I’ve always loved reading the stories of the Old Testament; the battles where the Israelites were vastly outnumbered yet crushed their enemy with the Lord’s intervention. The exploits of the kings of Israel and Judah through the years whether following or flouting God’s laws, just makes me shake my head in wonder.
There’s a treasure trove of information in those books that’s well worth studying, because it causes the New Testament and the Age of Grace in which we’re now living to make more sense, adding richness to our understanding of God’s overall plan for mankind. Those Christians who insist on only reading the New Testament and Psalms are missing out on SO much!
This morning, our Pastor spoke about one of my favorite Old Testament stories, found in 1 Kings 18. It’s an action packed chapter but for brevity’s sake, I’ll give you an overview.
A man named Ahab was King over Israel at that time and earned the dubious distinction of being more evil than all the previous kings, which was no small feat. He married a charming lady named Jezebel, who had a nasty habit of executing all of God’s prophets because she got tired of being told how wicked she was. She and Ahab turned their backs on the God of Israel and worshipped the satanic god, Baal, the precursor of Allah.
Because of their sinfulness, the Lord told his number one prophet Elijah, to go to Ahab and say the following: “…As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” 1 Kings 17:1 After delivering the message, God told him to hightail it out of there, and go to a place where the Lord took care of his needs.
Well, time went by with no rain. No rain means no crops, which equals famine. The Bible states there was a “sore famine” in the land, meaning it was really bad. People and animals were starving and thirsting to death, so Ahab told his right-hand man, Obadiah, who happened to be a God fearing man that they needed to scout out the land and look for water. Ahab would go one direction and Obadiah the other.
As Obadiah was walking around looking for any little pond or stream, he happened upon a man whom he recognized as Elijah. The King had been searching all over for Elijah ever since he proclaimed there would be no rain, to force him to rescind his curse on the land. Elijah told Obadiah to go get King Ahab because he was ready to talk to him that day.
Obadiah basically said, ‘Are you nuts?? If I go tell the King you want him to come to you, and you’re gone by the time we get back, he’ll kill me! Don’t forget I’ve been hiding and caring for a hundred of God’s prophets in a cave to protect them from Jezebel. And now you want me to tell Ahab you’re ready to see him?’
Elijah assured Obadiah he would be there when they returned, so Obadiah set off to get Ahab. 1 Kings 17: 17-19 tells what happened next. “And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said unto him, ‘Art thou that troubleth Israel?’ And he answered, ‘I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baal. Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table.”
Then he threw down the gauntlet by challenging the god of Ahab and Jezebel to a duel with the God of Israel. He proposed each side take two bulls, kill and cut them up and lay them on an altar of wood, but not set fire to them. The prophets of Baal would pray to their satanic god, then Elijah would pray to Jehovah, and the god that set the sacrifice on fire would be the ONLY god Israel and her King would serve.
The King and all his false prophets loved the idea and agreed, so they got everything set up as Elijah had said, and the Baal prophets went first, praying and crying out to their fake god to send fire to their sacrifice. They started in the morning and by noon they were reduced to jumping on the altar, pleading with their god to answer. All they got was silence. Crickets. Nada.
While they were acting like nut cases, Elijah started loudly mocking them, telling them to yell louder; maybe their god was talking to someone else, or on a journey. Or perhaps their god couldn’t hear them because he was asleep and they needed to try harder to wake him up.
They finally got so desperate, they resorted to cutting themselves until, as the Bible reports, “blood gushed out upon them.” I’m sure you’ve seen muslims doing this in some of their festivals. Like I said, Baal was a precursor to Allah. Not much has changed, huh?
Later that evening, Elijah decided it was his turn. He told the Israelites to gather closer around and he took twelve rocks, one for each tribe of Israel and built his altar. But he wanted to really showboat God’s power, so he dug a trench around the altar about three feet wide. Then he put the wood on top, cut up his bull and laid the pieces on the wood.
Then, he shocked everyone by telling the people to fill four barrels of precious, scarce water and pour it over the bull, so they did. And he commanded them to do this a second and a third time, until there was so much water saturating the bull and the wood that it filled up the surrounding trench! Talk about a man with faith!
Verses 36-38, explain what happened next. “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 of Israel, let it be known this day that thou are God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, Oh Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou are the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.’ Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.”
Can you imagine what that scene was like? Have you ever seen stones and dirt consumed in a fire?? Have you ever witnessed a fire ‘lick’ up water in a trench three feet wide? I bet there were some tunics that needed changing that evening!
The Bible goes on to tell us that the people of Israel fell on their faces and proclaimed over and over, “The Lord, he is the God.” All those prophets of the satanic Baal started running for their lives, but Elijah ordered that none be allowed to escape and he executed every last one of them.
So, what’s the point of me telling you this story? The Laodicean church that exists in the Western world today is in desperate need of the touch of God’s Holy fire!
We have false prophets standing in our pulpits, leading their apathetic, fat, lazy congregations in idol worship that is every bit as repugnant and disgusting in God’s eyes as the prophets of Baal were. There are pastors who refuse to speak out against the child sacrifices we still offer to our gods of selfish convenience in the abortion clinics.
We don’t throw our priceless infants into a fiery, metal statue like they did then. No, we have some fool ‘doctor’ tear them limb from limb within what should be the safest refuge in the universe—their mother’s wombs. Or we have that doctor inject saline into the amniotic fluid, chemically burning them to death, so they’re born with agony etched on their tiny faces.
And if they have the audacity to survive an attempted abortion and are born alive, they’re laid on a cold, metal table and left to die alone; unless, of course, someone decides to stick scissors into their little necks to snip their spinal cords. Yep, we still sacrifice infants to pagan, satanic gods.
Pastors all over this land refuse to speak the truth that GOD views sodomy as an abomination. It disgusts Him; always has, always will. But very few of them are willing to stand up like real men of God and say that. Most capitulate to the masses so as not to ‘o-f-f-e-n-d’ anyone because Lord knows, hurting someone’s tender feelings, is a capital crime these days!
Just like the Israelites took part in sexual perversions in their Baal worship ceremonies, people today do these same things, and expect others to not only tolerate their sinful behavior, but demand we celebrate it, and teach our children that such things are normal and natural and good.
We worship the gods of materialism, money and houses and cars. We worship fashion, fame and physical beauty which always fades and decays. We give more credence to our careers and sports teams than we do the God of the universe.
Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 says, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, ‘See, this is new?’ It hath been already of old time, which was before us.” Mankind has not changed since the beginning. We are still full of sin and selfishness, lost and bound for an eternity in hell if we refuse the gift of pardon Jesus died to provide.
Folks, time is running out for this earth. Our days, especially here in our comfortable, affluent America, are nearly over. Most of us can sense that Almighty God has lifted His hand of protection from this land, and we shall shortly receive well deserved judgment for our idolatry.
Most people are complacent and hypnotized by the Globalist owned and controlled mass media, which lulls them into a false sense of normalcy. They hear the warnings of those who continually call, but they sputter disdain and unbelief that life as they know it will ever change. They simply don’t believe that massive natural and man-made disasters, economic collapse or the fall of our government to a foreign entity could ever happen.
Well, hate to tell the sheeple, but they’d better wake up very, very soon and smell the coffee. President Obama promised to ‘fundamentally transform this country’ and he wasn’t kidding. That’s precisely what he’s doing as fast as his little demonically controlled, muslim loving heiny can!
WWIII was barely averted earlier this month when Syria agreed to Russia’s offer to help them account for their chemical weapons stockpile. But this standoff ain’t over till the fat lady sings, and she’s still being very quiet. Anyone with half a brain knows that Syria has been moving and hiding their weapons since the occupant of the White House kindly announced his intention to bomb their innocent men, women and children, in order to teach the Assad regime a lesson not to bomb innocent men, women and children. Someone please let me know when that strategy makes sense, because I don’t think it ever will.
The swirling awareness of increasing evil and impending doom weighing on this earth is growing exponentially every day. Our Pastor stated that he’s prayed for years to see a great revival in this country before he dies. I can guarantee he will see that revival when a disaster strikes this nation that makes 9/11 look like a picnic. Churches will be packed out once again with Christians and unbelievers suddenly snapped out of their trance, and shaken to the core of their being.
In the story I told about Elijah, there were 7000 Israelites who had refused to bow to Baal. The Lord always has a remnant of those whose hearts belongs to Him. He’s gathering His remnant today to assist Him in bringing in a final harvest of souls before we’re snatched home and spared His coming wrath on this sin-sick world. David Wilkerson gave a beautiful description of such a Christian in his 1985 book, Set the Trumpet to Thy Mouth.
“The overcoming remnant will hunger and thirst more and more in the final days before destruction. The Holy Spirit will create in Christ’s Bride an overwhelming desire for holiness, purity and revelation. Radical separations from the world and all its idols and pleasures are taking place. Material things are losing their value to this bridehood. Their hearts are being wooed by the Spirit to a life of prayer and brokenness before the throne.”
“Selfish desires, self centered plans are being abandoned and the perfect will of God is all that matters now. The main realm of success, ambition and promotion has been dealt a death blow and the Glory of God has become supreme. There is the sound of Adoration and Worship, and the enthroning of Christ and the yielding to His Lordship.”
Does this describe your walk with the Lord today? Are you a part of His Holy Remnant, outfitted in your spiritual armor for battle against the prevailing evil, and willing to fight the enemy for the souls of the lost and apathetic until our final second on this earth?
Or are you a pew warming, fashion watching, small change giving, get-to-the-restaurant-first, gossiping, sin-dabbling, Ten Commandment bending, proud Christian member of the Laodicean Church of Main Street America? If so, get ready to be spewed out of the Savior’s mouth, whatever that might mean. That comes from HIS word—not mine.
David Wilkerson, that mighty man of God, had visions of the future of America and her downfall, many years ago. He was mocked and derided by fellow preachers when he would speak of what the Lord had shown him. Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, what he said sounded implausible at best. Not anymore. I want you to read this excerpt from the same book, and tell me if it sounds so crazy now.
http://www.markswatson.com/trumpet.htm
Church, we need a touch of God’s Holy fire to come down and cleanse our hearts and empower us to be the sparkling Bride without spot or wrinkle our heavenly Groom, Jesus, is coming for. Will you ask God for this gift out of a heart of broken gratitude? Or will you end up waiting until disaster strikes this nation before you run terrified into the church, suffering rug burns on your knees as you slide to the altar to repent and get serious with your God?
author: bensmomi99@gmail.com