Common Man Faith

We are back to look at how we can be like the prophet Elijah. This is based on James when he says Elijah was a man with a nature like ours (James 5:17 ESV). We already saw, based on 1 Kings 17 that in order for Elijah (or for us) to be the person God uses, we must first get alone with God and allow God to develop us, to teach us to trust. Now we want to look at what is probably Elijah’s most well-known stories. The account is found in 1 Kings 18.

Elijah was Dynamic

God speaks to Elijah and calls him to go face King Ahab, one of Ancient Israel’s most heinous kings. Ahab hates Elijah and has blamed Elijah for the drought. Ahab wants Elijah dead, and God tells Elijah to present himself to Ahab. What was the purpose for the confrontation? Elijah wants a showdown. Who is the God of Israel. Elijah invited 450 prophets of Baal to come and present their case, and then Elijah will present his case for the true God Yahweh. He wants Israel to make a choice. You cannot have two gods. There is only one God.

Elijah states the challenge. Build an altar, place a bull upon it and invite your god to consume the altar.  Whichever god consumes the sacrifice will prove himself the one true god. So 450 prophets of Baal erect the alar and begin their religious ceremony. For hours this ceremony went on, and the result is found in verse 29. “And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.” Baal never even answered.

Elijah then restored the altar of God and prepared his sacrifice. To add to the drama, Elijah drenched the altar with water, and then this is what happened.  “And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.” (vs 36-39)

Yahweh, the one true God completely consumed with fire the water soaked offering, bull, wood, stone and all.

This is probably the one area we all wish we were like Elijah. While we may never be called to challenge a wicked king, 450 false prophets and call down fire from heaven, we will have times to participate in a dynamic ministry. Maybe the better word is public ministry. There will be times we need to take a stand. We are asked to compromise our integrity. Maybe we are pressured to water down our faith a little bit. Perhaps we are seeing some injustice in our neighborhood or workplace. What can I do? How could I ever be like Elijah and stand for truth?

The answer goes back to I Kings 17. Elijah had spent time being developed by God. He had been alone with God and was learning to trust. Elijah had understood his identity in God. God had called him and he knew God was faithful, that he would not be alone. because of this confidence in God he could have a dynamic ministry before God. I do not think Elijah could have faced this challenge if he had not first had the still, quiet time of listening and learning. But we cannot stay is the quiet, isolated place.  True faith is lived in the open, public areas of life where we make small and big decisiosn allthe time.

Yes, we have the same nature as Elijah. We have the same God as Elijah. Our God will also call us to make a choice publicly to demonstrate who is our God. We will all be called to make a stand publicly, to declare our allegiance, to stand for justice, to challenge wrong-doing. And we can do it successfully. If we learn the lessons of Elijah, that we must be developed by God so that we can be dynamic with God.

Next time, we will see that Elijah was Depressed

We all have people we look up to, people we admire, people we wish we could be like. Even as a Christian we see people we want to imitate. Then there are those people we say I could never be like them. They are some kind of super spiritual saint with abilities I could never have. But why not? If their God is your God, the Holy Spirit they have is the same one indwelling you, why can’t we be like them? In fact, I want to use a passage of Scripture that says we can be like some of those “Bible Heroes”. James, the brother of Jesus, while writing about powerful prayer says this. “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, . . .” (James 5:17 English Standard Version)  Other translations say Elijah was a man like us. Here was a man who when he prayed the rain would stop, it did for three years. As I sit here in Pennsylvania under another flood watch and just after another snow storm I would like to pray the weather away. Then he prayed for it to rain and it did. So what is it about Elijah? Over the next few posts I want to explore that briefly.

Elijah Was Developed

This I believe was the first, and possibly most important part of the process. You can find the account in 1 Kings 17:1-7. Elijah has just predicted a drought. These are bad days in Israel. King Ahab and his wife Jezebel have led the country deep into idolatry and God is grieved. Now he sends Elijah away into isolation. Elijah ends up at a place called brook Cherith. Here God sends food to Elijah by ravens. So how is this developing Elijah?

God is about to do mighty things to get Israel’s attention and Elijah is a key part of that. But Elijah needs to be ready. Elijah needs to learn to trust completely in what God is doing. So here by the brook Cherith God is training Elijah. He is training him to be still and listen. Listen for the voice of God by getting rid of all the other voices and distractions.

Learn to trust. Away from all the natural sources of food, God is delivering food to Elijah by a very unusual method. Elijah is learning that God does provide for his needs. The Psalmist said he has never seen the righteous forsaken.

Elijah is about to enter a hostile environment and face impossible odds. He is also learing that with God as His provider there is nothing to fear.

Where is God developing you? Where are you learning to be still and to trust? Maybe you are wondering why God does not seem as prevalent in your life. You think God is using others more than you, and you want to be used. Maybe you need to learn to trust and be silent.

The loss of a job, a health issue, loss of friends? Suddenly you have more time on your hands. Is it now that you can redeem that time and listen to God? Do you need to re order your day so you have time to silence the other voices and listen, before God does it for you? Maybe you (like me) became to confident in your own abilities to provide for yourself and you stopped trusting even though you would never admit it. It could be why God took away my job, so I could have time to listen and learn to trust Him over myself.

Moses had 40 years in a desert. Jesus had 40 days in the desert. Paul had a time of blindness and then three years in Arabia. Times to be still and learn to trust.

 I want to add a disclaimer here. Elijah did not have a believing community to go to it would seem. Elijah and the others are not the excuse to cut yourself off from a local church to say all I need is God. Yes, you absolutely need time ALONE with God. But you NEED a local church, with other believers who can speak into your life, to help you in areas where you are weak, and that you can minister to. I have learned in my job loss, that God is meeting my needs physically and spiritually through my local church. Something I would not have if I said all I need is me and God alone.

God will not give you time with Himself so you can use it for yourself. As we will see with Elijah, time alone was preparation for time with others.

 Do you want to be like an Elijah? You need time alone where God can develop you as you listen and learn to trust.

Next time, when 1 man took out over 400 opponents in a day.

An Introdcution and Explanation

I have finally decided to enter the world of blogging. Having a bit of extra time these days had caused me to reflect and I think its time to start using some of the abiliteis I have not used for some time. After 20 years of ministry I stopped my “profesional” and public minsitry” in 2007. But I never stopped loving to read and research and share, I just stopped doing it for a time for various reasons.

Most of what I will post here will be based on my reading and studying of the Bible. I may also ruminate on current events, odd topics and a lot of bad jokes. I also hope to spend some time writing about music and teh guitar as that is my passion after my faith.

Hopefully some will benefit from my thoughts, or be cahllenged to think, or even want to pursue teh discussion farther. As for me. I am hoping to be able to use what I believe God has given me taht I might encourage others and honor Him.

Stay tuned, I think my first few posts are about to go up. How to Be Like Elijah.