Written by Bianca Ambrose                                                                           

“The Prophet Elijah Did Not.”

 

1 Kings 17:1 now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

Elijah was from a place called Tishbe in the region known as Gilead. The very name “Gilead” in its Hebrew form means “raw or rugged.” This tells us that Elijah was an out in the bone dock man. When he stepped onto the scene and began his ministry, his methods, his mannerisms and his message were as rough and rugged as the place he called home.

 Elijah’s dress code was as strange as anything else we know about him, 2 Kings 1:8. They answered him, “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”

As we read James 5:17-18 Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. He was a man with a furious temper, who also dealt with depression. He also suffered from loneliness, due to the life of solitude. I said that to say this, the Lord is not looking for spiritual giants to use for His glory. He is simply looking for people who will readily obey His Word and follow Him where He leads them. You see, nothing at all is known about Elijah until he steps onto the scene in the presence of King Ahab. He was a nobody from nowhere, but he was handpicked by the Lord God to do His will and to carry His message to a nation that was heading to hell in a bread basket.

God doesn’t need the rich, the educated, intelligent, beautiful or the movers and shakers of this word to get His work done.

Do you recall David?

1 Sam. 16:6-7, 12 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” 11 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.12 and he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”

Brothers and Sister God choose to work through the lives of men and women who will simply yield themselves to the will of God. Look at Isaiah, Isa. 6:8 I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me. 

Look at 1 Sam. 15:22. And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. God wants our obedient surrender to His will more than anything else you can give to Him, Elijah was a common man with courage. The king of Israel during the time of Elijah was named Ahab. The Bible tells us, 1 Kings 16:30, 33, And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him and Ahab made an Asherah.

Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. Ahab was the wicked king that ever sat upon the throne of Israel. Besides that, he was married to a evil woman named Jezebel. She was the daughter of the king of Zidon. This too was an offense to the Lord, 1 Kings 16:31. Jezebel was from a group of people who were passionate Baal worshipers. And she, along with her husband Ahab, did more to introduce the worship of Baal to the people of Israel than any other ruling family, 1 Kings 16:32. This produced a state of affairs in Israel, where people lost all regard for the commandments of God. 

Go to 1 Kings 16:34, where a man named Hiel the Beth elite attempted to rebuild Jericho. This was in direct disobedience to a clear command of God, Josh. 6:26.

Yet, it was to this king that God sent the prophet Elijah. Elijah walked right into the presence of king Ahab and delivered the message of the Lord without batting an eye. He told Ahab that there would be no rain or dew until he said there would be. It took courage to defy the wicked ruler! Each of us needs to manifest that same kind of courage. America today is headed down the same road that Israel was on back then. We have sacrificed our innocence for the pleasures of the flesh. We have openly mocked the written Word of God. We have turned a deaf ear to the cry of the millions of the unborn who are slain in the name of convenience every year in this country. We have paid homage to the onslaught of sexually explicit programming that invades our homes on a daily basis. We have sacrificed our morality to gratify our flesh. We have watched in mock horror as our sons and our daughters yield their bodies to the perversions of premarital sex, homosexuality, and lesbianism. We stand by in mute silence while the minds of our own children are captivated by the siren song of prosperity, selfish indulgence and independence from God. We pass their choice of music off as a fad. We have no say in where they go or what they do. We have watched this once great, godly nation become reduced to a stagnated cesspool of iniquity, open sin and outright hostility to God Almighty.

After Elijah was taken to Heaven in the whirlwind, Elisha took Elijah’s mantel and smote Jordan and cried, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?”. Elijah’s message was that there would be no dew or rain until he said so. This was a direct attack against the false religion of Baal worship. You see, Baal was the Canaanite god of fertility. He was seen in the thunder heads and in the rain that fell. Baal worship was usually conducted on the tops of hills where statues of Baal were built. Typically, these Baal shrines were staffed by priests and priestesses. Worship was carried out through performing sexual acts with one of these ministers of Baal. It was their belief that when you were joined to a priest or a priestess in a sexual union, that you literally became a god or a goddess for that period of time. One of the most horrible aspects of Baal worship existed in the realm of human sacrifice. When there was time of drought, it was supposed to mean that Baal was angry with the people. To get his attention, they would often sacrifice a firstborn child by burning it alive. It was a terrible religion that existed to gratify the flesh. There is much more that could be said about Baal worship, but this is enough to see why it was an offence to the Lord God of Israel. After all it involved breaking many of the commandments, but especially Numbers 1-3 and 7-10. When Elijah made his announcement, he was declaring war on Baal, it took great courage to stand up before the chief promoter of that false religion and in effect say, “My God is greater than Baal! And to prove it, God is going to shut off the spigot. There will be no rain until I say so and  there’s nothing you, Jezebel or Baal can do about it!” Can you imagine how they must have laughed at him and mocked him? That is kind of courage we need to see manifested in this day. This is the kind of courage that comes from time spent with God. This is the kind of courage that stands up against ridicule, it is the courage that makes us speak out on issues  like abortion, homosexual, false religions that is  sending our children to hell. We as the children of God  needs to walk  in the courage that makes a difference for God as we see the day approaching. It is the kind of courage that says, “I will be different, regardless of what it costs me or my family. I will stand for God!” Are we filled with that kind of courage? Can God count on us to stand? Back to Elijah, his very name tells us his testimony. The name Elijah means “My God Is Jehovah”. His name tells us that he had a personal relationship with the God of Heaven, walking into the presence of Ahab and Jezebel in the name of Jehovah, Elijah was demonstrating that in his life and ministry, he was totally dependent upon the Lord. He was not trusting the arm of flesh, but was resting in the everlasting arms by faith. This is the secret of success for the child of God living in a wicked world. Only when we are totally yielded to God in total dependence, will we be assured of success. You see, there is only one thing that honors God and that is Faith, Heb. 11:6; Rom. 14:23. We must come to the place where we stop trying  and start trusting God. What we need are people who live and walk by faith and not by sight. Look at  the  phrase Elijah used,  “Before Whom I stand.” Elijah was standing in the presence of the king of Israel. He was standing in the presence of one of the most powerful men of his time. Yet, Elijah was able to see beyond all the trapping, Elijah knew that he was standing in the presence of God. He knew that there was no need to try and please Ahab, he was not going to water down his message and make it pleasing.

There was only one Person in that room who had to be pleased and His name was Jehovah. You know, that is the place we all need to get to in our lives. If we can get beyond what this one or that one might think of us and live for nothing but to please the Lord God, then we are on the road to being used by God. Elijah was a man on a mission. He desired nothing less than carrying out the will of God. Can we honestly say that we do not care what anyone thinks about our stand for God? Can we honestly say that regardless what anyone thinks, we are going to live for God, stand for God and serve God until He finishes with us? That is the attitude of total commitment. That is the attitude God can bless and that God can use.  Elijah believed that God was alive. He said, “as the Lord God of Israel live.” Most of those other folks were living like Jehovah was dead. Does this sound like America?  Does it? We need some people like Elijah who will stand up and say, “You can live like God is dead if you wish, but I am going to live for Him, because He is alive in me.” You see, that was Elijah’s situation. God was living in him and when God lives in you, you just can’t keep Him quiet. Let’s look at James 5:17-18. It seems from these verses that the drought was Elijah’s idea. Apparently, he was so upset with the sins of the people that he began to pray that is would not rain, but this idea was put into his heart by the Spirit of God, as he prayed, he received assurance that this was indeed the Lord’s will, so he just marched up to Ahab and told him it would not rain. He believed that he served a God who was powerful and able to do anything. The church today lack the respect  for God and His ability. May I remind you that we serve a God who can do anything, please take the time and read Job 42:4, Luke 1:37,  Eph. 3:20  He can meet any need, He can cause anything to take place. He can heal any disease, He can stop any anything from taking place,  He is God and He is all powerful, Nothing is too hard for Him. He is God Hallelujah!!  That is why we can fight Satan and his activities, because we serve a Mighty God never forget that. What He did for people like Elijah, He can do for you and me. We just have to arrive at the place where we can trust Him totally. Saints God will never, never, ever back away from a single promise he has made to His people. He will not desert you and leave you alone. If He has made a promise to you, it will be fulfilled, it is in his holy word look at Rom. 4:21; Heb. 6:18. Elijah stirred up a hornets’ nest when he made his announcement before Ahab. However my point from scripture is that he stood and he did what God had told him to do. Elijah was a man sent from God. He was sent to a wicked people to declare that judgment was coming from the hand of God. He was not afraid to speak up and expose the evils of his day. He was not afraid to live by faith in the God of Heaven. He was not afraid to put his very life into the hand of God and trust God all the way through. I ask the question? How many of us really know God like Elijah did?  Are we taking our stand for God in the midst of this wicked world? How many of us are standing against the waves of evil in the world today? Elijah’s God has not changed. He is the same Yesterday, Today and Forevermore. Saints do you believe Him regardless of the cost? I Bianca Ambrose say to you this day Body Of Christ  for which you are a member and JESUS CHRIST is our head DO NOT Step Down From Confrontation”