BE LIKE ELIJAH

 BE LIKE ELIJAH

II Kings 1:10 But Elijah replied to the captain, “If I am a man of God, let a fire come down from heaven and destroy you and your fifty men!” Then fire fell from heaven and killed them all. NLT

James tells us that Elijah was a man just like us (James 5:17). Wait a minute! A man just like us?!! Elijah was a prophet of God who did some amazing things in his life. He was used by God to perform many miracles. He was a man of tremendous faith. Read about his life and you are amazed by how God used him. I am not like him! I don’t go around doing the things he did. I don’t have the faith to believe that God would use me like he did Elijah.

We don’t know anything about Elijah’s life prior to his showing up to visit with King Ahab and telling him there would be no rain in the land until further notice. All we can do is speculate as to how he was raised and came to be the mighty man of God he was. Whatever his background was, as an adult Elijah was a usual man of God used by God in unusual ways.

The issue I want us to consider today is the status of our own hearts before God. Before God can do anything through us, He has to do a work in us. Faith exercised is faith developed. We must take seriously the condition of our hearts before God. This means taking care of our souls is our number one priority in life.

We need to deliberately and consistently feed our souls with God’s Word. We listen to God speak to us through it. We humbly accept and embrace it. It takes time and effort to hear from God in His Word. You will never have a proper understanding of faith until you do. You need to have a reading plan and stick to it. Quantity time is just as important as quality time when it comes to spending time in the Word.

We need to deliberately spend time alone with God. This means we set aside the time it takes to wait on God. Prayer takes precedence over all other activities. If we find ourselves too busy and something has to go, it must never be our prayer time. We must develop an attitude of prayer that draws us to the Lord throughout our daily living. The Lord should always be on our minds.

We need to deliberately seek out fellowship with those who love the Lord and are striving to live for Him. We need to be around and influenced by the people of God.

We may never be used by God in the way Elijah was, but we can have the faith of Elijah. In fact, we must if we are going to be of any use at all in the work God is doing on earth. A living faith is a growing faith and a growing faith is a glowing faith. You will be used by God in your own miraculous ways if you take care of your soul and let Jesus be Lord of your life.

READY TO GIVE UP?

 READY TO GIVE UP?

I Kings 19:4 Then he went on alone into the desert, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” NLT

Have you been there? Have you struggled to the point where you have had enough? Has life dealt you such a blow that you just literally want to give up? If so, you are not alone. Elijah was one of the greatest prophets of all time. He had been used of God to do some mighty miraculous things. He had just come down from Mt. Carmel where God had used him mightily to witness to the nation of Israel that He is God. It was a day unlike any other day in Israel’s history. You would think that Elijah would be floating on cloud nine. But just the opposite was true. Elijah had irked the wrath of Jezebel, the reigning queen. He had the prophets of Baal, whom she served, killed. She wanted revenge and threatened Elijah’s life. He was totally exhausted and there was no fight in him. Instead of standing strong before her, he ran. He ran as far as his weary body would take him. He was spent, and all he wanted to do was to die.

We all get weary at times and want to just give up. We all want the Lord to just take us home. It’s easy to get that way when we don’t keep our gas tanks full. When we run on adrenaline, or our reserve tanks, we sooner or later run out of fuel. It is imperative that we never let our fuel tank run low. We need to constantly stay in the Word and in our prayer closets. We need to constantly seek the Lord while He may be found. We need to make sure that we don’t ever try to go on our strength.

We need to be wise enough to know when to pull back and recharge our batteries. We are most vulnerable when we are weak, even if it is weakness from doing good. We need to understand that we can’t fight Satan when we are weak. We need to take care of our bodies and minds. We need to take care of our souls.

We need to be honest with ourselves about our limitations. We are not God. We need to take the time to rest. We need to say no when we are doing too much. We will not do ourselves, others, or the Lord, any good if we get so down that we want to just give up.

May the Lord give you the wisdom to know that everything does not depend on you and that you need to take care of yourself so that you can give your best to the Master.

CONFIDENCE IN GOD

 CONFIDENCE IN GOD

I Kings 18:36,37 At the customary time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O LORD, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.” NLT

Elijah walked up to the altar and prayed. I get the feeling that this was a walk of confidence and boldness. Elijah was not impressed by the number of those who opposed him. He was not concerned about the skeptics who were hanging around to see what would happen. Elijah was not bothered by the fact that the prophets of Baal had been praying to their god all day long to no avail. They had put on quite a show, but Elijah wasn’t impressed or worried that maybe God would not hear and answer his prayer.

Notice that Elijah never questioned his own faith in God. He knew that God was who He is and that He was his. He was bent on trying to convince those gathered on Mt. Carmel that God is and that He wanted to be their god. Elijah was persuaded that God was there, that God was able to silence the voices of those opposed to Him, and that God was going to convince the skeptics that He was indeed the Lord God of Israel.

In fact, Elijah had taken measures to make it seemingly difficult for God. He prayed and then prepared the sacrifice in such a way that it would take nothing less than the hand of God to consume it. Elijah knew that God would not leave him hanging. He knew that God would hear and answer his prayer. He knew, because he had walked with God throughout his life and God had never failed him. Time and time again God had made himself known to Elijah, and Elijah knew that this time would be no different.

I wonder about whether or not we have the same kind of confidence Elijah had when we pray. Do we trust in God’s favor upon us? Do we believe in a God who hears and answers the prayers of those who trust in Him and pray according to His will for them?

Do you approach God with boldness and confidence when you pray? Do you believe the Lord when He said that if we ask anything in His name according to His will that He will give it to us? If you are living right with God, you know Him well enough to know that He will hear and answer your prayers. You will be able to approach Him with boldness and confidence.

Walk up to the Lord’s altar today and pray.

WHO IS YOUR GOD?

 WHO IS YOUR GOD?

I Kings 18:25-26 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “You go first, for there are many of you. Choose one of the bulls and prepare it and call on the name of your god. But do not set fire to the wood.” So they prepared one of the bulls and placed it on the altar. Then they called on the name of Baal all morning, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced wildly around the altar they had made. NLT

When I read these verses, I am struck by the futile foolishness of these prophets of Baal. Scripture tells us that there were 450 of these men devoted to the worship of Baal. These men were living utterly foolish lives. They were committed to the worship of Baal. They devoted their lives to a god who was no god at all. Think about it. In spite of the fact that Baal was nothing but wishful thinking, they persisted in chasing after the hope that maybe they were wrong, that maybe Baal was real after all. Even though none of what they hoped that Baal could do for them had ever happened, they refused to let go of their hope that somehow he was a god. They refused to humble themselves and admit that they were wrong, that Baal was no god at all.

These prophets were from the people of Israel. They should have known better. They were exposed continuously with the reality of God’s presence. They had constant opportunities to hear about God and witness His workings amongst them. However, they refused God’s witness and chose to follow Baal instead. They devoted themselves to chasing after empty promises and lived lives that were hopeless with no one who could help them. They were so deep into their foolish thinking that they could no longer see the truth.

How futile their lives were! They were desperately hanging on to the hope that their lives had meaning, hoping that their god was a god after all. They did everything they could to validate their beliefs. They gave it their all. They ranted and raved in front of their god, trying to get a response. They not only were trying to give purpose and meaning to their lives, they were trying to convince those watching them that they were not mere fools. Can you imagine the noise and confusion as they desperately tried to make their god real?

What are you chasing after in order to validate your life? What gives your life purpose? What gives you the assurance that life is worth the living? If you are trying to find what you are looking for apart from a relationship with Christ, you will never find it. It is utter foolishness and life lived chasing after that which can never satisfy is futile living. Jesus alone can give life purpose and meaning. He alone is real. He alone can help you. He alone is worthy of your life devotion. He alone can help you.

THE ONLY ONE LEFT?

 THE ONLY ONE LEFT?

I Kings 18:22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only prophet of the LORD who is left, but Baal has 450 prophets.” NLT

Maybe you can relate to how Elijah felt. Here was a man of God who simply felt like he was the only one standing up for God. He was seemingly always on the spot. He was known as a man of God, but few seemingly cared for God. He was being singled out and confronted because of his faith. Elijah would not back down; he remained strong in faith wherever he went. His witness was strong, even in the midst of being intimidated to the point of death. Elijah was weary of it all and made it known that he was the only one around who was faithful to the Lord. He was surrounded by a multitude of people who were opposed to him because of his faith.

Sometimes we get tired and weary because we too think we are the only witness the Lord has around us. Even though we know better, we sometimes feel like there is no other believer around whom we can have fellowship with. Satan wants us to feel sorry for ourselves. He wants us to feel isolated. He wants us to think more about ourselves than those around us.

He knows that as long as he has us thinking about ourselves, we won’t be concerned about the soul needs around us. We won’t be reaching out in ministry to others. We won’t be praying for those who would persecute us or those who are in need amongst us.

There are two things to do to get out of from under this kind of a mood: first, ask the Lord to show you other believers who are around you; and secondly, ask the Lord to change your heart from being self-centered to other-centered. The Lord has other witnesses for Him in your world and He will make that known to you if you ask Him to.

The Lord wants to love others through you. He wants you to reach out to the hurting around you and bring them the hope we have in Christ. He wants you to stand in the gap and be His witness to the lost in your world. Satan is a liar; you are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

Don’t let Satan silence your witness for Christ in your world. Stand strong in faith and take Christ to the needy souls all around you. People you know are waiting for you to step up to the plate and give them hope. Will you do it?

WHO WILL YOU SERVE?

 WHO WILL YOU SERVE?

I Kings 18:21 Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How long are you going to waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him!” But if Baal is God, then follow Him! But the people were silent. NLT

I find it interesting that the people were silent in the midst of a challenge to follow the Lord. As a preacher, I have seen the same thing happen many times. There are times in which you just know the Lord is near and speaking to people’s hearts, and yet, they do not heed the Lord’s call to repentance or service. To be silent and just do nothing is in reality a rejection of God. Perhaps one of the reasons why there are so many dissatisfied people in the Church is because they had turned God away when He was near.

So many people are wavering between two opinions; they simply cannot, or will not, make up their minds about God. They are listening to those who would lure them away from God. They believe with their heads but not their hearts.

The people of Israel had drifted so far away from God that they no longer were convinced He was God. They were prone to follow after the false gods around them and were skeptical concerning the Lord. God no longer mattered to them because they were willing to compromise their faith in Him. They did not pay attention to what they needed to do in order to know that He was real and nearby. They let slide the disciplines of faith that God had commanded them to follow. They had neglected and rejected God and quickly embraced the false gods of their world. Instead of proving themselves to God, they made God prove himself to them.

The pathway to alienation from God is so easily traveled and is traveled by so many. It is the easy way to live. God’s way requires much work on our part. It requires us to let the Lord change us. It requires us to always strive to obey Him. It is so much easier to just not try. But, the easy path is the path that leads to certain destruction.

Protect your soul from those things which would draw you away from the Lord. Do not let your guard down. Don’t listen to the many voices that would lure you away from God. Don’t neglect the disciplines of faith that are so necessary to keep your soul in tune with God. Don’t let anything silence your faith or witness. Draw near and stay near to God and He will draw near and stay near to you.

MAKE UP YOUR MIND

 MAKE UP YOUR MIND

I Kings 18:21 Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How long are you going to waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him! But the people were completely silent. NLT

Elijah had called out the prophets of Baal and the Israelites to come and watch the spectacle. There was a real drought in Israel at that time, both physically and spiritually. The Israelites had wandered far from God. They became entangled with the lives of those around them. They embraced the false gods of their neighbors instead of remaining loyal to God. God had tried over and over again to get them to repent and change their ways, but they would not listen. In order to get their attention, God dried up their land. They had had no rain for 3 1/2 years. They were in desperate times.

Elijah challenged the people to decide once and for all whom they were going to believe in, the Lord or Baal. Baal obviously had a much greater hold on them than God did. They knew about God, but they didn’t know God. You would think they would have had enough of the empty promises of the Baal worshipers. You would think that they would have realized that they were trusting in false gods. You would think that they would have declared their allegiance to God whom they had forsaken.

But the people were silent. They did not say anything at all. Why? I believe one of the reasons why was because they had drifted so far from God that their souls were deadened. They were not able to declare their allegiance because they had lost their grip on God and they had lost their belief in a personal God who wanted to be in a relationship with them. They were living in darkness and those in the dark don’t come to the light out of fear their deeds would be exposed.

Sin does that to the soul. The more we engage in it and justify it, the less confidence we have in a God who loves us and desires a relationship with us. It deadens the soul and left unchecked will darken the soul to the point where we forsake God. Don’t underestimate the effect sin has on the soul! Sin is an abomination to God and it should be to us. It is our enemy, not our friend. We should be diligently on guard over our souls and not allow it to take a hold of us. When we sin we should be driven to our knees before the Lord and confess it. We should be constantly feeding our souls with God’s Word and hiding it in our hearts so that we might not sin against Him.

Take sin seriously; it can be lethal to the soul.