Rebecca Brown Posts

Glimpses of God 3

2-26-16  GLIMPSES OF GOD -- PART 3

"Then the word of the Lord came to him, [Elijah] saying, 'Get away from here and turn eastward and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.  And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.'"  1 Kings 17:2-4

ALL of creation knows the Creator and obeys and praises Him, except humans.  God's word tells us that even the rocks and trees and hills and mountains are capable of crying out to praise the Lord.  Certainly the animals and birds do as well.  Just because animals and birds are not capable of speaking our language to communicate with us, we don't stop to think that all of them can, and do, talk to God.  God spoke to the ravens, and the ravens heard and obeyed and brought food to Elijah.  I am quite sure that the Lord did not speak to the ravens in English, or even in Hebrew.  No, He spoke to them in "Raven," their own language that they could understand.

We are even told in Numbers 22:28 that ". . . the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam . . ."

The response of everything in that forest to the actual presence of Jesus on that day drove home to me the reality of God's continual interaction with creation.  I had not fully realized this until that experience.  Chico saw the Lord, and immediately did everything he could do to praise Him.  He jumped down out of my lap and went to wrap himself around the legs of Jesus, looking up at Him, and praising Him with his purr as loudly as he could.  Every bird and insect in the forest sang and called out praises to the Lord.  Even the trees "clapped their hands" to the Lord.  There was no breeze, but the tree branches all rubbed together, rustling as loudly as they could.

We are taught from early childhood that all the creatures in creation operate out of a thing called "instinct."  We think this knowledge is simply a part of their make up, never once realizing that they are actually acting in response to the day-to-day instructions and guidance given to them by the Lord.  Not long after that experience in the forest, I was able to watch about 10 minutes of a program on TV showing the migration of salmon.  These fish migrate over 3,000 miles in the ocean back to where they were hatched, to lay their own eggs and reproduce.  The commentator spoke about the amazing "instinct" these fish had to guide them so many miles back to the place where they had been hatched.  Suddenly the Lord spoke to me and said, "The migration of fish and birds is NOT because of instinct.  It is My hand that guides and directs them every time!"

"For by Him [Jesus] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist."  Colossians 1:16-17

The scripture says:  "In Him all things consist."  That word consist means "to hold or stand together."  What it means is that there is a continual flow of power from Jesus into everything in the creation.  Nothing would continue to live or breathe without this continual flowing of power into it from the Creator.  God continually enables everything in the creation to exist and live.  He continually guides and communicates with everything.  Only mankind has broken off his communication with, and guidance from, his creator through sin.

The birds and fish and butterflies all migrate the thousands of miles, they do so through the direct guidance of the Lord.  How do the birds know when to leave and migrate to warmer climates before winter arrives?  Because God tells them it is time to go.  How do they know where to fly?  By God's guiding hand.  What keeps the sun and moon and stars in place and moving in their assigned orbits?  Only the continual flowing of the power of God.  Jesus was not speaking symbolically when He said the following.  He was speaking literally: