Good afternoon, brothers and sisters.
Can we please turn to 2 Corinthians? We will begin by reading once more from our theme verse. As Brother Mac did, we will start in 2 Corinthians 3:17.
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Then, if we could turn to John 1, we will begin in verse 14.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Verse 17:
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
Then, if we could turn to Matthew 17, verse 2:
And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
And Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If You wish, I will make three tabernacles here: one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.”
Finally, Malachi 4:4-6—the last three verses of the Old Testament:
Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.
Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.
And he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.
I am sorry, brothers and sisters—one more: John 17:22.
And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one.
Let us bow for prayer.
Lord, we come into Your presence this afternoon. Lord, we know You are the King of kings; You are the Lord of lords. So we bow our hearts before You, and we ask that You might have the liberty to speak to us, that Your Holy Spirit might have freedom among us.
Lord, thank You. You know each of our hearts. You know what we have brought here with us. You know our difficulties and our struggles. We thank You, Lord, that You have a place for us. Thank You, Lord, that You are for each one of us. There is a work of glory to glory.
We worship You, Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
So, brothers and sisters, I was pondering, as we were singing this last song, how different the glory of the world is from the glory of the Lord. I have to, for a moment, rib some of my brothers from Toronto, if I could, because I am a very devoted Clippers fan.
The Clippers—they are a basketball team, if you do not know—have historically been mired in mediocrity; that would be too nice a word. This past year, we had the chance to bring on board a new basketball player because we had money to spend on a free agent. This player on the Toronto Raptors was a tremendous talent.
You think sometimes that the best basketball players come onto a team and the whole thing has to be about them. This is true of so many players. But the unique part about this player, who ended up moving to Los Angeles, was that he was a phenomenal player, yet he somehow made everybody around him play better.
That is so atypical of the glory of the world. The glory of the world is very much that one person takes up, steals, all the oxygen in the room. But the amazing thing about the glory of the Lord is that, as He fills up our hearts, there somehow seems to be more room for everybody else.
As the Lord was praying His final prayer, He said to His Father, “The glory which You gave Me, I have given to them.” The purpose of this was that they may become one. That is to say, the glory of the Lord is so different from the world. The glory of the Lord brings others in, gives others space, and gives others room to grow, because the glory of the Lord realizes that there is a oneness among the body of Christ. Only in that fullness can the glory be manifested.
It is a wonderful thing to think that glory is linked to oneness—two things that ordinarily we would not think come together. But in the Lord Jesus, two opposite things can come together quite easily.
John said, “We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten, full of grace and truth.” We could say the same thing about grace and truth. Grace is this loving, forgiving power of God; yet, on the other hand, there is the need always to be loyal to the truth. There is a right and a wrong. There is a real and a fake. These two seemingly opposite things come together in the Lord Jesus, and we see it in His glory.
John remembered these things and wrote them down because, over time, as we shared yesterday, the people of God had begun over generations to forget. Secondhand and thirdhand knowledge came in, and there began to be divisions and separations: the glory of men, one compared to another, one exhausting all the oxygen in the room and forcing others out.
But John was telling them that the glory of the Lord brings us together, that there is a purpose and a plan for which He has shown Himself to us.
Yesterday, we shared about that moment on the Mount of Transfiguration, which Peter wrote of later in his life. Peter was there, James was there, John was there, and the Lord shone like the brightest light. In the midst of that glory, Moses and Elijah stood there, talking with Him.
As we consider what Brother Kong has taught and shared with us in the past, they were speaking together of substantial things, eternal things. They did not shy away. It was not that the glory caused them to feel that they had nothing to say. In fact, they were drawn to the glory. These two men were able to speak with the Lord about the things that were in the Lord’s heart—things of eternal consequence. They were not distracted. They felt very much at home.
Yesterday, we shared a little about Moses and how he had come to be familiar—that is the wrong word. He began to feel at home in the glory of the Lord. As he journeyed with the people of God, the glory in the cloud would come down, and they would speak as a man speaks to his friend.
We shared how Moses had a heart to seek His glory, how Moses prepared for His glory, and how His glory can encourage us all on for His purpose.
At the very end of the message yesterday, we shared about a very important victory: when our Lord Jesus died on the cross, there was the establishment of holy ground in our hearts. Upon that holy ground came, on that wonderful day, the Holy Spirit into our hearts.
Brothers and sisters, at that moment, something wonderful happened: a treasure came into an earthen vessel.
What is an earthen vessel? Well, you and I came from the ground and clay, and we will return. We know this to be true. We are all, in one way or another, decaying.
I remember when I was a resident and needed to declare that a patient had died. I would go to the room and have to rub their chest and speak loudly to them: “Mr. So-and-so, can you hear me?” You did not want to be wrong. You needed to make sure you did it right. Then you would declare that the person had expired.
I remember looking at the first person and thinking, “He is just a shell.” There was no life in him anymore. He was really just the earth.
The miraculous thing, as we look at one another and realize that we are earthen vessels, is that on that day a treasure came into our hearts. The Holy Spirit settled into a place where He might be able to share life with us.
Our brothers shared yesterday evening and yesterday morning that the Holy Spirit is crucial—vital—to the working of 2 Corinthians 3:18. He is the One actively moving, causing growth, causing transformation, introducing the glory, touching our hearts, and poking our spirits to go back to the Word and search after the Lord. He is the One who is always, always at work: God indwelling, the treasure that lives in our hearts.
So, brothers and sisters, in our lives we go step by step, from glory to glory. Today, we would like to share a little about the working of the Holy Spirit and how He is able to transform us when we are so focused on ourselves.
He brings us into seeing glory, being transformed, and then suddenly feeling that we cannot be alone—that there must be a house of God. The glory of the Lord is seen in brothers and sisters brought together into one life that cries out with the Spirit in the end, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
What is that process? Today, we would like to look into that process by considering the second person on the mountain that day: Elijah. He was familiar with the glory of the Lord—comfortable is not the right word—able to speak. I am sure they were in awe. Yet Elijah was able to stand with Moses, sharing about the things in the Lord Jesus’ heart.
This was not the first time the two of them were mentioned together. We read the last several verses of the Old Testament. In the transition between the Old Testament and the New Testament, these two were used to move us forward.
Malachi wrote that we have to remember the law of Moses. We have to remember the things we were taught, because there was truth there, guidance there, and something of the Lord’s heart there.
But Malachi begins to lead us forward. He says that Elijah is coming, and Elijah will come before the day of the Lord. He says something wonderful about this bridge in Elijah: Elijah will make us one.
He does not say it exactly that way. He says it in a very interesting way: Elijah will turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the children back to the fathers.
Ordinarily, when we think about being made one, we might think about two sisters in the Philippian church who do not get along and need to get along, or two brothers at the fellowship in New Jersey who need to get along. We think about that as oneness. But then we go home to our regular life, and it is gone. They are not there anymore.
What Malachi was suggesting concerning Elijah was that, in our own homes and in our real life, the Lord was going to do a transforming work so that we would be brought together. Fathers and children would be turned one to another and brought back together.
Brothers and sisters, the example is so real, down to earth, and authentic. When we think of Elijah, we think of someone who, outwardly, was full of glory. His life was filled with outward glory. But what the Holy Spirit was predicting, what He was hinting at for the future, was that the work of Elijah was going to be in our hearts. It was going to be authentic, down to earth, and in our homes—something real, something that is not just outward.
This is so true, brothers and sisters. Brother Dana was already mentioning those things that are fresh, alive, true, and real. I love it because when John said, “We beheld the glory of the Lord; He was full of grace and truth,” three verses later he said, “Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”
He was saying they were made real. They were not just thoughts and concepts in our heads. When I saw Him, they were made real. I could hold those things. They were not just head knowledge anymore.
The working of the Holy Spirit, as we move from glory to glory, is that He is transforming us into something real and authentic—something alive.
Who was Elijah? We know Elijah was revered. We remember when the Lord asked, “Who do men say that I am?” One of the things people said was, “You are Elijah.” He was so amazing that people thought, “Elijah is amazing; You are amazing; You must be Elijah.”
Later, when the Lord was crucified for our sakes, they said, “He is calling out to Elijah. Let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.” The thought of Elijah in the hearts of the people was that he was truly honored.
If we look into Elijah’s life in bullet points, we realize why, in the New Testament, when we remember John the Baptist coming in the power and spirit of Elijah, the power and glory were so revered. This is the life of Elijah. I put exclamation points because they are fantastic:
When we look through the life of Elijah, we think, “This is a life of power. This is a life of glory.” But, brothers and sisters, if we had asked Elijah on that day on the Mount of Transfiguration, he would have said, “Those things were never the glory.”
Those things were outwardly seen. But between each of these events, things happened in which, if we could say it this way for ourselves in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit was at work. The Holy Spirit was making a way for the treasure in earthen vessels to shine forth.
We remember that when Elijah was about to depart, his successor Elisha was given the choice to ask for anything. Elisha said, “Can you please give me a double portion of your spirit?”
That is to say, the Holy Spirit—the work of God—does something in us over time, changing our spirit away from selfish glory and self-centered glory to the glory of the Lord: from a glory where there is no room for anyone else, to one where there is no room for myself.
This is the work of God. When we return to our theme verse in 2 Corinthians 3, we read about the working from glory to glory. Then, in 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, we read:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves;
we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
This verse is so familiar to us. Sometimes we read it when we need a word of encouragement. But, brothers and sisters, this was a way of living for Elijah. It was the way of his life.
We know that in his heart he was responding to the work of God. He was willing.
We remember John the Baptist, who came in the spirit and power of Elijah. John the Baptist was the one who said, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” The first time John and the Lord met was in utero. We remember when Mary visited Elizabeth: John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth’s womb.
What happens is that the life longing for the life of Christ will leap. When the Holy Spirit has come into our hearts, the touch of the Lord Jesus causes something in us to come alive. The presence and nearness of the Lord Jesus cause our hearts to warm, to seek, and to lean forward, looking for what is there.
That was in Elijah’s heart in some way. Maybe he did not know it, because we do not know at the beginning. The moment we are introduced to Elijah is a moment when he has already been called to work.
We would like to look through these points and see, for a moment, the work of the Holy Spirit in every one of us—how we are being changed to be like the Lord, and how, in the end, there will be something of worth to the Lord’s kingdom.
First, we will start with King Ahab. King Ahab was not a good king. In 1 Kings 17, at the very beginning, Elijah’s first declaration to the king was, “There will be a drought, and there will be no rain except by my word.”
After this declaration—this moment, you could say, of glory—there was no more rain. I am sure Ahab tried to get his conjurers and servants of Baal to get the rain going, but there was no rain.
In a moment such as this, where Elijah stood perhaps in the world’s glory, the Lord gave him an immediate instruction: “You need to go to Cherith.”
Where was Cherith? Cherith was outside the promised land, in the middle of nowhere. There were no grocery stores, no fellowship, and you could not go to a ball game. It was really in the middle of nowhere.
Elijah obeyed. He went out past the Jordan River to the Brook Cherith and stayed there. The Lord said, “I am going to take care of you there. While you are there, you are going to be fed by ravens,” which are a dirty bird.
Now, I think to the young people, “a dirty bird” is some sort of dance or something, but these were really non-kosher birds. They brought food to Elijah, and he drank from the brook. He was entirely by himself.
Brothers and sisters, this first lesson for each of us, in becoming real, is crucial. It is our foundational lesson: our real life is hidden with Christ.
Sometimes we are called to serve in one way or another, and it may be in many different ways. Some of us serve at work. Some serve in the house of God. We serve our families. But the truth for all of us is that we have to know where the brook is that feeds us.
The Lord was telling Elijah, “You have to go here.” Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit will always lead us back. We remember that the Lord frequently went to a quiet place by Himself, and He prayed. This was a source of strength for our Lord.
When nobody is around, you really are who you are, right? If I am home by myself, I can do the things I want to do. I do not need to comb my hair. I can wear my pajamas all day. The fact of the matter is that when nobody is around, we are the most genuine.
What the Lord was telling Elijah was, “You need to go where there is no one around. It is you and Me, and we are going to cultivate here a true and real relationship.”
A relationship made real with the Lord is always hidden. The Lord may use outside influences, but so frequently we live in those outside experiences and do not have that hidden relationship. Moses had it. Moses said, “In the secret place of the Most High.” We remember that when Paul was first going out, he was sent to Arabia and stayed there.
Brothers and sisters, it is so important for us to find our brook, to know what it is, and to reside there.
I remember when I was in high school and went to a conference. I remember listening to the brothers speak. I remember the year I came back and thought, “You know, there is something real here.”
I went to school, and something did not feel exactly right anymore. I was not at home. My bed was against the corner of the room. I had a twin bed and a bookshelf next to me that jutted out perhaps three feet and was maybe two feet higher than where I was. There was a little pocket there.
I had not been in the practice of reading the Bible too much, except out of obligation to win prizes at Sunday school. But I started to read. When I liked a verse, I would write the verse down on the bookshelf. I am not sure that is the best way to do it, but that is what I did.
I sat there and began to realize that I was not alone. For me, that was a moment that is hard to cling to over time, because the enemy is always trying to strangle us and pull us away from that little cubbyhole in the presence of the Lord.
Over the years, as life gets busier, and then you have children, it can be hard to keep in that little cubbyhole. But what I realized is that when life drags us away from there, we begin to lose the nearness of the Lord, and it is hard to go on.
Those are very precious times to me. I blame those who spoke to me at those conferences, but I am so thankful to them.
Might the Holy Spirit help each of us to find a place—a hiding place, a secret place—to cultivate this foundational, real relationship with the Lord, where nobody else is around, so that we might lean on Him and find Him to be real.
It was a place to learn dependence. It was a place to be authentic. The nice thing is that we all begin to learn that the Lord already knows who we are. I do not have to pretend. I do not have to hold back the things that are in my heart. I can just tell Him. This is a great gift.
This is the lesson of the Brook Cherith. Sometimes we think glory is standing in front of Ahab and telling him there is no longer going to be rain. But the truth of the work of the Holy Spirit is that so much of it is in that hiding place. As the Lord did, we need to learn that nearness that is real.
From there, the Lord sent Elijah out. After a while, the Lord sent him to a different place called Zarephath. Zarephath was an interesting place. The Lord told Elijah, “I am going to take care of you. The person who is going to take care of you is a widow. She is going to be there waiting for you.”
Of course, if you are like Elijah—or perhaps like some of us—you might think, “The Lord is so full in His abundance of taking care of us. That widow must be like Lady Ogle. We are going to go there, and she is going to own two-thirds of Zarephath. I am really going to be taken care of.”
Elijah showed up looking for the widow, and he found her collecting sticks. She told him, “I am collecting sticks for me and my son, because I am going to cook one last meal, and then we are going to die.”
Here, perhaps, Elijah’s expectations were different. But Elijah performed a miracle. He said there would be an endless supply of oil and flour to make bread. When she began to cook with the oil and flour, it was exhaustless. A miracle happened in her life and her son’s life, and Elijah was the outward vehicle through which it occurred.
As Elijah lived with them, I think his eyes began to open to something: he began to see the real problems brothers and sisters go through, and the real challenges of people’s lives. Living with this widow and her son, he began to realize the needs in the house of God.
In 2 Corinthians 11:29, Paul writes:
Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?
Paul was saying that whenever someone suffers, he suffers. Whenever he saw difficulty and struggle in the house of God, these things were carried by him.
This is something the Holy Spirit is teaching all of us who would be in the house of God, who would want to see the glory of the Lord, and who would want to be used as vessels for His sake. He opens our eyes to see that every brother and sister is going through their own struggles and their own moments.
Elijah saw it in this precious widow and her son. Paul saw it. Of course, we remember when Lazarus died and Mary and Martha were grieving: the Lord was grieving. The Lord hurts for those who are His.
In the glory of the Lord, the transferring of His heart comes along with glory, love, and the presence of God. They come together. Elijah began to see as the Lord sees. He began to understand and see the house of God perhaps differently than he did before.
This is so important to us. If we are to be made one, we have to have hearts that grieve when others grieve. When we see others rejoice, our hearts should leap because of the work of Jesus.
The lesson of the Holy Spirit, and of what glory is, is to open our eyes and connect us one to another.
Who is weak without my being weak?
But then the boy died. This was not supposed to happen, right? Elijah had performed a miracle. The boy was supposed to have died earlier. There was endless flour and endless oil, and suddenly the boy died.
The woman, who knew she was a sinner, said, “Did you just come to highlight all of my sins?” Elijah now had to learn a new lesson.
He took the boy up to his room and began to learn how to offer real prayers—real prayers with a sense of need. He prayed for the boy. He prayed once that the boy would come back to life, but the boy did not. He prayed again, and the boy had not come back. He prayed a third time, and the boy was raised from the dead.
At this point, the Holy Spirit was teaching Elijah the importance of real prayer.
Brothers and sisters, I think many of us pray every day. I remember when I was in college, in the fellowship, the speaker said, “If you are one of the ten people who pray every day, raise your hand.” Lo and behold, when we raised our hands, maybe ten people did.
But the enemy begins to steal away our time. In the mornings, we rush to work, and we have so many things already in our minds. Our iPhones are buzzing. We need to read the news and attend to all these things. We do not have a sense of desperation in our prayers, or a sense of the need to pray.
What the Holy Spirit was forging in Elijah was the importance of praying, the importance of bringing things before the One—the only One—who has the power to accomplish those things.
Elijah laid upon the boy the third time, and the boy was raised from the dead. He was seeking and longing for the Lord to do something.
Every so often in our lives, the Lord brings us to a point where we have to pray. Often it comes through difficulties and challenges with health, a job situation, or some tragic and worrisome situation. In those moments, I think the Lord is trying to teach us to pray.
It would be valuable for us to remember the story of the boy, that we might go to the Lord and begin to pray, because He is really the only One who can answer those prayers.
We have had three lessons so far:
Then things went on. Elijah raised the boy from the dead, and the Lord had more for him as he continued from glory to glory. Elijah went searching for Ahab and came upon Obadiah, who was Ahab’s helper.
Obadiah was a secret agent. When Jezebel was going to kill the prophets, Obadiah hid fifty of them in two caves to save their lives. But Obadiah lived in fear. He was always afraid that he would be caught, and he knew that if he were caught, he would be killed.
Obadiah bore two things upon him. First, he knew he had to do the will of God, that he belonged to the Lord his God, and that he was going to do what the Lord asked of him. On the other hand, he knew there would be consequences if he were caught.
Brothers and sisters, I think many of us feel this way when we live in the world. We want to serve the Lord. Our desire is to serve Him. Yet if we are caught, there are consequences. Sometimes there is a struggle in us: How do we do this? How do we move forward?
The Lord is always working on us. Sometimes I used to feel so ashamed of this struggle in me. Why could I not be like those who just do not care? I mean, they are so courageous. Why, at times, am I such a coward?
I read the story of Obadiah and realized there was a growing in Obadiah that had to happen.
The Holy Spirit, who is the treasure in our earthen vessels, has a tool, and that tool is the cross. So often in our lives, the cross is where our flesh dies. The cross works on us, and it does not feel good.
When we think of the work of the cross and of what John said—“He must increase, and I must decrease”—we sometimes think the cross only works on the decreasing side. The cross does work on our flesh and our fleshly life.
But the cross is also working on the increasing side. The cross is refining, purifying, and causing us to grow. The two come together in the work.
In Obadiah, I see the cross. I see a person who is imperfect, but the Lord is working on him to decrease and also to help him increase. That same work is happening in Elijah.
Elijah and Obadiah came across one another. It was life coming into the presence of life. Obadiah was still afraid, but Elijah, in some way, gave him encouragement—and, I think, vice versa.
I remember when I was in college. I went to a place where it was really not okay to be a believer. It was quite a liberal place. Whenever I walked across campus and saw another brother or sister whom I knew, even if they did not see me from a distance, it really encouraged me.
Of course, when we come to a conference and see so many brothers and sisters, it really encourages us.
Paul calls it “dying daily” in 1 Corinthians. “I die daily.” Elijah was dying daily. But the wonderful thing is that every so often the Lord arranges our circumstances so that we pass one another. When we pass, life leaps in the presence of life, and there is encouragement for what is coming afterward.
Might we love those things? In Matthew 5, the Lord said, “You are the light of the world.” His first example was a city on a hill. But His second example was light in the house.
I always think of the house as the house of God. There is no doubt that we are the light of the world. But in the house, we bear not only a testimony outward to the world; we bear a testimony one to another, particularly when we are engaged on the way and the Holy Spirit is producing glory in us.
When we are dying daily, and when we come together, life leaps, and we can go on together.
I often think of the youth. Yesterday, I shared that my son is already eighteen, and someone told me people in the back were in shock. Believe me, I am in shock.
But the truth is that parents cannot lead the youth. We need those of you who have gone a ways ahead of them to love them and to be that Obadiah and Elijah crossing with each other and encouraging them.
If you have it in your heart that you have a heart for these high schoolers and college students, go forward. Love them.
Elijah was encouraged by a fellow brother. Then Ahab and Elijah met again on Mount Carmel. It was going to be a showdown: hundreds of the priests of Baal against one. Or, as my kids would say in gaming lingo, hundreds versus one.
We remember that the prophets of Baal went first. They set up their altar, danced around, chanted, and after a while, when nothing happened, began to cut themselves. They were bleeding, and nothing was happening.
Then it was Elijah’s turn. Elijah systematically set up the altar: twelve stones, one for each tribe. He prayed to the Lord that they might know that the Lord was the One who had instructed him to do this. The power was the Lord’s.
He said, “Answer me, O Lord, answer me.”
After all these experiences, something had begun to change in Elijah’s heart. He could pray the will of God. His prayers were not reflective only of himself. He knew the will of God, and he was praying for the will of God.
He was not overconfident. He was very much dependent. He knew that this was what the Lord wanted to do. It was very much like Moses. Moses knew what the Lord wanted to do, and he would pray those things.
Might it be, brothers and sisters, that as we grow from glory to glory, there would be brothers and sisters who could pray the will of God?
There is nothing wrong with praying for us in our daily lives and praying for us in the moment. Paul asked people to pray for him in the moment concerning what they were going through. But something begins to happen to us as we see Him faithful in the small things. We begin to realize that He has a purpose, and it is in that purpose that we can pray with power.
When that happened, the fire came down and consumed the offering. Then Elijah prayed seven times that the drought might end. He prayed once, and nothing happened. Twice, three times—and on the seventh time, a cloud the size of a man’s hand came up over the ocean.
Those of you who recently went to Israel may have been on the mountain where you could see the ocean. The cloud just came up on the horizon, and Elijah knew that his prayer had been heard.
Real prayers. And real persistence. He kept going because he knew the will of God.
If we could turn to James 5—we are almost out of time—we will read beginning in verse 13. It is about praying.
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.
Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises.
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;
and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.
And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
Here we see, brothers and sisters, that when we are suffering and struggling, the prayer of a righteous man can accomplish very much. The example James gives is Elijah.
James, the Lord’s brother, says Elijah had a nature like ours. What was James’s nature? James was the one who perhaps saw the Lord the most, and he believed only later. He was perhaps doubting, not sure, questioning.
Elijah had a nature like ours. Brothers and sisters, you and I are quite like that, and Elijah was like us. What happened to him that he could become a person who prayed like this?
It was because the Holy Spirit was always at work to make him into that. He made him a righteous man so that he could learn how to pray these prayers—prayers of power. This comes from glory to glory. He was made righteous to pray.
Finally, brothers and sisters, the drought ended. What did the great prophet do after the drought ended? Jezebel heard what had happened to her prophets of Baal. She sent a message to Elijah and told him, “In one day, I am going to kill you.” That was her goal: “It is my life’s goal to kill you.”
Elijah did what every normal brother growing does: he became afraid. He began to run, and he was running in the wrong direction. Along the way, he became tired and experienced real fatigue.
He was under a juniper tree, and the angel came to take care of him, baked some bread, gave him something to drink, and said, “The journey is too great for you.”
Brothers and sisters, this is real life. We go through real times of uncertainty, doubt, and struggle in our faith and in our lives. We would love to believe there are those who do not go through any of this as they go on in life.
But we thank the Lord because the Holy Spirit knows us. He knows to feed us. He knows to nourish us, even when we are going in the wrong direction, because the Holy Spirit sees and knows what He can do. He will not let us go.
When we are going in the wrong direction for so many days, the Holy Spirit will say to us, “The journey is too great for you,” and He will give us nourishment. One day, the Holy Spirit knows that His presence with us will bring a turning again.
Elijah came to Mount Horeb, and he told the Lord, “I am the only one left.” The Lord revealed something to him on that mountain. Let us turn to 1 Kings 19, beginning in verse 9:
Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
And he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, torn down Thine altars and killed Thy prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
Elijah had this sense that he was alone. Then the Lord said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” His instruction was, “Go and stand before Me.”
Elijah was in a cave. He said, “Okay, when the Lord comes, I will stand before Him.” Then the events came: the earthquake, the fire, and the great wind. But the Lord was not in any of those things. Elijah stayed sitting because he had learned who the Lord was.
Then this gentle blowing came. In verse 13, we read:
And it came about when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Something had happened to Elijah over the years, through all his difficulties, stumblings, and fears. Over the years, the Holy Spirit had shown him who the Lord was. There was a revealing of God to him.
When the time came, he was sitting there, and then suddenly the gentle blowing came. That was when he stood up, walked outside, and stood before his Lord.
Brothers and sisters, this is a lesson of great grace for all of us. In the moments when these things are happening, I do not think we know the full picture of what the Holy Spirit is doing. We might think He is leading us just from step one to step two, but all the while there is the moment, and there is the eternal view. The Lord, the Holy Spirit, is working something out in us.
This happened to Elijah. Over the years, he had grown to know the Lord, and then he was restored. It was a very interesting restoration. The Lord restored him and said, “Get back to work.” He told him to go anoint two kings and find Elisha, to give him the mantle.
Then the Lord told him, “There are seven thousand who have not bowed the knee.”
Elijah was restored. Then we read at the end of his life, in 2 Kings, that he was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire.
Some people would say that Elijah did not die. Others would say that Elijah was dying daily. But the truth of the matter is that the Lord is watching all the time.
In this work of being transformed from glory to glory, the Holy Spirit is the Worker. He has at His disposal the cross, and He is masterful in how He leads us forward.
Might we have some degree of understanding, as we look at the difficulties of our lives and the challenges of each lesson we are learning—the purifying, the building up, the chiseling away—that there is a Master Builder at work. He loves us and has in His heart that we might be made like Him.
This is the work of the Lord in these days: from glory to glory by the Holy Spirit.
Let us bow for a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank You for all Your faithful working. Lord, we know there are things You have done in our lives that we have not noticed. We have not perhaps even known why You have done these things, but we thank You, Lord, because we know that You are a master at this.
We know that Your working is for good. Our prayer, Lord, is that You might have a way with us, so that the working would ultimately bring satisfaction to Your heart in the fullness of times.
We worship You, Lord. Be glorified among us. In Jesus’ name, amen.