God's questions are about change

God often awakens his people by asking them questions, says Anne Calver in her latest book written with John McGinley. Elijah’s encounter with God and Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones both point to God’s call for the church to embrace revival today.

When God asks us a question he doesn’t ask it because he needs information – he knows everything! He asks us a question to open us up to the reality that something needs to change. A change of mindset, a change of behaviour, a fresh awareness of what is really going on.

“What are you doing here, Elijah?” God asked twice, when he found him hiding in a cave, burned out and in fear for his life as Jezebel threatened to kill him. The Lord had already fed Elijah and strengthened him to walk for forty days to Mount Horeb, the mountain of the Lord. Now he started to awaken him to what he was about to do.

Elijah replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

Then God said to him, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by,” (1 Kings 19:10-11). “What are you doing here?” is one of those questions God is asking the church at this time.

He is helping us understand that where we are – and the state he finds us in – is not where he wants us to be.

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