Elijah - God's Prayer Warrior
Notes
Transcript
Elijah – God’s prayer warrior.
Elijah – God’s prayer warrior.
- We know that the future is going to require a special intimacy and complete surrender to God through Holy Spirit anointed faith filled prayer.
This emphasized by Pastor Kens prophecy which he shared with us last week - Be ready My church! Be ready! For the days are almost full! Difficult days lie ahead but My grace is sufficient for you! Fill your lamps with fresh oil. Let the light shine brightly forth, for the darkness of the day shall not overtake thee!
We need to pray the blood of Jesus over ourselves and loved ones & put on the full armour of God each day.
The Word says we will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.
Greater is He who is within us than he who is in the world. We overcome by continuing to enforce the finished work of the cross.
Filling our lamps with fresh oil (being prepared for the return of Jesus) comes through disciplined Holy Spirit anointed intimacy and prayer each day.
What made Elijah a powerful prayer warrior?
Elijah - a Hebrew prophet, fought against the worship of Baal a Canaanite Deity. God performed many miracles through Elijah including raising the dead and bringing fire down from the sky.
Elijah learned to be completely dependent on God.
After Elijah’s first confrontation with King Ahab, God sent Elijah to the Cherith Brook with no food, no provisions. God sent ravens to bring him food.
So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.
The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.
Elijah was in hiding from the evil King Ahab. He was completely dependent on Jehovah Jireh (God our provider)
When the brook dried up, Elijah new God would provide. God directed Him to the widow of Zarephath, completely convinced of God’s faithfulness to provide for his needs. And God did.
Elijah prayed boldly for God-sized miracles.
Elijah called down fire from heaven to consume the offering on Mount Carmel.
Here Elijah challenges Baal versus His God. The challenge is to offer sacrifices to their respective deity’s and see which starts a fire to prove their deity. Ahab’s prophets pray for hours to Baal, but nothing happens. After Elijah prayed, God sent a fire that completely engulfed the sacrifice after he had completely soaked the sacrifice in gallons of water.
And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word.
Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”
Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.
Elijah was bold. He asked with strong faith. He called on God knowing he served a miracle working faithful God.
God answered Elijah’s audacious prayers!
Elijah’s prayers pointed the world back to God
– He always listened for Yahweh’s voice, and he walked in complete obedience.
The widow of Zarephath only had a handful of flour when Elijah arrived but the flour and oil lasted for many days? A reminder that God sees our needs and provides miraculously. Raising the widow’s son from the dead? A reminder that he cares about our deepest hurts. The drought? A reminder that even the winds and the storms are subject to His control. Hear it in Elijah’s own words:
Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”
Elijah called down fire from heaven to consume the water and the sacrifices so others would know that Yahweh is God and there is no other God in heaven or earth.
Elijah’s prayers were about pointing the world back to God.
Elijah prayed fervently until he saw the answer.
Elijah knew that sometimes an answer does not come immediately. He knew that we must pray until we see the breakthrough.
Here Elijah was praying for rain.
So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees,
and said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.”
Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!” So he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’ ”
Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.
Elijah had prayed the drought into existence, He also prayed God to send rain to end the drought.
Seven times he asked and sent his servant to look for an answer. He prayed expecting an answer.
A small cloud began to form. God ended the drought. He sent rain on the land.
Elijah prayed fervently until he received an answer.
How can we, ordinary people just like Elijah, experience the power of God moving in response to our prayers?
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
We must be willing to confess our sins. We must admit our weaknesses, our failures. It’s in admitting our sins, in being honest and vulnerable with God that we find healing and intimacy with God.
We must pray earnestly, fervently. We must not give up. We must have an attitude of expectation.
God longs to connect with us, to help us in our time of need.
God can do far more than we could ever ask or imagine?
Pray and have faith in God like Elijah did, an ordinary man.
Dependent, Big audacious prayers, pointing man to God, fervent disciplined prayer - Hallelujah