“I will surely present myself to him today.” (1 Kings 18:15, NKJV)
We are currently busy with a series on mantle formation, with Elijah as prototype. In the previous teaching we got to where Elijah and Obadiah meet. Obadiah is afraid that Elijah will disappear again, leaving him in great trouble, but Elijah knows when the kairos moment has come. In verse 15 he makes it clear to Obadiah: “Then Elijah said, ‘As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely present myself to him today.’”
The man of God who is clothed in authority is always acutely aware of the right time to execute God’s agenda. Woven into any Godly mantle is the special gift of Issachar, namely a keen insight when it comes to time, and the right decisions to make at that specific time: “(they) had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chr. 12:32). It is this mantle that caused Elijah to hide from Ahab for a certain period, and it is the same mantle that made Elijah realise that NOW is the time for action.
Most believers do not exercise this gift. As the pressures of modern life has us trying to do everything as quickly as possible, we often disregard the carefully prepared stage God is setting, in our hastiness to get things done (Rom. 12:2). If you, as the man of God for the moment, stumble onto the stage at the wrong moment, you are missing the plot of what God had intended.
Throughout Scripture we read of people who had the gift of Issachar woven into their mantles, including for instance Esther 1:13, where the king would consult “the wise men who understood the times”. Remember – Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24), thus all mantles in Christ offer the rightful owners who are clothed with Christ (Gal. 3:17) this supernatural ability!
We know that the wise men, at the time that Jesus was born, were clearly inspired by God to travel from the “East”, in a sense traveling to that which is “before time” (see Day 1016-1018, Matt. 2:1). These star gazers were thus familiar with the Bride (= stars: Gen. 22:17; Dan. 12:3), and could “read” the times and seasons to know how to act. [The Bride as “stars” of course arises from the “star … out of Jacob” (Num. 24:17), his Name is Jesus, the one about whom Bileam, “from the mountains of the East” (Num. 23:7) had prophesied! We know Jesus is actually the only original Morning Star (Rev. 22:16).]
From Ecc. 12:11 we learn that “the words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd”. The wise men from the East are driven by their rhema-words: “There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.” (Ps. 19:3).
Are you, like Isa. 19:11 asks, a ”son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?”, with the wisdom of discerning the times and acting accordingly?
- Selah: Please answer the last question.
- Read: Luke 16-17:10.
- Memorise: Luke 16:16.
