Q31. Success

[Pastor Ralph]

Q31. What was Elijah’s primary mission? How successful was he at this mission? How can we measure success in ministry? What are the dangers of self-assessment? When can an accurate assessment be made?

[Krissi]

For most of his life, Elijah was a herder -- that was his mission, what God chose him to do. Then his mission changed. He became a prophet. So, Elijah's life was split between two missions: herder and prophet.

Slowly, God filled Elijah's life with people. His first mission, as a herder, was solitary. Too, sitting by Cherith was an isolating experience. But then, his life expanded to include the widow and her son. In time, Elisha became his constant companion. And in the end, he was among a "company of prophets." 

Missions are not always to people. Sometimes we're called to be isolated in prayer, writing, art, thought ... surrounded by rocks, sheep or even a library of books -- but not people. It could be the case that for most people, such isolation ends with a change in mission. Isolation could be a time of preparation and inner change, an essential part of the mission. 

It took years of isolation to ready Elijah to approach the king to deliver his stinging message. It doesn't appear that he feared this assignment or found it difficult. Remarkably, he developed boldness when alone. So success in this mission wasn't sudden but rather a dot in a linear progression of spiritually maturing. I tend to focus on the great moments in Elijah's life without seeing the long periods between them in which success, too, is measurable. This was success -- Elijah successfully submitted his wandering spirit and inner-strength to God when alone.

Note that the final years in Elijah's final life are barely mentioned in scripture. Perhaps Elijah should be seen as having three stages in his life -- herder, prophet to power, administrator. The last years of his life were spent setting up a prophetic school and administrating it. This was his mission. I assume he was successful at it.

The entire process, his life in itself, was his mission, not merely the glory moments. Still, I think it's important to have goals, to work toward goals and enjoy achievement. I confess to have a excel spread sheet of personal goals that I daily assess. I see some success as measured by this yardstick. God may not notice my markers, however. His yardstick may not be the same as mine. 

It's sad that we don't know more about Elijah, that the textual evidence for his life is so thin. Though the bible has page after page of genealogies that are so dull my eyes glaze over, there's only a few paragraphs about this amazing man's life. When I get to heaven, I'm going to talk to God about this!

 

[hanks]

Q31. 
What was Elijah's primary mission? How successful was he at this mission? How can we measure success in ministry? What are the dangers of self-assessment? When can an accurate assessment be made? 
His primary mission was to turn the hearts of the people to the true living God. They were to repent and put their faith in Him, and He will forgive them their sins.
That they as a nation, will again confess that "Yahweh, He is God! Yahweh, He is God!" (1 Kings 18:39). As far as we can determine he was partly successful. But it is not possible for us to measure the true success of Elijah's ministry, or even our own ministries. Only God knows a person’s heart. The only accurate assessment will be known to us after our Lord Jesus returns (1 Cor 4:3-5). 
 

[Katy]

Q31. Elijah’s ministry was to show an unbelieving people that God is alive, and despite their sinfulness He still loves them. He desperately wants to show them that Yahweh is the true God and not Baal or other false gods.He wants to show them the power of God as he did at Mount Carmel. Unfortunately Elijah was only partly successful but what we learn about was his great faithfulness to God and his mission from God. It is impossible to know how successful a ministry is, there are many things going on in people’s minds which may not come to fruition for a long time. There may also be people who appear enthusiastic but never grow in the things of the Lord. An accurate assessment will only come to light when Jesus returns and reveals all to us. 

[lighthouse2014]

Elijah's primary mission was to show to the people that they had gone to worshipping false god's and strayed away from their true God and deliverer. Elijah was partly successful in his ministry, Elisha his disciple would finish up where Elijah left off.

Success in ministry is usually apparent in it's fruitfulness to serving and edifying the people and the church for which the mission was intended for.

To see oneself as the important one for the success of a ministry could be a disaster to oneself and all the ones involved in that ministry, it would not look too good for church itself. Success is measured not by human standards but by the Lord's participation in it.       

[Jonathan Edwards]

Prophet Elijah's mission was to preach against sin and bring Israel back to God.  His prophetic call was like of Prophets Amos and Hosea;  in their own ways, they preached repentence and condemned idol worship.   God raised up prophets to bring forth the word of God while the established hierarchies of the Temple were enmeshed in idolatry and political intrigues.  So amazing that Yahweh had the school of the prophets who remained steadfast.   Obadiah and Micaiah were heroic as well.  It reminds us of the great the theme of predestination.   The awesomeness of Yahweh !  King Ahab and his wife heard the Word of God as did his sons yet persisted in idol worship and living ungodly lives....unrepentant!

Prophet Elijah was definitely successful.  He maintained his excellent testimony,  preached the Word of God followed by signs and wonders.  Many were converted as well as witnessing 16 major miracles.   He had an anointing that was so deep that called him home bodily like Enoch.  Measurement here is the outstanding ministry of Prophet Elijah.   No chicanery.   He was a real Prophet of God.  Though not a favorite of the pagan followers of Baal and Astarte, his testimony shined.

Self assessment can be misleading.  We are sometimes focused on the negatives, the failures and the things that didn't work out.  I have been through this.   Many Christian pastors and people in ministry only get focused on the negatives, sad situations that occurred despite all efforts to remedy family or parish debacles.   God lovingly sees the whole picture!   God tenderly got Prophet Elijah back on track when all looked hopeless.

The whole picture must be taken into account.   Elijah had the support of his schools of prophets and Prophet Elisha that encouraged him during the dark nites of the soul.   At the end of his earthly ministry, we come up with a remarkable assessment! Prophet Elisha  continued ministry of his spiritual father...doing double amount of miracles!  Prophet Elisha had the double portion of the spirit of Elijah.

[Irmela]

Q31. What was Elijah's primary mission?

How successful was he at this mission?

How can we measure success in ministry?

What are the dangers of self-assessment?

When can an accurate assessment be made?

Elijah's primary mission was to get rid of Baal-worship and turn the hearts of the people back to God.  Humanly speaking or if one would look at what happened and is shared in Scripture, one would say that he was partly successful.  It is hard to say how to measure success in ministry. In one way you can say that when you have lots of opposition and yet have God's peace, then there is success.  It is not always measured by acceptance. Self-assessment is dangerous because all the negatives stand out, all the times when one truly failed.  The same as trying to measure up if you did the right thing as a parent. You seem to remember all the times you failed.   Accurate assessment will only be able to be seen in the life hereafter.

Be prayerful and do your best and then allow God to do the rest in His way.

 

[haar]

Q31. What was Elijah's primary mission? How successful was he at this mission? How can we measure success in ministry? What are the dangers of self-assessment? When can an accurate assessment be made?

Elijah’s primary mission was to turn the hearts of an idolatrous people back to the Lord God Almighty. He succeeded to a certain degree but not 100%

Self-assessment can go wrong just as in the case of Elijah who thought that he had had enough as all other prophets had been killed leaving him as the only survivor who was being pursued to be killed.
 

[Christopher Olamiji Taiwo]

Q31. What was Elijah's primary mission? How successful was he at this mission? How can we measure success in ministry? What are the dangers of self-assessment? When can an accurate assessment be made?

Elijah's primary mission was to turn people back to God thats repentance mission. 

He was successful partially on his mission through anointing Jehu and Elisha to complete the mission. 

We can't measure ministry success by what we do but to continue until rapture because our Jesus Christ has completed the work we are to spread the word. 

The danger of self assessment is losing our reward because of pride as we did nothing then spread what had been done on the cross. 

The accurate assessment will be made on the judgment day after the rapture. 

[blezed]

What was Elijah’s primary mission?

Elijah's primary mission was too show the people that Yahweh is alive and that he loves them in spite of their sins. He also showed the people that their God has power to defeat their enemies and heal their hurts.

How successful was he at this mission? How can we measure success in ministry?

Elijah succeeded on partly.  We can do our part in ministry, but there is always more work to be done.  Just stay faithful!

What are the dangers of self-assessment? When can an accurate assessment be made?

Self-assessment can be dangerous because we have the tendency to give credit to ourselves and not the Lord or we can condemn ourselves for not doing what the Lord has told us.

[JOLLAM BANDA]

Elijah lived his whole life preaching to an unfaithful people. He saw breakthroughs and he saw defeats, people coming to the light as well as light-hardened blindness. Yet he remained faithful. Success is not measured in numbers of converts. It is not determined by the extent to which our message is accepted. The real success, the only lasting success, was accomplished at greatest cost by our Lord Jesus, who bore the sins of every last person on the planet on his body on the tree. In doing so, he opened the door of heaven to all mankind. And on the day of Christ's return, the true fruit of Elijah's ministry will be known, and John the Baptist's, and yours and mine. In the meantime, be faithful, be faithful, until the Lord calls you to glory.

 

 

[Kym Nixon]

What was Elijah’s primary mission? To turn the hearts of a nation back to worshipping Yahweh. How successful was he at this mission? Partially. I'm sure many people are in heaven right now as a result of Elijah's ministry. How can we measure success in ministry? transformed lives bearing fruit. What are the dangers of self-assessment? Blind spots. When can an accurate assessment be made? Spiritual multiplication on earth and testimonies in heaven. 

[Old Jerry]

I think that Elijah’s primary mission was to turn the people’s hearts back to God. He had a few successes but he wasn’t able to turn everybody hearts back to the Lord. Usually, self-assessment doesn’t see all the good or bad that you are doing. You might think you are getting over to people when you’re not. The only accurate assessment that will be done will be done on judgment day.