TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Overcome Inflation and Shortages: Powerful Lessons From Little-Known Biblical Miracles

Episode Date: November 14, 2022

Inflation and shortages are impacting everybody. There's nothing new under the sun. God's people throughout the ages had to cope with challenging economic conditions. As Rick and Doc lead a Jordan Holy Land tour this week, we have a powerful 2-part Bible lesson based on two little-known miracles in the Old Testament. You'll be amazed and blessed by what you learn today.Rick Wiles, Doc Burkhart. Airdate 11/14/22.A hilarious gift idea for Christmas 2022! Order your Fauci Elf! https://tru.news/faucielfIt’s the Final Day! The day when Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. You can order the second edition of Rick’s book, Final Day. https://www.rickwiles.com/final-dayYou can partner with us by visiting TruNews.com/donate or by calling 1-800-576-2116 or by mail at PO Box 690069 Vero Beach, FL 32969.

Well, the Holy Bible contains wonderful stories in both the Old Covenant and New Covenant pages about God providing miracle supplies for his people. Dr. Raymond Burkhardt and I have been sharing biblical lessons with you over the past two weeks, and we have more faith-filled lessons for you this week. Our lesson today and tomorrow will come from the fourth chapter of 2 Kings. Doc is here to read 2 Kings 4, verses 38 through 41. And a fascinating passage this is. And Elijah came again to Gilgal, and there was a dearth in the land. And the sons of the prophets were sitting before him.

And he said unto his servant, Sit on the great pot and seize the porridge for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full and came and shred them in the pot of pottage for they knew them not so they poured out for the men to eat and it came to pass as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot, and they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot, and he said, Pour out for the people that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.

That's found in 2 Kings 4, verses 38-41. Rick? Yeah, this one's very fascinating, and tomorrow's lesson is connected to it. And both of them involve miracles that the Lord did through Elijah. Right. So there was a famine in the land.

Yes. You know, lack of food, lack of water. And Elijah traveled to Gilgal. He went to a... It was a Bible school. It was a college for young prophets yes who were being trained by the prophet himself uh to represent the lord in the land so when he got there he found about a hundred young men who were hungry. That's how I know it was Bible college. Yeah, because there was no food. So Elijah arrived at the Bible college and checked it out. And, you know, he was promptly told, there's no food here. We're all hungry. So now you can imagine a hundred, one hundred young

men, and they haven't had a good meal for quite some time. They were hungry. So what would you do? Well, this is the marvelous part of the story. So, Doc, he instructed his servant to get a great pot. Yes. A great pot, okay? Not a pot. Not a great pot. Yes. A great pot. Okay.

Not a pot. Not a saucepan. A great pot. Okay, you know what he got? A big kettle. Yes. Imagine those big, giant cast iron kettles that we used to see all the time when we were kids. Oh, sure.

He said, so bring me the big kettle. Where's the big kettle? So probably the negative thinking, doubt filled people were probably saying, we don't even have anything to put in this little saucepan. You want the kettle? Bring me the kettle. Yes. Water was a scarce commodity this is a drought

just filling up a kettle with water was an act of faith and so Elijah says bring me the great pot so they brought in the pot what are you going to put in it well he said the Lord would provide. But that's not what one of the guys did. One of the young men thought, well, I'm going to help the Lord. Now, we've all done this, every one of us, okay? We've all at some time in our life tried to help

the Lord do what only the Lord can do. So one of the men went out into the field to find something to put in the great pot, the big kettle. And so he brought back his vegetables, and these were gourds. It could have been melons. It could have been cucumbers, squashes. It just doesn't give us the precise description of what was brought back. It was a wild vine, it said.

It was a wild vine. And so they chopped it up. They shredded it up. They made it into fine pieces and threw it into the pot. But when the guy started eating, suddenly one of the young men yelled, I mean, you can imagine he spit it out. It doesn't say he spit it out, but by the way, the script, the reaction, he yelled, there's death in the pot. Yes. What did he mean by that doc? That meant there was poison in it. There was something that was in what had been put in the pot that had poisoned

everything. You know, Elijah had the faith to believe God would fill it. And yet this one young man brings in something wild, something that wasn't supposed to be in the pot. And like you said, something poisonous. Yes. And that, you know what the poison is? Negative thinking. That's right. The unbelief. That was what the poison was. That was what the death was. Unbelief equals death. Yes. And so here God was getting ready to use Elisha to produce a kettle of soup.

And one young man almost killed the entire school. But Elisha had faith before there was anything there. He knew that the Lord would fill the pot. Right. He had faith. And what is faith? Faith is the substance, the assurance of things hoped for. But what were they hoping for?

Soup. Yes. They wanted stew. And Elijah had the assurance in his heart that the Lord would provide them with the ingredients that they needed to make the soup. Right. He had the assurance, the guarantee in his heart. And he could taste it. His faith tongue could taste the soup before.

He could imagine that bowl that, you know, a bowl of soup being ladled out into that bowl, that big kettle. That's right. He saw it with his faith eyes before his physical eyes saw it. Right. He tasted it with his faith tongue before his physical tongue tasted it. Elijah knew God will provide. But one of the young men, a religious young man, okay, he was at a Bible college. He's studying the Bible. And so he gets a religious idea. I'm going to help God do this.

I'm going to go out and gather up things. So he brings back poisonous vegetables. Tosses them. Not only didn't throw them in a hole, like I said, he cut them up into fine pieces. They diced them, shredded them. Doc, this represents that the poison not only is a negativity and doubt, but it's false doctrine. It's heresies.

And these things can be diced up so small. A little leaven. Leaven is the whole lump. A little leaven, yes. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees. Yes. A little of it gets into the pot. But they put a lot of it in, but it was in small pieces. And so the prophet said,

look, we're not going to be able to scoop all this out and pick all the pieces out. It's too late. It's in the soup. The negativity was there. The doubt was there. The unbelief was there. The false doctrines. The heresies. These are the things. It's like the tares. Jesus said the tares are growing up next to the wheat. And they said should we just pull up the tares? No. Lest you pull up the wheat also. So with the parable of the tares we're taught to let the tares grow alongside the wheat. And at harvest time, the day of the Lord, the final day when the Lord comes back,

the reaper angels will separate the tares from the wheat. So the same principles here with the poisonous vegetables that are in the pot. Elijah didn't say, hey, we got to get that stuff out of there. Instead, he said, bring me the meal. Right. Which is the pot. Elijah didn't say, hey, we got to get that stuff out of there. Instead, he said, bring me the meal, which is the flour. Bring me the flour. So he starts throwing flour into the pot and the flour neutralized the poison. The principle in this is that when there is negativity in the church, when there is negativity in your home, in your business, when there's unbelief, doubt,

when there are false doctrines, heresies, don't try to pick it out. Don't try to eradicate it. It'll drive you crazy. Throw in the meal. Throw in the flour. Throw in the flour. The flour is truth. Yes.

It represents truth. The antidote for poison, the antidote for heresy, the antidote for false doctrines, the antidote for unbelief and negativity is the gospel. Yes. More gospel. Fill it up with the gospel. And the gospel will neutralize gospel. Yes. More gospel. Fill it up with the gospel. And the gospel will neutralize it. Right.

It'll still be there. It'll still be there, Doc. It'll be there. Jesus said the tares will be in the church until the day He comes back. You can't get them out. You can chase them off, but they're just going to go someplace else and

infest another church. So, tares are there. False doctrines are there. Unbelief is there. The solution, the antidote is to provide more gospel. So, he threw in the flour. The flour neutralized it. And they all ate. Yes. And God provided for the entire school, provided for the entire prophetic team there, provided for Elisha

even in the midst of the unbelief that was there and the false doctrine that was there, Rick. And there's so much false doctrine on giving and on investing in the kingdom of God nowadays, Rick. In fact, it's not being taught. And that's the same as false doctrine itself. I don't hear much faith being taught anymore. So I want Doc to now read the Word of God. And this is an exciting passage and one I don't hear preached on very often. And there came a man from Baha'u'llah, Shalisha,

which brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, 20 loaves of barley and full ears of corn in the husks thereof. And he said, Give unto the people that they may eat. And his servitor said, What should I set this before a hundred men? He said again, Give the people that they may eat, for thus saith the Lord, they shall eat and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof according to the word of God.

Great passage here, and I'm looking forward to us breaking this down for our audience, Lord. It's a short passage, just a few verses. And yet there's so much truth in these verses. So yesterday we studied the preceding verses. And so Elijah had gone to the school of prophets, approximately 100 young men studying to be in the ministry under him. And there was a famine in the land. So there's a drought. There's a food shortage. And these guys were hungry. So Elijah arrived at the school.

Didn't take long to figure out these guys want to eat. There's no food here. Most people would say, we've got a serious problem. But if you have faith in God. You have a serious solution. You have a serious solution. And that serious solution is God. There is no lack when God is present.

There's no lack. There's no death when God is present. Think about Jesus. When he walked the earth, he messed up every funeral that he attended. Think about Jesus. When he walked the earth, he messed up every funeral that he attended. That's right. You couldn't have a funeral and invite Jesus because the dead person would get up. I mean, there can't be death

in the presence of Jesus Christ. There can't be lack in the presence of Jesus Christ. There can't be disease in the presence of Jesus Christ. There can't be disease in the presence of Jesus Christ. And so the issue is for us is to be in the presence of Jesus Christ. Right. That's the challenge for us. So the prophet realized these guys are starving. They haven't had a good meal in a long time.

So yesterday we saw how they made a pot of stew. And there was some poisoned cucumbers, melons or something, tossed in some squashes that were tossed in. By someone trying to add to the miracle. Add to the miracle. Trying to help God with that miracle. And Elijah said, bring me the meal. And he threw the flour into the pot. it neutralized the poison and they ate.

And the meal was a representative of the gospel being preached, life being preached. The bread of life. Right. Which counteracts the poison in the pot. That's right. That's right. And the other point yesterday was, you know, Elijah said, get the big kettle. Right.

Go get the biggest kettle that you've got. Right. Because we've got to feed 100 men here. So now it's a day or two later, and these guys are hungry again. And what do they do this time? So a devout guy shows up. Yes. A devout believer in the God of Israel.

He shows up, and he's got something with him, Doc. Yes, he brought with him 20 small barley loaves. Now, most of the time when you think of loaves, you think of big, you know, like Wonder Bread packages or something like that. These were probably just like the size of rolls, maybe. So you got 20 of them. Certainly not going to feed 100 men with that. So you had 20 small loaves of barley and some corn. We don't know how much corn he had or anything.

Doesn't matter how much corn. Obviously, they didn't have enough to feed everybody. That was the important part. And we know this, the size of what he had, the bread and the corn, it was carried by one man. So it wasn't like he had five guys carrying food with him. He brought it all himself. So he had, as you said, he had 20 small loaves and he had some ears of corn. Now we know a couple more things about this. We know that this was something that had been recently harvested, both the barley and the corn, because it was an offering of first fruits.

First fruits were always at the time of the first harvest, there were always two harvest seasons in the Middle East. Even to this day, there are two harvest seasons. And what were the people taught to do with the first fruits? The first fruits, you gave a portion of that first harvest to the Lord as an offering to Him a portion of that first harvest to the Lord as an offering to Him. And you brought it to either to the tabernacle

or the temple as we saw later on in the scriptures. At this time in history, there was a problem doing that. So they brought it to the man of God. And so that was like giving it to God that way. So it was a portion of the new crop, a portion of what they had produced. It was an honor to give that. And so this offering was brought to the man of God, brought to the prophet Elisha,

but you've got a hundred hungry Bible college students. Now I went to Bible college and I know they can be pretty hungry at times there, but 20 small loaves and some corn isn't going to cut it. But the prophet, the man of God said, give it to them, feed them with this. And that unbelief started kicking in with one of his servants there. Well, we can't do this. There's not enough here. And the man of God had to speak again and say, feed them with this. And so when we listen to the man of God had to speak again and say, feed them with this. And so when we listen to the man of God and listen to the word that's being spoken to our lives under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, it's meant to encourage our faith and to see God's miraculous supply whenever those gifts, those first fruits are given. That's right. It's the obedience to the instruction from a man of God that produces the atmosphere for a miracle. Right. The first step is the obedience. He didn't say why, but we can infer from the scripture that he was bringing it by

faith with an expectation that God was going to do something with that offering. Yeah. And there was drought and famine in the land because there was sin and rebellion in the land. The people of Israel had rebelled against God. The religious leaders had fallen down in their responsibility. But this one devout Israelite said, I'm going to keep the covenant. And I think it was King Jeroboam at that time. Right. And he had destroyed the worship of the Lord and driven a lot of the priests out of the land. But this one devout Israelite said, I don't care.

I don't care what the king says. I'm going to obey the Lord and I'm going to bring my first fruit offering to the man of God. Take it to the... There's a prophet down here at this prophet school and I'm going to take this food down there. And then the prophet Elijah said, feed the people. And he gets that resistance. There's not enough food. Well, what does that remind you of? We fast forward to the New Testament when Jesus Christ, the son of God. Yes. is on the earth and he's got thousands of people who have followed him out into the wilderness to hear him teach.

And his disciples say, people are hungry. And he says, feed them. Right. Just like Elisha, the prophet said. And feed them. And there will even be leftovers. That's what. What was the first response of the disciples?

Feed them what? Yes. We have nothing. We have nothing to give them. And so Matthew chapter 14, when Jesus heard of it, he departed by ship into the desert place apart. And when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. Jesus went forth, saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them. And he healed their sick.

So they're seeing miracles, Rick. And when it was evening, His disciples came to Him saying, This is a desert place, and the time has now passed. Send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart, give you them to eat. And they say unto Him, We have here but five loaves and two fishes. He said, bring them hither to me. He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass,

took the five loaves and the two fishes and looking up to heaven, he blessed and break and gave the loaves to his disciples, the disciples to the multitude and they did eat and were all filled. And they took up the fragments that remained, 12 baskets full. And they that had the fragments that remained, 12 baskets full. And they that had eaten were about 5,000 men besides women and children.

So it fed really about 12,000 people when you get right down to it. And they had leftovers. They had a lot of leftovers. Just like the miracle of Elisha. And doc, these weren't scraps. These weren't fish bones and bread crumbs. And the outside crumbs, yes.

This was food to make another meal. Yes. They went home carrying food.