To: All members of THE ELIJAH LIST

Here are a few items that would be helpful to review with you--our members of he list. These might be labeled, "Most Common Questions"

1) Question: What is the Elijah List?

Answer: The Elijah List might be best defined as a "publication" or an "online prophetic newsletter." I try to publish the more significant Words from the Lord that are sent my way. I make a prayerful attempt to rightly discern which Words are from the Lord, but I do not pretend to be faultless in this area. I look for words that will instruct, edify or build up, teach, encourage, warn, or comfort the entire body or that is an important word for a whole state, region or country--and of course, the church at large--the Body of Christ. Since this list goes to nearly every nation on the globe, I try to be as global as possible. The majority of subscribers are from the U.S.---However . . .

Here's a list of subscribers with the most representation on the list (this does not include AOL and COMPUSERVE clients, (and other servers) where country of origin can't be identified. But relatively speaking here are where most subscribers are from (out of nearly 8,000 subscribers):

com 4322 62.089 Commercial, mainly USA
net 1719 24.695 Network
org 153 2.198 Non-Profit Organizations
ca 137 1.968 Canada
edu 123 1.767 Educational, mainly USA
za 105 1.508 South Africa
uk 58 0.833 United Kingdom
us 42 0.603 United States
au 38 0.546 Australia
sg 23 0.330 Singapore
nz 19 0.273 New Zealand
my 16 0.230 Malaysia
nl 12 0.172 Netherlands
mil 12 0.172 USA Military
mx 11 0.158 Mexico
de 9 0.129 Germany
il 8 0.115 Israel
ch 6 0.086 Switzerland
cr 6 0.086 Costa Rica
lk 6 0.086 Sri Lanka
na 6 0.086 Namibia
fi 6 0.086 Finland
no 6 0.086 Norway
pl 6 0.086 Poland
ro 5 0.072 Romania
fr 5 0.072 France
at 5 0.072 Austria
in 5 0.072 India

Everything below 5 subscribers per nation, I've left off the list as it's quite long. Remember that there are more than these numbers from each NATION on the Elijah List, but we can't determine exactly the country totals as they have an address that ends in simply, ".com" or ".net."

2) How do I subscribe or UNsubscribe:

Answer: Send a message to elijahsubs@qwest.net specifying your desire to either subscribe or unsubscribe.

3) Question: Do you Post other people's Words? And how can I get a word published?

Answer: Absolutely! we can ---and do-- post words from a variety of people. Sometimes from a recognized prophet. Sometimes from a recognized housewife. It's not the status we're looking for--but the anointing of the word. We've published many words from faceless "unknown" people when we've felt led by the Lord to do so. And we publish many recognized-name men and women.

However, we get probably 100 submissions for every word that is eventually published, so if you send in a Word that is not published, please don't think that we're saying that your word is not from the Lord. We have probably NEVER told a person a word is not from the Lord. We simply publish those select few words that we feel have that special annointing. Just know that we don't have time to explain to each person why we didn't publish a given word. It takes hours and hours of reading posts to select the ones to post each week. It's a hugely time-consuming task, but I can say that I love the task.

4) Are there certain things that you either DON'T publish or that you RARELY publish?

Yes, we are somewhat scarce on how many dreams we publish. Many dreams are for the individual person. Perhaps one dream a week, sometimes two get published if they really seem to be for the church at large.

Also, we are looking for words that build up the church. Words that WARN the church are often published, but these warnings must contain the Love that is IN CHRIST. Even in the warning that the Lord gave that he would "spit certain lukewarm Christians out of His mouth" (Laodicia) ended with a promise that "overcomers" in Laodicia would sit with Him on His THRONE. I am looking for that!--Strong warnings are published from time to time--as God is indeed speaking many strong warnings to the church--but they must contain the heartbeat of the Lord--at least as we're able to discern it. Please pray for us in this area.

Also, words that are meant to tear down or tear apart congregations from their pastors or to criticize pastors are never published. However, Words that have the Lord's compassion that call both pastors and "the sheep" to self-examination and repentance, are often published. Some words sent to us are sent by people who are so angry at their pastor that their words give that away. We're looking for the true heart of love toward pastors, even if there is a call to repentance by some. Sometimes, it is forgotten that pastors are "sheep too." Every disciple that fled and deserted Christ was, at the very least, a pastor in training to shepherd God's people. (of course they were Apostles first). We must have the Lord's heart toward pastors and The Elijah List is meant to encourage them as well.

As you can imagine, words that are filled with anger and words supposedly for the church, that say "you are a stench in my nostrils" will not be published (you would be AMAZED at how many "stench in my nostrils" words I get from people). The scripture says,

I Jn 4:7 . . . for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

From time to time, we receive words that do not contain this LOVE and so we discern that a word is not of God.

Judgment words [words speaking of judgment coming to our land(s) are published from time to time, as long as they are discerned to be coming from the heart of a loving God that is warning the Church and calling for repentance and/or prayer so that, (according to Joel), "who knows if He (the Lord) will relent [from judgement] and leave behind a blessing instead."

Finally, we are looking for words of "substance," which I guess is a very subjective thing. There are beautiful words submitted that are more appropriate for one's private devotional journals. They are good but are among 100's sent to us like this. We look for Words that instruct the church on where we are and where we can, or need to, or must go to do as the Lord desires. Or words that are clear and basic, but that we, as a church have lost sight of.

Anyway, these are some very GENERAL guidelines only, if that is helpful. If you're not sure if your word fits or not, PLEASE send it in. There have been some surprised people that their word got published. God may very well point out your word to us and say, "THAT ONE!" We don't want to make ANY guideline into a "law." We want to live by grace to faith.

Words can be submitted to: elijahlist@qwest.net

5) Question: How can I read previous words posted?

Answer: Go to our home page at: http://www.elijahlist.com

6) Question: How can I help the ministry of THE ELIJAH LIST?

Answer: The Elijah List is sent out without charge. However, we gratefully accept donations for the time and cost to do the Elijah List. We are now sending out over 100 teaching tapes each month, spending hours writing to people online all over the world, and reading hundreds of submissions to find just the "right" words to send to the list. And of course, this represents about 50% of the income which supports our family. For those who donate money in ANY AMOUNT, we'd love to send the teaching tape for that month as our way of saying thank you. You may send contributions to:
THE ELIJAH LIST,
ttn: Steve and Derene Shultz
POB 871444
Vancouver, WA 98687
(360-944-0084)

(We are working on obtaining non-profit status. The paperwork has now been started).

7) Question: Are there any major needs you have right now?

Answer: There is one very significant need we have and if the Lord puts it on your heart to donate all or part of it, we would be most grateful. We need a cassette tape duplicating machine. The one that was donated wore out. We need one machine that will make copies from ONE original cassette to THREE copies and it needs to be able to record MUSIC QUALITY as we are wanting to add music on the front and back end of each teaching tape. We are looking at around $2200 for a machine like this (unless you know of a better deal or can donate a used one to us). It would make our work SO MUCH EASIER. One person has donated $500 for this project and that amount is in the bank earmarked for a duplicating machine.

Note: One final note to all on the list. We respond to many MANY who write to us from The Elijah List. However, the vast majority who encourage us, we are not able to personally respond to as we are getting over 100 emails a day. We hope you'll understand. We read carefully every posting that is sent to us and so many of you have blessed us with your kind notes.

God bless you all!!

Steve and Derene Shultz, Publishers
THE ELIJAH LIST
POB 871444
Vancouver, WA 98687
360-944-0084