WHEN THE BROOK DRIES UP !

The question is "What do you do when your brook dries up " ?

let's first define what the brook is.

BROOK, [ to rain, to pour, to flow.] A small natural stream of water, or a current flowing from a spring or fountain less than a river.

In a spiritual sense ,the brook can be a provision from God ,blessing ,comfort etc !

I believe one way or the other ,all of us have been in a place where the brook had dried up .we have all experienced it. In our life ,marriages ,relationships ,Ministry ,Work etc, we sometimes experience dryness and an emptiness that often takes us out of our comfort zones .

In our marriages ,we maybe enjoying a good time with our spouse ,everything may seem to be going on well perhaps for some years after getting married,then suddenly as if God had abandoned us and given the devil the superintendence over the marriage ,an unquenchable fire of disputes sprouts, eviscerating the joy in the marriage and forces it into a divorce .

There  are some instances where our relationship with God becomes particularly interesting;we become passionate and zealous in service we are always in time for church services,we always want the opportunity to profess our faith and share the gospel with others , then it gets to a point where you just don't feel God's presence around you anymore .

For some of you , maybe ,God blesses you with a job ,then after some time you get a dreaded notice that you have been fired .

We have all experienced the dryness before ,not to talk of the pain and shame that comes with it. The question though is "what do we have to do when the brook dries up? "

Let us read 1 kings 17: 2
And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
5 So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.
7 And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
8 And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, 9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

Until the brook dried up ,it was where Elijah had his provision .The brook was a provision from God . God prepared that place for him, so it couldn't have just dried up, for no reason .
There is always a purpose and a reason behind the dryness of the brook .Things just don't happen like that! I believe the drying of the brook is a signal for a change from provision to sustainance .In Elijah's case ,when the brook dried up, it was God telling him ,in a way, to give up the brook.It was a time for him to change his position and relocate .

For many of us, when we experience such dryness the the overt thing we do is to give up,some even go to the extent to question God . God always has us in mind ,He has good thoughts for us and always prepares a place for us to receive his provisions . The import then is we must make it a habit to enquire of Him anytime we face such dryness .We must take advantage of it to buy into the mind of God so we can know the next step to take . We must go before him with gladness telling him the situation at hand because he holds the solutions to all our dilemmas and he patiently waits for us to call upon him.

From the time Elijah declared the word to king Ahab, to the time he was sustained in the Widows house ,he always received a fresh word from God . God had to reveal to him his plans and his next "assignment ". The interesting thing here is ,God never told Elijah where he was taking him until he had obeyed the initial command .

God never reveals his complete plan to us until after we have obeyed his initial word . Provision always comes after we have obeyed his word,it follows a sequence . Prayer gives inspiration,inspiration is the solution which is acted upon ,action gives provision . Let me explain further ; When the brook dries up ,it is a call to prayer , prayer clears the mind to receive the word -inspiration from God ,the word or inspiration can be in the form of an idea or solution( in its theoretical form ) which must be acted upon ,after you have acted upon the word ,then provision comes .You must understand that provision only comes after you have acted and obeyed the word . Thus was the case of Elijah .

Our problem is ,We always want to see the provision before we do something .It is even evident in our prayers, but God does not work like that .He has different ways through which he uses to bless us . God can chose to bless us through people . Sometimes these people may not realise it themselves but God uses them anyway to bless us .

God is saying the same thing to us today . "I have commanded i widow in that place ",note that God was speaking in the past tense which meant he had already done that even before he approached Elijah . That's exactly how he acts now,God has not changed .He already knows the things we need and he has made preparations for that,we would be making a great mistake if we fail to call on him.
We err ,because we do not inquire of the Lord .