The Enemy is great at paralyzing our faith through fear. We stare on the opposition long enough and we lose our courage to do what God has called us to do. Elijah, the prophet of God, stood against the enemies of God and stood for the Lord God. The Lord is asking each of us to do the identical.
The 2024 presidential election of the United States is complete and with it got here some laws which were codified. One of those laws codified is in Colorado, the state where I pastor Vanguard Church. The people of Colorado have decided to ratify into the state structure the appropriate to take the lifetime of a baby as much as the day before the newborn is born. We have now change into often known as the state of death. Colorado is now probably the most dangerous place in America for an unborn baby to live. During the time of Elijah, due to Ahab’s leadership, babies were being offered to the gods sadly like they’re today in Colorado.
God told Elijah to go show himself to Ahab. It took massive courage to do that because Elijah knew it could cost him his life. He did it anyway.
What evil has God asked you to confront in your life? How is God asking you to face for Him in your life? Like Elijah, are you doing it?
Elijah confronted the people of God in front of the prophets of Ahab, 450 of them. He says in 1 Kings 18:21, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but when Baal, then follow him.” We need this type of leadership today within the pulpits across America and all over the world. We need pastors crying out like prophets for the holiness of God to be the main target of God’s people.
In 1 Kings 18:30 Elijah said to all of the people, “Come near to me.” This is obedient leadership. Elijah repaired the altar of God in front of the people of God. God’s people must see God’s leaders restoring the church as an altar for Jesus.
Once the altar of God was restored, then Elijah did what any great preacher would do, he asked the Lord to send his presence through him so the people of God could see the presence of God in him. In 1 Kings 18:36 Elijah said to God in essence, “God you’re in charge, allow them to know I’m not, after which allow them to know I even have done what you told me to do.”
If I had a nickel for each time someone has told me in my life, “Kelly, I respect you for doing what you ‘think’ God wanted you to do,” I could be a wealthy man! Elijah is saying here, “No, you do not understand, I didn’t do what I feel God wanted. I did what God told me to do.” We need pastors like this today in America and across our world.
Now you may say, “What if I’m improper?”
Let God address you, but you go do what God has asked you to do, immediately and regardless. Live that way! It’s God’s way. It is the obedient way. Don’t put confidence in yourself, put it in your obedience to Jesus. Stake your success not in your ability but God’s faithfulness to reply your request. Elijah said to the Lord in 1 Kings 18:37, “Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you just, O Lord, are God, and that you’ve turned their hearts back.” This is how we experience a holy awakening in our world.
This great act of God’s power by the hands of Elijah propelled him into the limelight of the opposition. Most of the opposition melted at Elijah’s courage to obey the Lord, but Jezebel revolted against him much more. This can even be the case for you. The best stronghold of the Enemy will seek your life, that is what Jezebel did to Elijah. In 1 Kings 18:46 it says, “The Lord gave special strength to Elijah.” Then as a result of Jezebel’s opposition to Elijah, just a number of verses later it says in 1 Kings 19:3, “Elijah was afraid and fled for his life.”
Standing publicly against policies just like the abortion amendment that passed in Colorado could be very unpopular in our day and it should bring with it undesirable opposition and oppression.
I can relate to Elijah. I’m sure you possibly can too. Elijah eventually begged God to die. Sometimes that is what the pastorate appears like to me. The oppression kills my will to live. Elijah ran and hid in a cave.
Maybe you’ve lost your will to live and serve the Lord as a pastor as a result of the never-ending negativity that you just see around you and, on the planet, where you are attempting to make a difference. You are usually not alone.
God got here to Elijah and said, “Why are you on this cave?” Elijah tells him in so many words, “I lived for you, and I’m undecided it’s price it.” God sends Elijah a series of experiences from a wind to an earthquake, to a hearth but God’s voice was not in any of those. Instead, in any case this commotion, the Bible tells us that God sent the sound a mild whisper in 1 Kings 19:12.
What was this gentle whisper? We would call it, “The still small voice of the Holy Spirit.” It is the voice of God that speaks to our soul. It is the sport changer.
This still small voice said to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:15, “Go back the identical way you got here.” In essence, “Keep doing what you are doing for the Lord, it matters!” God says to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:15, “Travel to the wilderness of Damascus,” the identical road God would eventually meet the Apostle Paul on to convert him to his great missionary journeys. He tells Elijah in 1 Kings 19:16, “Anoint Hazael, anoint Jehu, anoint Elisha.” In essence, “raise up some recent leaders.”
It may appear like we’re losing among the battles God has asked us to fight. Instead of getting discouraged that your work isn’t paying off such as you thought, ask God to boost up recent leaders to hitch you.
God said to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:18, “I’ll preserve 7,000 others who’ve never bowed right down to Baal.”
God isn’t done. And neither are we. The solution to obedient leadership within the face of fear isn’t quitting but raising up recent leaders like Elijah to battle with you.
Be like Elijah, find your anointing oil and get busy anointing a recent generation of leaders. A generation of babies are dependent upon it!
