God poured out His Spirit
The one thing I have asked God for all my life, is that He would give me the gift of faith. Elijah, in 1 Kings 17, in a drought and famine, went to a widow with no money and no food, and she gave the last of her food to Elijah, everything! – And God worked a miracle, that her little vessel of oil and barrel of flour would never run dry until He came to the rescue and sent the rain! I want to tell you that faith is so powerful in my life, that the Power of God will never dry up, never stop – in Israel, in Europe – until He has done everything He has promised me. But like the widow, first we must give God everything. When I was just 15, God met with me and said, ‘I want everything!’ Sacrifice. I said, ‘Lord, I give You everything,’ and God poured His Spirit in me, there and then.
Elijah had such authority, in 1 KIngs 18, he called the whole nation together and then he gathered the false prophets of Baal. He was not afraid to call all those who opposed him, all the demon possessed, to come. Then he said, ‘Let’s demonstrate whose God is real – your gods or my God!’ And the power of God came down with fire, because Elijah knew not only how to pray with authority, but how to get an answer to prayer. Suddenly I find here is a man so different, who knew the mind and will of God, and could act so dangerously that if he failed, King Ahab if not the prophets of Baal would kill him, or worse still, Jezebel would!
Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal – because he really believed that literal fire would fall from Heaven and burn wood, water and the flesh of the sacrifice! Not just a spiritual experience, not falling on the floor or a vision, but literal fire – Heavenly fire that is going to literally burn wood, water and sacrifice. He believed that God would do that. But nobody has ever before spoken to God with such faith and authority in such a dangerous situation!
Now, if we are living in the days of Elijah, and if you want the spirit of Elijah – prove it! Do something that nobody else can do, something nobody else has ever done before. Demonstrate a power and authority with God like he did!
I find some very unusual things about prayer in the Bible. I don’t read that Elijah went away for forty days and prayed – but he is about to see another, bigger miracle than the fire! He says, ‘Ahab, eat and drink, rejoice, I can hear the sound of abundant rain!’ But Elijah can’t hear it. Ahab gets up to eat, and Elijah goes off to the top of Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18.42). No, the Bible doesn’t say he is fasting and praying. It says he got down on the earth, he put his head between his knees, then got up and commanded his servant, ‘Go up and look towards the sea. Look for the rain.’ The servant says, ‘There isn’t any.’ Seven times he sends his servant to look for the rain. You see, Elijah is living dangerously. When he said to King Ahab, ‘Get up and eat because there is the sound of rain,’ Elijah had not seen the rain, there was no evidence – but he knew God, and to me it is almost as if something strange is happening. It’s not because Elijah is praying, but he knows in his heart, he knows that God will send the rain.
All Elijah had to do was to say, ‘Oh God, I need another miracle, do it again!’ And God answered him. The more I read this in the Bible, the more I feel that I myself haven’t got the answer yet. Three and a half years before Elijah simply said, ‘Ahab, no rain’ and the rain stopped. Then he calls upon God, ‘Show Your power.’ Fire comes down. Now he says, ‘There’s going to be another miracle, there’s going to be rain’ – but there is no evidence at all! I don’t find a record of long prayers, but of a man who knows God. I have noticed something quite unusual: sometimes the shorter my prayer, the quicker the miracle. When you know it is going to happen, you speak the word and God does it.
faith is what you do
We need to be more like Elijah. We have a prayer-answering God, but do we really believe Him? Do we believe the power of God? Well, if we do, then we must act. Faith is where your feet go, faith is what you do. But you can only be like that if you know God.