The Path (Fire on the Mountain Series) (10 page)

“Are you the real Elijah?”

“What does your heart tell you?” he replied.

After a minute, Mary answered with less boldness, “You really are Elijah. I’m sorry, but it’s just hard to believe that we would be so special to have you come to help us.”

“Why do you think it is so special to have me help you?” Elijah countered, looking at her just as resolutely. “Is not having the Holy Spirit living in you as your Helper even greater? I was given this honor to represent all of the prophets and righteous ones who helped to prepare the way for the Lord, but you have One greater than all of us with you always. Seeing the One who lives in you is much greater than seeing me. You must not be so distracted by those who bring you the words of the Lord that you do not see the Word Himself and follow Him.

“Even so, you are special. These are special times, and those who have been chosen to live in them are special. All who have walked this path are special, but to walk it in these times is one of the greatest honors there will ever be.”

“Did you come because you knew the lion was going to attack us?” someone else asked.

“No. I came because of the questions you were asking.”

“Are those questions wrong?” Mary asked with a humility I had not seen in her before.

“No. They are important just as your leader said to you. It is important that you get answers to the deepest questions you have. Some of you will not make it through this place without having answers to your questions.”

“It’s still hard to believe that you would come to personally answer our questions, and would appear to us for that,” Mary said softly.

“I did not come to answer your questions, and there is something more important than having me come,” Elijah said. “I was sent by the King. It is more important that the Lord cares about your questions.”

Then Elijah motioned for us to begin walking, saying, “It is important for you to make as much progress as you can when you have light. You must keep moving.”

As we walked past him I turned to look, but he had already faded into the trees. We all walked in silence for a time. Some were deep in contemplation. Others were watching and listening for any sign of lions. After more than an hour, Mary came up to me.

“Elijah will come back to answer our questions, won’t he?”

“He may come back, but not to answer your questions,” I replied.

“But I thought he said he was sent by the King Himself to answer them?”

“Remember the verse where the Lord said to ‘
be careful how you hear.
’ Elijah said he came because of your questions, but he did not say he came to answer them. He came to convey to me how important they are and to tell me that I had the answers. Remember that I said to you that Elijah did not even know what the questions were. He was curious about them too.”

“I’m sorry. I know you said this. It’s strange to me that after being caught up to and dwelling in heaven all of this time he wouldn’t have the answers to every question we could have,” Mary surmised.

“He might know the answers, if he knew the questions. Elijah is one of the greatest prophets of all time, but he is not God, so he is not omniscient or omnipresent. He has limitations too.”

“We assume a lot, don’t we?” Mary confided. “I just assumed that everyone who had gone to heaven would know everything….”

“Like God? We do make many assumptions, don’t we? The Scriptures do speak of how we will take on the divine nature, but after Jesus was resurrected and appeared to His disciples, He said that He had not yet been glorified. Of course He has now, but that does not mean that all of the saints who have gone before us have yet been glorified. There seems to be a distinction between being resurrected and being glorified. In Hebrews, it says that those who have gone before cannot be made complete, or perfect, without us. It could be that all are waiting for the last members of the body of Christ to take their place before they can receive their full reward or are glorified. And still, to be glorified may not mean that we instantly know everything. Maybe eternity is continual learning and exploring.”

We walked in silence for a few minutes. Mary was deep in thought. She and William were remarkable people, but very different. I looked at the others, and wondered if they would all turn out to be so unique. I could see spending eternity just getting to know those who walked the earth and being endlessly fascinated. I was again thankful for having to come back and get this group, and I hoped to have the time to get to know them.

Mary then spoke up, “You have an interesting perspective, but to bring things a little closer to home, do you know what my questions are?” Mary continued.

“Elijah said that I could answer them because I had the same ones, so I do think I know what they are.”

“And you have the answers?”

“I have answers. I spent years studying questions I could not get anyone else to answer to my satisfaction. When I began to search for the answers I felt that my research was guided by a special hand. I was being shown things that I felt I needed to know. I came to conclusions that satisfied me, but I’m not sure they will satisfy you.

“As I shared with the younger Mary, it is written that we see in part and know in part. I do not claim to have the whole answer to anything, but what I have found may help you. I also suspect that you will have to add your own conclusions to them. You have a part to add also.

“More important than the answers themselves could be the path to finding them so that you get them yourself. I just hope that I can help you find the path and the peace that comes from complete faith in our King being totally righteous and totally just.”

“You said that you were shown the answers. How were you shown them?” the younger Mary asked, as she and others had begun to walk with us and listen.

“That may be the most important question of all,” I replied. “My quest was for the answers, but when I found them I realized the trail that had led me to them was more valuable than the answers. This is the trail that can lead to all of the other answers.”

“Can you explain this trail?” Mary asked.

“When I could not find a person with the answers, I took my questions to the Lord in prayer. He answered them in special and exciting ways. He became my Teacher, and He is better than any human teacher could ever be.” I said. “This is why I think your questions are so important. Even more important than getting the answers is coming to know Him as your Teacher.”

“Did He appear to you Himself or send someone like Elijah or an angel to teach you?” someone asked.

“No. I have seen the Lord, and I’ve seen angels, but none of those experiences were to answer my questions. I always thought that if I could see Him I would ask Him everything. But when He appeared to me I could not even think of a question. In fact, I was speechless and so full of the fear of the Lord that I could not imagine asking a question then, but that is another story.

“The way He became my Teacher was that after I prayed and asked Him to teach me about something, He would teach me in unique ways that I came to recognize as His ways. Someone might give me a book or a recorded message that would have the answer to a question, but I knew it was the Lord Himself giving it to me. At other times, I would feel compelled to watch a movie or television show, and it would have the answer to my question. Even though my answer may have been spoken by a character in the show I knew it was the Lord Himself answering my question. So I was not just hearing the words of the Lord, I learned to hear the Word Himself through whomever He chose to speak or by whatever means.

“Once I was sitting in an airport and prayed for the answer to a question, and a couple next to me began to talk. I could not help but hear their conversation, and I heard the answer to my question. There are no coincidences for those on the quest, but rather divine encounters. At other times, it was years before He answered a question, but it was still a divine encounter and always special.”

“I think I’ve experienced a little of this, but never thought about it as the Lord being my Teacher,” Mary offered.

“I’m sure you’ve experienced it. Most probably have. What we need to do is pursue this as the life of a disciple, which is to be taught by their Master.

“The relationship I built with my Teacher became more wonderful than the answers to my questions. I came to understand how the Lord has a special delight in teaching His people. This was the kind of fellowship He had with Adam in the Garden. I think it is the exploring, inquisitive nature of man that most touches His creative nature. He does not just endure our questions—He loves them.

“When in the pursuit of knowledge you begin to recognize His hand in teaching you, I call this a ‘God trail.’ It is like a great adventure. Again, God does not hide things from us, but He hides them for us. The answers I found were treasures, but the greatest treasure of all was the adventure and the relationship that I built with the Lord as my Teacher. I treasure some of the ways my questions were answered as much as I treasure the answers.”

“I’ve had that happen too,” someone in the group said, and many of the others agreed.

That was not only interesting for me to hear, but indicated to me that this really was a special group. In my many years of being in pursuit of God, I had found many who had experienced this, but not many who had learned that this was to be a main part of their life. As I surveyed the group, I could tell that they really understood this. I concluded that this was likely a factor for those who would find the path we were on. Only William seemed to be captivated by this as if it was a new thought, and of course, he was a new believer.

“Can you explain that a little more?” said William.

“Do you really think He wants to relate to everyone that way, not just those called to walk this path?” the younger Mary asked, obviously still thinking about her family.

“It is written that He has called us into fellowship with the Son, so He wants to have this kind of relationship with all of His people. It seems our failure to fulfill The Great Commission has robbed many of this. Our commission is to make disciples, not just converts. A disciple is a student. However, biblical discipleship is much more than being a student. A disciple is to have a single-minded purpose of learning from their master and becoming like their master. This should be the single most important devotion of our life, our first thought in the morning and our last thought before sleep.”

“You would not have done well as the captain of our ship,” someone remarked.

“I’m sure that’s true, but it’s interesting to me that you would say that. Why do you think that is so?” I asked.

“Out of the thousands on our ship, we are the only ones who would give any attention to trying to understand the times, the coming kingdom, or pursue the disciplines that lead to maturity. The more we did this the more skeptical the others became of us. Even the elders warned us about ‘going too far’. What you are talking about is not popular.”

“Well I guess it is a good thing that I never had the goal of being popular. My goal has been to know the Lord and be known by Him. I don’t think there could be anything worse than having spent a life laboring for Him and then hear on that great Judgment Day that He never knew us.”

“How could He not know us? I never understood that,” the older Mary asked.

“The word ‘know’ in that verse is not the same one for having an acquaintance. It implies having an intimate knowledge of another such as a husband and wife would have of each other.

“Mary, what are some of your biggest questions?” I inquired.

“You know, I think the biggest question has already been answered,” Mary said, as I noticed tears running down her cheeks. “To know that He cares enough to send Elijah just to tell you how important my questions are made me feel His love. All that you have said… I really want to know Him more than just have my questions answered. They’re still important, but suddenly they are now a quest instead of a stumbling block for me.

“I have been so disappointed in people,” Mary admitted. “Even notable men and women of God would get offended by my questions. All of them would tell me the same thing, ‘Just trust in the Lord.’ I want to, but I do have questions. Just knowing that He cares about my questions and wants to answer them gives me more trust than I’ve ever felt before. That helps me more than you could know.”