10.12.2022 | WALKING IN THE MIRACULOUS – A STUDY OF ELIJAH AND ELISHA
WALKING IN THE MIRACULOUS – A STUDY OF ELIJAH AND ELISHA
Our God is a God of miracles.
Luke 1:37 – “For with God nothing will be impossible.”
Our God loves to work miracles through His people.
John 14:12 – “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do because I go to My Father.”
How does God work miracles through us?
James 5:16b – “The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
James 5:17 – “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain in the land for three years and six months.”
James 5:18 – “And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced fruit.”
1 Kings 17:1 – “And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.’”
What can we learn about Elijah from this verse?
Tishbite – from the city of Tishbe in Gilead
He has come from the Presence of the Lord with a word for Ahab.
Who was Ahab?
I Kings 16:30 – “Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who went before him.”
1 Kings 16:31 – “And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and he went and served Baal and worshiped him.”
King Ahab brings the worship of Baal to an official place in the land of Israel.
Idolatry always leads to immorality. – Romans 1:22-25
Ahab and Jezebel were real people, but there are spirits that were working through them.
The spirit of Ahab is a passive spirit, easily manipulated, refusing to take the initiative and lead.
The spirit of Jezebel is a controlling and manipulating spirit, seeking to control people for their own purposes.
Under Ahab and Jezebel there was a great turning away from the Lord and an elevation of idolatry.
1. Leadership Matters
Into this arena of idolatry, rebellion, and disobedience, steps Elijah.
1 Kings 17:1b – “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not bedew or rain these years except at my word.”
Baal was believed to control the rain. This was a direct attack on the prevailing idolatry of the day.
How did Elijah come to the place of being so powerfully used of the Lord?
2. Consecration
Coming to that place of surrender to Jesus Christ and His rule in our lives.
Spending time in His Presence.
1 Kings 17:1b – “As the Lord God lives, before whom I stand.”
Jeremiah 23:22 – “But if they had stood in My counsel, and caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.”
3. Character
We want to grow in the anointing, but we also want to grow in godly character.
We want to grow in the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.
Without godly character ungirding the anointing we will have limited impact.
The message Elijah delivered came from the Presence of the Lord and not his flesh.
1 Corinthians 1:29 – “That no flesh should glory in His Presence.”
1 Corinthians 1:31 – “That, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’”
4. Confession
Confess – To say the same thing, to agree with God.
Agree with God when He convicts us of sin. 1 John 1:9
We also want to confess Jesus is Lord. We want to confess His Word.
We want to say what God says and only what He says.
Elijah hears God’s heart and receive God’s Word as He stands in His Presence. – 1 Kings 17:1
Psalm 25:14 (ESV) – “The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He makes known to them His covenant.”