Life of Elijah - The outpouring of God's Blessing 1 Kings 18:40-46 (Sermon 12)

Last time we looked at Elijah's Public Prayer - His Prayer for Fire on Mount Carmel;

FIRSTLY: Elijah came to God on GOD'S TERMS (v36)

Elijah prayed: "At the time of the evening sacrifice" (18:36)

We pray in the Name of the Son and the Power of the Holy Spirit.

SECONDLY: Elijah's Prayer had a firm Biblical basis

Elijah prayed for FIRE from HEAVEN because it was commanded in Scripture.

We must pray like Jesus did - "Not my will, but your will be done."

THIRDLY: Elijah's Prayer came from the right MOTIVATION

Everything he did & everything he prayed had one aim in mind, namely -

the Glory of the Living God, Yahweh!

This morning we'll look at Elijah's SECOND PRAYER on Mount Carmel.

His Private Prayer for RAIN - His Prayer for the Outpouring of God's Blessing.

The Apostle James says:

"Elijah prayed … and the heavens gave rain" (James 5:18).

We shall look at THREE LESSONS from Elijah's Private Prayer for Rain:

FIRSTLY: God's CHANNEL of blessing is through the prayers of his people

Secondly: God expects his people to spend time in PRIVATE PRAYER

Thirdly: God commands his people to pray EARNESTLY,

• God had sent fire as a sign that he accepted Elijah's sacrifice on behalf of the Nation.
• God showed that he forgives those who truly repent and turn to him for salvation.
• The people renewed their allegiance to Yahweh, by declaring:

The inevitable question comes to mind:

• Since the drought was punishment for the people's wickedness & apostacy, and

the sacrifice had removed the obstacle between God and his people;

WHY did the rain not return immediately?

God had made a promise to Elijah in 1 Kings 18:1:

"Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land."

In the Scriptures God has given many promises to his people:

• He has promised to give us "showers of blessing" (Ezekiel 34:26).
• He has promised to "meet all our needs according to his glorious riches" (Phil 4:19);
• He has blessed us "with every spiritual blessing in Christ" (Eph 1:3);
• He has promised to "withhold no good thing from us" (Psalm 84:11).

The fundamental question is this: If God gives us promises and knows what we need;

The ANSWER is surely obvious: Prayer is the God-ordained CHANNEL of Blessing!

• There is no doubt that God has given us promises
• However, don't forget that God keeps his promises through the channel of our prayers.

- The problem is that we want God's blessings to fall automatically.

• We want God's blessings to come down without any effort on our part!

Elijah TEACHES us that all God's Blessings FLOW through the Channel of PRAYER.

• The sacrifice REMOVED the OBSTACLE and OPENED the CHANNEL of blessing.
• But that channel still had to be used by God's people.

William Gurnall tells us about the inter-relationship between Prayer & Promises:

"Prayer is nothing but the promise reversed, or God's Word formed into an

argument, and retorted by faith upon God again … True prayer spreads out everything

before the Lord as if he knows nothing about the sinner's condition, yet knowing

that the Lord knows all."

Prayer is such a vital part of the Believer's Life that James Montgomery called it:

"The Christian's vital breath, The Christian's native air"

"It is the highest activity of the human soul."

Remember what God said to King Solomon when the Temple was completed:

"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain … if my people, who are called

by my name, will humble themselves and PRAY and seek my face and turn from

their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will

heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).

- God says: When there is NO RAIN & NO BLESSING - PRAY and I will heal the land!

Remember how this same truth is brought out by the great hymn of Edwin Orr:

"O Holy Ghost, revival comes from Thee;

Send a revival - start the work in me;

Thy Word declares Thou wilt supply our need;

For blessing now, O Lord, I humbly plead"

Prayer & Blessing are like Siamese twins, which cannot be separated.

• Blessing is dependent on Prayer!
• Lack of prayer results in lack of blessing - Great prayer results in great blessing!

Prayer is such a vital CHANNEL of BLESSING that God has SET APART a PEOPLE

who are MARKED OUT by Prayer.

• Remember what God said to Ananias concerning Saul: "Behold he Prayeth" (Acts 9:11).

Bishop Ryle says:

"I have looked carefully over the lives of God's saints in the Bible. I cannot find one

whose history is told, from Genesis to Revelation, who was not a person of prayer …

I have read the lives of many eminent Christians who have been on earth since the

Bible days. Some of them, I see, were rich, and some poor. Some were learned, and

some were unlearned. Some were Calvinists and some were Arminians. But

one thing, I see, they all had in common. They have all been people of prayer."

All GREAT MEN of history, have been MARKED OUT by Prayer, just like Elijah!

Martin Luther was a man who did a great deal of work for God. He once said:

"I have so much to do that I cannot get on without three hours a day praying."

Such praying transformed the world from Dark Ages to the glorious Reformation!

John Wesley said:

"I take a very poor view of any Christian who does not pray for

at least four hours a day." Such praying turned more than 10,000 souls to the Lord!

It was said of George Whitfield:

"After much holy, faithful closet pleading, he went to the Devil's Fair, and took more

than a thousand souls out of the paw of the lion in one day."

It was said of John Knox:

"He grasped all Scotland in his strong arms of faith; his prayers terrified tyrants."

God's CHANNEL of BLESSING has not changed to this day:

- If we want to see Showers of Blessing in our own day, we must be a people of prayer!

• We might argue that we don't have time to pray as these men did.
• But, if we want God's Blessing, we must make time for Private Prayer!
• Otherwise, we cannot expect God to bless either our city, or our nation, or ourselves.

We are looking at THREE LESSONS from Elijah's Private Prayer for Rain:

FIRSTLY: God's CHANNEL of blessing is through the prayer of his people

SECONDLY: God expects his people to spend time in PRIVATE PRAYER

Take note of the PLACE where Elijah prayed:

"Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down

to the ground and put his face between his knees" (1 K 18:42).

Elijah withdrew from the crowds and climbed to the top of Carmel.

• He withdrew to a Private Place in order to commune with his God in Private Prayer.
• When he climbed the mountain he put his face between his knees in reverence to his God!

One writer says:

"Man is at his greatest & highest when, upon his knees,

he comes face to face with God."

Jesus taught his disciples about the necessity of Private Prayer (Mtt 6:5-8):

"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the

synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men … When you pray, go into

your room, close the door & pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father,

who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. When you pray, do not keep on

babbling like pagans … for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

This account shows us that there is a FALSE, as well as a TRUE WAY, of praying:

There were TWO main ERRORS in the manner in which the Pharisees PRAYED:

1. They prayed out of SELF-INTEREST

• They prayed in public in order to be SEEN by MEN.
• They prayed in order to receive the praise of men.
• They were anxious to be known as praying people,

rather than actually being praying people!

- They were interested on their own reputation rather than the glory of God!

2) They were obsessed with the FORM & LENGTH of their prayers

"When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they

think they will be heard because of their many words" (Mtt 6:7).

• This is the prayer wheel & prayer beads syndrome - which ends up in vain repetition.
• They emphasized set-prayers at set-times.
• Although set-times are useful, they can also become an end in themselves.

The emphasis should be on praying "in spirit and in truth" not praying at length!

• A brief prayer, in the right spirit, is far better than a long prayer, which is babble.

Jesus condemns the Public Prayers of the Pharisees:

- However, they were condemned as hypocrites, not because they prayed in public,

but because they loved to be seen by men and were obsessed with vain repetitions.

• The problem with the Pharisees was not the fact that they prayed in public
• Rather, it was the manner in which they prayed.
• The emphasis is not on where they prayed, but on how they prayed.

This account also tells us that there is a TRUE WAY of PRAYING:

"When you pray, go into your room, close the door and

pray to your Father, who is unseen" (Mtt 6:6).

The ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLE here is not so much the ACTUAL PLACE in which

we pray, but our realization that WE ARE ALONE with the Living God.

Jesus said: "Pray to your Father."

• In other words, do not pray before men, but pray before the Lord God.
• Shut out everything & everyone else.
• Concentrate on the Glory & Majesty of the One to whom you are praying.

The true secret of Elijah's Powerful Public Ministry is simply this:

- He learned how to PRAY to his Father in PRIVATE!

The great Puritan writer, Richard Sibbs, said:

"By prayer we learn to pray - Praying is learnt by praying"

Thomas Brooks argues:

"Secret Prayer prepares and fits the soul for Public Prayer … The power of religion

and godliness thrives, and dies, as closet prayer thrives, and dies. Godliness never

rises to a higher pitch than when men keep closest to their closets."

The Lord Jesus showed us the importance of Private Prayer by setting us an example:

Doctor Luke tells us how:

"Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" (Luke 5:16).

• Luke tells us about this after saying that crowds of people came to hear Jesus (Lk 5:15).
• With this constant pressure, it was essential for Jesus to spend time alone with his Father!

After Jesus fed the 5,000 we read (Mtt 14:22-23):

• "He dismissed the crowd and then went up into the hills by himself to pray."

Sometimes, when Jesus went into the hills to pray,

- he spent the whole night in prayer (Luke 6:12).

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said to Peter, James & John (Mtt 26:36-38):

"'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch

with me,' Going a little further, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed."

• The pressure was so great, Jesus couldn't even bear the company of his closest disciples.
• He desperately needed the fellowship and guidance of his Father.

There are times when it is right and proper to pray in public.

- Elijah had just done that with dramatic effect, when fire came down from heaven.

However, it is also necessary to shut out the world by shutting the door.

A W Pink argues:

"The entering of the closet and the shutting of its door denotes more than physical

isolation; it signifies the calming of our spirit, the gathering of all wandering

thoughts, that we may be in a fit frame to draw nigh unto and address the Holy One.

'Be still, and know that I am God' is his unchanging requirement."

How often does our failure to shut the mental door render our praying ineffectual!

• The atmosphere of the world around us is fatal to a true spirit of devotion.
• The world engulfs us. It distracts our minds and prevents our praying to the Lord God.

"We miss the very greatest blessings in the Christian life because

we do not know how to pray aright."

We are looking THREE LESSONS from Elijah's Private Prayer for Rain:

FIRSTLY: God's CHANNEL of blessing is through the prayer of his people

SECONDLY: God expects his people to spend time in PRIVATE PRAYER

THIRDLY: God commands his people to pray EARNESTLY,

James tells us the secret behind Elijah’s POWER.

The secret of Elijah’s POWER & EFFECTIVENESS lay in his PRAYER LIFE.

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful & effective. Elijah was a man

just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the

land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the

earth produced its crops" (James 5:16-18).

• James is saying: "The prayer of Elijah had great power in its effects."
• He prayed earnestly and God answered his prayers.

The Physical Drought was broken through the prayer of faith according to the will of God'

However, the ultimate goal was the removal of the Spiritual Drought in Israel.

The ultimate goal was to see a true Revival among the people of God!

The Apostle James teaches us THREE THINGS about TRUE PRAYER by using

the example of Elijah's Prayer Life:

Firstly: Prayer possesses an INHERENT POWER

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful."

"Prayer has GREAT POWER"

The Greek word used speaks of "inherent strength & untapped resources".

- It’s a picture of a land which may look dry & barren, but it has much hidden wealth.

• A barren landscape may conceal rich reservoirs of oil or gold.
• A grey storm tossed sea covers vast deposits of oil & natural gas.
• This picture is not emphasising the uncompromising nature of the landscape.

This is a picture of PRAYER:

• Through prayer we have access to great resources of power just waiting to be tapped.
• Prayer is the channel through which great power is waiting to be loosed by God!
• Prayer possesses an INHERENT POWER because it gives access to the

SOURCE of POWER!

Prayer may be compared to the OIL RIG:

• The oil-rig itself cannot produce oil, nevertheless, it gives access to the oil.
• The oil-rig is the powerful tool which gives access to the powerful fuel of oil.
• Therefore, the oil-rig possesses an inherent power.

Prayer is POWERFUL because it stems from the POWER of the Holy Spirit within us:
- Prayer is excited & energised by the Power of the Spirit within us.

• This is the energy which compels us to give voice to the groanings of the heart.
• The Spirit is at work within us, causing us to pray.

This is why prayer is depicted as "WRESTLING with God."

• It was the energy of wrestling with God in Prayer which caused Jacob to say to God:

"I will not let you go unless you bless me" (Genesis 32:26)."

- Prayer is the power of wrestling with God.

Tertullian said about prayer:

"You should, with a holy conspiracy, besiege heaven."

The Apostle James teaches us THREE THINGS about TRUE PRAYER by using

the example of Elijah's Prayer Life:

Firstly: Prayer possesses an INHERENT POWER

Secondly: Prayer has an EFFECTIVE APPLICATION

James says: "The Prayer of a righteous man is Powerful & EFFECTIVE."

The Greek word for "effectively" is used to describe "work which achieves its aim"

• This is the word Paul uses of Jesus, when referring to:

Alec Motyer says:

"This effectual energy is attributed to PRAYER. When we pray about a matter we

bring all the inherent power to bear upon a particular point and it becomes effective

in its accomplishment there."

• It is the very act of praying which causes the Power of Prayer to be released;
• The Power of Prayer then sets to work on accomplishing that for which we have prayed.
• Elijah's prayer became powerful when it resulted in the coming of rain.

Thirdly: True Prayer is always EARNEST Prayer

James says: "Elijah prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on

the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and

the earth produced its crops" (James 5:17-18)

• The English word 'earnest' means 'ardently or intensely serious.'
• However, the Greek word means more than that.

Alec Motyer says:

"To our ears that suggests intensity of prayer, but the meaning rather ought to be this,

that he 'gave himself to prayer'. It was not his intensity that mattered, but that he

resorted to prayer alone. He did nothing about it but pray, & that prayer moved God"

Thomas Manton informs us that the literal meaning of the Greek is:

"He prayed in prayer" - It refers to an "earnest contention of spirit."

• It means: Praying and not letting go of prayer until it is answered.

The greatest example of this kind of prayer is the prayer of Jacob:

- Jacob was found to be wrestling with the Angel of the Lord.

- He was clinging to God, saying: "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." (Gen 32:24).

The meaning of Earnest Prayer then, is giving ourselves to prayer

and not letting go of God until he answers prayer.

Take note of the Earnest manner of Elijah's Prayer.

• James simply tells us that Elijah Prayed Earnestly that the Heavens would give rain.

The writer of 1 Kings 18 tells us what true Earnest Prayer really involves.

• Earnest Prayer is always Persistent Prayer.
• When we pray earnestly, we are so convinced of praying according to the will of God that we keep on praying and don't let go of God until he fulfils his Divine Will.
• Take note of how he pleaded with God until his prayer was answered (1 K 18:41-44)
• Elijah said to Ahab … 'There is the sound of a heavy rain (A.V. abundance of rain').
• He told his servant, 'Go and look toward the sea.'

• Elijah would not take no for an answer. Seven times Elijah said, 'Go back.'
• The seventh time the servant saw, 'A cloud as small as a man's hand, rising from the sea.' So Elijah said, 'Go & tell Ahab, 'Hitch up your chariot & go down before the rain stops.'"

Revival prayer is always Earnest Prayer!

• Revival prayer does not consist of empty pious platitudes and repetitious jargon.
• Revival prayer does not consist of simply going through the motions of a prayer meeting.
• Revival prayer is always Passionate & Persistent Prayer.

Revival Prayer is the kind of prayer which Elijah prayed!

James says of Elijah's Praying (James 5:16-17):

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful & effective. Elijah … prayed earnestly"

• Elijah was absolutely convinced that God would send Showers of Blessing.
• He was so sure he kept on praying seven times until God sent the Showers of Blessing.

If we truly desire Revival in our time, we must keep on praying earnestly, just like Elijah!

- It is so easy to say that we want Revival;

It is a very different matter to seek Revival by earnestly by praying for Revival.

• It is easy to ask God for Revival in a glib kind of way;

This is the kind of prayer which God commanded through Jeremiah (29:12-13):

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not

to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and

come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when

you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declares the Lord."

This is the kind of prayer which the Psalmist David prayed (Ps 42:1-2):

"As the deer pants for the streams of water, so my souls pants for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the Living God. When can I go and meet with God?"

On the other hand, the lack of such prayer, is the reason why God does not bless us:

"Woe to them, because they have strayed from me … I long to redeem them but

they speak lies against me. They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail

upon their beds" (Hosea 7:13-14).

Throughout Church History, times of Revival have been marked out by people who have had a ZEAL for Earnest Prayer:

Colin Whittacker, in his book on Great Revivals, says:

"The history of revivals, both ancient & recent, clearly indicates one overriding

factor common to all of them – Prayer. Nothing was accomplished of any

significance except that the people of God first got serious about the matter of seeking

God … A major characteristic of Holy Spirit Revival is an absorbing concentration

on Prayer – while its neglect is one of the major reasons for its decline."

Thomas Phillips, in his book on The Welsh Revival, says:

"I am persuaded that the means blessed of God to create and carry on the revival in

most places, if not in all, is PRAYER. You can trace its origin and progress, in

every locality, to prayer … The first symptoms of the work appeared in a revival of

the spirit of prayer. The Church over which I preside resolved to hold prayer

meetings every night, to plead with the Lord for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit …

These meetings were attended with unusual power … The house of prayer became a

delightful resort. We all wished to pray. We all delighted to pray. We were all

impelled to pray, by an unseen Power. Those who had, a few weeks before, very little

inclination for prayer meetings, and very seldom attended them, now flocked to them,

and are among the foremost in promoting the work."

We have looked at THREE LESSONS from Elijah's Private Prayer for Rain:

FIRSTLY: God's CHANNEL of blessing is through the prayer of his people

SECONDLY: God expects his people to spend time in PRIVATE PRAYER

THIRDLY: God commands his people to pray EARNESTLY, utilizing the POWER & EFFECTIVENESS of prayer