Don’t let that which haunts you, halts you | Pr Stephen Kong

You're listening to a message to go from acts Church.

We hope this message will light up your tea.

The title is don't let that which haunts you haunt you. Okay,

there's the title my message this morning. I'm sorry I

don't have my slices today. I couldn't couldn't make it

in time. But the title is don't let that which

haunts you halt you. Okay. So let us now look

to the Bible. We're gonna take We're gonna read from

this story in the Bible. Uh, found in First Kings, Okay,

First Kings chapter nineteen.

Okay.

And this is a story of Elijah, perfect Elijah, one

of the major profects in the Bible, perfect Elijah. And

he's going to I mean, I mean, you're gonna read

on on the story of him, of how he, you know,

did a big miracle and when he also was running

because of fear.

Okay. And let's see where the word texts us. Okay.

So First Kings chapter nineteen. Okay, we're gonna read eighteen verses. Yeah,

eighteen verses. Okay, So stay with me. Okay, if they say, yeah, okay,

here we go. First Kings Chapter nineteen verse one, and

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how

he had executed all the prophets with the sword.

Okay.

So Ahab is a king king of Israel at the time,

and Jezebel is the queen or the wife Okay, a

very evil queen. Okay, I'll explain it to you more

later about that. Then Jezebel send a messenger to Elijah, saying,

so let the gods do to me, and more also,

if I do not make your life as the life

of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

And when he saw that, he arose.

And when he saw that, he arose and ran for

his life, and went to Basheba, which belongs to Judah,

and left his servant there. Okay, this is Elijah, Elijah

Rana Okay. But he himself went a day's journey into

the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree,

and he prayed that he might die, and said, it

is enough, now, Lord, take my life, for I'm no

better than my father's out I prayed not words who

prayed this player, you know, they asked a lord to

take my life now Verse five. Then as he lay

and slept under a broom tree. Suddenly an angel touched

him and said to him, arise and eat. Then he looked,

and there by his head was a cake baked on coals,

and a jar of water. So he ate and drank

and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord

came back the second time and touched him and said,

arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.

So he arose and ate and drank.

And he went into the strength of dead food forty

days and forty nights, as far as horror the mountain

of God. Wow, any of us get eaten, survived for

forty days, Please don't try it. And there he went

into a cave and spent the night in that place,

and behold, the word of the Lord came to him,

and he said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah?

So he said, I have been very zealous for the Lord,

God of Hosts, for the children of Isasel have forsaken

your covenant, tore down your altars, and killed your prophets

with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek

to take my life. Then he said, go out and

stand on the mountain before the Lord, and behold the

Lord passed by the by a great and strong wind

and tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in

pieces before the Lord, But the Lord was not in

the wind. And after the wind and 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 a still small voice. So it

was when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face

in his mantle and went out and stood in the

entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him

and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? And it's

the second time the questions asked to him, And he said,

I have been very zealous for the Lord, God of Hosts,

because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, tore

down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword.

I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.

Then the Lord said to him, God, return on your

way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive,

annoying Hazil as king over Syria, and you shall annoy

Jehu the son of Nimshi, as king over Israel, and Alisha,

the son of Elijah, the son of Shepherd of Abel Mahullah,

you shall annoy as prophet in your place. It shall

be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazel Jehu will killed,

and whoever escaped the sort of Jehu Elijah will killed.

Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose

knees have not bowed to bow, and every mouth that

has not kissed him. The Lord blessed the reading of

his word.

Amen.

All right, there was eighteen verses. It was like a

marathon to me. But I pray that you caught something there.

So this is a story. Let me give you the background.

This is a story of Prophet Elijah. You know, during

the time in the Bible where they were kings that

were reigning Israel, and of course during the time if

you read in the Book of First Kings, you will

know that Isia is separated into two parts, the northern

part and the southern part, which is Israel and Judah.

And this happened in Israel, Okay, the northern part, and

where Elijah was given given a word from.

The Lord okay to confront King Ahem. Okay.

King Aha at that time was a very wicked king.

Okay.

In fact, I think he is one of the most

wicked kings of all of them. And he basically married

Canaanite wife named Jezebel. Okay, now you know the history.

They're not supposed to do that. And King Ahab married

Queen Jezebel, which was very wicked, and through their marriage,

they instituted the worship of idols called the God of

Bao b al Bao okay, which are not supposed to

They're supposed to worship the Lord God and him only, right, okay.

And so they instituted these and they angered the Lord,

and the.

Lord revealed a word to prefer Elijah to go and

confront King Ahab okay.

And because of that, there was a drought, okay.

A drought basically means it's a total opposite of what

we're experiencing now in Malaysia, Okay, because we're having reigned

almost every day, right. Uh So there drought is the

total opposite. Basically, no rain for as long as Elijah Celdiamine.

Okay.

Now, if you read the whole story, you know that

it lasted about three eight years plus tw and a

half years, okay. And so the drought lasted for three

years past, and you know it was amazing. You know

how the Lord preserved this prophet Elijah during the drought.

You know, he got birds ravens to feed him. Uh,

and then he got a widow to feed him whereby

the you know, the ban of flower and jar of

oil never run dry.

Now that story is really very interesting.

Go back and really if you have if you have time,

I recommend it, go and read it from first kings,

I think about chapter I don't know, seventeen or somewhere there.

Okay.

It's really really very interesting and there's a lot we

can learn from it.

Okay.

So basically after that, after three years, uh, Prophet Elijah

appeared to King a half and he shoued a challenge, okay,

to call the profits above four hundred and fifty of

them to meet him on the mount on Mount Carmel.

Okay.

And some of you, some of us may be very

familiar with this story whereby Uhet Elijah challenged the profits

of above four and fifty of them with you know,

two bulls. Okay, So he asked them to choose the bull. Uh.

Then they were going to sacrifice the bull on the

on the altar, and asked the Lord with the consuming

fire to come and consume the sacrifice by fire. And

as you know, when they tried to do the sacrifice,

the gods a bar and there was no response, was silent.

A long story shot. Elijah asked them the water three

times on the altar. Of course, he repaired the broken altar,

and he called a lot to come, and the lot

consumed the sacrifice and licked up all the water on

the alter. Okay, now I'll give you a quick weeked

with the story so we can get up to pace

to where I am at right now.

Okay.

And after that Elijah executed all four hundred and fifty

efforts of bow. And that's why we come to chapter nineteen,

which I just read to you, where it went back

and told the wife Jezebel about all that had happened.

And basically, Queen Jezebel says to Elijah, I'm going to

kill you, just like how you killed all my profets,

four and fifty of them. Okay, that's what happened. Now,

So after Elijah heard that, he ran for his life. Now,

come to think of it, right, if you aren't it

just positioned right, would you run or not? It's tough

to do to say, right, But Elijah just performed a

very amazing miracle and Mount Carmel, you know, whereby he

proved to the people that the Lord God is the

God of Issiel, that they should worship.

Right.

He asked them to make up your mind, you know,

do not falter between two opinions. If all is God,

worship him. The Lord God your wayh is God, then

worship him, you know. And so Elijah, despite the glorious

victory at Mount Carmel, he was still a man, and

he was still he still had fear, you know, and

he ran for his life when he was threatened by

this queen Jezebel. And so I thought about it, right, well, okay,

I mention at the victory, at the peak of the

victory of perfect Elijah. Yet he can also be at

his weakest point. Our ViOS like that sometimes, you know,

when we're at the peak of our victory, at a

peak of our life, that's also whereby we can also

be at a week at the weakest point. Or because

if you're not careful, ego takes over. Why it takes over,

and we can be actually put to our weakest point.

And he was so fearful in the situation that he ran. Now,

the Bible doesn't tell us that God told Elijah to run.

He didn't tell us her because the reason why I

say that is because if you read the other Versus

chapters before, when Elijah first proclaimed the drought, he actually

went into hiding, and the Bible says God actually told

him to do it, okay, because God fed him while

he was in hiding. But in this situation we are not.

We can't say for sure that God asked Elijah to run, okay,

But yet Elijah ran. Not only did he ran, he

ran for his life, and in fact, he sat under

the broom tree as I read it earlier, he asked,

Lord will take his life. And that is how much

fear can really grip us, and it can really halt

us or stop us, or I should even say, rob

us from our destiny that God has stopped for us.

So I'm gonna share with us a few things today.

And so what are some of the fears that we

face in life? Now, Some of the fears that we

can face in life will be the fear of oppression.

And opposition or passion.

And clearly Elijah experienced that right who was his opposition,

Queen Jezabel right, queen uh, you know that institute the

worship of the gods of ba And so sometimes we

can have that, know, the fear of opposition. What else

we can have the fear of incompetence. You know, if

you look at the prayer of Elijah, he had that fear.

What did he say? I am no better than my

father's right? And so sometimes we can be in that

place whereby we have the fear of incompetence. You know,

we don't feel that we're good enough. We don't feel

like we can do anything. There's a fear and it's

not from the Lord. We need to be careful and

watchful about it. What else we can have the fear

of starting something. You know, oftentimes when you start something new,

it can be quite scary, isn't it. Uh? You know,

if you if you try cooking for the first time,

I don't know, you know, scare the oil you scet

the oil was splash. You know, if you start gardening

for the first time, it's scary. You know, if you

start university for the first time. You know, how many

of you here your foundation or year one foundation?

Anyone?

No one okay, yeah, feel okay, I feel of you right. Yeah,

So when you first start your your union see life,

of course, it's exciting. At the same time, it's scary

right in some in some ways, right because you're away

from home. So yeah, sometimes we can we can have

the fear whereby we're afraid of the outcome, you know.

But how many of you know if you don't start,

you will never finish. Think of it as a puzzle.

When you you know, start on a puzzle. You got

to start putting the first piece right before you can

finish it.

You know.

If you're staring at the at the end, go and

you never start putting the puzzle together, you never finish, right.

And we know that most of the time you'll start

at the corners, you know. But the point is you

need to start somewhere. So these as some of the

fears that we face in life. What else we can

also have fears of people's opinion?

Isn't it very well?

Whereby we are afraid of what people think about us.

We are afraid about people's perception of us. But I

want to remind us, most importantly, we need to know

what God thinks about us? Amen, what God thinks about

you and about me, because God sees the potential and

the future in you and me more than our failures

he does. He sees the potential in us, and he

loves us.

Amen.

And so this is a very common fear that you

and I will have the fear of people's opinion. What else,

we also have this thing called a fear of failure.

You know, many of us would have this fear in

us called the fear of failure. You know, because failure

is in the world is viewed as something is viewed

as a weakness, right, and when someone fails, we always

look at it at a week as a weak as

a point of weakness.

But may I suggest to you.

That even our failures in life is part and part

of the ingredients that gets us to our success. If

you ask every successful businessman, or every successful entrepreneur, or

every successful person who has built something, more often than

not they will share with you about their struggles and

their failures that got them to the place where they

are at today. So I want to encourage us, don't

be afraid to fail in a sense, because you all

rise again. You will pick yourself up. The Lord will

enable you to keep going to keep moving. You know,

I just just someone who say this code, stop being

afraid of what could go wrong, and start being excited

about what could go right. Because sometimes if we have

this fear of failure in our hearts, he can really

really rob us from the destiny that God has in

start for us. And I don't want us to any

of us to be in that place. Okay, what else

could be? A fear of the future? You know, now,

if I ask you to raise your hands, if you

have the fear of future, I think some of you

will raise your hands. And it's a very common fear

that many of us have, especially if you're young, because

we are afraid of what is going to happen in

the future. We don't know what what job we're gonna

we're gonna take. H you know, we don't know whether

we're going to work in the same feel that we're

starting now. You know, some people will say that they

don't end up working in the same feel that they're

studying today.

We always have this fear of a future.

You know, we don't know whether what it would look

like in the future about remind us from the Bible

in German twenty nine eleven it says, for I know

the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord,

thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you

a future and a hope. Somebody say, Amen, So God

has a good future for us.

He does.

He wants to give us a future and a hope.

And I have a quote for us here that says,

you know, we may not know what our future holds,

but we know who holds our future.

That is God.

God holds your future in the palm of his hands.

Amen. And we do not need to be fearful about

the future.

In the last but not least, of course, there are

many other fears, but I'm gonna stop here is the

fear of the unknown. Fear of the unknown in terms

of things that we cannot control, things that we do

not know, or even fear of the things in the

world you know, the spiriture realms and the evil spirits

and in this world found remind us that God says

in the Bible, because the Bible tells us that He

who is in you is greater than he who is

in the world. So remember this, even though we may

have many fears in our life, God is with us,

His immanual God, with us. We do not need to

be fearful. We do not need to fear. Most importing,

I pray that the fear will not stop you. We

will not stop you from believing. It will not stop

you from moving forward. It will not stop you from

continue to worship and to praise the Lord, because God

is with us. And so that that's the point of

my messages morning. Don't let the fear stop you. Don't

let the fear halt you, because when we're seeing the

story of Elijah, clearly, at that point of time, the

fear that he had right really gripped him so much

so that he ran for his life and he wanted

the Lord to take his life. He wanted to just

basically wanted to end his life. And God needed to

give him an encounter. God knew that the prophet that

was depressed in that moment needed an encounter, He needed

to be revived to come back to life, and so

the Lord brought him on the journey and spoke to

him and gave him an encounter. And so the reason

why I'm sharing this with us today is because you know,

twenty twenty five is coming to an end, and sometimes

the things that happened to us, either in the past

or even in the present, can really really stop us

or halt us, you know, and rob us from the

destiny that God has for us. And so even as

we continue to reflect on the year that has passed,

you know, I'm sure we have challenges, right, we have challenges,

We have ups and our downs. But I prayed this

passage we'll encourage you so that we will be overcomers

to Christ Jesus our Lord, and then we will not

be robbed from the destiny God has for us and

the best that He has for us, even as we

enter into a new year of twenty twenty six. Okay, So,

so the question is this, how do we overcome this

fear or how should we live our lives? And so

I'm going to draw from this story itself of perfect Elijah,

whereby God was found in the still small voice, and

so I'm going to break these tree words out which

is still.

Small and voice. Okay.

So my first point is this still to be still

before the Lord. Now, to be still before the Lord

does not mean that we do nothing. There is a difference, okay,

And to be still before the Lord just means that

we wait patiently on the Lord. Because Psalms for the

six verse ten says, be still and know that I

am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I

will be exalted in the earth. And so when we

can be still, the Bible tell us. The Bible tells

us be still and know that I am God. That

tells me that when we can be still and to

wait on the Lord actively, we will then know that

he is got over our lives. Amen, He's got over

our lives and in our time, our generation. Now, I

find it very difficult to be still. I'm not sure

whether you agree with me or whether you experience the

same thing, because the moment I sit down and I

try to be quiet just for let's say, about ten

minutes without doing anything or without saying anything, because oftentimes

when you pray to God, we are very quick to

pray and to speak. You know, you can see even

Elijah was speaking most of the time, and he was

complaining to the Lord, and you don't really hear much

about God speaking to him, or you don't really hear

much about Elijah hearing from the Lord at this point

in time, because the fear gripped him so much that

he was here a lot of words, you know, a

lot of fear in his heart. And so we live

in a generation that it's hard for us to be still.

You know.

We need to always do something, we need to always

say something. You know, we find it very difficult to

be still. We are constantly drowned by the voices in

this world, you know, voices from your friend, voices from

social media, voices from AI. You don't these days when

I watch videos, so I can't even tell whether it's

the person is the actual person or not, you know,

because AI is taking over and we've gotta be very

very careful because someone can you know, in person, another

person should the voice because AI is so advanced these days.

And so we find it very, very difficult to be still.

But I realize the value of being still, because to

be still is to come in a posture whereby we

are so cure and we are firm, and we are

stable in the Lord.

We don't need to be.

You know, you don't don't need to rush, or we

don't need to be agitated, or we don't need to

be annoyed, or we're not busy in that sense. But

we can be still before the Lord, not on the external,

but on the inside, and being still on the inside

is more important than just the external. And so I've

been to see situations in my life whereby the external

can be chaotic. You know, we can still look fearful

on the outside, we can still be afraid naturally in

our human sense. But deep down in us, right we

have this stillness or this peace in our hearts to

know that everything is going to be okay. There's the

peace of God a man. There's the peace of God

that gods our hearts. And so Elijah was running. He

was running, he was he was he was hiding from

from from this queen Jezebel. He was moving, he was talking,

you know. So let me break it down. When Elijah

heard the news, he immediately left. He ran for his life.

Not only did he did he ran, he also left

his servant at Basheba, okay, which is quite a long,

long journey.

And he didn't even stop.

He continued moving on on his journey, continue running. And

you know, he sat under the broom tree. He prayed

the law take his life, and thanks be to God,

God didn't answer his prayer at the moment, because if

God answered is prayer, he had taken him by fire,

and at that time, so I thought to myself, Wow,

thank god he doesn't answer. Not necessarily, all our prayers

are in their censor, because sometimes we can pray prayers

that don't make sense, you know, Sometimes we can, really,

in the moment of fear, right, we can pray prayers

that we probably don't mean it, and we probably don't

even want it to happen, but we say it anyway

because we are so captivated by the fear and so

quick by the fear. And I think that's what Elija

experienced in this moment. And he was woken up twice,

the Angel fed him, he moved on. He continued on

his day, on his journey for forty more days to

the mountain, to the mountain, you know, Mount Horrup, And

this is where he finally arrived at a cave where

Elijah could be still.

Think about it for a moment.

Elijah was running for at least forty days before he

finally could be still in a cave where the Lord

spoke to him. Isn't our lives like that sometimes, where

we are concernedly running contilt, looking for safety, for security,

for a place of refuge, and we can struggle for

I don't know you can name it how many days,

forty days, thirty days, ten days, for a long time

until we come to a place whereby we can be

still before the Lord, and the Lord is able to

speak to us, and he has our attention. That's why

I told you these days in our generation is hard

to be still. But in the cave, Elijah was finally

still and the place of quietness and surrender. He was

ready to listen to what the Lord had to say

to him. And so God asked him this simple question,

what are you doing here? He was almost as if

I actually Elijah actually knows the answer one What was

he doing there? Did he really need to run? Because

wouldn't God have protected Elijah? Or if Elijah needed to run,

wouldn't God have told Elijah to run? Because again I

told you, and I gave you the context. God just

performed a mighty miracle, you know, so great was the miracle.

Elijah was at a peak of his ministry, and yet

fear gripped him and he ran for his life. So

God asked Elijah, what are you doing here? Why did

Elijah have to flee in the first place? It's because

of fear, and the first response that comes out of

our heart, auld say, the first response that comes out

of our mouth were actually reflect what really inside our hearts?

Your first response are So when God asked, what are

you doing here? Elijah's answer, let me read you this answer.

I think it's found verse ten and verse fourteen. I'm

gonna be the one he found. Verse ten, he says,

I have been very zealous for the Lord, God of Host,

for the cheero Isser, have forsaken your covenant, torn down

your authors, and killed your prophets. And with the sword

I alone am left, and they seek to take my life. Now,

if you read this entire context of the story, you

will know that actually Elijah was not the only perfet

left because when King Ahab and Jezebel was you know,

persecuting or killing the prophets, there was this one guy

named Obadiah.

Okay, if you gon't read it, I gonna be it's

very exciting. Okay.

There's this guy named Obadiah, think the servant of the king,

who actually took hundreds of the prophets and hit them

in a cave. Two caves, the cave fifty to fifty each. Okay,

and Elijah actually knows about it because Elijah had an

encounter with Obadiah, and Obadiah told him that I've hit

one hundred profets and fed them throughout the drought. So

Elijah actually knew in his mind that he was not

the only prophet left. Okay, but can you see how

fear can really grip us when we really really only

focused on what's in front of us? And he forgot

that obada told him I've hidden a hundred purposes of

the Lord and fed them and they're still alive. So

Elijah was not alone. But Elijah was fearful. He was afraid,

and he had to run for his life. That's why

he was, you know, sharing his his his emotions.

To the Lord.

And so they said the Lord clearly knew that he

needed an encounter with the Lord. Elijah needed time to

rest and to recoop and to find his footing back

in the Lord. So I want to say to us,

if you're fearful, if you have a big sugar in

your life, learn how to be still. Learn how to

be still, and sometimes the Lord will allow us to

shugger for a little while until we can come to

a place whereby we are still and ready to listen

to the Lord, and he will speak to us.

Amen. He will speak to us because he knows that

we need it.

He knew very clearly Elijah needed an encounter with the Lord,

and God was ready to give him an encounter, a

person encounter.

Let me read a.

Portion of scripture a bible found you, Philip Pine, chapter four,

verse one to nine. If you can, if you can do,

turn your bibles to it. Philip Pinch, chapter four, verse

one to nine. Philippines four, verse one and nine says, Therefore,

my beloved and longed for brethren, my joy and crown.

So stand steadfast in the Lord, Beloved. I employ Iodia,

and I employ Syndicate to be of the same mind

in the Lord. And I urge you, also, true companion,

help these women who labored with me in the Gospel,

with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers

whose names are in the Book of Life.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say, with joys, let your gentleness be

known to all men.

The Lord is at hand.

And be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer

and supplication, with thanksgiving, Let your requests be made known

to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.

Will God your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, Dan,

whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things

are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely,

whatever things are of good report. If there is any virtue,

and if there is anything praise worthy, meditate on these things,

the things which you learned and received and heard and

saw in me.

The do and the God of peace world be with you, Amen.

And so be anxious for nothing.

Don't be afraid, don't be fearful, but in everything, by

prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to

God and the peace of God. Were God your hearts

and your minds to Christ Jesus.

Amen.

This is really a verse that hang on to a lot,

especially when things are in chaos in my life. And

now I hang on to these verse and the peace

of God. Were God our hearts and our minds to

Christ Jesus.

Amen. So that's my first point. Be still. My second

point is this small.

Small How do you ever know that God is interested

in the small things and not just the big things.

God knew the Elijah and the moment needed a person

encounter with the Lord. And oftentimes in our life we

always look for the big things, the spectacular things, the

germantic things. Okay, so interestingly enough, or I should say sadly. Actually,

in the story, after the encounter and Mount Camel, you

would have thought, right, the israel I saw the difference

between the gods of Bao and the difference between yr

Wah the God, the one true living God, and you

would have thought right that they would have immediately repented,

right and chose to worship and follow the God of Yeah,

way right. But if you look at the story, they didn't. Again,

the big and gramatic thing, right, didn't change their hearts.

Think about it for a moment. The big thing, you know,

didn't change. In fact, if you actually read the story

and Elijah prayed for the drought to end, he started

with a small cloud. The Bible says, he started with

a small cloud rising like a man's hand. That's what

the Bible actually says. That if you can't read it, okay,

let me let me find it for you and read

it to you. It's found in First King Shepherd eighteen okay,

First King of the eighteen words forty one. Then Elijah

said to Ahab, go up, eat and drink, for there

is a sound abundance of rain. So Aha went up

to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the

top of camel. Then he bowed down to the gown,

put his face between his knees, and he said to

his servant, go up, now look toward the sea. So

he went up and looked and said there is nothing.

Seven times he said go again. Then it came to

pass the seventh time that he said, there is a

cloud as what as small as a man's hand, rising

out of the sea. So, ladies and gentlemen, even in

the miracle of God, he started with the small, started

with a small. The miracle bringing the rain back started

with the small. And if you read the story again carefully,

God spoke to Elijah or Chad to say, God was

in the still small voice. He was not found. In

the wind, in the strong wind, he was not there.

The earthquake came, he was not there. The fire came,

he was not there. And finally, a still small voice.

And so I want to.

Say to us, we will only be able to hear

the still small voice when we are still before him,

because if we are very busy and distracted and fearful

in our hearts, in our minds, we won't be able

to focus on him and our problems seems so big

to us. But in the small God is interested in

the small details in our life. You know, because you

and I will always tend to focus on the big things.

We tend to focus on the big miracles, on the

big encounters. But it's the small things that will get

us to those big encounters. When I see the small things,

I'm referring to your quiet time, I'm referring to your discipline,

in your in your spiritual walk with the Lord. You know,

just are very small things, but they have big impact

and big results. And so let's not just focus on

the big miracles, the dramatic events in our life, but

small increments, small steps, they will get us moving, you know,

so that the fear will not creep us and will

not stop us or hault us from the destiny that

God has in start for us. Imen Another story in

the Bible that can think of about the small is

David and Goliath. You know, David was a small guy

compared to Goliath, you know, so small that he couldn't

fit in the armor of Saul. If you're gon't read

the story of golife of David and Goliah, and how

do he definat Goliath.

With a stone?

Five smooth stones, small as they are, but yet powerful

in the hands of God. It's all remind us, don't

forsake the small things, because when we are fearful, we

always focus on the big things. We focus on the

problem that is so big in our lives. And I

remember this, Calle, you know, don't tell your God how

big your problem is. Tell your problem how big your

God is.

You know.

But we can only get to the pace if we

have done everything right with the small things in our life,

our devotion, our prayer, life, our quiet time, you know,

our worship to the Lord. Small things then make a

big difference in our life.

Amen.

And my turn and final point is this the voice?

So this is perfect Elijah. I'm sure before this he

has heard God's voice many times. It's the Lord revealed

to him the Word. And that's what perfects are meant

to do. They are meant to point the people back

to the Lord. And it seems to me that at

this moment it was different for him because God appeared

to him in a still small voice, and when he

heard it, he immediately humbered himself, wrapped himself with a mentor,

and went out to meet with the Lord. And that's

where he had encountered with the Lord, and that changed everything.

Jeremid twenty nineteen tells us that you shall seek me

and find me when you search me, when you search

for me with all your heart. Let me read that again,

and you will seek me and find me when you

search for me with all your heart.

Amen.

So in that moment, even as Elijah was afraid, he

was fearful, he had complained on his mouth, but he

had God assured him. What did God assure him? God

assure him that God was fully in control. God gave

him very specific instruction or what he needed to do.

Appoint this guy as king over Judah over Israel and

appointed successor, which is Elijah. And God gave him very

clear instructions. And friends, one word from the Lord can

change our lives when you have an encounter with him.

One word from the Lord can change our lives. And

God made it very clear to Elijah that he was

not alone. What did God say, I have reserved seven

thousand people or seven thousand men. I think say, men, here,

seven thousand is easy, okay, didn't say seven thousand is Israel,

of whose knees have not bowed to bow and have

not kissed him. So God was giving a show to

Elijah that you're not alone. You see, it was not

the dramatic events that kept the seven thousand. But let

me say this, it was the still small voice that

preserved the seven thousand. It would have God, who has

spoken to them individually in the ac quiet places, in

the secret places, that kept them devoted, secured in the Lord,

even despite the land being more and more wicked and worshiping.

The God of power.

But yet God had preserved seven thousand, and now we'll

imagine it was through the still small voice. Even I'm

gonna write, worship thing to come up even as I close.

And so when we're in the place of fear, you know,

the the title of my message again was don't let

that which haunts you hault you. Because yes, in that moment,

Elijah was afraid. He was fearful. He ran for his life.

But even as Elijah had an encounter with the Lord,

he came out stronger and bolder, and he knew exactly

what he needed to do because the Lord had given

him a word. Not only only did God give him word,

God gave him very specific events of what was about

to happen. And as I read it, I'm reminded again

that God is fully in control the man.

God is fully in control.

He reigned, solving and Heaven rules over every situation in

our lives. So that assurance to Elijah was more than

enough for him to get up on his feet. And

if you're continuating on the story, you will know that

he departed from there and he found Elishah and he

immediately appointed I should say anointed Elishah, and Elijah followed

Elijah and eli Elijah was such an amazing perfect You

know that he never tasted death. You know that Elijah

was taken up to heaven in uh in the in

the chariot or as you say, the chariot of fire.

You know, I think it's found in the Second King

Chapter one.

I think. And for such an amazing perfet.

You know, and so so powerful and did such a

miraculous wonders and miracles, and yet for a person like Elijah,

fear can also grip him. Fear can also cause him

to be in a place where he runs for his life.

And what more, what more you and me you know.

So I'm not here to tell us that we would

not go through the fear. I'm here to tell us

that despite the many fears that we had, that we

go through and we encounter in this life, it's more

importantly to know that we can be stilled before the

Lord and to know that he is God. He's in

control over our lives. And God is not just interesting

in the big things in our lives, but even the

small things.

And even if you are stuck.

And and you don't what to do, I pray if

you will still be able to take small steps, small

steps in the Lord and to the Lord, to us

the Lord. He will continue to take us, and he

will continue to guide us and leaders and men, and

even as to seek give with all your heart. I

truly believe that the Lord will speak to you, even

should the still small voice. Amen, Harley Lujah. You know,

I don't know who I'm speaking to. But maybe not

something that has happened in your past that is stopping

you or or robbing you of your joy. But maybe

it'd be something in the present. You know, it could

be something that you are commonly experiencing. It could be

a fear, It could be an insecurity, It could be

a challenge, it could be a struggle that you are facing.

And in the middle of the strugger and the challenge

that you're facing, fear can come upon your your life,

your heart, your mind. I want to encourage you, I

want to employ you to just fix your eyes on

Jesus the Author and finish it of our faith even

as a red to you, what pause it to meditate

on these things that are good, because that will help

our hearts and our minds to fix our eyes on Jesus.

Because the Bible does tell us to know that an

either mind, it is the devil's playground. So if you're

not careful, if we are idle, if you are just

sitting and doing nothing, then you're gonna be very careful

because that's where the devil is, that's his territory, that's

where he's good at. That's why when I told you

to be still is not to do nothing, but to

be still is to wait on the Lord patiently and actively.

It's called active waiting.

Whereby you're ready to move, you're ready to act, you're

ready to hear from the Lord, there is a difference,

and I pray that if you are a person in

this situation, that you will be able to just.

Focus on the.

Lord, to be still before the Lord and know that

he is God over your life.

God is fully in control, and so I encourage you.

Don't stop believing, don't stop looking to him, don't let

the fears stop you, but continue to walk towards Him,

taking every step by faith, for we walk by faith

and not by side a man. We walk by faith

and not by side.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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hit for you. God bless