What is it.....

Okay, here's the situation, as we read it in 2 Kings: 1-3, the King has fallen through the roof of the house, he's not feeling good as the result and has gone to bed.   He sends a man to inquire of a false god (Baal-zebub) to see if he will get better or not.   The prophet Elijah (of the real God) meets that man along the way, tells that man that since the King sough after a false god that he will not rise from his bed.

The king was....shall we say unimpressed by that news and wants to talk further with Elijah, so....he sends 50 men (with their captain) out to bring Elijah in.   Elijah's response was simple "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty."   And lo and behold "Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty."

And the king sent another group out.    And it happened again.

And the king sent another group out.   But this time the captain begged "O man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight. 14Behold,
fire came down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of
fifty men with their fifties, but now let my life be precious in your
sight."  (v13-14) An angel of the Lord told Elijah it would be safe for him to go with this man.

And Elijah, in person, told the King the message he told sent earlier "Thus says the LORD, 'Because you have sent messengers to inquire of
Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron--is it because there is no God in Israel
to inquire of his word?--therefore you shall not come down from the bed
to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.'" (v16)

Later on Elijah and Elisha are on a journey from God, they come to a brook, "Then Elijah took his cloak
and rolled it up and struck the water, and the water was parted to the
one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry
ground."   

Later on we read about how Elijah dies and then Elisha replaces him, and some of the first things that happen with Elisha are surprising (at least to me).   Elisha is harassed by some boys, he curses them, and two she-bears come out and kill most of the the boys.   And at his word Water from a town that was bad, was made good!  (v.19-22)

So what is it?  What's makes the difference between then and now?

These men are proclaimers of the Lord God.  They speak his words to the people.   They get angry, they sin, they do things they aught not, they do speak things that seem terrible, They speak God's word to the people.   Things happen that I just find amazing.   It makes me wonder...was it just an old testament thing?

See, my hubbie is man of God,  He's a preacher, he proclaims God's word, but he doesn't do this type of stuff.   And he truly does the very best he can to proclaim God's word to the people, and he too is imperfect, he gets angry, he sins, he does stuff he aught not, he speaks God's word to the people God has placed in his life.  And yet, I don't find him able to "split water so he can walk on dry ground", or "call down fire upon people".   Not that I mind that...not sure what I'd think if suddenly he could call down fire on truly unrepentant people just for being a solid man of God.  That would shocking and terrifying....

I just wonder sometimes...could God use people in this way again?   Why doesn't he do it now-a-days?   If he did, could you imagine how it would shake up the church?  How it would impact the world around us?  ESPECIALLY if it couldn't be explained in any other way..... Just makes me wonder.