1 Kings 18:1–46
I love this true story from the old testament. Israel had gone more than three years without rain because of their idolatry. The prophet Elijah confronts the evil king Ahab and challenges him to a spiritual showdown. I LOVE THS….A SPIRITUAL SHOWDOWN!!
The king was to have all the Israelites gather at Mt. Carmel, along with the 450 prophets of the false god Baal and the 400 prophets of the false goddess Asherah.
When everyone was gathered, Elijah said “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” Elijah then challenged the prophets of Baal to prepare a bull as an offering for their god—Elijah would do the same—with this catch: they could light no fire on their altar. The God who answered with fire from the sky would be considered the true God.
The people agreed that this was a good plan, and the prophets of Baal went first. The pagan prophets cried out and danced around their altar from morning till noon with no answer from Baal. Elijah began to mock them, saying, “Shout louder! . . . Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
So the prophets of Baal “shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice.” Despite hours of effort, nothing happened.
Elijah then called the people to him as he repaired the altar of the Lord. He used twelve stones and dug a trench around the altar. He then placed wood on the altar and laid the cut pieces of the bull on it. Elijah then had the people douse the altar with twelve large jars of water. The water soaked the sacrifice and the wood and filled the trench.
Once the sacrifice was ready, Elijah prayed, “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” Then God did what Baal could never do: the fire of the LORD fell from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, “and also licked up the water in the trench.” The people of Israel bowed down and declared the Lord as God. Following this event, the Lord finally ended the drought and sent rain upon the land.
We serve a God who does impossible things. The point is, with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19: 26), and He wants us to call upon Him in our day of trouble and need (Psalm 50: 15).
The peoples hearts were changed by the action of one person. One person who ask for something big in front of others because he had faith in God. We live in a time where people have forgotten all the big things that God has done for His people throughout history. Families are so busy that they can’t hear the stories at church, because they don’t go regularly and due to that same busyness they don’t read the stories for themselves. Bibles no longer sit on coffee tables and there is no worry of dust collecting on them because we have replaced them with an app on our phones. Most people are checking or posting on FB, Snapchat, Instagram or whatever the newest app is that the bible app is very rarely opened.
Today, I challenge you to pick something BIG that your family needs. Maybe it is to move churches, become a missionary, go to college, change jobs, insert your big need here_______. Tell your family about it and then start to pray it out loud with your family and with believers and unbelievers. Pray it with faith in a big kind of way. Then wait and watch!! Your answered prayer may just be what someone else needs to fall in love with God again, to commit to him for the first time or to encourage them to place their big prayer out there for God to answer.
Our God is a big God and He can do anything. I believe enough for all of use so go on. What are you waiting for? ASK GOD FOR SOMETHING BIG!!
Droplets To Ripples 