"Get Up And Eat"
Praise God! I say �neighbors� because each of you are important to me. Some may be out of the will of God and not truly a neighbor, but I must be a neighbor to you none the less. I must love you and put that into action by bringing you the Word of God. I count it a blessing and a privilege to be a vessel used of God to bring that Word. As I put this message down it is the first day of June, only 17 days until I have a parole hearing. As you are reading this, I don�t know if I�ll be at home, still here, or in my real home called Heaven! Oh but glory to God, I do know that I will be right in the center of God�s will. That is the only place I want to be. I love my wife, children, other family and church: my flesh would like to be with them, but my spirit only wants God�s will. I may not now know His full purpose, but I obey and rejoice in it. I�m content and of sound mind, ONLY in God�s will! In God�s will is a place where I don�t worry, but depend on Him. In God�s will is a place where if I get weak, then God feeds me. Here in God�s will is where He gives me meat that has strength to sustain me. I�m talking about meat that some don�t know anything about! I�m talking about that spiritual meat of God, prepared before the foundation of the world and praise God it ain�t ruined yet. Do you hear me? It ain�t spoiled and it�s still good today. I�m not talking about some mush or milk for the baby. I�m talking about the life-giving strength-for-battle meat! If you don�t eat it you will faint in battle, become discouraged, depressed from oppression, and perish. Oh, I�d love to preach this Word in person � I don�t want you to miss a single bite of it! Please ask the Holy Spirit to feed you now and prepare you to �Get Up And Eat.�
I�ve got to give you a little background concerning this message� Several months back I really got down. Troubles with my daughter weighed on me, life in prison weighed on me. I had a drive inside to make parole and be out where I could do something. I became disheartened, and it seemed as if the ministry was going nowhere and taking my family with it. I had come to a point where I was dry. God would still anoint and give me a fire in my belly, my mouth never empty, but I felt like I had lost it. I tried to handle it all myself, trying to work it all out in my mind. It all overtook me so bad that I spent very little time with God in prayer and devotion each day. Many times I asked God, �Why don�t You just take me on home?� Trying to sort it all out myself, not getting up and eating that spiritual food like I needed. Frankly, I had lost my joy and was of no use to God, ministry, family or church, or so I felt. Right there at my lowest point when I just wanted God to take me home, He sent a message to me. A little saint of God from there in Russell County spoke from God to me. Sister Mary Belle from the Church of God has never bit her tongue in speaking exactly what God has for me. She�s known me since I was 14, and at a backslidden time when there was nothing lovable about me � even then she spoke the truth of God to me. Oh but that sister, well up in her years, sat down and wrote me. Through the unction of the Holy Spirit she said, �Elijah, get up from under that juniper tree.� The Holy Spirit ran all over me, all through me, came out my mouth � I cried, I laughed. I said, �Thank You, Jesus!� That�s when the Holy Spirit took me to I Kings 19 and showed me I wasn�t the only messenger of God to get discouraged. Elijah got a touch by an angel and was told, �Get Up And Eat.�
Don�t any of you think that you or any other man or woman of God can�t get discouraged. Don�t ever think you are alone or the only one to go through it. There in I Kings 19, Elijah found out his enemy Jezebel had put a price on his head. Old Elijah was a man with the hand of God on him. When he prayed it and spoke it, it happened! Elijah knew the power of God and the effectiveness of prayer. When he bowed his face between his knees, something was about to happen. God was going to grant exactly what he asked for. He stopped the rain, he called down fire from Heaven, he slew all the false prophets of baal, he called down the rain again. Yet after all of that he ran from a woman that wanted to kill him. Verse 3 says, ��He arose and went for his life...� Fear had overcome Elijah, and I can tell you this � he�s not the first or last man of God to be run off because of fear. It happens today: watch when men stand and preach the truth, not backing up or tickling ears � offerings and true fellowship can get mighty thin! Elijah�s departure was an example of what can happen to men of God for �righteousness sake�. (Matthew 5:10) None of this is strange to the people of God (see Hebrews 11:36-38). Elijah felt like a failure in I Kings 19:4. He was overcome with discouragement, grief and exhaustion. He wanted God to just take him, and give someone else the awesome burden of carrying the true Word. He was certainly not the only one to feel that way � look at Paul in Philippians 1:23. Look at the many heroes of faith in Hebrews 11:16. Look at Moses in Numbers 11:15. Oh but God had a plan for Elijah and wasn�t gonna let him die discouraged, alone, feeling like a failure! No, God had a plan � He wasn�t done yet! Can I tell you God isn�t done with you yet?!? Elijah sat down there at Beersheba under a juniper tree, and that�s when God sent an angel, to wake him up and feed him. Oh, he ate and went back to sleep, but that angel woke him to eat a second time. God had another journey for Elijah, a place He wanted Elijah to be. That meal God sent lasted Elijah 40 days and 40 nights, and gave him strength for that journey. That food there represents a spiritual food that comes only from God, and will carry you on the journey set before you. God wanted Elijah in a place where He would fellowship with him, encourage and restore him, instruct him. God wanted to love His servant. Elijah got a revelation and visitation from God. Before he could get to the place where God wanted him, he had to �Get Up And Eat.�
Jesus has a table spread for each of us today. There is meat there. It is spread for those that have their hearts fixed with Christ in Heaven. Their hearts aren�t set on the things of this world. These are the people that sit down and eat everything on the table, because God set it there. Not everyone will eat though. Some won�t even show up! Caught up in the cares of this world, they don�t desire to come and dine with the Lord. An example of this is found in Luke 14:15-24. The Parable of the Great Supper originally applied to Israel�s rejection of the Gospel. It applies to everyone today that claims Christianity. There will be a great supper when Christ returns. God has set a table for now, and every nutrient we need is on it. The table is spread from Genesis to Revelation. Many accepted the invitation over there in Luke 14, but when it was time, they didn�t want to go eat. They were entangled with the world and wouldn�t turn loose. They had every excuse in the book. I hope none of my fellow ministers have to hear any of them! I hope no one reading this fits in with them. God doesn�t want your excuses, He wants you to �GET UP AND EAT�!
If I talked to some of you today I�m sure you�d say, �Well, I go to church every service and revivals.� You know, I applaud that. I encourage you to do that! Here�s where you ain�t gonna like me� Your pastor can�t go on your journey, or into every battlefield, and can�t spoon or bottle feed you! While you get some of your nutrition at church, you can�t get it all. In church you have to eat fast and swallow, but you must take time to meditate on the Word of God. The best example I can give you is an old cow � she eats all day then lays down. Then she pulls all the stuff she took in back up into her mouth and chews on it. Chews the cud. That�s when a cow gets all the nutrients she needs, out of chewing on what she had already eaten. Now, I�m not calling anyone a cow, but we need to sit down and chew our spiritual food � get fed at church, but know your Word! Meditate on the Word. Study to show yourself approved. Study all the Word. It is meat to you. I know you�ve been to church dinners and family reunions. Well, people are much the same concerning the table God has set before them. They�ll walk around and pick what they like and pass over what they don�t. Hear this loud and clear:
EVERYTHING GOD HAS SET OUT ON THE TABLE, FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION, IS NEEDED FOR YOUR GROWTH AND SURVIVAL TO MATURITY!
There�s not one page that isn�t for me and you! Put down the spoon, pick up your fork and get the meat of God�s Word. �Get up and eat!�
In Hebrews 5:12 � 6:1, the Word of God clearly lays out the need for �meat�. It takes the meat to become spiritually mature, to be able to discern both good and evil. Mature believers have a strong commitment to God and His Word. They apply the Word here a little, there a little. Line upon line, precept upon precept. They are balanced! They practice righteousness and by the Word they possess a sensitivity to everything that brings dishonor to God. They love what�s right and hate sin. They have a renewed mind. Unless you dedicate yourself to eat at God�s table � the meat you need � then you will stay on milk. How silly would it look for Kim and I to bring our children, ages 16 and 13, to a dinner and have them sucking a bottle! That�s how silly it is for people that have been in the family of God any length of time, to still be on milk. It will not provide the nutrients to carry you through. Me nor any other preacher can�t pray over someone and do a magic act, changing them to a mature Christian! Each person must apply themselves. That could mean stop running here and there. Stop getting entangled with everything that is going on. It could mean get off the phone, or quit going someplace just to talk, and get into the Word. It might mean turning the TV and computer off, or not going to some function or ballgame. We must spend time with God! A good preacher friend of mine recently quoted this, �There are 3 great secrets to spiritual growth: (1) get in the Word, (2) get in the Word, and (3) get in the Word!� If you don�t do that you�ll stay on the milk, or eat some twisted garbage from some false teacher, prophet or preacher, and you could die. Remember, �God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.� �GET UP AND EAT.�
Love In Christ, Bro. Don George
