I HAVE COMMANDED

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               "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? 

    Are we being sold a bill of goods?