Over the last few Sunday mornings, we have
seen how Abraham, Moses, and Solomon prayed.
And this morning, we're going to look at
how Elijah prayed.
The idea being that we can learn from
great men of God how Elijah prayed.
First of all, Elijah prayed according to God's
infallible Word.
The foundation of Elijah's prayer was God's Word.
Verse 41, if you want to follow this,
it may help you later to study the
prayer for yourself.
I'm taking each verse.
And Elijah said unto Ahab, get thee up
and drink, for there is a sound of
abundance of rain.
Elijah, in the first verse of that chapter,
had had a word from the Lord.
And it came to pass, after many days,
that the Word of the Lord came to
Elijah in the third year, saying, go, show
thyself unto Ahab, and I will send rain
upon the earth.
So, Elijah had had the word straight from
God that it was going to rain after
three and a half years of famine.
He knew that.
God told him.
God told him, go and tell the king
Ahab it's going to rain.
The land had been in famine with no
rain for about three and a half years.
It had stopped raining when Elijah had said,
there'll be no more rain except by my
word.
And the reason was, it was the judgment
of God upon the king and the nation,
because they'd rebelled against the Lord.
And it was to teach them that God
was on the throne.
They'd turned to idols, and they'd been disobedient
to God.
And so, Elijah, the prophet, starting figure, appears
on the scene.
And every time Elijah came on the scene,
Ahab's heart smote him with fear.
It will not rain except by my word.
And immediately, it stopped raining.
Three and a half years afterwards, God says
to Elijah, now Elijah, I'm going to send
rain, go and tell Ahab.
And so, God was vindicating his prophet, his
spokesman, his representative on earth.
And he was saying to Elijah, the powerful
king in the nation, this is my man,
and he has authority from me.
So, Elijah knew it was going to rain
by the word of the Lord.
What can we learn?
If we want our prayers to be answered,
they must be based on what God says.
They must be based on the sound, infallible
word of God.
Not on fancy, or even our own desires
so much, but on what God says.
Those are the prayers you can pray with
confidence, when you know God says it.
Thus saith the Lord.
Now, God can still speak today through vision,
or dream, or circumstance.
And if you're living close to God, and
you're dedicated to God, and you know your
heart is clear before God, and your conscience
is without offense towards man and God, then
God can speak.
And you can pray with what God has
told you.
But that is the basis.
If you want answer to prayer, it must
be based on God's word as the foundation.
That's the first thing we can learn.
The next verse, 42.
So Ahab went up to eat and to
drink.
The rain hadn't come yet.
And Elijah went up to the top of
Carmel.
Elijah went to the top of this great
mountain, very high.
I think it's in Amos chapter 9, that
we read there that people used to go
to the top of Carmel to escape, to
hide in the rocks and in the mountain.
It was so high and so big, not
easily accessible, right at the top.
It says that Elijah went to the top
of Carmel.
Elijah went apart from the noise and the
strife and the destructions of the earth and
the world.
He went as high as he could away
from it.
Elijah went to be alone with God.
What can we learn?
We can learn the prayer and the way
to pray that Jesus taught.
When you pray, go into your closet, close
the door, and pray to God in secret,
and he will reward you openly.
So the second thing we can learn is
not only to base our prayer on the
infallible word of God, on a specific promise
of God, on a word from the Lord,
but when we know and we have it,
then we must get away from the distractions
of the world, get away from the humdrum
and the noise and the things that go
on around, the wireless, the television, everything we
can as far as we can, and our
circumstances will permit, and get alone with God.
That's the second thing we can learn.
So Elijah went to the top of Carmel
and he cast himself down upon the earth
and put his face between his knees.
That was an unusual thing to do.
Cast down on the earth, yes, but to
put his face between his knees.
Now I tried that and I couldn't do
it.
I won't give you the reasons.
So I asked somebody else who was slim
and tall, and they could with a little
effort.
I tried several ways.
I tried lying sideways.
I tried on my knees, and I tried
sitting down, but I couldn't do it.
Unusual posture for prayer.
There was a sense of humility.
He knew the answer was coming.
He knew God's word would come to pass.
He had faith in God's promise.
He'd already told Ahab to go before it
had even happened.
That's how much faith he had, but now
he was praying it through.
He gets alone apart from everybody, but that's
not enough.
He casts himself on the ground and puts
his face between his knees.
Now if you've got your face between your
knees, you can't see very far.
Why did he do that?
I don't really know.
The Bible doesn't actually tell us.
It was an attitude of prayer, but I
try to learn from it, and I hope
we can learn from it.
There's one thing I know.
Elijah was not just a prophet of the
usual line generally.
He was extremely dramatic, and I would say
Elijah was perhaps the most dramatic prophet in
the Bible with Elisha.
Not without significance, because the Holy Ghost is
dramatic, and those two figures, Elijah and Elisha,
are representatives or shadows or types of the
coming Holy Ghost.
The first and the latter rain.
You remember, Elijah did mighty miracles more than
any prophet outside of Moses in the Bible,
and Elisha had a double portion of his
spirit.
The first rain and the latter rain.
We're in the latter rain today.
We can pray for rain.
Can you hear the sound of abundance of
rain?
God's promised it.
In the last days saith God, I will
pour out my spirit on all flesh.
Should we not go into our carnal and
get alone with God, and should we not
try and learn how Elisha prayed?
Now he prayed dramatically.
He was a dramatic prophet.
When a woman who he'd stayed with and
she'd provided for him had a bereavement of
her son who was dead, Elijah didn't walk
in calmly and tell them all to go
out and touch the lad.
It says that Elijah, and you have the
impression it was a dramatic action, stretched himself
upon the child three times, and the child
rose from the dead.
There was this spirit of drama in Elijah.
It was part of his character to enter
in.
It's as if he's stretching himself into the
very death of the lad, covering him and
stretching his old body and his being in
his spirit, and saying in his spirit, rise.
You can feel it.
He's a dramatic prophet, and he did.
When Elijah challenged the 450 prophets or so
of Baal, he didn't stand there with a
rod like Moses and points, but he was
dramatic.
He says, build your altar, get the bullock,
put it on.
He says, now call to your God, then
I'll build an altar, now call to my
God, and the God who answers by fire,
let him be God, and all the people
said, Amen.
I don't know what the prophets of Baal
said, and what happened?
Well, they started from morning till night.
They prayed, they cut themselves with stones, they
pleaded to the gods, they humbled themselves, they
did everything possible, but there was no answer.
Now Elijah, this dramatic prophet, he goes up
to them, and he possibly knew some of
the stories surrounding the gods of the heathen.
You know, the gods of the heathen, they
had sun gods, and rain gods, and sea
gods, and all kinds of gods, and there
were stories circulate around these gods.
If he didn't answer prayer, that one of
the gods had gone on a hunting trip,
or another one had been asleep, or perhaps
he was busy, and so Elijah stood there,
this dramatic prophet, there was no answer.
He says, Perchance he's on a long journey,
call again.
Can you imagine this scene?
Fiery prophet, I should imagine he's fairly lean,
and strong by the way he had his
posture in prayer.
He was certainly a dramatic figure, baldish perhaps,
and air flowing, and beard, and perhaps he's
gone on a journey, cry again to your
God.
Now it wasn't just boastfulness with Elijah, it
was a spirit of God using his personality
to impress upon the people the ridiculous and
hopeless situation of praying to gods that don't
exist.
There's a dramatic picture.
Don't think that Elijah was boasting, or making
fun so much, as bringing out a tremendous
message, a prophetic message.
You're worshipping idols of wood and stone.
Mine's a living God.
Nothing happened.
Call again, perhaps he's having a sleep.
Israel, Ahab, cry a bit louder, promise to
God he's perhaps asleep, you've got to wake
him.
And all the people were looking on.
Dramatic prophet, no answer.
Drama again.
He says write, build the altar, 12 stones,
one for each tribe.
The marvellous prophetic ministry of Elijah, Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost is dramatic.
You can't fall asleep when the Holy Ghost
is moving.
One for each tribe.
God will show who's God.
One for every tribe, build the stones, now
put the bullock upon it, now do something
else.
You didn't, you did not do this for
the prophets of Bible, we'll see who's God.
Dig a trench round, he'll take two measures
of steel, go on dig it round.
Now then get four barrels of water, throw
it on the sacrifice, let it go in
the trench.
So all the people looked at Elijah, and
the prophets of Baal looked at Elijah, what
a dramatic action.
He was saying I'll show you, through prophetic
action, since dripping with the water from the
sacrifice, beginning to fill up, soak it into
the ground.
They said are you ready?
No not yet, get another four barrels and
pour it on.
Well that'll never burn, ah go on get
another one.
And then he says now we'll pray, and
you heard the prayer.
And the fire came down, burnt up the
sacrifice, burnt up the wood, burnt up the
stones, burnt up the water, and burnt up
the dust in the trench.
And the people says, God, he is God?
Of course he is, the dramatic prophet.
When his time had finished, for his great
ministry, and God told him, because he was
in touch with God, Elijah, he's going to
take your place Elijah.
What does Elijah do?
He doesn't go up to him and say
now come along, I'm going to train you
in the Bible college, I'm going to give
you some instruction, I'm going to tell you
what to do.
Elijah didn't say that, he knew that Holy
Ghost stuff needed Holy Ghost revelation.
So what did he do?
He took his mantle off, dramatic, and he
threw it on him.
He says there you are, you've got the
mantle.
Dramatic, a mantle, but what did it speak?
Volume.
There it is, the Holy Ghost.
And Elijah was a man of a kin
spirit, he won a double portion, I'll not
let you go.
Marvelous dramatic prophet.
So when he came to Carmel, God said
it's going to rain.
Elijah couldn't do it like anybody else, sat
in an armchair leaning back.
He flung himself on the ground, buried his
face beneath his knees.
I thought, dramatic, what was he saying to
God?
What was he saying to his servant?
What was he saying to himself?
Well you know, questions come to mind when
you serve God, questions come to mind when
you're a pastor, and the church grows beyond
your physical capabilities to reach each person individually.
As your vision grows for lost souls, so
does your hopelessness become apparent.
When you hear the calls on phone line,
desperate calls every day, you realize that it's
not possible to get involved.
You could spend all your life caring for
one person, not possible.
But the commission is preach the gospel to
every creature, so what you've got to do
is is enter into their sufferings and put
your compassion into your prayers.
But you can't act upon it, God's got
to do that.
There's wisdom in these things you know.
The devil would have us looking after one
person, very worthy, very needy, but what about
the thousands who've never heard?
Our job is to get the message over.
We're a spiritual church, we're not a social
church, and yet we are, we're more social
than anybody.
But we pray, it's God that deals, and
he can deal with a thousand at once,
and a million.
So we spread the gospel, that's our job,
and we ask the Holy Ghost to do
the work, praise the Lord.
And if they're desperate enough, you don't have
to call for them.
If they really mean business, they have faith,
they'll phone the ambulance and say, I'm nearly
dying, I can't walk, but send an ambulance
and take me to Sharon.
That's what they did in the Bible, and
they rose up and walked.
There's wisdom in these things.
Now Elijah, you know you might say, oh
Elijah, what a hard man, he stopped it
raining.
Have you ever thought that for three and
a half years, mothers had no food for
the children?
Innocent people, some of them had lived for
God, had to have meager rations and hardly
have enough to live.
Did Elijah go and do miracles?
He did a miracle for one woman where
the cruise of oil never failed, neither the
meal in the barrel.
But he didn't go around to everyone in
Israel and do it.
In fact, he wasn't even belonging to Israel.
You see, they were suffering for their sins,
and it was God's business.
God was more concerned than Elijah for Israel,
there is people.
God's more concerned for people than we are,
there is people.
What's God said to you and me?
And so Elijah, it seems to me, because
he was a man of God, because he
had a heart of God, he wasn't callous
or hard, just because he wasn't running around
everywhere and trying to find water or do
miracles to feed people.
It wasn't that he was hard, he had
to obey God.
And so when it came to the part
where God says, I'm going to send rain,
go and tell Ahab, Elijah's heart rejoiced for
God's people.
And he says, even before he prayed, he
says, go and tell Ahab, there's a sound
of abundance of rain.
He was glad to announce the good news.
But then when he went in prayer, then
came all his three and a half years
of compassion and sorrow for his own people.
And I believe his attitude was one that
you would have if you were starving and
thirsty and destitute, cast on the ground, head
between the knees.
What a beautiful picture, dramatic prophet.
God uses our personality.
Don't you pray like everybody else.
If you pray quietly on your knees without
saying a word, you pray that way, it's
your personality.
If you shout the head off and all
the neighbors come on knocking on the door
and want to know what's going on, you
pray that way.
Better to go to Mount Carmel and do
it, mind you.
But whatever you do, you pray as you
are.
Elijah prayed, he wasn't like Moses or Abraham.
Abraham stood before God and looked at Sodom
and Gomorrah.
Moses stood before God and looked towards Egypt.
Solomon knelt on his knees and lifted his
hands up before God in the temple.
Elijah cast himself on the ground and put
his head between his knees.
Jesus also cast himself upon the ground and
sweat as it were, drops of blood.
Pray as you are, be real before God.
Take the attitude that's natural to you and
let the Spirit of God work through your
spirit, I in you and you in me.
We can learn something here of how to
pray.
Don't pray because the book says you must
always kneel or you must be comfortable or
you must shout or you must go in
the mountain or you must go around there.
You find your own way to pray but
there must be that compassion.
He knew it was going to happen but
he did it.
So we can learn from that and then
we read on.
He said to his servant, go now and
look toward the sea and he went and
looked and said there's nothing.
What do you think about that?
Now Carmel had a great view of the
Mediterranean and so when the servant went and
stood at the top of Carmel he could
see right across the vast Mediterranean on the
blue sky above, not a cloud, nothing.
What a sight to send your faith to
the bottom of the ocean.
Thank God Elijah wasn't looking.
His face was between his knees.
We walk by faith and not by sight.
If God says it we believe it.
Better to close your eyes if you see
a dead person and you're praying for them
to be raised from the dead than look
at them.
And so his servant came back, nothing.
So Elijah got up and said well that's
it then.
Didn't he?
Not on your life.
His prayer was based on the word of
God and that would never fail.
So what did he do?
Go again, head between his knees.
Servant goes again, nothing.
Nothing.
Go again, third time.
What is this?
What a sight.
Nothing.
Go a fourth time.
Elijah I've been, you know it's 700 yards
to the edge of there.
I've been there.
I've been to the top.
Righto, nothing.
Surely he won't ask me to go again.
Go again, seventh time.
Go again.
What can we learn?
Elijah was persistent in his prayer.
Jesus said knock and it shall be opened
unto you.
He didn't knock once.
He knocked seven times and he wouldn't take
no for an answer.
Seven times the servant came back and says
no.
Do you think God could not have given
him a sign right away?
God had promised him there'd be rain but
he made him go seven times.
Did Elijah give up?
Not on your life.
He believed God.
He kept asking.
He'd already sent Ahab the king and said
it's all right there's going to be rain
and there was no rain seven times.
Then the prophet came back and he came
back not too excited but a little.
He said well I'm glad to say Elijah
that there's a cloud.
It's just about the smallest you could have.
It's the size of a man's hand.
Now I don't know whether you've thought of
that.
There's the vast ocean or sea and there's
the great blue sky.
Nothing there.
Blue.
And if you had one of the latest
jet planes that holds three or four hundred
people flying through the sky at about a
thousand feet you know you could put your
hand up and blot it out.
It becomes that small.
So how small is a man's hand?
It was just the tiniest little width of
a spiraling little tiny cloud in the sky.
I don't think God could have given him
anything less small.
So God made him wait seven times and
then he gave him the smallest possible encouragement.
Oh but Elijah as soon as he heard
that it was like the ocean to Elijah.
He said right it's there now.
Don't have to wait any longer.
Go and tell him hey get ahead run
off before he gets wet through.
Some of us carry on praying when we
should have stopped.
We can learn that too can't we?
If God promises we don't have to have
the full thing do we?
It was still blazing sunshine and blue in
the sky and a great big blue sea
and no sign of rain except the smallest
cloud you could hardly see.
But that was enough for Elijah.
That's it.
I finished praying now.
Go and tell him and you know what
the account says.
Verse 45.
He says go and tell Ahab prepare thy
chariot.
Get thee down that the rain stop thee
not.
I don't know what his servant thought of
him but he went.
But listen to the answer and it came
to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven
was black with clouds and wind and there
was a great rain and Ahab rode and
went to Jezreel.
In the rain coming down on the wind
pouring down after three and a half years
there was the king riding back to Jezreel.
He never thought about Elijah left alone in
the rain but that's what people do when
God answers prayer.
They forget those who pray.
They forget they forget why the blessing has
come.
They take all a blessing and forget somebody's
worked out for it.
Don't do that will you.
So he prayed and he answered the prayer
God in a marvelous fashion.
What can we learn?
Well let's just look through those points briefly.
We are praying.
Now I want to tell you something.
God spoke to me and God said this
to me.
He said the man who can organize and
involve people in massive prayer everywhere will see
greater things from God than he'd ever imagined.
So personally I'm determined to do my part
to get this church at least by the
grace of God praying.
That's why I'm preaching on praying.
God told me and I believe and I
say it as from the Lord if you
and I will get down to prayer individually
in twos everywhere you meet in the Sunday
school in the campaigners on Friday nights let's
get the church full of the side rooms
if we'll get down to pray I promise
you from the Lord that you will see
greater things than you've ever seen in your
life.
I'm not saying when and I've not seen
a cloud yet but there's a sound of
abundance of rain.
I'm trying to instruct from the best of
my knowledge and ability and experience to tell
you how to pray so that you're not
just doing a lot of off air and
a lot of phrases that don't mean anything.
Here is definite prayers from men of God
in the bible and you how to pray.
Let us learn.
Here's the points.
There are six points.
First prayer is based on the infallible word
of God as your foundation.
Otherwise you're praying for nothing.
It's got to be from God.
Second it was a specific thing.
Second we pray along with God.
We get away with God whether it's in
twos or a group away from the world
or an individual.
We get away from God.
We get away from the distractions of the
world.
We mean business.
We're not going for a blessing.
We're going to work for God.
We're not going on feelings.
Get along.
Thirdly we are humble before God.
We cast ourselves down and we fill our
spirits with the compassion for the need like
Elijah did.
Fourthly we're expectant in prayer.
Keep looking.
Never mind if nothing happens seven times.
Keep believing.
Never mind if the church congregation goes down
or up, sideways or forwards or backwards or
under the ground.
Keep believing till the balcony is full and
the youth centre has the television closed circuit
in it and every room's full and we
have to have five services a day.
Believe it.
Is it impossible to God?
Well if that won't happen we've no chance
for Manchester have we?
And what's Manchester in this universe?
A faith in God.
Never mind how the situation looks.
Get your head between your knees.
Don't look at it and keep praying.
And when the messenger comes back and says
nothing yet say well keep going.
Fifthly we must be persistent.
Seven times means completion.
Carry on.
70 times 7.
Keep praying.
Never stop.
Knock, knock, knock, knock until you get the
answer and you've got the promise of Jesus.
Knock and it shall be opened.
And know when to stop.
You'll know in the spirit as soon as
you see God beginning to move you'll know.
I want to tell you something.
He's already started.
Don't know about you but I've seen the
cloud and I'll tell you something else.
It's a lot bigger than a man's hand
to me.
Oh well two and a half million.
No it is about a cloud but it's
already there.
Conclusion.
What do we get?
Not that we're looking for that.
I like the last verse.
And the hand of the Lord was upon
Elijah.
And he girded up his loins and ran
before Ahab to the entrance of Jesus.
Dramatic prophet.
Oh glorious.
How beautiful consistent is God's word and his
people.
He done all this dramatic action and as
soon as he got the answer he says
to Ahab go on you've got a chariot
you've got a good horse you're a king
probably the fastest horse in the land and
a beautiful chariot with well-oiled wheels.
Get on your way and he's off.
And as he's driving along suddenly there's a
dramatic figure comes striding down with long lean
legs sinewy and strong a man who fasts
and prays with his air blowing in the
wind in the breeze.
Ahab looks the rain dripping and coming past
him and the wind blowing it on his
face and his air flowing back and running
on.
He says whip the horses up but he
can't keep up with him.
He stands at the gate of Jezreel wet
through the prophet and he says thus saith
the Lord praise the Lord.
If we pray like that one day we'll
say to the sceptics thus saith the Lord
that'll be a great day.
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