Partnering with the King

After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”    So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. (1 Kings 18:1-2) And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” So 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. “Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. “There is nothing there,” he said. Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ ” Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. (1 Kings 18:41-45).

This section from 1 Kings is one of the most interesting in all of the Bible. In the middle of the account above, Elijah challenged the prophets of Bail to a showdown on top of Mt. Carmel. He built an altar, placed sacrificial animals on it, and challenged the false prophets to call on their God to consume the sacrifice with fire. They prayed, screamed, danced and cut themselves all day but no response came from their god. Toward the end of the day, Elijah poured huge amounts of water on the sacrifice along with the wood and stones of the altar and called on Jehovah. Immediately, fire came down from heaven consuming not only the sacrificial animals but also the entire altar. Elijah then had the false prophets of Bail executed.

Bookending the demise of the prophets of Bail is the account of the great drought. As punishment on Israel because of her wicked leaders, God had given Elijah a prophetic word to speak in the presence of Ahab. “Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1). Then, three years later, just before the Mt. Carmel showdown, God told Elijah that rain was coming. Interestingly, after the showdown, Elijah climbed to the top of Mt. Carmel again and began to pray for rain which God had already declared was coming. Why would he do that? Wasn’t God’s word good enough for him?

Of course it was. But this account once again reveals how God partners with his people to do his will on earth. Undoubtedly, God could have stopped the rain and released the rain whenever he wanted to without involving any human. But remember, God has determined to rule the earth and expand his kingdom through his people – his representatives. God did not stop the rain until his prophet declared the word of the Lord in front of Ahab. God would not begin the rain until his prophet prayed and released the rain through a prayer of faith. What an honor and what a responsibility.

God’s will was done after a man declared the word of the Lord over a situation and after a man prayed fervently for the thing God had already told him he was about to do. God holds much of his will in reserve until his people hear or sense his will and then declare it, command it, or pray it. In Elijah’s case, he apparently prayed seven times for God to release the rain. There will be times when we will have to pray earnestly and persistently for something that we know is God’s will. We know that God desires that all men should be saved. We already have his word on that but we may have to pray for a loved one for years before God’s will is manifested in that person’s life.

The honor is that the King partners with us in accomplishing his will. The responsibility is that we have to seek his will and then declare it, command it, or pray persistently for it. It may not happen if we do no do our part on this end even if it is something God desires. God has decided that we can release his will or stifle his will on the earth – not in all things, but in very many things. So…we need to ask his what he wants us to do to release his will and then do it. After all, much of what heaven wants to do is in our hands and in your hands.

This weekend I heard two different messages on giving in the kingdom of God and they both reminded of an essential principle when it comes to gaining an increase in any resource that comes from heaven. God gives more to those who give away what they have already received. The basic principle is that God gives to us so that we might act as conduits of his grace for others. We all know the analogy of the Sea of Galilee in Israel versus the Dead Sea. The Jordan River runs into the Sea of Galilee from the north and then out of the Sea of Galilee south to the Dead Sea which has no outlet. The Sea of Galilee teems with life as water enters and then exits to other destinations while the Dead Sea stagnates and supports no life because the water flows in but never flows out.

Jesus likens the Holy Spirit to streams of living water. “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (Jn.7:37-39).

Jesus speaks of the Spirit as a life-giving stream that flows from within each believer. The apostle John was given a vision of a life-giving river in the Book of Revelation. “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations” (Rev.22:2-3).

This image reveals two things about God. First, life flows from his presence and secondly, the life of God is meant to give life to others and to bring healing to entire nations. The Holy Spirit is the life of God that flows into us from the presence of God and then is meant to carry that life or direct that life to others.

In Ezekiel 47, there is a similar image in the midst of visions God had given the prophet regarding a new temple in Jerusalem. In this part of his vision, Ezekiel sees the temple with water rushing out from beneath the threshold of the temple forming a river that ran eastward. The further the river ran from the temple, the deeper it became – the volume increased. Along the river banks trees grew tall and strong.   “Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing” (Ez.47:12).

The further out into the nations the river ran, the deeper it became and more fruit was produced to satisfy the hunger of the nations and to bring them healing. When God pours out his Spirit on the church, it is not meant just to build up and encourage the church. God also intends for his people to take the life of the Spirit and freely give it to those who are hungry and thirsty and to those who need healing. When we only exercise the gifts of God’s Spirit within the walls of the church there will be little or no increase. When we take those gifts to the streets, to the market place, and to the nations the river will run deeper, the anointing will increase.

Those of us in charismatic churches are pretty comfortable prophesying to one another, praying over each other for healing, sharing words of knowledge, and even driving out demons. But taking those gifts outside the walls of our friendly confines is another thing. However, if we want increase from the Spirit we must leave the temple courts and go out into the nations. If we personally are asking God to increase the anointing in our lives, the principle is to not only minister to the family of God but also to take the gifts outside the body and use them to minister to those who do not yet know Christ. That is where the Spirit will flow more deeply. Pray for such opportunities and when they come risk introducing the non-religious to the supernatural move of God. Then watch the Spirit flow.