(Elijah Legacy) 7. the Sound of Abundant Rain — David Davis

Elijah’s Humility After the Fire on Mount Carmel

After Elijah called down the fire on Mount Carmel, which fell on the altar which he had restored, and the prophets, the false prophets, were unmasked for everyone to see, and the people were crying out, Adonai, who Elohim?

Adonai, who Elohim? There were people falling on their faces all over the mountain. He took those false prophets, 450, down to the river Kishon at the bottom of Mount Carmel, which runs up in here into Haifu today, and had them executed.

And some people have criticized him for that, but the law, the Torah, was clear. The false prophets that lead the people into idolatry were to be cut off. And he was trying to cut out the root of idolatry that had gotten into his people.

Once that was completed, he went back up to the top of the mountain, and Ahab and all the people with him, all the famous people, the VIPs, they sat around, and they had a big sacrificial meal, which is what you would do after a sacrifice like that.

And so all the people, maybe they had their lunches, and they were going home, and people were going back to Galilee and down the mountain, but there was Ahab. The holy fire of God had fallen on the mountain, and Ahab had not changed.

He just was doing business as usual. And many of the people did not change either. We hear Elijah talk about it later. He was so hurt, so disappointed, so disenchanted that the fire fell, and the people had this great experience with God, great manifestation of his all-consuming love and fire and holiness, and yet they didn't change.

Elijah’s Prophetic Word and Persevering Prayer

So as Ahab is having his wonderful meal with all his famous people there in the government or army or whoever they were, the false prophets had been killed. They were all gone. Where was Elijah? Elijah was in persevering prayer for the nation.

Then Elijah said to Ahab, Go up and eat and drink. But there is the sound of abundance of rain. The prophet heard in the spirit the rain was coming. He knew it was coming. How did he know? Because the Lord had told him, Confront Ahab, and I will send the rain.

He had the word of God, and he was going to pray it through until it was fulfilled. And that's what we need to do when we get a prophetic word. We need to pray and hang on to the Lord until it is fulfilled.

So Ahab went up to eat and drink. Elijah went up to the top of the Mount of Carmel, and then he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees. What a picture. Here we have backslidden, compromised Ahab, the king of Israel who knows all about the law and what he should be doing, and brought all this false religion in there, still calling on the name of God.

It's like a lukewarm believer, a carnal believer today. And he's stuffing his face, eating and having his meal, and Elijah is on his face, prostrate, bowed down before the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who had just been manifested by the power of the Spirit in this huge fire that had fallen from heaven.

Instead of him walking around and basking in, well, I'm the one who did it, he was in humility, broken before the Lord, crying out to the Lord. He had his head between his legs. He was in like a fetal position, like he was birthing a baby.

The Prayer of Travail and Intercession

He was in travail. Sometimes we need to move into the prayer of travail. It means weeping and crying out to the Lord until the answer comes. You know, many years ago, a man named Charles Spurgeon used to call that kind of prayer liquid prayer.

Well, it's liquid love, too, crying out to the Lord that he would fulfill what he's told us that he would do out of his great love for his people or whoever we're interceding for. You know, many years ago in England, the great General Booth, who founded the Salvation Army, was a great man of prayer, him and his wife, Catherine Booth.

They changed certain laws in England for orphans and kids that worked in sweatshops and all that kind of thing. Well, they sent teams around the world. One went to France, I think it was Paris, and nothing was happening.

They were preaching on the streets and worshiping the Lord. So they sent a cable back to London to General Booth, and Booth, and they said to him, nothing's happening. No one's coming to the Lord. So Booth cabled them back three words.

The words were, try tears, Booth. Elijah was on his face, crying out to the Lord, send the rain. You told me if I confront Ahab, you will send the rain. We need the rain. We need the rain for the crops.

There's famine all over the land. Not only that, we need the rain of a great move of the Holy Spirit. And as he prayed, his servant would go up to the top of the mountain and come back and say, I don't see anything.

The Sign of the Stretched-Out Hand

Seven times he sent this servant back and forth up to the top of the mountain. And finally, the servant came back and said, I see a hand like a man's. And when you study the Hebrew, it means it was stretched out, a hand like stretched out in intercession and travail toward the Lord.

And Elijah then said, the rain is coming. He got up, he told the king, buckle up your horses and get in your chariot and go before the rain comes down and stops you. And he ran all the way before the king, all the way to Jezreel, about 25, 26 miles across the Megiddo Valley, where the final battle of Armageddon will take place evidently.

Elijah and the Fervent Prayer of Faith

You know, this Elijah is such an example to us. This legacy has left the fervent, effective prayer of a righteous man or woman accomplishes much. It's all about Elijah in James chapter five. You know, when we started our meetings up on the top of Mount Carmel, we outgrew the retreat center where we were meeting, which was owned by believers from England.

And we got to know them quite well. And we were going to move our congregation out of there because we outgrew the retreat center. But then they said to us, we would like to give you a piece of land behind our retreat center, which is the highest point on Mount Carmel, if you will build a worship center or a congregational building.

Well, look, if somebody tries to give you the top of Mount Carmel free, my advice to you is take it. So we took it and we started to pray, Lord, show us how to make this contract right. And there was a lot of obstacles in the way.

A Prophetic Sign and the Building of Congregations

So finally, the people that owned the land came and met with us on Mount Carmel, our leadership team, Peter Sukahira and myself. And we had a meeting that day. And the message was about the sound of the abundance of rain.

And it hadn't rained in Israel for five months. We were in a period of drought. And the word came forth, the prophetic word came forth, I'm going to send rain today. Well, after the meeting was over, everybody went back down the mountain to Haifa.

We were sitting outside on the porch of the retreat center with the people from Britain. We had the papers, we were going to sign them, and they were giving this piece of land to us. And as we did that, a black cloud came up and rain started to fall right on the contract.

We started to laugh. There had been no clouds, there had been any rain, a prophetic word had come forth, the rain is coming. It fell, we had to run inside and sign the papers inside because the rain was a downpour.

People down in Haifa who had gone there in our congregation after the meeting, they looked up at the top of Mount Carmel, they saw dark clouds and rain, and they started calling one another up on the phone and said, look, it's raining on the top of Mount Carmel, the word's being fulfilled.

The Lord is looking for people of faith who will pray through until they hear the sound of the abundance of rain, and then the rain comes. We hear the sound of the abundance of rain all over northern Israel.

For seven years we went back and forth, praying in villages and towns, Arabs, Jews, with Russians. We had a SWAT team of intercessors, and the word we brought was, abundant rain is coming, a move of God is coming to northern Israel.

Now after we built our building, which opened in 1998, we sent out 10 families, they have a building, we helped raise up an Arab congregation, they have a building, we started a Lebanese congregation, they have a building, there are buildings now in Akko, a Messianic congregation, there are more buildings in Haifa, there are Arab buildings now, the congregations all across Galilee own, and now there's the Peniel, the oldest congregation in the north, have their own building, there's another congregation in Tiberias, they're about to get their building, and these are all barns for the harvest, and it's because we have heard the sound of the abundance of rain, a great move of the Spirit that will bring the harvest into northern Israel in these last days, and we pray it, and we pray it, and we believe it, just like Elijah.

Hearing the Abundant Rain in Every Sphere of Life

Brothers and sisters, you need to get alone with the Lord like Elijah did, and hear the sound of the abundant rain for your life, for your marriage, for your ministry, for your town, for your country, for your city.

May the Lord convict you and bring you close to him that you might hear the sound of the abundant rain of his love and power.