he is going. It takes discipline, consistency and friendship to really come to that place.

Related articles

• Hearing from God – The Still Small Voice (hspcomfort.wordpress.com)
• Hello…Can you hear me? (lyndaparham.com)
• Elijah’s Prayer at Mount Carmel. (greatriversofhope.wordpress.com)
• The “Still Small Voice” (garycottrellfaith.wordpress.com)
• The Lord Is Not In It (maddmedic.wordpress.com)
• The Lord Is Not In It (wdednh.wordpress.com)
• Photo Via Believer’s Journey