“And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubelth 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 Baalim (pagan deity).

Now therefore send, and gather unto 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.

So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets unto mount Carmel.

And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. 

Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.

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.

And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.

And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal FROM morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was NO voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped (danced) upon the altar that was made.

And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud (cry louder); for he is a god, either he is talking, or he is pursuing (busy), or he is in a journey, or peradventure (perhaps)he sleepeth, and must be awaked.

And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner (their pagan custom) with knives and lancets (swords), till the blood gushed out upon them.

And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any answer, nor any that regarded. 

And Elijah said unto the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. 

And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be they name.

And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord; and he made a trench about (around) the altar, as great as would contain two measure of seed.

And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, AND on the wood.

And he said, Do it a second time. And they did it a second time. And he said, Do it a third time. And they did it a third time.

And the water ran about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.

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 art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.

Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art 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.

And when the people SAW it, they fell on their faces; and they said, The Lord, He is God; the Lord, he is the God.” 1 Kings 18: 17-39

Now that’s people being made believers!

Doesn’t the opening conversation sound much like the rants spewed toward believers today? Ahab accusing Elijah as being the cause of the troubles of Israel, when in reality, it was his wickedness, the wickedness of his house, and those who had been seduced by them into following and worshipping pagan demons.

And as such hatred and intolerance today is directed toward followers of Christ, it all sounds very familiar, I got the biggest kick last week when I saw on the news a quick interview with this a very young lady who was explaining her groups need to protest, and she explained to the reporter, “Intolerance will Not be tolerated!”…Huh?

That does not even make sense, if you say that you will not tolerate an action, thought, or attitude than that makes you intolerant, that’s kinda what it means…

So now that we have came to that lovely destination in our societal journey where no one is allowed to have thoughts, opinions, or attitudes for that matter, we are all to be carbon copies of whatever society tells us we are ALLOWED to be at that particular moment, and you know the more those  socialist demands are given into the greater the ropes tighten on those who are willing to empty out their brains and ask only how high when told to jump, in a false hope of securing a fabled societal harmony that is anything but.

God never tells us anywhere in his word to appease sin, he tells us quite the opposite, he even told us that we WOULD BE hated.

And while it’s considered cool to hate on us, even officials referring to Christian beliefs that are directly taught by the Bible, now referring to those teachings as “hateful views” and a completely new surge in mysticism as there is a new increase in those seeking “knowledge” in the use of crystals for the relief of Covid symptoms,  yeah, the rocks, semi precious or not do NOT have power to heal anyone, they have NO power at all, did remind of two things though.

The first thought was when Jesus was told to make his followers shush as they cried HOSSANNA, at to which he replied, “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace (keep silent),the stones would immediately cry out.” 

And the second was something else his said as he was so wounded and battered that he struggled in carrying the cross, Simon of Cyrene was made to carry it on to Golgotha, and the women cried for him, and he turned and said to them, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For behold, the days ARE coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave gave suck (breasts that were never nursed), Then shall they begin TO SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS, FALL ON US; AND TO THE HILLS, COVER US.”

So I can’t even fathom why on earth anyone would be deceived into believing that a rock, stone, crystal, any object could have any power, much less power to heal, but that is where we are, and people would rather pray to a rock, whether they call it meditating or not, it’s still prayer, when you concentrate on something, giving your mind, yourself over to that, it is worship, and they would rather put their “trust” and health, and ultimately their soul into a rock than to submit to a very living very real God who does have the power to heal.

And the argument for why so many refuse to believe in the existence of Jesus is that they say they are too SMART…yeah… go ask that rock what the true names that were given to the stars and get back to me when it verbally speaks you the answer.

Mention of being smart, the prophets of Baal, here they were crying out, pleading, dancing, and finally going to the extreme to get answered by again, something that can not possibly answer, they decide to cut themselves, injuring themselves, pouring their own blood out to a pagan deity in show of worship, in a show of crazed devotion with the hope of having their petition granted.

Our God did not ask us to pour out our blood for him, He poured out his blood to save us.

This is a very poignant picture of the price demanded in idol worship, it is always demonic in nature, even if it is something as inert as a rock, or in this case a named pagan deity, if it is not based in Jehovah God, well, than it’s not based in Jehovah, and the opposite of good is evil, so regardless of what the “religion”, “practice”, or “philosophy” it is, if it is not rooted in God, the true God, it is an entry point for demonic influence that wants nothing more than to see people eternally lost and they will do everything possible to facilitate those false beliefs.

And it spreads, this self-mutilation that can be seen in our society today, known as “cutting” is a direct result of demonic influence over those lives compelling them to destroy and harm what God has created and you can prove that out, not only with this story, but also in the story of Jesus healing the man who was possessed by Legion, one aspect of his behavior BEFORE being healed by Jesus was that the man cut himself with sharp rocks, this was a direct action of the demons, again to hurt, destroy, and shed the precious blood of God’s creations.

You know, when you think about the blood, there’s a lot to that, think about the things we “bleed”, things just being poured out, like the old term, used when a business is going under, it is said to be “hemorrhaging money” and much like that when we don’t have Christ, we “bleed” sin, and then we “bleed” out anything good in our lives, we “bleed” out our hopes and dreams, hemorrhaging spiritually, all in waste without God.

No matter what they did or how much they bled the “prophets” of Baal, without the desired fire falling, had no hope of proving anything.

Which now gets us to the fire, that is one of the most awesome displays of his power, which that was nothing to the Lord, as far as his power goes, but can you imagine, having been there, or even being ONE of those people whose souls were literally being fought for in this contest?

Watching with anticipation as the pagans danced, cried, and bled as they begged for the proof of fire from a “god” that they had beguiled, and demanded, and in some cases maybe even threatened the people into fearing, serving, and worshipping, and then to see nothing, not a puff of smoke, not a glimmer, not even one spark.

Then as Elijah prayed, prayed on their behalf, so that they would know the truth, he already knew God, he knew he was real, but so that they would know the truth, he prayed and God sent that fire, his holy fire, straight down from heaven itself, touching earth, burning up everything, the bullock, the wood, and YES, even the ROCKS, the dust, and everything was soaking wet, but the water didn’t phase it, didn’t slow it down, and sure didn’t stop the burn, God’s fire even took out all the water in the water filled trench that had surrounded it all.

God didn’t need it to be wet or dry, didn’t matter, He is God, he does what he wants, the water was to drive that point home to those who watched and as the people looked on, they knew the truth.

There was no earthly explanation, even in anything the pagan “prophets” could have tried to come up with in an attempt to dispute or explain away what happened, God gave them something so brilliant in display that there could be no other explanation than the truth, which was that this was the hand of God at work. And as God answered by fire the people cried out, The LORD is God!

We need that fire, we need to stop trying to do backbends accommodating the world in hopes of making believers out of them because in reality ONLY God can make believers.

We need to repair that altar as Elijah did. Remembering it is to be Holy and consecrated and removing anything contrary to that and demanding it to be kept Holy by refusing to allow others or the world to profane it.

We just need to stay out of his way and pray for that fire to fall. We are not ever going to get anywhere as long as we allow the truth of God’s word to be watered down and refuse to preach true repentance and hell for fear of being accused of being “intolerant”.

Fire to sparks, dim to light, LET IT IGNITE!

I do use the word LET it, meaning to allow it, God will not do anything in our lives that we do not surrender to, he does not work that way, this is why we must be willing vessels, we are created by him for his purpose on this earth, and we are chosen by him to fulfill that purpose but we must surrender to his will and then the souls that hang in the balance, just as in our text, as Elijah asked them how long would they sway between two opinions, can’t serve both, with God you are either in or out, he’s not going to make anyone serve him, but we can’t have both, we can’t kiss the world’s tears away because they are offended and by doing so offend God by completely disregarding his commandments and choosing to only teach what will keep them pacified.

We need some sparks, and maybe sparks is all you got left, don’t forsake that, if you only have a smoldering ember, please get in your prayer closet, take communion, fast from this world, no television, no news, no surfing the web, no social media, for a time, only you and God, and let his presence blow on those smoldering embers and ignite you and your life to do something so amazing, so powerful, and life changing in these LAST days.

No one, No one gets to sit this out, God gives all of his children talents and gifts, after you have allowed his fire to touch you and those sparks are flying, get into your calling.

If you are unsure of yours, do this, think about what is closet to your heart, where you would like to see change and go from there, pray and seek, seek as if you have one day left on this earth, what would you want to do for the kingdom? If you have social media, you can post scriptures, you can encourage friends, family, there are so many things you can do in word and deed, but make sure you are doing something, be a prayer warrior, but start somewhere.

And if you already know in your heart of hearts your calling… just do it, give yourself and the devil NOT one reason why you can’t because NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GOD. 

You have to step out in that faith, the SAME faith every single minister and kingdom worker has stepped out in, you are not alone and God blesses unbridled faith, just like Elijah knew that fire would fall.

Psalm 68:11: The Lord GAVE the word; great was the company (host) of those who published (PROCLAIMED) it.”

Meaning, many, many innumerable people whose job it is to share the truth of the blessed word and the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So please, start getting that fire stoked TODAY and let it ignite someone’s heart through the mighty power working in your life in obedience to Jesus Christ!

God bless you till next time! Thank you for reading, Love & Peace!

Φλογιζω NBJ 2021 Reverend Nina Brown Johnson