Where is the Lord God of Elijah?

LORD, I have heard of Your fame; I stand in awe of Your deeds, O LORD.
Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. (Hab 3:2)

I know this cry is in many people’s hearts. I know it has been growing over the past fourteen years in mine along with the cry:

Where is the Lord God of Elijah? (2 Kings 2:14)

I know God is awesome and can perform great miracles, and show great signs, yet despite me not seeing (many) of these awesome deeds* I have still cling onto hope against hope and have cried:

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights. (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

Yet I will. Despite everything, yet I will cling onto God and hope. Despite current circumstances, and what I see with my eyes, yet I will trust. Yet I will hope against hope when all else fails. Yet I know that I know that God is a God of miracles and mighty deeds. Yet I know I will see God’s power break through in my generation.

And yet at times I have wept with frustration, desire and longing and there have been bitter tears too at the well of Marah. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is he? Where are you God? Oh that God would rend the heavens and come down! Oh that his mighty works might be revealed NOW. I know you are there, God! Why don’t I see your signs and wonders in this age?

Hope deferred makes the heart sick and my heart has been sick indeed over these past fourteen years….And at times I have not done a good job at all at hanging on, at rejoicing in God alone, my feet have stumbled on the heights so that I have fallen into the pits of despondancy and I have gone into a sulk with God. God in his wisest and best way has dealt with this sinful attititude by disciplining me – and through this dealing with the misunderstandings I had about him that caused me to act in this way, and shown me his face that I may know him better, and love him better with my weak and inadequate love, and so I may serve him better. I have gotten a God-revelation but also a self-revelation as God has pointed out the amount of self-righteousness and self-dependancy that I was not even aware was there til I have cried from the deepest levels, ‘I am unworthy, so unworthy. I cannot do anything but for you.’ And God has taken me to a place where He and not His works are all that matters so I can truly sing along with Habakukkuk yet, as God’s love is better than life, and is all that really matters come life or death, trial and tribulation.

But a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. And after coming out of the wilderness, with the song in my heart that God in Himself is all that really matters whatever the circumstances, I am reminded yet he is still a God of miracles.

Where is the Lord God of Elijah?

Just lately I have realised that this may be the wrong cry or perhaps the wrong focus. You see God does not change. He is there as he has always been. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. ‘I AM the Lord who does not change…’ ‘I AM’. He says and his character does not alter. ‘I AM’ The Lord your healer (Jehovah Rophe)….etc.

Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Should not the cry rather be ‘Where are the Elijahs?’ Or rather the men and women who go out in the spirit of Elijah like John the Baptist – that is God’s prophets? Where are the men and women who KNOW God (don’t just ‘believe’ in him). Those who have sat in his counsel and KNOW his will and out of this knowledge have the confidence to stretch out their hands in faith, knowing their God who is their friend, will back them up, whether a revival or wilderness period flows around them? Those who know for certain that there’s is the God that answers by fire.

I can just see many in the church of today on top of Mount Carmel. They would not dare issue the challenge to the prophets of Baal, so fearful they would be of territorial spirits or Satan issuing counterfeit fire. Many would need to fast and pray for 40 days and go to a few spiritual warfare conferences beforehand and they would still be having kittens with fright in case any demonic spirits turned up. They would have more faith in satan’s power than in God showing up. They would not dare call on God as they would not be sure he answers, as it might not be his will, so unsure they would be of their authority and of God’s character and purposes. Perhaps God won’t answer by fire, perhaps he has another plan they surmise and end up so unsure of anything and so wishy washy nothing happens apart from some theological debate…because, I suppose, their God is no more the God who answers by fire than the Baal worshippers. Their ‘God’ is a much-talked about God, but one they neither truly love nor serve nor know.

But Elijah – he knew his God. He knew that God hated the idolatary and the apostasy in Israel, and he also knew that God wanted a revival – that is bringing the hearts of the people back to God in repentance as they realised their false religion and idols were impotent and were not for real but knew Elijah’s God, Israel’s true God was real and powerful as they saw a flash of God’s glory. Elijah did not just know his God wanted to show his glory by answering by fire but he knew his God could and would also burn up the water surrounding the trench too.

Elijah knew his God. The ones who go out in the spirit of Elijah have their hearts set on knowing God as it is from this knowledge that their confidence and God’s power flows. They are men and women that God shares his heart with, his plans, and these Elijahs hurry to obey his commands and become co-labourers with him. I now ‘know’ God far better than I ever did before. I know he is great. I do not just ‘believe’ it. This knowledge is not built on experience, or what I have seen around me, it is built on something far better: a friendship.

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,
Whose heart is set on pilgrimage…. (Psalm 84)

The most difficult thing that Jesus says in the parable of the end time church aka the sheep and the goats? I knew you not. Does God know you? Do you know God?

God has shared himself with me. I do not deserve it. None of us do. But God has rended the heavens and come down and shown me his face. And out of this knowledge comes faith, a certain faith that will not be knocked, will not take no for an answer, as it has seen God’s face and knows God and his will and knows its part to play in this. From a revelation of God’s face comes faith, knowledge and power….and if we walk in it and obey him come the release of the signs and wonders our generation longs for…..

Elijahs do not wait for ‘revival’ to happen, they make it happen.

As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
They make it a spring;
The rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
Each one appears before God in Zion. (Psalm 84)

‘Baca’ means ‘weeping’ in Hebrew and speaks of a place of dryness, barrenness and sorrow. The Hebrew for ‘pool’ is ‘berakah’ and means ‘blessing.’ Elijahs turn the wilderness into springs of living water and blessing (compare: ‘He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ (John 6:38))

Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Right here as He has always been.

Where are the Elijahs?

Many speak today of seeking Elijah’s mantle, as if it were a spiritual anointing that can be passed from man to man, and so they go to see a prophet in the hope of his or her anointing rubbing off on them so they can be a prophet too. They become ‘anointing chasers’. The true prophet’s mantle is thus misunderstood. The prophetic mantle represents the calling of God (Elijah threw it over Elisha to as a sign God had called Elisha to be a prophet, however Elijah did not choose Elisha and neither did Elisha ask for the mantle – God ordained it) – and the prophetic mantle also represents the God-given authority that comes with the call of God to be a prophet – and God’s calling and gifts are irrevocable. The prophetic mantle is thus the calling and authority of God, ‘anointed’, empowered and confirmed by the Holy Spirit, and without this mantle nobody can be a true prophet (although they may still prophecy with the gifts of the spirit from time to time). When the prophet recieves his mantle – his call and his authority – then he can have confidence in God that his God will answer by fire.

Where are the Elijahs? I call to the Elijahs to come forth and stretch out their hands with me, to love, serve and glorify our beautiful God. If you do not know God yet like this, then I urge you to seek him while he may still be found.

What are you going to do to share the God who answers by fire to the world?

Please pray for me as I seek to show this awesome God to the world.

* Before anyone critisises me, God is awesome, even if he never lifted his finger again. In him we live and breathe and have our being, and so just being alive is awesome, just him hearing our prayers is awesome, to hear a baby laugh or to see the first bud of spring – these are awesome indeed. The creation indeed testifies to the awesomeness of God, of Him creating it and sustaining it and holding all things together.