I’m renovating again! After months spent updating this blog, I am now revising an e-book I wrote in 2012. The updated book is not out yet, but here’s a sneak peek: The renovated first chapter of The Elijah Blessing: An Undivided Heart.

You who want to know Christ, to love him and to serve him with your whole heart, I have a word from the Lord you may need to hear.

You’re not alone, my beloved. Others are out there, seeking to know me intimately and to follow me fully. You may have trouble finding them. You may be slow to recognize them. They may not look as you have thought. On days when you feel desperately alone, know that you are not. But even if you were, do not quit this pursuit. One undivided heart matters more than you can dream.

In addition, I have a warning from the Lord you may need to heed.

Beware of Ahab and Jezebel, my beloved. They hate you. They’re determined to own you or destroy you – and neither one looks as you have thought. In me, you have more authority than they do. But to walk in that authority, you need to see past strong deception. You need to walk in the blessing of an undivided heart.

God-breathed spirit and power

The prophet Elijah received that blessing, and walked in it. As a result, he also walked in the spirit and power the Lord breathed into him.

Regularly, Elijah experienced the miraculous. Always, he prophesied with 100 percent accuracy. He announced extended drought, enjoyed supernatural provision throughout, then ushered in the rains. Three times, he called down fire from heaven. Once, he parted the Jordan River and walked across on dry land. Once, he raised the dead.

Boldly, Elijah confronted national leaders, giving them orders and warning of judgments to come. Dramatically, he stood on Mt. Carmel against 850 false prophets – and proved the Lord more powerful than all their idols and gods.

You may think you already know the Old Testament prophet. Or, taking an interest, you might gain much head knowledge about a man whose life bears little resemblance to your own. You may feel a bit of kinship with Elijah, especially at his low points. Yet in general, you may feel outranked and outclassed by such an epic life.

Instead, I invite you to walk into Elijah’s world with your eyes open to the fresh understanding God wants to give you – and your heart open to the spirit and power he wants to pour out.

Lord our Lord, as we peek now into Elijah’s life and world, may we glimpse by your Spirit what it means to cultivate an undivided heart. May we welcome you and delight in you as you purify our hearts too.

Coming and going with God

Elijah’s life epitomizes the dramatic entrance and exit.

In 1 Kings 17:1, Elijah suddenly appeared on the scene, announcing to Israel’s King Ahab: “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word” (NAS).

In 2 Kings 2, Elijah disappeared just as abruptly, riding heavenward on a whirlwind in a chariot of fire.

The end? Not hardly.

Hundreds of years after Elijah lived, Malachi prophesied his return. Indeed, the Old Testament concludes with God’s promise of the ultimate dramatic entrance:

“I will send you Elijah the prophet before that great and terrifying day of the Lord’s judging. Elijah will help parents love their children and children love their parents. Otherwise, I will come and put a curse on the land” (Mal. 4:5-6 NCV).

As the New Testament opens, God instigates the first fulfillment of that promise. He sends John the Baptist:

• to “go before the Lord in spirit and power like Elijah”;
• to “make peace between parents and their children”;
• to “bring those who are not obeying God back to the right way of thinking”;
• to “make a people ready for the coming of the Lord” (Luke 1:17 NCV).

God sent John before Jesus, to point people to Jesus. When Herod martyred John, his voice wasn’t silenced, nor his life snuffed out. What’s more, the spirit and power of Elijah exited only briefly.

One day toward the end of Jesus’ ministry, the Lord went up a mountain to pray. There, his face changed and his clothes became dazzling white. At that moment, Elijah made another dramatic entrance. He, along with Moses, “appeared in glorious splendor,” talking with the transfigured Christ (Luke 9:30).

Blessings hidden – and held out

Only God knows where we will see the spirit and power of Elijah next. But the New Testament appearances suggest: We don’t have to wait until the final fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy at the end of the age.

John the Baptist walked in the Elijah blessing, and John lived before Jesus died and rose again and before the Holy Spirit was poured out. We live in the wake of resurrection and Pentecost. What’s more, no matter how epic Elijah’s life may seem, Scripture declares:

“Elijah was a human being, even as we are” (James 5:17).

My beloved, I am well able to do in and through you what I did in and through Elijah. I’ve made every provision for you to experience what Elijah did, and more. I, the Son, am risen. I, the Spirit, have been poured out. And I, your Father, love you and love giving you good gifts. Especially, I love blessing you, and sending you, so that you bless others’ lives. I am the one Lord, and I hold out to you this blessing – the blessing of an undivided heart.

Seeking God, finding treasure

Here’s the paradox: Some blessings, God hides at the very time he holds them out. He hides these blessings in a way that reserves them for those who seek.

Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God. (1 Chron. 22:19 NAS)

You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jer. 29:13 NAS)

How blessed are those who … seek Him with all their heart. (Ps. 119:2 NAS)

Beloved of the Lord, be blessed to seek him with an undivided heart, Be blessed to receive the treasures he gives, as you embrace the treasure he is.

Revealed through his Spirit

The Lord conveys the essence of the Elijah blessing in these stories written in his Word:

• the story of Elijah;
• the story of God’s people in Elijah’s day;
• the story of King Solomon, who lived decades before Elijah but whose choices greatly influenced Elijah’s world;
• the story of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.

Some of these stories may be familiar to you; some, you may not have noticed before. Whether or not you think you know a Bible story, always approach it with a heart to seek the treasure God has deposited there.

Your eye hasn’t seen, nor your ear heard,
nor your heart imagined,
what God has prepared for you, who love him.
But he will reveal it to you through his Spirit.
(1 Cor. 2:9-10 personalized)

Spirit can be known only by spirit – God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. (1 Cor. 2:14 MSG)

Notice! You receive the work of God in your spirit before you can mentally fathom it or emotionally feel it. Yet your soul will try to turn that process around. When that happens:

• You may find yourself mentally struggling to take in what God is saying or to figure out what he is doing.
• You may find yourself emotionally pushing away what God is holding out.

Whenever you realize you are seeking God with logic or emotion in the lead, remind yourself, That will not work. Then, pause. Take a deep breath. And go a different way.

My suggestion? Thank your mind and emotions for their input. Remind them they are the followers, not the leaders, into the deep things of God. Ask your Lord to teach you Spirit-to-spirit communion with him.

Four types of hearts

Remember: The spirit and power in Elijah’s life had everything to do with the God who gave them – and the undivided heart that welcomed them.

So what is an undivided heart? How might it look? How does it differ from other hearts?

The verses below speak of three types of human hearts. These “heart types” have to do with the spirit of a person, not the organ that beats in the body. That means:

• Unlike our blood type, our heart can change. In fact, any one person can move into and out of all three of these heart types.
• We need God’s Spirit and power to discern our own heart and the hearts of the people around us.

Evil hearts

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. (Gen. 6:5)

See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me. (Jer. 16:12)

Wash the evil from your heart. (Jer. 4:14)

Good people bring good things out of the good they stored in their hearts. But evil people bring evil things out of the evil they stored in their hearts. People speak the things that are in their hearts. (Luke 6:45 NCV)

Brothers and sisters, be careful that none of you has an evil, unbelieving heart that will turn you away from the living God. (Heb. 3:12)

 Divided hearts

Help, Lord, because the godly are all gone;
the faithful have completely disappeared from the human race!
Everyone tells lies to everyone else;
they talk with slick speech and divided hearts. (Ps 12:1-2 CEB)

Their heart is divided and deceitful;
Now they are held guilty.
He will break down their altars;
He will ruin their sacred pillars. (Hos. 10:2 NKJV)

Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. (James 4:8 NLT)

An undivided heart

David … lived from his undivided heart, pleasing me. (1K 14:8 MSG)

You must always act in the fear of the Lord, with faithfulness and an undivided heart. (2 Chron. 19:9 NLT)

Teach me your way, Lord,
that I may rely on your faithfulness;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever. (Ps. 86:11-12)

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. (Ezek. 11:19-20)

Blessed hearts

What the verses above describe, many stories in Scripture flesh out. As we read those stories, God can show us what we may not have seen or may need to see again. The Spirit can reveal what we need to know about how each type of heart looks, how it works and what it produces – in people’s lives, and down through generations.

As you explore Elijah’s story, or any story in God’s Word:

May the Spirit who indwells you make connections you cannot explain. May the Father who loves you reveal your kinship with Elijah and with other human beings whom you may have seen only as “Bible characters.” May the Lord your God impart the same spirit and power to you that he imparted to Elijah.

May all of that flow from, and continually lead back to, the place of blessing in which Elijah stood.

You who long for an undivided heart, be blessed to receive it, to guard it and, day by day, to live from it.

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This post is the renovated first chapter of a work-in-progress, slightly tweaked for clarity. I would love to explore more of Elijah’s life and world with you. Here is a link to the 2012 version of The Elijah Blessing: An Undivided Heart.

But also! By God’s grace, I’m working to finish the revised version of the e-book. I plan to post more in this blog about my progress and to announce when the renovated Elijah Blessing is complete and live.

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

See also

• A spirit like Caleb’s – following God fully
• Journey to a divided heart
• Spiritual schizophrenia and the two-headed snake