The Call: Elijah the Great Prophet

By Love Christophers

Twenty years ago, Love Christophers was called to the prophetic ministry and instructed by the Lord to become familiar with the lives and functions of the prophets in the Bible. Now after being called once again to teach others about the five people in the Bible who were named for specific missions and trained by the Lord, Christophers brings to light the story of Elijah, one of the five, and compares his trials with her own.
Christophers relies on her personal spiritual experiences to share how, through God's wisdom, she discovered commonalities with ancient people who also faced hardships on the way to becoming prophets of nations. While highlighting Elijah's challenges and revealing her own struggles throughout childhood and her lifetime, Christophers not only demonstrates how faith and God's love have the power to bring on through the darkness and into a healing light but also provides spiritual guidance for anyone seeking o overcome hardships and accomplish great things for the Lord.
The Call: Elijah the Great Prophet shares a true story of God's love and power as a woman is called to study ancient people and discovers they have more in common than she ever realized.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098350277

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The Call

Elijah the Great Prophet

©2020 Love Christophers

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

print ISBN: 978-1-09835-026-0

ebook ISBN: 978-1-09835-027-7

Contents

Introduction

Part 1:The Call

The Call: Growing Up

The Call: The Cost of Deception

The Call: The Walking

The Call: The Office of the Prophet

The Call: Isolation—The Fiery Furnace

The Call: The Beginning of my Storm

Part 2: The School of God

Isolation and Loneliness: The First Six Months

Isolation: The Training Begins

Dependence: Making Changes and Restructuring My Life

Identity Crisis

Forming a Special Team

Consecration: The Training Continued

Spying on your Adversaries: Elijah and the Widow at Zarephath

The Testing of Your Heart

Part 3: The Servant of the Lord and the Service

The Ministry

Why God sends A Prophet?

References

Introduction

Twenty years ago, I gave my life to Jesus; soon after, I started having supernatural encounters I could not explain. During one of those encounters, I was told I was called to the prophetic ministry, and the Lord instructed me to read the books of the prophets in the Bible and become familiar with their lives and functions. But I was a new Christian getting familiar with the New Testament. That is where I thought the provision of salvation for us Gentiles was explained. I had no clue the books written by the prophets existed, nor did I have any intention of becoming a prophet—I had other interests.

It took me twenty years, and a lot more maturity, before I could seriously read the books of the prophets and carefully consider the lives and functions of those prophets in the Bible—but not before I went through a storm that sorrowfully brought me to my knees. In the middle of that storm, I decided to finally take God’s directives to heart and read the books of the prophets, which lead to this journey and writing this book.

This time around, instead of just reading about the prophets in the Bible, I was given specific instruction to consider the lives and functions of five elite people in the Bible who were called for specific missions and trained by God Himself. Elijah was one of the five. I learned from experience that in this school of God’s wisdom, training is unlike anything I have ever seen or heard of. These five elites also went to a school of God’s wisdom, and training was similar to the one I went through.

In this book, I tell the story of how, while I was still in training in the school of God, I found out about some people centuries earlier who also faced hardship on the way to becoming prophets to the nations. I studied their lives and functions repeatedly until I found similarities that made them as human as I am.

Why do I start with Elijah? It is because each calling is unique, and Elijah was called to the prophetic function just as I was. And his prophetic ministry was very intriguing to me. In fact, not all five people I was told to become acquainted with were all prophets. From the start, I was attracted to his story; as I read it a hundred times, a lightbulb went on, and I could identify with many human facets of his ministry. This book is the fruit of that study and reflection.

I started with Elijah. I was drawn into his story and ministry deeply, and God started to reveal things to me about him, not all of which I can put into this book—some revelations are personal. Nevertheless, I discovered that these five people I needed to focus on were as fallen and flawed as I am; they also had their share of hits and misses. I learned that what made the difference was their ability to get up from a fall and accomplish great things for the glory of my God and King.

So many years ago, after I was first instructed to become familiar with the lives and functions of God’s prophets, I asked myself, why read the Old Testament? Why would anyone be interested in learning about these prophets of old and what they did? What was there to learn? Though these people had performed great miracles and proclaimed judgment against a sinful nation, it seemed that all these wonders faded away once they left this earth. Why should anyone bother to carefully consider their lives and ministry when their heroic stories already graced so many pages of the Bible? Why, since most of these heroic accomplishments have not been replicated since.

This time around, I came to understand that through my training, I was being taught that these prophets were as human as we are; they responded to situations and adversity the same way we do today. I learned that their stories were told so we could be edified and follow in their footsteps. Today I can confidently say that even though I have been trained in the school of wisdom just like these five men of God, I am in no way comparable to them, because they were the elites. But I can identify with some areas of their training and ministries. I see myself as doing detective or forensic work, or maybe even work similar to what an investigative journalist would do. I was put in certain situations and conditions just as they were so I could understand and report about my experience.

I will tell the story of my training in a series of four books that portray how four of the five individuals went through similar training for their specific missions. Training was done the same way and in three parts: the call, the school, and the service. Each person I studied went through the same plan, although the curriculum differed based on the mission.

I hope this book will edify others going through the same experiences as these elites and I did. In this first book, I will walk you through my training and the similarities found with that of the prophet Elijah and his training at the hand of God. Because many other great men of God have written extensively about him and I am not an expert, I will leave out some of his history. What I will not leave out, however, are the clear lessons God’s Word gave me. Paul says that For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. (Romans 15:4 NIV)

Unfortunately, after I wrote the first two books, I had no will to promote them; I was still uneasy about sharing these experiences with the world because I wanted to cling to my privacy. But a couple years into hiding, God told me to go ahead and talk about them. I truly tried to comply at first, but inside I struggled. Will I be called a troublemaker again? Will what I say cause more controversy? So, I decided to write a short narrative of the limited revelations I learned through my experiences and concealed my identity in the process. In doing so, I thought God would understand that I did my part as commanded. But after a few years of laying low, God ordered me to get out of my hiding place and step into the spotlight. Thus, here is the new edition of this book. May you enjoy it, and may The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob be your guide throughout this book as you read through and learn from my journey. May you never be the same either

Part 1:

The Call

In Part 1, the person being called by God has no clue what lies ahead.

Here is the lesson: First, become aware of God’s call on your life and pay attention to His instructions for what He has called you to do. Take God’s directives seriously.

Chapter 1

The Call: Growing Up

We cannot establish Elijah’s beginnings, but my life growing up was a nightmare. Because writing about my humble beginnings is not the purpose here, I will offer just a glimpse of my first twenty years on planet Earth.

When I look back at the path that led me to this moment, I can say that my story then felt like the story of Job. This verse from the book of Job describes that season of my life well: The Lord said to Satan, Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.’" (Job 1:12 NIV) I almost lost my life twice then, but I was saved by divine intervention.

I was born in the Republic of Congo, a small country in Central Africa with less than four million people at the time of my birth. I was born to a teenage mother, and even though my parents briefly lived together after my birth, they were never married. My father—twenty years old then—had moved to the capital city of Brazzaville after graduating from high school to attend a university.

Brazzaville is the political capital and largest most populous city of the Republic of Congo. It is in the southeastern corner of the country and is a major inland port on the Congo River, opposite Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Republic of Congo had nine states at the time of my birth, but now has ten states. Brazzaville is in the state called Pool, where my mother’s Lari tribe originated from. My paternal grandparents are from the Mikenge tribe which is in the state called Bouenza. The state of the Pool shares borders with the state of the Bouenza, both located in the southern part of the country. Even though neither of my parents spoke about how they met, what transpired between them, or the reason they broke up, one thing I learned was that they were in love.

But from the beginning, though, their relationship was bound to fail. No marriage would take place—not if my mother was Lari. That I carry 50% of Lari heritage was detrimental for my future, too. In fact, the existence of the Lari tribe and its origin is contested, and the Lari people are not easily welcome in other states. The people from the Mikenge tribe used to be conservative, and my father, the firstborn of the family, was expected to marry someone from his tribe.

I always suspected that my paternal grandmother resented me because of it. She did not care for me. In my teenage years when we went to the village for summer vacations, she was indifferent to my presence but not my half-siblings’, who she doted on.

My paternal grandmother may have also resented me because the position I carried. I was her first grandchild, which she knew gave me a position of prestige and power. But to her, my blood was stained just for carrying that 50% of Lari heritage, a choice that was not my own. Even though she did not care for me, she had to tolerate me because my father had already claimed me. Years later, she would come to depend on him for survival.

My paternal grandfather was different though. He loved me from the start, and later in my teenage years I found out that I was one of only two grandchildren, both females, who would be blessed and positioned to lead. As per my grandfather, my cousin, his granddaughter from his beloved daughter, was given the power to reign over the entire immediate family and to protect it. He told me that our forefathers’ powers will fall on her shoulders, and she will protect the family. But to me he said I was given different powers—powers of our ancestors that extended beyond the immediate family. He said that I would travel to a far place and become great. I only had to stay away from any practice of sorcery, witchcraft, or any evil power. He also told me not to bend my knees to any statue.

My grandfather cared a great deal about the two of us. He used to secretly tell me that we were his favorites. In fact, he told me so during our one-on-one early mornings meals when I went to the village during summer vacation. For a very long time, until recently, I thought that because of him, and how he was feared as the patriarch of the family, the people who later abused me could not make me disappear permanently. But after I left the country and committed my life to God, I realized that it was always the will of God for me to survive that dungeon I was dropped into after I got picked up from my mother’s side of the family, right after my fifth birthday.

My paternal grandfather comes from a powerful family said to have supernatural powers, where tradition and ensuring our way of life was passed down from one generation to another was discrete but sacred. He had more than four wives throughout his life, but my grandmother was his first wife, a product of an arranged marriage. She was the only wife who was bought by the family for a price. Even though my grandfather let go of his other wives along the years for various reasons, my grandmother had no option but to faithfully remain married to him and bear heirs. She was the only wife that the family had acquired for him. It was a marriage that took the phrase ’til death do us part literally. Even now, though, I still cannot tell if theirs was a marriage of love.

Throughout their lives, my paternal grandparents lived in various villages in the state of Bouenza and occasionally came to Brazzaville to visit us during my teenage years. I always believed my grandfather was oblivious to the reality that I was being abused at that time. I loved my grandfather! In my teenage years, my half-siblings and aunts would go to the village during the summer break, and it was there that I got to know him even better. When I was eighteen years old is when I suspect that he discovered the extent of the abuse I endured in the city, far away from his dwelling.

My first twenty years were complicated. Even that my father named me—a little girl—William at birth told a story of its own, one of how interesting and unique my life would later become. God had a plan for my life all along. When I was still a toddler, my father left the country and traveled internationally to continue university studies. That move permanently ended my parent’s relationship. They both moved on with their lives too—at age three, I had half-siblings on both sides of the family.

When my parents separated, my teenage mother, who was the only child of my maternal grandmother, moved in with her two maternal aunts who welcomed me and raised me as their own until I was five years old. My maternal grandmother did not live in the city at the time; she lived in a village called Kindamba, our original settlement. This village is located