Where Are the Elijahs of God — Leonard Ravenhill

Elijah’s Life Summarized by Prayer

It's a story about a man who, as far as I know, never had any money, he never had any staff to lean on, he had opposition, and yet God summarizes the life of this amazing man again. The man that subdued kingdoms and brought righteousness, the man that strangled the economy of the nation and brought repentance, and his whole life is summed up in two words, he prayed.

If you looked in James 5, which we won't do at the moment, but the second stanza, or the second volume of his life is he prayed again. As I've said to you, I've never been impressed with preachers, neither myself nor any others.

Though you'll have a good preacher next Friday night, our son David's going to be here, so cheer up. Paul got home safely, thank you for praying for them, they had a good time, they got held up at customs but then they got out alright.

Prophets as God’s Emergency Men

I've said this before, let me say it again, for my own sake if not yours, that prophets are God's emergency men for crisis hours. The prophets are antagonized by the sin of the nation, and not only antagonized by it, but they agonize because of it.

They're out of step with their generation, they're the loneliest of lonely men. And to use an old statement by Dr. Bux Bayson, the great famous Jewish scholar in America who got converted, he says that the prophet is by the very nature of his calling a tragic figure, because he has a fierce loyalty to God, and he has a burning heart of sorrow for a lost world in which he lives, and he's tug-of-war between the two of them.

Elijah and the Wickedness of Ahab

This man is an amazing man, Elijah, you don't need to know all this, but I'll tell you anyhow. 56 years before this man came on the stage, the kingdom had been divided, but he comes into the hour of the most cruel of all the kings.

There had been seven kings before Ahab, and the second king did more evil than the first, the third did more evil than the second, the fourth did more evil than the third, the fifth did more evil than the fourth, but finally Ahab comes and he did more iniquity, it says, more evil than all the kings that were ever before him.

For a rundown of that, it says in the 30th verse, Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, above all that were before him, it came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the sons of Neba, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Beth-Beal, the king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Beal and worship him.

So there's a list of his iniquity, then he built up an altar to Beal, in the house of Beal, which he had built in Samaria. Ahab made a grove, and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings that were before him.

There's a repetition for you. In this tragic situation, when there's a growing apostasy and a declining spirituality, that this man comes with a breath of heaven, we don't know anything about his pedigree.

If I had been writing Hebrews 11 I would have left some of the characters out. I certainly wouldn't have put a harlot in there, but God did. I would have put Elijah in there, but God didn't. He's there by inference.

Do you remember it says, by faith these women saw their dead raised to life again? Well, who raised the dead to life? Who watched the woman? I mean, the woman watched Elijah raise a little child. Remember she wasn't too convinced about him doing the miraculous.

She didn't get convinced because the bowel of meal didn't run out. She didn't get convinced because the little vial of oil was running, or whatever she had the oil in. But when he raised the dead she said, I know by this thou art a man of God.

The Living Christ and Apostolic Christianity

And to me that's the only proof the church is alive. I'm told of a preacher in town said not long ago, nobody's getting saved. I said to a lady in the church, do you know why? Because nobody's preaching salvation, we're all preaching blessing, we're all preaching help.

You know, somewhere we've got stuck. Ninety-five percent of the preachers in America or England this Sunday will preach about a coming Christ, a prophetic Christ, or a historic Christ. What about the Christ that's living at this moment?

He's living to make intercession, he's opened the windows of heaven for us. He's pulled down the strongholds of the devil, and it's ours to enter in, and we're impoverished. God pity us. We're not possessing our possessions, do you think we are?

We're nowhere near apostolic Christianity. We're paupers. And we're going to be embarrassed at the judgment seat unless there's a change. But there's going to be a change. There's going to be a drastic change before very long.

Not in our standard of living merely, which I'm sure is coming, but I believe God's going to find that remnant an anointment. You see, this guy comes out of the blue, pardon me, not this guy, this prophet, I'm getting too Americanized.

That's a dirty word, this guy. In Australia they say this bloke, if you go to college you say something else, but anyhow, the fact is that he comes from nowhere. We don't know anything about his pedigree, we don't know whether, what line he comes from, but this we do know.

Where did he come from? Where did he come from? I'll tell you where he came from. He came from God. The question is often asked, where is the Lord God of Elijah? That's not the question. The question is, where are the Elijahs of God?

This man, as far as I know, has no priestly right, I don't know whether anybody ever laid hands on him. He's a bit of a maverick, like me. I like to think I'm a maverick. You know I like to be a maverick, because I wouldn't like to be like most of the others anyhow.

It's nice to be eccentric. Who wants to be normal? I don't, in a stupid, wicked, wild, rotten world like this. I want to be abnormal. Do you, pastor? You do. So there's two of us now around here, you're in for more trouble.

Pastor Crumb, there you are. That's a nice name, isn't it? Crumb. He's a bit off the loaf, but anyhow. I know I've got somebody else pulling with me now. But the thing here is this. It's very, very simple to understand the secret of this man's power.

The Word of the Lord and Integrity

I'm going to skip over it very quickly. The 17th chapter we're in, remember. Let's go to verse 2. The word of the Lord came unto him. There it is. I'm looking for the word of the Lord about a situation in Thailand.

So once he gives me it, boy, I'm going to town, and just look, I mean literally going to town. The word of the Lord. Somebody came today, a man phoned me today, I don't know, hundreds of men, he said, I understand, Mr. Raymiel, that you like young men, young preachers come and stay at your house for two or three or more days.

I said, forget it, forget it, forget it. I don't want you for two or three or four hours, never mind, three or four days. I'm going to send them to Gridley's before long. They can put up with them. Three or four days, good night.

Some of them murder me in three or four minutes when they're there. They come in stale and half-dead, you know, and think I'm going to pronounce resurrection and life on them. No, sirree, no thank you.

But I said to one young man, listen, if you come and take my advice and everything goes well for about six months, you'll say, oh, Brother Raymiel got me on the right track. Oh, I've been so blessed, so uplifted, so happy.

Then suddenly hit a stone wall, you can't go to God and say, well, Lord, I took the word of Raymiel, so it should have more sense. You can't depend on my word. If I give you my word, you can depend on that.

There's two things missing from modern Christianity. One is honesty and the other is integrity, is that right? Honest integrity are missing, God help us. Even amongst God people, if you give your word, keep it.

I can't look at dear Dale without remembering he was brought up as a Quaker, so was I. Now I try to make people Quake, but anyhow. You know what they did when they said they would, they kept it, if it cost them everything they had.

There used to be a time, a friend of mine in England, when we were trekking in England, that's walking the length and breadth of it, we had no money, we walked. His father was a captain of one of those great big four masters, like you've seen, coming into New York this last few weeks.

And he said they'd take a bale of goods from England to China, they'd do a business transaction with a China man, never sign a document, just shake hands, and on that handshake there brother, rested tens of thousands of dollars, and they'd load their ship up with cotton or whatever they got over there, and bring it back to England and take the money back the next time.

Boy you can't do that now, they'd torpedo your boat before you get out of the harbor, or else they'd shoot you down somehow. But you see, God is a God of integrity, of holiness. He says, deliberately in his word, he cannot lie.

I wish some of his children would learn that, liars that they are. And Revelation says all liars, sanctified liars, Baptist liars, Methodist liars go to hell. Charismatic students. All liars. God has seen this world polluted with sin, he's not going to let heaven be polluted.

It doesn't say without ministry no man shall see the Lord, it doesn't say without miracles no man shall see the Lord, it doesn't say without money no man shall see the Lord, it doesn't say without baptism no man shall see the Lord, it doesn't say without gifts, it says without holiness, God's nature is holy.

Hiding and Showing Oneself Before God

The old city I'm going to live in, you know, it says that Cain built a city, and Abraham looked for a city, but John saw the city, and I'm better than that still, I'm going to the city. Are you coming?

Oh, about three of you, okay. The rest of you go to the other place, that's all you can do. Okay then, verse 2 says, The word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself.

Chapter 18, verse 1 says, It came to pass after many days the word of the Lord came, to say, Hide thyself, no, show thyself. It's wrong to show yourself when you should hide yourself, it's wrong to hide yourself when you should show yourself.

Do you know what I found out of this, reading this today? There are lots of preachers wanting a vacation, they're trying to get a vacation, and what they want is a cave. They don't need a vacation, they need a cave.

Go hide thyself, get away from everything, get away from everybody. The hardest thing, you know, we can't be very nice, can we? We can't even bear ourselves. You set yourself up for 24 hours, you get bored with yourself.

Unless God's there, then it makes all the difference in the world. Go hide thyself. That's the best advice I can give you young preachers. Forget everything. Get your Bible, get a copy of the journals, Christian and, what is it, Incomplete Alma.

Have you read it? He hasn't read it. Have you got it? Well, you're a naughty boy. He's got it and he hasn't read it. I'm going to ask you that every week now. Get ready. Till you get under such conviction you can't sleep, you'll have to read it.

That book will cost you $27 .50, but if you want it, I can get it for $16, cut-price store. So if you want it, tell me and put a down payment on it anyhow. No, I'll order it if you want it. Where does he go?

He goes to a cave. He goes into that cave twice. He goes into a cave again in the, what chapter is it here, let me look. You know, isn't it amazing, this fellow isn't a bit afraid of Ahab, but he's scared to death of Mrs. Ahab.

Jezebel. Reminds me of some tourists in England, they got lost, dark at night, and the car lights shone on to a sign outside the tavern. And it's, we have names on them, you know, like George III, and this one said on, George and the Dragon.

And they knocked on the door at one o 'clock, a big buxom woman came out, what do you want? We're lost. Oh yes, you tourists, you're a pest. What do you want? We want a certain town. Well the boys do this literally in Ireland.

They dig down the signpost and turn the signpost round. So these guys went up about five miles, these folk again, not guys, and the signpost had been turned round. They wandered round for three hours, and came back to the, what is it now, the Dragon.

George and the Dragon. Knocked on the door, the big buxom woman that barked at them, stood there looking at them, and the tourist said, could we see George? Well that's exactly the same thing here. There's nothing worse than a ferocious mad woman, and she's mad.

Prophetic Confrontation and the Minority Witness

You see, what happened to this man? And he tolerated what we can tolerate, he couldn't tolerate what we can tolerate. There'd been a glowing continual declension, apostasy had come, false religion, they don't disturb us, God knows.

I'll tell you what, it's encouraging if you're lonely, because this one man again, one man with God is a majority. I said at the 18th chapter again in verse 1, go hide thyself. You can tell this always, the message of a prophet is only embraced by the minority, and it's opposed with the majority, until some miracle comes that turns that people around.

Let me look at verse 17 here, it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, he said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? Isn't that great? Dear God, who troubles the nation today? Nobody I know of. Jimmy Swagger's getting near to it, if he keeps growing he'll move it.

I love to hear that fellow, I nearly said that guy again. I love to hear him. I don't like his theology altogether. Most of it I like, but I'll get to talk with him one day. I love to see him weeping, I love to see him angry, I love to see him blasting the Church of Rome.

Boy, he stands up against principalities and powers, what in the world does he care? But you see, that's the job of the prophet, he's a voice crying in the wilderness. And Ahab is scared to death of this man of God.

I've told you often, I hope somehow, somewhere, someday I'll be on the devil's list of most wanted men in America. The ten most wanted men in America, I'd rather be the last on that list than the first on the list to go down at the Presidency or the Buckingham Palace.

All those vanishing, silly, stupid ideas we have of status symbols, you know, a man full of the Holy Ghost doesn't need any status symbol, he's got it, he's full of the Holy Ghost, there's nothing higher than that, this side of eternity.

Do you think God cares whether you drive a BMW or a skateboard? Of course he doesn't. If he did, I'd get a BMW. BMW, my wife's former name was Wilson, BMW means Blessed Martha Wilson. So he'll have to get one, then I'm an excuse for having it, you see.

Elijah at Mount Carmel

Isn't it nice when a man of God gives the orders to the king? Oh, I love this. It's glorious, it says now in verse 19, wherefore send and gather me all Israel. Listen, here's a man of God telling the king what to do.

Come on, get up, he says, and get out of your palace. Get all the people of Israel together. It's estimated there are about two million of them. And gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel. The prophets of Baal 400, and the prophets of the groves 400.

800 of them. Elijah said to the people, even I only remain a prophet of the Lord, but the prophets of Baal are 450 men. Down to verse 25, Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first, for ye are many, and call on the name of your gods.

Put no fire under. And they took the bullock, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal. Now remember, the name of Baal means Lord, and he's Lord of the skies. Baal was the sun, they worshipped the sun.

And so he's asking fire to come down from heaven. Well, you've a better chance than he has. You say that's your God, that ball of fire. Remember, this man is a man who loved this country so much that he starved it.

You know, there'll be a sign of blessing as far as I'm concerned when they come. When people come to a prayer meeting and say, God, instead of saying give me liberty or give me death, give me revival or give me death.

I can't live and watch America go to hell. Or watch my generation go to hell. God does not answer prayer, he answers desperate prayer. He answers prayer with blood on it. He answers prayer with passion in it.

And this man is a man of like passions even as we are. God pitches the trouble is we're not men of like passion as he was. He was like passions humanly, he had to eat, he had to sleep. And then he goes into a cave.

Why did he say, well, Lord, it's not convenient. I mean, you know, I teach in Elijah's School of the Prophets on Tuesdays. I speak on prophecy and Wednesdays on history and Thursday on eschatology. And this week they take my love offering.

So I can't make it, Lord. It doesn't say that. He hears the voice of God and he goes. He never once counts the cost. And here it is, it's all the nation against him, it's every priestly system against him.

Rebuilding the Broken Altar

Let's see here now. Verse 30, Elijah said unto all the people, come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. Do you know why many of us are failing in our walk with God?

We won't go back to the altar that's broken down. We won't go back to the vow. You remember the vow you made in some meeting when the atmosphere was warm? I'd never get people to do that. You can get them to make any stupid confession or pledge when the temperature's up.

I pledged to give so much of my money and we haven't done it. I pledged to give more of my time and we haven't done it. And so before you can build a new altar, you go back to the old altar. There are four new ministries going to start in this city of Tiberi here.

I went to one last week. It was a rehearsal for Undertakers. The deadest thing I've been in since I buried somebody. But I want to know where's that man's last altar? Why is he building a new altar here?

What did he do at the last altar? Another man is starting another inn. Another man's going to start another one. There are four new ones starting in town. But where? Why? Why? Why? Go rebuild the altar.

Go repay your vow. Elijah, verse 31, took the twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And with thy stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two meters of sea.

And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock. Now, jump back a minute, will you? Back into Leviticus, chapter one. Leviticus, chapter one, and it says in verse, what, three, in his offering, if his offering be a burnt offering, a burnt sacrifice out of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish.

He shall offer his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation of the Lord. It's a male without blemish, typical of Jesus Christ, a male without blemish. There was no spot in him.

There was no fault in him. And he offered himself voluntary. He wasn't dragged to the cross. That snooty king says, what you said, if you don't, I'll tell you what, I'll take your life. And he says, you can't take my life.

No man, there's no man can take it. No devil can take it. No organization can take it. No priest cap can take it. Nobody takes my life. I will lay it down and I will take it up again. No man in history said that.

Buddha didn't say it. Confucius didn't say it. Here is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Before you get into the tabernacle, you need the cross. We sang that lovely hymn tonight, the Old Doggett. I love that hymn.

I didn't meet George Bernard that wrote it, but his wife once played in some meetings for me, and she cried as we sang it one night. And I said to her, you were weeping so much last night when we sang the Old Doggett cross.

She said, Mr. Ray, my husband wrote it. The only got for it, the manuscript, he got $75. And the money he sold it to, took the copyright of it, and he's been selling it to other people for as much as $700 to put it in a hymn book.

I think that's what the scripture talks about, the iniquity of holy things. That's a paradox for you. The iniquity of holy things. It's right to pay tithes. It's wrong to corrupt them and use them to our own ends.

For lavish living, luxury living, luxury travel, luxury hotels. Isn't it amazing this man should have said, but Lord, I can't go into a cave. It won't suit my health. And there's no shops around there.

He puts him way up there, up by the stream, goes into a hole in the wall, and there he meets God in his glory, in his majesty. Let me go back here a moment. Let this be a man without blemish. He shall offer it as his own voluntary at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

There's a scripture, let me see if I can find it here. Go down the chapter here. We're talking about a burnt offering. This is the only offering, as far as I know, where not one single thing could remain in that offering.

It must all be burned to ashes, everything of it. Look at the description here. Verse 8 says, the priest's heir and son shall lay the parts, the head, the fat in order upon the wood that is on the fire, which is upon the altar, and his inwards and his legs shall he wash with water, and the priest shall burn on the altar, shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering that is made by fire.

It's repeated in verse 13. He shall wash the inward parts with water, and the priest shall bring it all, a burnt offering on the altar, and it is a burnt offering. The only thing that could be saved out of this sacrifice was the skin, and the skin was thrown away.

The blood had to stay there and be sprinkled. If you go back to the time when they came out of Egypt, it says the same thing, except the blood was gathered and sprinkled over the lintel and over the doorpost.

The blood, of course, symbolic of the life. But here you have a beast without blemish. You couldn't bring a lame beast. You couldn't bring a blind beast. You couldn't bring a sick beast. You had to take the most costly thing that you had, and it was a burnt offering unto the Lord.

Noah, Sacrifice, and Acceptable Worship

Let me go a bit further back here into Genesis. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Chapter 8, verse 19. Verse 18. Noah went forth with his sons, his wife, his son's wives with him, and every beast, every creeping thing, every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth on the face of the earth, their kinds went forth out of the ark.

He went out of the ark. How long had he been in it? I'll leave you to work that out. Nobody offering a suggestion. I'm not going to do all your homework for you. You're lazy enough without me telling you everything.

Begin and do some searching for yourself. It's not, it's not polite. He had a covering in the ark, and the ark was without, with pitch, without side and inside, that ugly stuff that you, black stuff. Do you know why?

The ark is a type of salvation. There's no beauty. If you looked at the ark, you wouldn't look a second time. It wasn't a wonderful construction of the archaeologists. And the scripture says, when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

If Jesus walked around this earth with a transfigured body, like he had an amount of transfiguration, he'd have run the earth, but he didn't do it. There's no beauty that we should desire him. And there was no beauty that we should desire the ark.

But while he was in the ark, he had a covering. Verse 20, Noah built an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and every burnt off thing, and put them on the altar.

And he was a sweet-smelling savour unto the Lord. The Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake. What did he do? He took something out of the very limited stock that he had.

He took one of every kind and offered it to the Lord. And I mean, no true worship without sacrifice. He'd have covering when he's in the ark, but now he needs an altar. He wants communion. He wants to feel the quickening of God.

And therefore he makes a sacrifice. As I say, he takes, he took of every clean beast, and every clean fowl, and built an offering unto the Lord. You see, we can't worship without sacrifice. We can preach without it.

We can have a ministry without it. We can be missionaries without it. But we cannot be acceptable to God. What did we read there? We read that the Lord took every part of this beast, his inwards and his legs, everything.

Paul says, you remember, in Romans 12, 1 and 2, present your body a living sacrifice. Your body, not your brain, not just your emotions, but your body, with the whole of your being, with your heart, your mind, your soul, your mind, your strength, lay it on the altar.

Be a living sacrifice unto God. There cannot be, you know what? Partial obedience is disobedience. Someone to follow the Lord so far, but not the whole way. Do you remember what King Saul said when, was it Samuel went to him?

And he said, well, what have you done? I've done as the Lord said. I've taken the oxen, I've taken the cattle, and I've sacrificed. But I kept the best for the Lord. Isn't that nice? It reminds me of people who say, I want to tell you something.

It's pretty scandalous, but I mean, you know, I just want you to pray for them. They're liars. They don't. They want to snitch. They want to poison you. When I come, I have to bring him all I have. Paul is the best example of his own brilliance and his own theology.

He never preached anything he didn't live. And we shouldn't trade in terms as preachers, God help us. We're not to trade in theology. We ought to have ourselves a consciousness. We are a living sacrifice.

To be an example, not just by lip, but by life. And he presents every part of this. That's why I quoted that hymn tonight. I've been thinking of it. Well, I forget it. I think it was Mayer who wrote it.

Fill every part of me with praise. Let my whole being speak of thee and of thy fullness, Lord. Poor though I be and weak. Fill every part of me with praise. Every part of me. And he says, not for the lip of praise alone, nor in a praising heart, I ask.

But for a life made up of praise in every part. Praise in the common things of life, its goings out and in. Praise in each duty and each deed. However small and mean. So shall no part of day or night from sacredness be free.

But my whole life in every step be fellowship with thee. You know, people still, many of them have a department. They want to be holy on Sundays and carnal on Mondays. But it's all or nothing. He gets all I have, all my heart, all my strength, all my mind, all my will, all my time.

All the things I have to do to keep alive. Keep the family going. Pay my bills. But outside of that, it should be that just as the needle on the compass goes to the magnetic pole and it's released, it should be there's something in me.

Immediately I can switch back. I switch back and think of him. Keep your mind stayed on him, he says. And if we keep our mind stayed on him, we'll be out of thousands of troubles that we get into. But you know, there's no success in a spiritual life without, without loneliness.

Moses, the Wilderness, and the Reproach of Christ

You see, the answer to the prayer of this man is fire. Let me step back a minute, just without quoting the scriptures. Remind you of an incident where Moses, remember in Hebrews 11, it says Moses, he somehow, I don't know how he had it.

Martha corrected me once on this, and I'm grateful ever since. Somewhere in that filthy hole that was called Egypt, where they had worse nightclubs than we have, they had their harems, they had their licentiousness, they had their drunkenness.

And yet it was while he was there that this young fellow Moses was undefiled by what he saw. And it says there came a moment when what? He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches.

You know, according to the seventh chapter of Acts of the Apostles, Moses was a super intellectual. He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. They had astrology, they had everything that we have today in a more crude form, and yet more brilliant.

If you were to study the pyramid, don't get lost in pyramidology. It's a fascinating study. How did they know how to build it? Where to build it? Look where the base of it runs through the world. It's a fascinating thing.

And he's learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and the word of God says he was mighty in word. He wasn't an orator, he stammered. He said, Lord, I can't go. I can't even speak. God says, oh, I'll get you out of that mess.

Don't you make any excuses. God will find, he'll get you at the end anyhow. No man's ever beaten God. If you want to try, try it. You're a fool. Excuse me, you're a fooless little girl. He esteemed the reproach of Christ.

Where in God's name did he see Christ? It says of Abraham, he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. That word got hold of me today, recompense. It was Moses, and he's coming out from Egypt. Do you think he changed his clothes and put his traveling shoes on?

I think he ran away out of that castle, or that palace, with a royal robe on him. And every time he saw the thing, it reminded him of his grandeur. And God takes him to the backside of the desert. Moses has to go where?

Where does he go to? He goes to Horeb. That's where this cave was, Elijah went into. Into Horeb. So Moses has his Horeb. And Elijah has his what? Where did he go? To the brook Kirith. Ezekiel went to Kibar, or Shebar, if you like.

John went to the Isle of Patmos. Jesus went to the wilderness. You know, we're all trying to get there with shortcuts. You'll never make it. Unless there's a place in your life of total, absolute surrender.

If it means wrecking your marriage program, and not if you're married, don't make that a get-out. If you have to postpone a marriage, postpone a career, it's worth it. For the simple reason that once God gets hold of you in that situation, you'll never forget it.

Here's Elijah in a stinking, rotten cave. Bad for his health, you might say. Nobody to talk to. He could go nuts. But it's rather amazing when I come to this. It says the prophets of Baal were there. He challenged them.

Well, tell me this, where were all the priests? Were they still carrying on with building altars? They knew the Levitical priesthood. He knew that he couldn't have a burnt offering unless he did it God's way.

It had to be done exactly as God said. The time to kill it, the way to dissect it, what he should burn, what he should throw away. What were the priests doing? Why is there only one man crying out? Well, God help us.

Why don't we have a hundred Jimmy Swaggart's? Maybe the nation couldn't stand them. But I'd like to see them. I'd like to see one in every city. I'd be happy to clean his shoes. God's going to get men like that.

Yes sirree, he's going to get them. And Elijah goes in that dark, dusty place for what, three and a half years? Bread and flesh in the morning, bread and flesh in the evening. That shows you should only eat twice a day anyhow.