Sermon – These Are the Days of Elijah

Sermon – These Are the Days of Elijah

By Sheri O. Raynor

Sunday, May 5, 2019

A few years ago I had an experience where for three nights in a row, the Lord visited me. In this experience I remembered him talking to me about the things that were going on in the earth. He would mention something to me, and I would say things like, “Yes, Lord.  I’ve heard of this and it is awful.” It was things that were going on in the earth, things that He had taken notice of, and He and I discussed those things. I don’t remember the details of what we talked about except that each night just as our conversation was ending, I would wake up and it would be morning.

The third morning that this happened, it was a little different in that just before I woke up, I clearly heard & remembered what the Lord was saying. Very clearly and distinctly, I heard Him say, “These are the Days of Elijah”

Now when the Lord comes to you and reveals something like this to you, it is wise to begin to seek Him out and His Word to find out as much revelation as you can about the Days of Elijah. So I began to study and read about Elijah. You can read about him in I Kings 17.

We know that Elijah was a prophet of God in Israel. He was one that was full of zeal & very jealous for the Lord in that he followed all of His commandments & His precepts. He was one that walked in covenant with the Lord, and he was very powerful in the things of the Spirit. Because the power of the Lord was upon him, it was dangerous for anyone to mess with him because he would call down the fire of God upon people.

We talk about God being eternal – He is not in time, but He places us in time. And for Elijah, he was placed in time during the reign of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Obviously the Lord had something special that He wanted Elijah to accomplish.

I Kings 16:30-3330 And Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all before him.  31 As if it had been a light thing for Ahab to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he took for a wife Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and served Baal and worshipped him.  32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria.  33 And Ahab made an Asherah (idolatrous symbol of the goddess Asherah).  Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel before him. 

So the days of Elijah were days that were filled with idolatry. King Ahab and his evil wife, Jezebel, were greatly misleading the people of Israel, and because of this the Lord God was provoked to anger by their ways; by allowing idolatry to flourish and to become deeply rooted in the hearts of God’s people. They not only allowed it, they participated in Baal worship themselves. Remember that leaders have a great influence on those they lead.

I taught a couple of years ago about the Jezebel spirit, and you will always find Jezebel caught up with the worship of false gods; specifically Baal and the goddess Asherah. There were altars of worship erected for Baal. They built a house of worship for Baal. They participated in the customs, traditions, and even the rituals of serving and worshiping these false gods, and they would have taught the Israelites these things; leading them far away from the worship of the One true God.

And to get a picture of just how bad Baal worship is…They thought that he was the “god of weather”….power to control the weather…so they would cut themselves in their worship with knives and lances until their blood would gush out. Not only that but they would make sacrifices to Baal, very often they were human sacrifices. Very often it was their own children that they sacrificed.

All of this was done (they thought) for the protection of their lives, their homes, their crops, etc. And we sit and say, “How foolish”, but the worship of false gods goes on still today. Idolatry, I would say is more rampant in America than it ever has been. Many false religions have been brought upon her soil – not only by immigration but also through the internet and so forth.

If the Baal worship wasn’t bad enough, they also worshipped the Ashteroth or the Asherah which is the fertility goddess (she represented sexual sins and perversion)

In today’s culture, we see people that are cutting themselves….some for seemingly no known reason. We find that our children are being sacrificed through the sin of abortion, and if that isn’t enough, we see sexual sins and perversion are on the rise; everything from gender identity confusion, gay marriage, homosexuality, etc. We see pastors in some denominations that are allowed to preach even though they are openly gay and living a gay lifestyle.

So in our days, just as it was in the Days of Elijah, the spirit of Jezebel is on the move. It is a spirit that hates the Lord God and will stop at nothing to see the worship of the One true God permanently cut off.

In Elijah’s day, the way that Jezebel set out to do this was that she was intent to hunt down and kill every true prophet of God. She wanted the voice of the Lord silenced, and to do that, “You silence His prophets.” This way the Israelites could continue worshiping their false gods, and there would be no voice to convict them of their sin. No voice to sway the people to move toward righteousness and to repent.

We see this in America today, where in many churches pastors are being burned out. The altars of God have lost their fire – the fire of God convicts of sin. It burns out all of the dross and the impurities

We see the church scattered. People do not want to commit to a work anymore. So the scattering of the sheep further weakens the “Home Defense” if you will of what the Lord wants to do within regions and territories. It also weakens the church leaders because they have no one to hold up their hands.

Remember Moses, as long as he held the rod high, Israel prevailed over the enemy, but when his hands grew heavy and that rod began to sink down, the enemy began to prevail. It took Aaron and Hur coming alongside him, holding his hands up to help in overcoming the enemy.

Another thing that we see Jezebel doing is that she would endorse prophets as long as they supported her agenda – in other words they were false prophets.  (Of Baal & the Asherah) They were used to further confuse the people and lead them astray. Scriptures says they ate at her table. They ate of the food that she provided for them. They spoke her words and did her bidding.

You also see in scripture that Jezebel wasn’t afraid to manipulate, lie, and even steal what did not rightfully belong to her, even a man’s heritage in order to accomplish her goals. She will steal your inheritance in Christ Jesus. She isn’t concerned with other peoples’ rights; she isn’t concerned with your freedom. She actively works to tear down all of the altars erected to the Lord God. She wants to make sure there is no worship, no sacrifices to the Lord God. So that God’s people cannot worship the God of Israel. If you won’t willingly accept this type of worship, she would work to force it on you.

But even in Elijah’s day, God had a remnant – He always has a people that “REFUSE” to bow their knee to Baal. And because there is always a remnant, the Lord always has a plan. The Lord plan was that He chose a man named Elijah to begin to change things in Israel

When Elijah first appears on the scene in Israel, Israel had fallen greatly from the great nation it was when King David sat on the throne. Israel’s decline actually began when King Solomon began marrying foreign women. They brought with them their foreign gods, and Israel began to sin in that they were not worshiping the Lord their God alone, and they were not worshiping Him with all of their heart.

The Lord is not going to accept half-hearted worship. The 1st commandment is ”Thou shalt have no other God’s before Me”, and because Israel did, Israel’s condition continued to decline until the day when Elijah appears on the scene.

Remember that Elijah was jealous for the Lord, and it is time for God’s people, if they are going to serve Him at all, that they make up their mind that they are going to like Elijah; Jealous for the things of the Lord. Not bending, not compromising, but 100% sold out to Jesus!!!

And let us not forget that Elijah knew not only the power of God upon his life, but he knew about the fire of God. Elijah knew the voice of the Lord. He knew when to go, he knew when to stay. He knew how to wait upon the Lord and he wasn’t afraid to confront the enemy because when the Lord told Him to go and see Ahab he went, and so there came a day when the Lord God said, “It is time for things to change.”

So the Lord sends Elijah to King Ahab. Elijah tells the king that the Lord says, “There will be no dew or rain in Israel, but according to My word.” In other words, judgment, in the form of a drought, is coming on you and all of Israel because you have sinned and you have caused my people to sin.

King Ahab is being put on notice that the Lord God is not happy with how you have been leading Israel and the judgment that I am sending will not lift until I say so. Jezebel had tried so intently to stop anyone from hearing the Word of the Lord, but God’s Word will always prevail. But it came forth because the Lord God found one that was willing to wait on Him.

Elijah did not realize that he would have to wait on the Lord for quite so long. For Israel, three ½ years go by…..the drought is severe (sign of a curse working on the land), but the Lord always looks out for His people, and He tells Elijah to go into hiding and the Lord supernaturally provides for him. He is literally in the secret place of the Most High, under the protection of the Almighty. The power of God is resting on him.

I want us to see this morning that being jealous for the things of the Lord, if we are faithfulIf we can learn to wait on Him…we will move into a place of supernatural abundance, provision, and protection. The Bible says, “I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor His seed begging bread.” There is a place provided for us where the enemy cannot touch us.

Psalm 91 says, “A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you.

But something we also need to understand is that there is a day to hide, but there is also a day where we have to go and confront our enemy. The Lord tells Elijah to go & show yourself to King Ahab, & tell him the rain will once again come upon the earth. Rain speaks of restoration, it speaks of healing, rebirth, and refreshing. God always judges to restore because He is a God of mercy.

And the first thing that King Ahab does is, He accuses Elijah of causing all of the problems that Israel is experiencing. “You are the one that troubles Israel.” not admitting that it is he himself that forsook the commandments of the Lord by following after the Baals which brought the judgments of the Lord on himself and all of Israel.

This same conflict is happening in America today. Those that are caught in sin and idolatry say that it is the Christians that are hate mongers. We are the ones that hate. We are the ones that judge. We are the ones that are causing problems for America, and so much like it was in Elijah’s day there is a great divide between good and evil. We have those that call good evil and those that call evil good.

But remember that God had a plan in Elijah’s day to forever settle the confusion over what was good and what was evil. The Lord was going to have a “showdown” and that “showdown” would forever reveal to all of Israel Who was the One true God.

So Elijah tells Ahab to assemble the entire nation of Israel. All were to be confronted with their sin – the entire nation was under judgment. They gather at Mount Carmel (a place it is said that was used to worship God, but they had also used it to worship Baal as well)

Elijah challenges the people, “How long will you halt and limp between two opinions?” “If the Lord is God, follow Him! But if Baal, then follow him.” The showdown begins…but it is the God that answers by fire that will be the One true God.

The scriptures tell us the Baal worshippers cried out from morning until noon, but there was no voice, no one answered. At noon, Elijah begins to mock them and their god, and they cried all the more.  Cutting themselves until their blood gushed out, but still no answer.

Then Elijah tells them to come near, and he repairs the (old) altar of the Lord that had been broken down by Jezebel and he takes 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob and he builds the altar in the name of the Lord. He makes a trench around the altar, puts the wood in order, cuts the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And then as scarce as water is, he has them bring water and pour it on the burnt offering and the wood (not 1 time, not 2 times, but three times)

The sacrifice was water soaked, the wood was soaked and water filled the trench round about the altar, and it was then that Elijah called on the Lord.

  • O Lord, the God of Abraham, Issac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and that I have done all these things at Your word.  37 Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You, the Lord, are God, and have turned their hearts back (to You.)  38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust, and also licked up the water that was in the trench.  39 When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!

Falling on their faces, was a sign of repentance. The Lord’s display of His power and His might against all human reasoning forever proved that He is the Lord God; that He answers the cries of His people when they wait on Him and obey Him.

 But I want us to see something else this morning about Elijah….

James 5:17–18 tell us that Elijah was a human being with a nature such as the one that we have.  He had feelings, affections, and a constitution like ours. And he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and no rain fell on the earth for three years and six months.  And then he prayed again and the heavens supplied rain and the land produced its crops (as usual).

See, at the Word of the Lord, nothing is impossible for us, if only we will believe.  We are the ones that have been placed in time in these days and the Lord says that, “These are the Days of Elijah” We are living in days where the Lord desires to anoint His people with an Elijah like mantle. It is an overcoming mantle, it is a mantle that represents a finishing anointing.

Like Elijah, we have been called of God to bring change to those around us. We are the ones that have the ability to change the atmosphere. We change it through our prayer, intercession, praise, worship, our decrees….prophetic acts…giving. Whatever it is that the Lord tells us to do, “We must do it”, but we also must learn to wait on Him. We cannot afford to get out of time or to busy ourselves with things that He has not told us to do. I want to walk in His perfect will and nothing less than that.

After this confrontation Elijah has the people seize the prophets of Baal, and as God’s law required, he slew them at the brook Kishon. Those that promoted and carried the false teaching that led so many astray had to be dealt with. Judgement came to them and it was swift, and next there was a sound – the sound of the abundance of rain.

Elijah prayed for the manifestation of rain when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but at the Word of the Lord He prayed and cried out until a cloud formed. And such an anointing fell on Elijah that he was able to outrun the chariot of King Ahab – Running nearly twenty miles.

This isn’t the end of the story, but it was the beginning of the turnaround. The idolatrous structures that had been set up in the land. It would take time and effort to eradicate them. When you think about Jezebel, think of her as a “principality, or a power, or ruler of darkness in high places”. Not a force that would be easy to overturn or to deal with except the Lord be with you.

When Elijah hears that Jezebel will have him dead by the same time tomorrow, he runs for his life – gets outside of Jezebel’s realm or rule. He is about 80 miles away and self-pity sets in. He feels as though his life is over; he asks to die. So the Lord sends the angels to minister to him for the journey ahead.

Elijah goes on to Mount Horeb (the mount of God) also known as Mt. Sinai where the Lord met Moses/there Elijah lodges in a cave and the Lord meets him there, “Why are you here, Elijah”? Elijah tells the Lord all of the things that he has been going through and the Lord tells him to go and stand on the mount. And behold, the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord….but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a sound of gentle stillness and a still-small voice.

Elijah then hears the still, small voice and he wraps his face in his mantle and goes to stand before the Lord. And it is then that the Lord begins to give Elijah direction for the future. Elijah wouldn’t finish the work alone. Others would receive mantles and an anointing for service to finish what he had started. It would take the working of the prophet Elisha, and King Hazael and King Jehuto to fully wipe out Ahab’s household.

It would take a concerted effort and it wouldn’t happen over night, but it would come to pass in time if they didn’t relent. The days that we are living in are just as the days that Elijah lived in. The evil ruling forces of this world have intensified their assault on the people of this world, and the Lord is looking for those that are ready to be mantled. You see, the Lord can mantle you to have a heart of jealousy for Him; where there is something within you than will not rest until you see His purposes fulfilled in the earth.

You know, a lot of people think that they can run after God in their own power, but you cannot. It took God’s hand resting upon Elijah that caused him to be able to outrun the chariot of King Ahab, and Elijah wrapped himself in his mantle when he went out to meet the Lord and hear that still small voice.

Just as it was in Elijah’s day, the Lord is commissioning His people. He is making the call known and is making the strategy, whatever He is requiring of you very clear. He desires to connect us with those that will help us to fulfill His objectives. He is giving out mantles and anointings to those that will accept the call.  Those willing to make the required sacrifice.

But He wants our hearts this morning, He wants our hearts to be jealous for Him and all that He represents. Where we will step out and press through to see His vision in the earth accomplished. I’m talking about being passionately devoted to the Lord with our whole heart and to seek Him with all of our heart

Elijah is considered to be the greatest of the prophets. Elijah’s calling was “to turn back the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient and incredulous and unpersuadable to the wisdom of the upright in order to make ready for the Lord a people (perfectly) prepared in spirit, adjusted and disposed and placed in the right moral state.

The confrontation on Mount Carmel was a wakeup call to God’s people. That is the hour that we are living in. There is a call being released from Mount Zion. Will you work for me in this hour “to make ready for the Lord a people (Perfectly) prepared in spirit, adjusted and disposed and placed in the right moral state.”

The Lord is calling us to pick up Elijah’s mantle and run with it. Like no other time in history, the church is being called to deal with the forces of darkness; to dethrone those powers and evangelize those caught in the structures of false religion and idolatry.

Will we receive the call?