A MAN SENT FROM GOD
Text: 1 Kings 16:23 – 17:1
There is an interesting comment on John the Baptist with regards to the prophet Elijah. We read it in the angel’s visit to Zacharias in Luke’s gospel (1:15-17). The text reads:
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.
And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
A little phrase in that announcement catches our attention. The angel says of John that he will perform his ministry in “the spirit and power of Elijah”. That is quite a statement. And it is something that we desperately need today. We need that “spirit and power of Elijah” in our land and we need men in our churches who minister in “the spirit and power of Elijah”,
There are many today who would covet the power of Elijah. What manifestations of God’s power there were in his life and ministry! But we do well to remember that his power was not his own. It was God’s. But that power was linked to the spirit he possessed. (Or rather, possessed him!)
My friend, it is a simple yet vital matter to know the link between these two. If we do not have Elijah’s ‘spirit’ we cannot have Elijah’s ‘power’.
Back for a moment to our text in Luke concerning John. We ask, What was the testimony of John who would live and minister in that spirit and power? It was threefold.
First, he would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. Second, he would turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. Third, through his ministry he would make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
That, dear friend, is the work of the gospel! First it touches the heart. Next it renews the mind. And then finally it has an effect on the world through evangelism and faithful witness.
If we are going to move forward in victorious Christian living, we must look at the lives of those who lived victoriously. And when we look at these great heroes of the faith we will hear them say, like John, “He (i.e., Christ) must increase, I must decrease.”
When we consider the lives and testimony of such men and women, we will be left looking upon the Christ whom they served.
Now, as we consider this man, Elijah, it is important to remember what God says of him. We read this in James 5:17 —
“Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are…”
As we study the life of this prophet, and we consider the mighty way in which God used this plain, humble man, we must never forget that as far as his humanity goes, he was no different than any of us. This is vital. Some old artists liked to paint pictures of the saints with halos around them. Let me assure you that is a false representation. They were saints. But they were all sinners saved by grace, whether in the Old Testament or the New. And Elijah was no different in that regard.
Let us consider how Elijah is introduced to us in the inspired record. This man steps onto the scene of history literally ‘out of the blue’. One commentator says of him, “he comes in like a tempest and went out in a whirlwind”. That is a pretty accurate description of Elijah’s life!
As far as we know, Elijah was not a man of great social refinement. He was what we might call, a ‘mountain man’. He came from the mountains of Gilead. He did not have any time for all the petty fineries of high society or even the pretty little protocols of being in the royal court. He just showed up one day in front of wicked king Ahab and delivered his sermon without any fanfare or proper introduction like so many ministers deem necessary before they begin to preach.
Elijah was more concerned for the glory of God, than the honour of kings. He was more concerned with what God would say of him than what others might say. He was more concerned about speaking the truth than the feelings of others who might be hurt by that truth. He was far more concerned about the reputation of the God of Israel than about his own, personal reputation.
Elijah came on the scene suddenly, but he did not come unprepared. Our text intimates this in the very words he uttered. He had spent many years in prayer before God before he began his public ministry. How does he introduce himself in addressing king Ahab? “As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand”.
He was standing in front of the king, but that meant nothing to him. He was neither daunted nor dismayed. Why? Because before he stood before the king of Israel, he had spent long hours before the King of kings, and therefore he was bold to speak what God had commissioned him to say.
This is an important lesson we can learn from this man’s life. The more we fear God, the less we will fear man. Someone who has come fresh from the presence of the Lord, will have no fear of man. He will not fear what man may say to him or what man may do to him.
Consider how deplorable the state of the nation was in Elijah’s day. Spiritual darkness covered the land and Baal worship was the state religion. Of the few remaining citizens who still held to the worship of the true God, and who may have been concerned about the spiritual declension and social demise of their beloved nation, some may have even thought God had forgotten them. That is a natural response for many believers who find themselves in such situations.
But whatever God’s people may have thought, and however hopeless the situation may have appeared, unknown to them all a wonderful thing was taking place. Way off in the mountains of Gilead, God was preparing a man. And this lone man would be an instrument to bring about national revival and bring a nation back from its immorality and degradation to the worship of the true and living God.
How often that has been the case throughout history! Over five hundred years ago, while the world was lying in dark superstition, and the true light of the gospel was almost extinguished, and the situation looked hopeless from the human viewpoint, God was preparing a monk in a monastery. His name, of course, was Martin Luther. And he spent many hours in prayer, and years with God being prepared in obscurity, before he broke onto the world stage one morning and nailed his 95 thesis to the church door at Wittenburg.
Be encouraged today. However dark and hopeless the political and religious scene may be in our nation, God will never leave Himself without a witness for His name. God will never allow His cause to fall into nothingness. He will have His man for the hour. But know this: God never uses vessels that are not prepared.
Would you be a vessel “unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work (2 Timothy 2:21)? Would you be bold and courageous, faithful and useful in the Lord’s service?
Then you must learn this lesson from the life of Elijah. If you would be bold to proclaim the gospel tomorrow, you must be burdened to pray today. Let us never forget that preparation is necessary for service. Prayer times are as needful as preaching times. That man who focuses all his energies on public ministry and not on private times of prayer might succeed in the eyes of men, but not in God’s. The church that has all its emphasis on preaching the Word and relegates the Prayer Meeting to an “optional” choice for members will never know the “spirit and power” of Elijah in its ministry.
To put this another way; our churches will never be more useful in service than we are faithful in prayer. If we are going to stand before men for God, then we must first learn to stand before God for men.
And this is not just for pastors, elders and deacons. This is something every child of God must take as their responsibility and commission from the Lord. Every one of us are called to be ‘preachers’; we are all called to proclaim the gospel by word and deed for the Lord in our own sphere. And all of us must be men and women of prayer if we are going to know the spirit and power of Elijah in our lives, our homes, our churches and our land.
May God be pleased to pour out His Spirit upon us and prepare us so that He can use us for the glory of Christ and the furthering of His kingdom.