1 Kings 16-18 - Part 2 — Leonard Ravenhill

Elijah’s Prayer for Rain After the Fire

Isn't that wonderful? Then verse 39, the people fell. Verse 45, the rain fell. Wouldn't it be nice to get two or three deacons around here like that, Martin, that, you know, when they pray, the fire fell, the rain fell, the people fell?

No? I think it would. Can touch God as quickly as that, let it be known this day, Lord, I don't want to wait around here six months. No, he says, I want these people to know right now, with all the assembled horse that they could have devoured him, they could have assassinated him, the king could have ordered him sent to prison, he stands there and defies everybody.

Because God is with him, that's right. Verse 45 says, it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and the wind was, and there was a great rain and the hand of the Lord was with Elijah and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab.

You know, he must have been quite a fella. He'd only had two meals a day and yet he could run and outrun the chariot of the king. Isn't that something? That's Olympics. God's way. Now what does he do?

Elijah’s Post-Carmel Fasting and Prayer

He says, he went in the strength of the meat forty days and forty nights. I'm looking for the verse. Where's the verse that says that he, oh, verse 42, Ahab went up to eat and to drink, Elijah went up to the top of Carmel.

Why'd you want to go up there? The fire has fallen. Yes, but that's not the problem. The problem is not fire. The problem is rain. What did he do? Well, you try this. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and he cast himself upon the earth and put his face between his knees.

Now that's pretty tough. Isn't it? Try it when you get to your room tonight. In other words, he didn't care about the discomfort. He knew that God wanted him to prostrate, humble himself, and this is the best way.

He knows how to do it, and so he does it. What happened? Well, the thing that he prayed for happened. The rain fell. Go through it yourself with a fine-tooth comb, if you like. You'll see all the different styles, the different approaches he has to God, which we don't have to, if we took a week over it, we could do it.

Developing Faith in the Secret Place

One day he's praying in private in the loft. You pray in secret and the Lord will reward you openly. That's where we develop our spiritual muscle. That's where we get our faith strengthened, in the secret place.

That's where Jesus prayed, in the secret place. Well, dear Lord, we're surrounded with Ahabs today, aren't we? How many Elijahs do we have? When Elijah came on the scene, the whole nation was swamped with iniquity, impurity, and impiety, and idolatry.

Elijah’s Challenge to Modern Idolatry

Exactly what we've got today. Salt of the wind, you get the whirlwind. What did we give in America? We gave the world Jehovah's Witnesses, we gave the world Saturday Adventism, we gave the world unity.

What do we got now? We're salt of the wind, we've got the whirlwind. Got the Hare Krishna, we've got some funny boys coming around here before long. We're soaked with rotten cults. What did I read today, Melody?

I've got a, I want to write an article on abortion, would you publish it? 6 ,000 babies a day are killed in America, 6 ,000. How much longer does God wink at our sin? What are we, 15 million people with herpes, 12 million with VD, more than 12 million alcoholics, about 13 million people on drugs.

How much worse can we get? Doesn't disturb anybody, does it? You know, I'm almost afraid to teach people, I like to do it, a bit of knowledge I can share. But you know, maybe every night I'm adding to your condemnation.

Obedience to God’s Word and the Judgment Seat

Most of us have, now, have more lights than we can handle at the judgment seat. Why keep teaching? Every day I teach and you listen, it's going to add to your condemnation if you don't obey it. Not obey me, but obey what God says.

One Man with God Is a Majority

Now in one sense, this amazing man Elijah lifts me up to the skies, but boy, he cast me down. Do you know why? I figure, I figure again, that in that cave, all he was doing was turning over the majesty of the marvelous workings of a wonderful God who, when Moses spoke, the rock gave water.

An old, dried up old woman gives birth to a child when she's 90 years of age. All the miracles that God wrought. But wait a minute, I say he lifts me up because he shows me what one man, one man with God is a majority.

Let's, let's realize that. One man with God is a majority. I look at my books in my little library there sometimes, I say to myself, there's no man here, here I've got what, all these books by Wesley, I've got about what, 22 or three books by Alexander McLaren.

You know, not one of those men, Wesley, Finney or Spurgeon, ever had a bigger Bible than I have. They just explored it better. Since that was back door to God, the private way, it's the same way of prayer.

The Bible as a Library and the Knowledge of God

Here's the thing that gets my face in the dust is this, this man never had a library. This isn't a book, it's a library, 66 books in this one book. So you have a pocket edition, you can put a whole library in your pocket.

Tell me this, since God is a God of majesty, why are we such dwarfs? How did a man like Elijah, Jeremiah and others, that face kings and kingdoms, how did they get victorious? How is it they knew God in a way that we don't?

I've got 66 books revealing God, they didn't have one. I have about 50 books on the Holy Spirit on one of my shelves. That doesn't mean I know more of the Holy Ghost than anybody else. But you see, this blessed word says that to whom much is given, much will be expected, isn't that right?

Don't boast of your Bible knowledge so much because if you haven't worked it out you're in trouble at the end of the line, the cash register happens to be the judgment seat. I'm not saying this in any way to humiliate anybody, but I'll tell you what, I've been turning this fellow Elijah over in my mind and saying, well, when John Baptist came they thought it was Elijah, he's there on the Mount of Transfiguration, he's there in the Book of the Revelation, this week the Jews had what, their New Year, wasn't it their New Year this year?

Elijah’s Expected Return in Jewish Tradition

So in a devout Jewish home, the door is left open, if there are 14 people to dinner there are 15 seats. So the little ones say, who's the seat for, why is the door open? Because Elijah may come. They believe he'll return.

Elijah’s Loneliness and the Forty-Day Test

He's one of the most staggering figures, but by the same token he was one of the loneliest men ever. Not much fun being shut up in a cave, is it, 40 days and 40 nights, 40 is a type of testing, time of testing.

The Book of Matthew is the 40th book in the Bible. The Jews were tested with the presence of Christ, what would they do with him? Noah's Ark, 40 days, 40 nights, Israel 40 years in the wilderness. 40 days from the time of the Resurrection to the Ascension.

That's a long while. Doesn't mean if you hide away for 40 days you'll get the same anointing and revelation. But somewhere God's going to interfere with that program of yours and that process of yours and stop you dead in your tracks and say, get there.

Revelation Through Loneliness and Suffering

And I say this and finish, it's amazing as I have thought of it, all the great revelations came to lonely men. Where did, a lady said to me one day, I don't get many visions and that kind of thing. What do you suggest?

I said, go to Patmos. She said, what? I said, go to Patmos. She said, where is it? I said, it's just off the coast of Greece, but that's not the one I mean. Go to a place of loneliness. Patmos was the devil's island of the day, where all corrupt society was dumped.

And here a man has a more glorious revelation than anybody that lived except Paul who was caught up to the third heaven. When did Paul write his greatest epistles? In stinking prisons. To the Philippians he writes, rejoice in the Lord, he writes in a stinking prison.

He's telling other people to rejoice. And again I say, they should have been writing to him, he's writing to them. Isn't that wonderful? When he saw all the flying, well there we are. Now I said that, I don't know how much you remember, you can buy a tape.

Are we going to have a tape of this tonight? No I mean it won't be. But there will be. If you want them next week, and videotapes too. No we didn't have it tonight. There you are. Terrible. Next week.

OK dear, I'll remember that. No, I just, I just wanted to say this. This has been a burden this week, a real burden, that God will bring me and bring you into a new dimension of revelation, a new dimension of faith.

Whoever's teaching, not just because I come, I hope I can come every week, I'm not taking any appointments outside. He's going to stay by here. Preach sometimes. By the way, if you can make it, Dave Wilkerson's going to preach Sunday morning over at the little assembly that we have, he'll have to be there by ten o 'clock to get a seat.

He's not often home, but he's going to be home. And by the way, do pray for him, he's going to a tough place next week to preach, he's going to ORU. Well, we should spread the light. He's going to be there three nights, so do remember him in prayer.

He just had a wonderful week on the West Coast, last Sunday night, tremendous meeting. The Thursday night, not because I, I, I was going to do something, the Lord said go pray and I went to pray. And he hasn't told me yet, he's coming to see me tomorrow, I guess.

Thursday night, the glory of God came and just swept, just about slaughtered the audience with conviction and brokenness and seeking God. And that surely is what's needed, that's what's needed at ORU.

So personally, I'm really looking forward to Friday night. I believe God is going to talk to us in a new way. What can we do? Oh, let's finish with another good hymn that's typical of this place. All hail the power of Jesus' name, what number is it, anyone know?

What number? One? One, three, two. One, three, two. A new prayer, what do you think?