Lessons from Elijah, Week 2, Day 5 -The Gospel Truth

Welcome to our Friday's broadcast of the Gospel Truth. Today's the end of my second week of teaching on Lessons from Elijah. This is a book that I have out and I also have a study guide, DVDs, CDs, and an entire package on Lessons from Elijah, Lessons from David, and Lessons from Joseph. And I tell you, I have learned a lot of stuff at other people's expense, specifically these three guys. Moses also is another one that I've learned a lot from. And the scripture says that the reason all of these things were recorded, not only the good things, but the bad, was for our benefit so that we could learn through them. And if you aren't learning at their expense, then you're going to go through the school of hard knocks and make all of the mistakes that they made. When we get into 1 Kings chapter 19, these verses talk about Elijah's downfall and how that Elijah sinned big time. And I'll be explaining these things more as we go through, but did you know that Elijah's sin cost other people their lives? Naboth died because of Elijah's sin. I don't know that you could say it was totally his fault, but if Elijah would have done what he said, Ahab wouldn't have been around to have killed Naboth. And then there's just a lot of things and it's like domino effects. Every one of us and our decisions, whether we're following the Lord, it affects people. And Elijah sinned big time. And there are lessons to learn about why did he do this? How could a man who is used so mightily of the Lord just fail to do two-thirds of the things that God spoke to him in an audible voice? How could he fail to do that? We're going to be talking about this and there's lessons to be learned. And they're some of the most important things that I've ever seen. So I've already covered a lot of things. If you've missed any of this teaching, please go to our website. Look at the past television programs. They're all archived there. We have, I think it's 16 years of TV archives there that you can watch. I have about, I don't know, 20 years of radio programs archived. We've got a lot of good things. Our website's just a great spot to go. We've got that address there on the screen. I encourage you to check it out. Or you could get these materials. But you need to get hold of this teaching. So I've been talking about Elijah, how he delivered the word that God gave him. And then God gave him a second word after he had been faithful to act on the first one. That's a major point. And I tried to really emphasize that God doesn't show us everything. He just leads us step by step by step. And then I talked about that God sent Elijah's provision to where he told him to go, not to where he was. There's a place called there. I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. And one of the reasons that we don't see God's provision is because we aren't there. So I talked about that. And then we talked about how his place called there changed. And he sent him to this widow in Zarephath. And God said that he had commanded the widow to sustain Elijah. He had already spoken to her. But she didn't come to Elijah. God sent Elijah to her. And this is really significant. God has been speaking these things to me. I shared some of this on the last few days. But you know what? God has told me that he can, that I cannot build more than his people can pay for cash. That was a prophecy that was given to me. And I really believe that's true. And I believe that God has already spoken to people. But that doesn't mean that God's going to just supernaturally bring them to me. I got to come across their path. I've got to be bold and speak out and tell people what God's led me to do. And then those that God has already spoken to will bear witness and become a part of it. These are things that God has been speaking to me even this last week. And I've shared some of those this week as we've gone through this series. So we've already talked about how that Elijah took this woman's last little bit of food. Not because he was taking from her. He was trying to get her to take a step of faith. You've got to operate in faith. Without faith it's impossible to please God. Faith is what appropriates what God has already supplied in the spirit realm. And so he took this woman's food and God miraculously multiplied this little bit of meal and this little bit of oil for three and a half years and sustained Elijah and her. And then it says in verse 17, and it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick. And his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom and carried him up into a loft where he abode and laid him upon his own bed. You know there's a couple of things here. I'm not going to take the time to go into all of this explanation, but if you just read this on the surface it looks like this woman is just totally upset, mad, blaming Elijah and things like this. But if you look at it closer, again this woman was a great woman of faith. And let me go back to when God multiplied her food. He didn't give her three years supply of meal and oil. It didn't just miraculously grow all at once. But every day it says in verse 16, And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah. It didn't say that the barrel of oil multiplied and just began to overflow and the cruise of oil multiplied. No, it didn't multiply. It just didn't waste. It was always there. And the significance of this is that every single day she had to take this step of faith and feed the man of God first and then trust that there was going to be enough left for her and for her son. Now that's significant. And what it says is that this woman lived by faith. I mean every single day for years she would get up and make for the man of God first and then there would be enough left over. It was just a lifestyle of faith. And so you take all of this into account and the fact that she came to Elijah and began to talk to him about her son who had died and Elijah took her son from him. It doesn't say how old the son was but apparently you know he was small enough that he could be carried because she was carrying him in her arms and he took her out of the woman's arms and took him up to his bed and laid him on his own bed. So he was, we don't know how old he was, but probably less than a teenager. And the fact that she allowed Elijah to take her son out of her arms says something. Again I don't know how many of you think through things like this but I've been involved in some situations. There was one time a boy that died and he was probably 20 years old and he told everybody that if he died I was going to raise him from the dead. We had seen a man raised from the dead in Pritchett, Colorado. He was a part of that group and so he believed that it could happen. He believed that I had prayed with this man and commanded him back to life and he came back to life. And so he told everybody he had a sickness and he says if I die Andrew's going to raise me from the dead. Now God didn't tell me that. I didn't know but anyway I was on my way to his funeral and one of his family members kidnapped me because the boy's grandmother she was a witch. She hated me. She hated the gospel and she was just convinced that if I went to that funeral that I was going to stand there in that funeral and try and raise him from the dead. And she didn't want me messing with their funeral and they kidnapped me so that I couldn't go. So what I'm trying to say is I know that you don't come between people and their boy that has died. Boy this is a touchy time and for Elijah to take this son away from the mother and take the body of this son up and and put him on Elijah's bed. To me this says something that this woman even though she was expressing her dismay and things like that she also was believing God. I believe the reason that she brought her son to Elijah instead of just going to Elijah and telling him what had happened but instead she was carrying her son and stuff it was like here you know you have a responsibility. I have been standing here and believing God and giving to you every single day for we don't know but the whole drought lasted three and a half years and if she was you know three years of it or two and a half years of it or whatever I have been meeting your need and ministering to you. I have been depositing into you and now you owe me. Not in the sense that it's a debt but she had sown for this. She had been putting into Elijah's life and now it was time for her to reap what she had sown. So anyway you could read these verses and see them negatively but again I see in this a woman who was a strong strong woman of faith. Did you know at this time there had never been a person raised from the dead in the scripture. It had never happened and there is no prophecy about it going to happen. You know today we have the example there's eight people that were raised from the dead not including Jesus and there is one instance that when Jesus rose from the dead it says many came out of their graves but it's just kind of said in passing we we don't have specific instance about that. There's eight individual instances that we have of people being raised from the dead and Jesus even gave us a command in Matthew chapter 10 verse 8 where he says go heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out devil. It's a command to raise the dead. It also says in John chapter 14 verse 12 Jesus was speaking and he said verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and greater works than these shall you do because I go unto my father. So we not only have the command to raise people from the dead Jesus said we would do the same works that he did. So my point is today we have a precedent for people being raised from the dead. We have examples of people being raised from the dead. Our very own Lord Jesus was raised from the dead and it's not that abnormal. I say that and yet to a lot of people watching this program it's probably just like you are crazy. You're weird to believe that people can be raised from the dead. You know I've seen three or four people personally raised from the dead. I have friends I got one guy that raised eight people from the dead two in one service. We've had I've had statements you know in our school before and said if you've seen somebody raised from the dead or something raise your hand and we will have 20 or 30 people. Did you know that even though for many people watching this it's just totally crazy for you to believe that somebody could be raised from the dead. I have seen it I've experienced it my own son has been raised from the dead after being dead for over four hours nearly five hours without any oxygen and there was no brain damage no more than he had before. I've seen these things it's one thing for us to believe for somebody to be raised from the dead but this had never happened in this instance. There was no promise about it there was no precedent for it. This was just off the charts and yet this woman brought her son to Elijah I believe expecting him to do something and Elijah took the boy out of the woman's arms and she let him go because she was expecting to receive a miracle and then it says in verse 21 and he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord and said oh Lord my God I pray thee let this child's soul come unto him again and the Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the soul of the child came unto him again and he revived and Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered him unto his mother and Elijah said see thy son liveth and the woman said to Elijah now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. You know this is amazing to me that I don't know that this is exactly the way it was stated here in the King James it's not I'm not saying that it's wrong but sometimes you get the wrong impression reading this old English but for her to wait until she saw her son raised from the dead to believe that Elijah was a man of God and yet he had spoken to her and for years their little bit of food their little bit of meal their little bit of oil had multiplied seemed like she should have come to this conclusion a long time before this maybe she was just saying this is even a greater proof this is a greater demonstration of who you really are but my point here is that Elijah prayed for this child and it says he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord you know this goes along perfectly with over here in the 18th chapter after Elijah called fire down out of heaven and after all the people repented and turned to the Lord it says in the 18th chapter in verse 41 Elijah said unto Ahab get thee up eat and drink for there is the sound of abundance of rain you got to remember he had called for a drought and it had been three and a half years that this drought had been going there was no indication of rain in the natural but in his heart he knew that it was coming and so he said there's a sound of abundance of rain not a physical sound but a sound in the spirit realm and in verse 42 it says so Ahab went up to eat and to drink and Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel and he cast himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees and said to his servant go up now look and he went up and looked and said there is nothing and he said go again seven times and it came to pass at the seventh time that he said behold there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand and he said go and say unto Ahab prepare thy chariot and get thee down that the rain stop thee not and it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind and there was a great rain and Ahab rode and went to Jezreel and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel you know I was privileged to go to Israel and I stood on Mount Carmel and the day that I was there I looked out across the Mediterranean Sea and there was not a cloud in the sky I mean it was just a beautiful clear day and I was reading and thinking about these verses and then I looked out there and I just looked and I saw a cloud about the size of a man's hand it was a graphic illustration to me of exactly what this was saying and to see this little tiny cloud over that huge expanse isn't much but as soon as Elijah saw that there was the slightest break out of this clear sky there was finally a size a cloud the size of a man's hand immediately got up and he said the rain's coming and sure enough that day it got black and it rained and there was a great rain now here's my point if you go over to James chapter 5 it's talking there about praying for the sick and the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much that's James chapter 5 verse 16 in verse 17 it says Elias talking about Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit so this is a commentary on what Elijah did over here in first kings chapter 18 the verses that I just read unto you and over here in James it says that he prayed that it might not rain and it rained not for three and a half years and then he prayed again and the heaven gave rain if you read this in first kings he actually prayed and sent his servants seven times to look out on the sea and see if there was any clouds coming up and yet in James it says he only prayed once so here's my point when you pray for something you only pray and if it's like healing now there are different types of prayer if you're asking for direction you can ask for direction multiple times and ask for wisdom and different things if you're interceding for a person you need to intercede for them over and over because that person has more control over them than you do and they can x out your prayers they can negate your prayers and so you have to pray it again but when you're praying for something just for yourself you only pray once and according to mark chapter 11 verse 24 you have to believe that you receive when you pray not when you see it but when you pray now if you really believe that you got your answer like if you're praying for healing and you say father I believe I'm healed now in the name of Jesus well then why would you pray and ask God to heal you again if you believed you received the first time you prayed the answer is you wouldn't do it that way if you pray and ask for healing over and over and over you did not believe that you received the first time you prayed and so you are in a sense invalidating your prayer every time you repray that and ask God to heal you but does this mean that you just pray and ask God for healing one time and then you just refuse to do anything about it no the bible says pray without ceasing and I believe that we should pray until we see results but you only ask for it one time you believe that you receive when you pray but then instead of just ignoring things you face your physical circumstances and if they haven't yet matched up and manifested what you know God has done in the spirit then instead of asking for it over again now you move into your authority and you take your authority and you begin to speak to things and you begin to command things to happen like here's some examples of different things that you know you may pray for a healing one time and you believe that you receive but then instead of ignoring stuff like at one time I had a big old ganglion cyst right here on my left wrist and I prayed over it and I would command that thing to be healed but I didn't see it manifest and I just kept it under my watch band nobody could see it and eventually it got so big that I had one of these expandable watch bands and that thing was expanding and pooched out because of this ganglion cyst that I had and finally I didn't pray and ask God to heal me again because I knew that I had already prayed and I believed that God's healing was in me and I was confident of that but I still had the physical symptom and one night I remember I just decided that I'm not going to put up with this and I got to rebuking that thing I laid hands on it I spoke to it and I prayed for two or three hours I don't know exactly how long it was but I prayed a long period of time spoken tongues build myself up spoke to that thing and did you know that it still looked exactly the same and I went to bed and when I got up the next morning it was gone now some people would say so you prayed over it again and again no I only prayed one time and believed but I spoke to it many different times and that was only one prayer I believe that that's what you see with Elijah he prayed one prayer is what it says in James chapter 5 and yet he sent his servants seven times in other words he only prayed one time he believed that now it was time to break this drought God had told him at his word the drought would be broken and so he spoke and he's he told Ahab get down because the rain is coming and he believed but he didn't quit until he saw that cloud the size of a man's hand he had to see some physical proof some physical evidence and see I think a lot of times people will pray for something and then in an effort not to be moved by unbelief by looking or feeling something that's contrary to their faith they just in a sense try and ignore the physical realm that may be more faith than praying and then looking at the physical realm and responding in unbelief but the greatest faith is when you can pray believe that you receive when you pray and yet you just keep speaking you command you say satan whatever is hindering this I command you to get off and you don't quit until you see the physical manifestation that you're after you know I've got an entire teaching on prayer and one of the teachings in there is entitled what to do when your prayers seem unanswered and it takes this truth from a number of different scriptures and just expounds on it and this is what I see over here in first kings chapter 17 when Elijah went in to pray for this boy who had died he laid him on his bed and he stretched himself upon that child three times it doesn't say that he prayed three different times I believe he just prayed once he prayed and believed for a miracle of this boy coming back from the dead but there was three different times he laid upon him he spoke into him he was commanding the power of god to flow it was one prayer manifest through many different trips you know ministering to this boy and likewise we just pray and believe that we receive when we pray but you may have to keep speaking you may have to go get a prayer of agreement and there may be other things you have to do these are one of the lessons that I learned from Elijah I'm out of time again today but please listen to our announcer he's going to tell you about this book cd dvds a study guide and an entire package that we call our lessons package it would be a real blessing to you so listen to our announcer as he gives you this information and then please call or write today