Sometimes in life we can face quite a strong spiritual challenge. Covid-19 has placed us in this position. At the time of writing, there are threats of future lockdowns and restrictions – in Britain and worldwide. Even now after 7 months since the first lockdown in March, many churches in Britain still haven’t been able to reopen. And more than that, there is a general spirit of fear. Everybody and everything has been affected, every sector of society, the economy, business – and all this is a threat to health way beyond the virus itself. But as Christians we must question how we react to this.
My reaction is to pray and call upon God, and to believe that God will firstly deliver us from the virus, but secondly, whatever our other problems, that He will help and heal us. The Scripture is clear – we should not be afraid. Jesus said, these signs will follow those who believe... that if you drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt you... In all my life I have never been afraid of sickness or poison or any other threat that has come against me. And God has preserved and protected me through physical attacks – four times they have attempted to kill me, twice firing guns, one time I found myself in a hotel room with a man I knew and trusted, whom I had worked with – he pulled out a gun and put it on the table, saying he had been sent to kill me if I didn’t stop what I was doing in Russia! I didn’t stop, I carried on, because that’s what we have to do, and that’s what the early Church did!
We really have to question, what must we do as Christians. Some think we should observe all the conditions laid on the Churches by the government. But I think that a time is coming when we have to demonstrate the difference between Believer and unbeliever. Surely there has to be a major difference! Are we Christians or not? Do we have a belief in the power and ability of God? This Power that God has is released through prayer.
Let’s look at the story of Elijah when he called down Fire from Heaven. Although I would major on the Fire, look first at 1 Kings 17:1ff. Because of the wickedness and idolatry of King Ahab, Elijah says to him, “As the LORD God of Israel lives, the rain and the dew will be stopped and there will be no more – until I give the word!” From that moment there was a drought – but what happens to Elijah? God commands him to go to the brook by the Jordan, “You will drink there, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you.” The ravens literally brought bread and meat for Elijah! But then of course, because of the drought, the brook dries up…
What’s Elijah to do now? God told him, “Go to a widow woman by Sidon, and she will take care of you.” So Elijah went. When he saw the widow, he said, “Fetch me some water, and bring me a morsel of bread.” She replied, “You know there’s a famine, there’s no water, the crops won’t grow, and all I have left is a tiny bit of flour and a little oil. I’m just getting some wood to make a fire and bake the cake, then I and my son will eat it and die.” Elijah said, “Don’t be afraid, make that bread for me, and then God will provide for you and your son until the day He sends rain on the earth again.” She did exactly as Elijah said, and from that moment onwards, the barrel of flour was never empty and the oil never ran dry.
This as an illustration of the Power of God when we trust Him! Our physical needs, the food, and the anointing which the oil symbolises, will never fail, though the rest of the world may be in chaos! There can be drought and famine – but God literally fulfilled His Promise to the widow! The cruse of oil and the barrel of flour never failed throughout all that time, until the rain fell again. But don’t think yet of the Fire that was to fall on Mount Carmel. Before Elijah could get there, the widow’s son is taken sick and the she thinks God is punishing her for some old sin... And he dies! But Elijah takes the boy, lays him on his own bed, stretches himself out on him three times – and the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the child lived again!
So now we have four miracles: 1. Because of Ahab’s sin, Elijah has the authority to command the rain to cease and it stopped. 2. God commanded the ravens to feed him. 3. When the book dried up, God commanded him to go to the widow, she fed Elijah, and as a result, the widow and her son where able to live from the miraculous flour and oil that never ran out. This is so strongly prophetic of God’s blessing in your life and mine. When we trust God, our bread and our water, the basic necessities, everything we need for life, will always be there. The Power and the Anointing of the Holy Spirit will never run dry. It doesn’t matter how much I use the Holy Spirit, how much I pray, how many miracles I see, that precious cruse of oil of the Holy Spirit will never, ever run out. God’s supply is inexhaustible. I KNOW that! I have no fear of the future. I have no fear that the miracles of the past will diminish and go away. No, the miracles I see in my life get stronger and stronger all the time. And lastly, 4. We have the miracle of the boy brought back to life!
It’s with this background that in 1 Kings 18, after three years of drought and famine, the Lord again speaks to Elijah, “Now go and show yourself to Ahab, and I’ll send rain on the earth.” This is so interesting.! Elijah now knows rain will come, but the precise moment hasn’t yet arisen. Other things have to happen first. Elijah meets with Ahab’s servant who’s out searching the land to see if there is water anywhere or any grass to keep at least some of the animals alive. Elijah tells him to inform Ahab of his presence in the land. But Obadiah is afraid that the Spirit of the Lord may carry Elijah away again and then Ahab will be so angry, he will kill him! But finally in v17, Ahab and Elijah meet, and Ahab asks, “Are you he that troubles Israel?” Ahab, that wicked, sinful idolatrous king is accusing Elijah of being the one who is causing trouble in Israel! Because of the drought and the famine. Elijah replies, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed Baalim, false gods.”
There is no accusation against Elijah, it’s against Ahab. So, he tells Ahab to assemble all Israel on Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 ‘prophets of the grove which eat at Jezebel’s table’. 850 false prophets! Ahab obeyed and gathered all the people to Mount Carmel. So now in v21, Elijah asks them, “How long will you halt between two opinions?!!” Look at the challenge Elijah is issuing! He’s saying, YOU are the ones who are in trouble. You are hesitating between two decisions. If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal, follow him.” The people couldn’t answer!
The challenge is, who is the real God? We’re faced with a major issue today. Many of us know the reality of God and His Power. But the people who don’t know God are serving their own images, their own false gods, they’ll follow their own leaders, this fashion and that, they’ll follow all sorts, but they can’t make up their minds. They’re not seeking God, they’re ‘sitting on a fence’. Even many Christians – their faith is so weak, they’re sitting on the fence! But you can’t sit on a fence, you’ll fall one way or the other. It’s happening spiritually today. There are some Christians who will not make the decision to go 100 percent God’s way! Do they follow the government, the secular or the spiritual? You cannot think you can sit in the middle, on that fence, because sooner or later, you’re going to fall off! But which side are you going to fall on?