There comes a time when God not only expects obedience in his servants, but also confidence. I'm not talking about worldly confidence. Rather, I'm talking about confidence that God will do what he said he would.
In the book of 1 Kings 18, we find perhaps one of the most amazing stories of confidence. The three years of famine have expired, and Elijah has returned. And he has challenged Ahab to a contest on Mt. Carmel, to see which god would answer by fire. I want to focus in particular on the barrels of the story. First of all, we see the challenge presented in verses 23 to 24, "Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken."
Elijah could have just prayed that God would send fire, and it no doubt would have happened. But Elijah took a step further. He commanded that barrels be filled with water and that they be poured out into the sacrifice and the wood.
I'm not an expert camper, but I know that when you're going to start a fire, you're not going to use wet wood! It's not rocket science! But Elijah does this; and it was one of those acts of faith recorded for us that we take very much for granted. We know the outcome, just like we do the story of David and Goliath, and Jonathan and his armor bearer at the battle of Michmash. But have you stopped and wondered what it must have actually been like to have been there??? imagine thousands of Saul's soldiers trembling for fear of this ten foot tall beast of a man; and along comes this pretty little shepherd boy who may not have even reached puberty yet, wondering why no one has killed the giant yet! And then, you watch as this little shepherd boy runs down the mountain, and he takes out a sling and a stone as Goliath continues to cry out cursing threats.
Now stand on either the rock Bozez or Senah, and observe Jonathan telling his armor bearer that the battle plan was to expose themselves and to attack an innumerable host of Philistines if they told them to come over.
Now stand there and observe one prophet against 850 prophets of Jezebel, confidently ordering that barrels be filled and poured out onto the altar!
If we'd never heard the story before, we might would say, "Well, the prophets of Baal have a better chance than they did!"
This is all a great show of faith.
This is the kind of faith God is looking for! He's bored with the normal prayer requests! He's tired of people limiting him by not asking for the impossible!
My friend, the Bible says in 2 Chronicles 16:9, "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him."
He's looking for someone whose going to let him do it!
Ask for something impossible! So many times we do what we know we can do instead of asking God to do what we know we can't! God delights in such faith! He's not just looking for us to fulfill the Great Commission. He's looking for us to pray for what people have said for centuries cannot be done!
So by faith, fan the flame by FILLING THE BARRELS!
There comes a time when God not only expects obedience in his servants, but also confidence. I'm not talking about worldly confidence. Rather, I'm talking about confidence that God will do what he said he would.
In the book of 1 Kings 18, we find perhaps one of the most amazing stories of confidence. The three years of famine have expired, and Elijah has returned. And he has challenged Ahab to a contest on Mt. Carmel, to see which god would answer by fire. I want to focus in particular on the barrels of the story. First of all, we see the challenge presented in verses 23 to 24, "Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken."
Elijah could have just prayed that God would send fire, and it no doubt would have happened. But Elijah took a step further. He commanded that barrels be filled with water and that they be poured out into the sacrifice and the wood.
I'm not an expert camper, but I know that when you're going to start a fire, you're not going to use wet wood! It's not rocket science! But Elijah does this; and it was one of those acts of faith recorded for us that we take very much for granted. We know the outcome, just like we do the story of David and Goliath, and Jonathan and his armor bearer at the battle of Michmash. But have you stopped and wondered what it must have actually been like to have been there??? imagine thousands of Saul's soldiers trembling for fear of this ten foot tall beast of a man; and along comes this pretty little shepherd boy who may not have even reached puberty yet, wondering why no one has killed the giant yet! And then, you watch as this little shepherd boy runs down the mountain, and he takes out a sling and a stone as Goliath continues to cry out cursing threats.
Now stand on either the rock Bozez or Senah, and observe Jonathan telling his armor bearer that the battle plan was to expose themselves and to attack an innumerable host of Philistines if they told them to come over.
Now stand there and observe one prophet against 850 prophets of Jezebel, confidently ordering that barrels be filled and poured out onto the altar!
If we'd never heard the story before, we might would say, "Well, the prophets of Baal have a better chance than they did!"
This is all a great show of faith.
This is the kind of faith God is looking for! He's bored with the normal prayer requests! He's tired of people limiting him by not asking for the impossible!
My friend, the Bible says in 2 Chronicles 16:9, "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him."
He's looking for someone whose going to let him do it!
Ask for something impossible! So many times we do what we know we can do instead of asking God to do what we know we can't! God delights in such faith! He's not just looking for us to fulfill the Great Commission. He's looking for us to pray for what people have said for centuries cannot be done!
So by faith, fan the flame by FILLING THE BARRELS!