THE GOD THAT ANSWERETH BY FIRE

• He was addicted to the word of God. 1 kg. 18:1-2, “And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. And Elijah went to shew himself unto Ahab. And there was a sore famine in Samaria”. Elijah was not acting by his senses; he had the guidance of the word of God. The word of God was his compass, the word of God was his navigator. One of the defining characteristics of a man of God is that a true man of God must be a man of the word of God otherwise; he will be a man of the word of man. You must learn to hear God. I am not just referring to studying the Bible, of course, that is basic. I am referring to the rhema, the proceeding word of God. You must walk by divine signals. God speaks, you hear and you act.
• Elijah was complete in obedience. 1 Kg. 17:5 “So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherinth, that is before Jordan”. If God gives you a specific instruction, please carry it out to the letter, your obedience may be tied to your survival. The number one prerequisite for flowing in divine signal is preparing your heart to obey. On several occasions, God gave me specific instructions that did not really make sense at that time, but when I obeyed, spectacular miracles occurred. On one of such occasion, I received a distress call from a Sister that her neighbour’s daughter had just passed on. The Lord told me to ask the Sister to put water in the mouth of the dead girl. Because the Sister was a nurse, she was able to administer the water by forcing the girl’s mouth open but the water did not go down, it remained in the girl’s mouth for some hours. The girl later sneezed after several hours and came back to life. Think of the radical faith that produced that miracle. If you are not ready to be one hundred percent compliant in obedience to divine instructions, then don’t even bother to ask God to speak to you.
• Elijah was a man of altars; he recognized the importance of an altar. In other words, Elijah was a worshipper. This altar is the real altar because the devil also specializes in erecting altars. Even idolaters recognize the importance of altars that is why they are always raising altars. Exo. 20:1-3 says, “And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shall have no other god before me”. Here we are talking about the altar of worship. When raising an altar, however, you must be very careful because it is so easy to get into idolatry. Today many altars are no longer the type that we use to know; they have been modernized. But this scripture says you must know bow to anything. Elijah was a man of worship of the living God; a consummate worshipper. In 1 Kg. 18:30-35 says, And Elijah said unto all the people, come near unto me. and all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be thy name: and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. And he said, do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, do it the third time. And they did it the third time. And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water”. Elijah was a spiritual technocrat; this is evident by the steps he took to repair the altar.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .