Every Christian is spiritually gifted. Every believer has the Holy Spirit resting upon them and living within them. When his presence is released into us and we are immersed in his presence, there can come a flow of supernatural activity from your life that will astonish both you and the people around you. So don’t leave it just to the ?mighty? men and women; allow God to use you as and when he chooses!
Think about some of Elijah?s activities; he closed the heavens and said it would not rain. As he said that, he also had to live in the conditions that he had prophesied and brought into being by faith. In that time he multiplied flour and oil to feed a widow in the famine, raised the dead son of another woman, and called down fire from Heaven.
The name Elijah means ?the Lord is my God?, and he wanted people to know the true and the living God. Israel had gone astray following Baal, Ashtoreth, and all the gods of the pagan fertility religions. Elijah wanted them to know that these gods were nothing, and that the true and the living God is the God who answers by fire!
We need a generation of Elijahs who will stand up to the gods of today: humanism, secularism, and false religions. It’s time for them to rise up and say, ?Our God is the true and the living God, and we shall demonstrate to you that he is not dead, he is alive!?
In every way we are called to be like Elijah and demonstrate that God is alive. Part of that will, at times, be miraculous manifestations in and through your life to demonstrate his reality.
To get the full story you should read 1 Kings 16-18. But, for now, look at 1 Kings 17:1: ?And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, ?As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.??
Look at Elijah?s boldness! He stands before Ahab the king and says he knows that he and his wife, Jezebel, have led the nation astray, and that their false gods are not true gods and will fail them. The God of Israel is still in control!
Elijah said, ?I stand before God?. Encouragement comes just by thinking that somebody is prepared to tell publicly that they belong to and serve God. It?s not presumptuous. Remember that the ground you can stand on before God is the blood-stained ground at the cross of Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul said something very similar many years later. He is the prototype New Testament believer and minister of the gospel. After three successful missionary journeys Paul was under arrest and sent to face trial in Rome. On the voyage, Paul along with the crew and passengers were shipwrecked on Malta. They feared for their lives, but Paul gathered them together in the middle of the storm and said,
?I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, ?Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.?? (Acts 27:22-14)
I find his statement so similar to Elijah’s. Elijah said, ??the God before whom I stand?, and Paul said, ??the God whose I am and whom I serve?. That?s the New Testament spirit of victory, authority, and overcoming ? and that’s the spirit that will bring miraculous manifestation, as God wills it, through your life.
Saying ?The God whose I am? describes your identity and ?The God whom I serve? defines your purpose. Everybody with a strong belief system will tell you who they are and what they believe even before you can open your mouth. They are very proud and bold to be who they are.
We also should be proud and bold about who we are! Nobody has the right to tell you to be quiet while they tell you who they are without also hearing who you are. Jesus paid a very high price that you might belong to him (1 Corinthians 16 19-20), but sometimes we understand loyalty to a brand or a football club more than to the things that really matter in life ? loyalty to the living God.
Firstly: The God whose I am. That?s your identity. Secondly: The God whom I serve. That’s your purpose, especially in terms of ministry. And these principles are so simple, not complicated. God does not give power for what he is not doing ? that?s a double negative! I need to put it that way, because often we try to do what God is not giving us to do. That is because we often think, deluded, that there is some formulae, where we can go and do anything we want and God will back us up.
But God does not give power for what He is not doing. So when Elijah declared himself a servant of God, he was saying that he only did what God told him to do, not taking his own initiative. Jesus said, ?As the Father sent me so I send you.? This is the key to walking in the miraculous. We find out what God is doing, what he is saying and where he is leading, and go with it. Follow the direction of the Holy Spirit, not your own thinking, or what you would like to see happen! God does not give power for what he is not doing, but he will give power and authority and everything else that is needed to do what he is doing.
I’ve seen many different kinds of miracles, but every single one of them has happened almost by itself as if I had nothing to do with it.
When your words are addressed to blind eyes, and they open before you, human logic goes out of the window. A supernatural power begins to operate, and it is God doing something through you that you could never do without him. The result is a manifestation and demonstration of the power of God ? and everybody present sees that God is real! That?s what happened when Elijah called down fire from Heaven.
Not only did Elijah follow God?s word to the last detail, but he went out of his way to show that it had to be God or nothing. Before he prayed, he asked for the sacrifice to be drenched in water, and there were to be no matches, kerosene or firelighter. The fire had to come from God or there would be no fire at all. But when God is in something, it may look a bit like we are doing a lot, but those with discerning eyes will see that it’s not manufactured by a human being. It all comes from God. That?s how it is with our nation right now ? we need God to do what only he can do!
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God?s people are spiritually gifted: Elijah
