Repentance & Rain - Pastor Christine Miller.

Hello and welcome back to Faith Talk. I'm so glad that we can continue to come into your home and be a blessing to you. And I have a message for you today that the Lord put in my heart as I was meditating this week. And we're going to just begin looking at the book of 1 Kings. And in chapter 16, it says in verse 30, Now Ahab the son of Amri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. So we see what happened was this particular king Ahab was so wicked and he married a prophet of Baal, Jezebel, a prophetess. And there was so much wickedness in the land that finally the Lord had Elijah proclaim that there was going to be a drought throughout the land. And what we see from this chapter is that when there is wickedness abounding in a country, there will be judgment in some form or fashion at some point. And that comes because the door is wide open for the devil to come and put it there. And I think the Lord just spoke to my heart in a powerful way as I was reading this and said, this is exactly what's happening in the United States of America and around the world today. There is judgment because we have opened up our doors wide to the devil because of the wickedness that's in our nation. And of course, it's so important, it's paramount that the church repents of their sins so that we can be the powerhouse that's needed in this hour for multitudes of people to repent of their sins and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. But we do see that there's a solution when we get over to 1 Kings chapter 17. It says, Elijah the Tishbite, of course, he said, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word. And then in verse eight, he went and the widow fed him and sustained him. So those that are righteous and living for God will be sustained during times of difficulty. But here's the exciting thing in chapter 18, it says, it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, go present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the earth. And so he did, he presented himself to Ahab. You'll have to go read that chapter for yourself because there's just so much to read. But here's the part I wanted to get to. When he finally met with Ahab, Ahab saw Elijah and said to him, is that you, O troubler of Israel? Well, I find that so humorous because even in this day and age, people always want to blame the righteous for their troubles when in fact, it's their own wickedness and their own evil deeds that have brought these difficulties upon them. And so Elijah answered him and said, I not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have troubled Israel and that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. You know, in our nation today, so many have forsaken the commandments of the Lord. So many are doing evil things in the sight of God. And now even the Supreme court has passed a law that has approved some more gay rights. And you know, we love all people, but we do not love wickedness. And all this wickedness is doing is compounding more and more trouble upon our country. So we see this, that Elijah, the Lord gave him a plan. He said, you go call all the prophets of Baal and all of Israel together. And we're going to, we're going to have a chat. And he said, you go ahead and you get your bowl and you pick which one you want. You can pick the best one and you build an altar and put them on your altar. And then I'm going to take the other bowl and put it on the altar of God. And we're going to call upon our God and whichever God sends fire, that's the one who is the real God. And so we know the story, the Baals, they called upon their God from morning until noon. There was still no answer. Then they went ahead and started cutting themselves until blood was gushing as part of their ceremonial ritual. And still there was no fire coming down from heaven. And they went through all their gymnastics and all of their rituals, and still there was no answer from heaven. And so finally, Elijah, not only did he rebuild the altar of the Lord and put the bowl on it, cut in pieces, but he had them pour so much water on the altar until it was soaked, until it would be impossible that that thing could light on fire with natural means. And of course, he finally said this in first Kings chapter 18 and verse 36. It says, And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me that this people may know that you are the Lord God and that you have turned their hearts back to you again. As I read that just recently, I just got so stirred in my spirit that this is what we need to be praying for our country today. Lord, I pray that you would hear me. I pray that this people of our country may know that you are the Lord God and that you would turn their hearts back to you once again. And you know, it all starts with repentance. So the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice. And when they saw that this had happened, the people shouted, the Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. And Elijah said to them, seize the prophets of Baal. Do not let one of them escape. So they seized them and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there. So we see what happened here was the people saw the sign and the wonder. They repented of their sins. They got rid of the wrong prophets and the wickedness from their land. They turned to the Lord, their God. And then, and then only after that, Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of abundance of rain. And of course, we know that the rain came upon the land in a great abundance, but it didn't just happen quickly. Elijah went and prayed and he said, he sent his servant out, not just once, not just twice, but seven times. And finally he came back on the seventh time and said, I see a cloud the size of a man's hand. And you know, Elijah had such great faith through this outpouring that he didn't give up after the first time. He didn't give up after the second time. He kept pressing in and prayer until that cloud showed up. And he said, it's And sure enough, there was a great outpouring of rain. And these are all types of what's to come. If we will repent of our wicked ways, if we will believe God for a sign and a wonder, if this nation can turn from their wicked ways, God truly wants to pour out his spirit upon us. And so I encourage you today, don't give up in your pursuit of righteousness. Don't give up in your prayer time. Continue to press in and prayer and believe and trust God, not only for the nation to repent, but especially for this great outpouring of the spirit of God, because it's harvest time. I hear the sound of an abundance of rain. Hallelujah. It's coming in Jesus name. Well, that's all for today. Thank you for joining us. We love you and we'll see you next time.