Okay, Prove IT!
Written by: Timothy Gardner January 2003
(Read "The Hiker" from Max Lucado’s book "A Gentle Thunder)
Introduction:
Many times in our lives, we see something that we would like to accomplish. Others might say we are crazy for wanting to accomplish those things, and this could be very discouraging. To some of us, these discouraging words may make us forget what we wanted to accomplish. While to others, this may become a challenge. This may be the opportune time to prove ourselves. How many here have ever been discouraged by friends in following God? How about your faith in God becomes questioned? Did you feel you had to prove your faith in God?
Like the hiker in the story, I just read to you, we get excited about our calling, but our fervor can soon diminish away in the storms of life. These storms can be a number of discouragements. Nevertheless, even if we are discouraged or questioned about our faith in God, we can overcome the temptation of giving up by the help from our God.
Sometimes we have to prove we have faith in God as Elijah did in I Kings 18:20-39 up on Mount Carmel. It is important to prove our faith in God. We can learn from three steps he took in proving his faith in God for Israel to believe. I call them the three P’s; prepare, pray, and present.
I. To prove your faith in God you must prepare spiritually.
“Be Prepared” is the motto of the Boys Scouts of America. This motto is a good one to follow in life. We can never pass a test unless we study and prepare for it. We can never eat a home cooked meal unless it is prepared. We cannot go on a real vacation unless we prepare in advance. Preparing plays a big role in our lives, especially in our spiritual lives. No matter what you are, preparing for you must have the right tools.
On my keychain, I have a multi-tool that has scissors, a knife, a screwdriver, bottle opener, etc. This multi-tool allows me to do small jobs like cutting some paper, or carving a pencil, or even opening a bottle. With this in my pocket, I have already prepared myself for small jobs such as these. However, if I fail to bring it with me, then I cannot perform these small jobs.
In I Kings 18:30-35 we find Elijah preparing his sacrifice to God. He had to have the right tools in place in order to prove his faith in God to the prophets of Baal. One of the tools used was an altar of the Lord that he repaired using 12 stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob. There is some history that this was possibly the altar Saul built after his defeat over Amalek found in 1 Sam 15:12, that was then tore down by the idolatrous Israelites, who demolished such altars erected in the name of the Lord everywhere, and built new ones for there idols (Gill 380). He also used other tools in preparing for this sacrifice.
However, the right tools are not the only aspect to preparing spiritually to prove our faith in God. You should know your enemies.
Knowing our enemies is a key factor in preparing ourselves spiritually. In I Kings 18:20 we see that Elijah has Ahab to summon the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel where he later challenges his God against their god. Many of us do not know the reason Elijah chose Mount Carmel for the place of the “God” challenge. In order to figure out the implications of using Mt. Carmel we will have to find where it was and what it was used for.
Mt. Carmel is a mountain range, the northwestern continuation of the hills of Samaria. It rises to the height of 1,650 feet above sea level. There is a river called Kishon that flows at its foot. It falls steeply into the Mediterranean Sea (Illustrated Dictionary 219).
Mount Carmel was said to be the middle of Ahab’s kingdom so it would be convenient for all the tribes to travel to, so they too can see this challenge. It was some distance from Samaria, which was where Jezebel was. Elijah did not want her to hinder this challenge (Wesley 278). Elijah could also see when the rain was coming, as he did (Gill 378), because this was the highest point in the ridge (Jamieson 264). It was also believed to be the place where Baal would be the most powerful.
Gill states that when Elijah makes this challenge with the prophets of Baal they must have agreed to the proposal by their silence. Ben Gersom thinks they agreed to it because that, according to their belief, Baal was Mars, and in the sign of Aries, one of the fiery planets, and therefore if fancied he could send down fire on their sacrifice. But Abarbinel, is of opinion that it was the sun they worshipped, under the name of Baal, the great luminary which presides over the element of fire, and therefore had power to cause it to descend, and if not, they agreed to it, he thinks, for a couple of reasons. One was necessity. They could not refuse or they might have gotten stoned. They could have also thought they should offer their bulls together, so that, if fire descended, it would come upon them both, and then the dispute would be, whether Elijah’s God, or Baal, sent it; and so no proof could be made who was God, nor the matter in controversy decided (379).
Elijah obviously had some knowledge of his enemy. This is not a challenge that just popped into Elijah’s head, it was a well thought out, well-prepared challenge. He knew they were not going to say no to this challenge, because he was not only asking for what their god Baal does best, he was also in Baal’s territory. He did not only want to challenge his God against their god, he wanted to completely humiliate them in front of everyone in proving the non-existence of Baal. He was trying to turn the hearts of the people back to God
Elijah had the right tools and he knew his enemies. He was prepared spiritually for battle. This is the first step to proving our faith in God. As a Boys Scout says, “Be prepared!”
Our next step in proving our faith in God is praying continually.
II. To prove your faith in God you must pray continually.
Do you remember the hiker from the story? Have you ever been caught in a storm while you were pursuing God’s call? Like the hiker, we get tired and discouraged. We tend to want to give up. The pressure almost seems inevitable. Nevertheless, what do we usually do when we are caught in these storms? We always end up praying.
Mark 11:24 reads “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours”. This was Jesus’ words when he was speaking to Peter about faith.
Now anyone can pray, but how many faithful prayers are really being lifted up? God did not give us this open line of communication to help us rid of our guilt. He did not give it to us to nag Him for help with every little detail in our lives, either. He opened it so we could call on His name when we needed Him the most! And trust me; He knows when you need Him the most. He knows if you can do it on your own or not.
When my daughter, Rianna, tells me she needs help with something that needs my attention, I am on the job, but if she simply asks me to help her with something she is perfectly capable of doing on her own, like cleaning her room, then I back off and tell her she needs to do it herself.
When we are caught in these storms like the hiker, we have this tendency to pray with expectancy. We know we need God the most, and He knows it is time for Him to be daddy. He sees our hearts and He comes to help us out. This is the same for any prayer we lift to Him. If we pray with a faithful heart, God will see and come help. This does not mean we should pray against our enemies, though. Instead, we should pray for them.
Elijah prayed in verses 36-37, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”
How awesome is that! Even though he was in the middle of this storm, even though haters of God surrounded him, even though he was outnumbered 450 to one he still prayed, not for himself, but for his enemies. He still prayed for the people to believe that his God was the only God. That his God was the ultimate God. That his God was the true God. And we today can still follow this example when we are caught in our storms. We can follow Elijah’s example when we are being discouraged or questioned, even when we are being persecuted for following God. Lady’s and gentleman, we need to be a praying people. We need to fall to our knees for our friends, our family, and our enemies. We cannot move away from what the Bible teaches us. And when I say we need to pray, I do not mean just in the morning when we get up, or at night just before we go to bed. I do not mean right before each meal. I mean we need to pray continually! You cannot have a deep relationship with someone you talk to only 5 or 10 minutes a day. How do you expect God to show Himself to your enemies if you are not asking Him to. Let me tell you something. If you are a faithfully praying from the inside, it will show on the outside. Those people that question your faith in God will see Jesus in you. When they see this collage of Jesus shining around you, they will open up to your ministry. And that is when it is time to present God fully.
III. To prove your faith in God you must present Him fully.
Elijah question’s Israel in 1 Kings 18:21, “How long will you waver between two opinions?” In the King James Version, the word ‘halt’ is used in place of waver, which both have the same Hebrew word which is pacach, paw-sakh’, and means to hop, i.e.-skip over, also to limp, or to dance (Strong’s 95). Gill writes, “As a lame man walking, his body moves sometimes to one side, and sometimes to another; or like a bird leaps or hops from one branch to another, and never settles long; or rather denotes the confusion of their thoughts, being like branches of trees twisted and implicated; thus upbraiding them with their inconstancy and fickleness; (378-379).”
Whichever way you look at it the people of Israel were on a border between God and Baal. They forgot about God, just as their ancestors did, and they were not sure about Baal just yet. They were going with what seemed the “in” in those times, just as we do today.
This reminds me of a story written by a friend of mine named Ron Boutwell. It is entitled The Parable of Two Best Friends.
This is a Parable of Two Best Friends.
As children, they laughed and played together. They shared their toys. They shared their secrets. They even shared their tears. They were friends for life.
One day, one of the friends found a very special treasure. Something very valuable. It was eternity. Though she could share it with her friend, she did not. She hid it away to a secret place.
The friends grew older. They became fun-loving, noisemaking, boy crazy teenagers. They laughed and played together. They shared their toys. They shared their secrets, at least most of them. They even shared their tears. They were friends for life.
Time passed, as friends they became responsible, mature, hard working adults. They had families, careers, and interests of their own, but they still shared their toys. They shared their secrets, sometimes. They even shared their tears. They were friends for life.
Many years went by, the friends became old people. Their families were grown, but they still shared some laughter and a lot of tears, but they no longer shared their secrets. And the eternal treasure remained hidden in that secret place.
The day came when one of the friends died. Then they shared nothing, for they were only friends for life.
This is a Parable of Two Best Friends.
As children, they laughed and played together. They shared their toys. They shared their secrets. They even shared their tears. They were friends for life.
One day, one of the friends found a very special treasure. Something very valuable. It was eternity. She cherished it for a while, because she loved her friend, she shared the treasure with her.
The friends grew older. They became fun-loving, noisemaking, boy crazy teenagers. They laughed and played together. They shared their lives and joys and prayers together.
Time passed, though they had their own families and interests, they found time to shared their prayers. And together they shared their treasure with their families and others. They were friends for life.
Many years went by, their families were gone, but they still shared some laughter and some tears, but mostly they shared their faith, their burdens, and their prayers. And they were friends for life.
The day came when one of the friends died. They could no longer share their faith, their burdens, or their prayers, but they still shared one thing. That eternal treasure. They had not only been friends for life, they were friends for eternity.
Remember when I said if you are a faithfully praying from the inside, it will show on the outside, and then the people you are praying for will draw to you? Let’s look at what happened after Elijah prayed.
After Elijah prayed for his enemies, verse 38 tells us “Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench”. Did you hear that? I guarantee that if God were to do this again down in Wrigley Field, I would be the first person to pay $1000 dollars for a front row seat!
If you recall after Elijah dug a trench around the altar of the Lord, and after he prepared his bull, he ordered the people to fill up four large jars of water and pour it onto the altar not just once, not twice, but three times until the trench was full and the water was dripping from the altar. Now let me ask you something. Have you ever, and I mean ever have seen water be consumed by fire? Usually it is the other way around! God knew Elijah came prepared. God heard Elijah’s prayer. And God sent the fire. Just as the hiker was huddling in the storm, he looked one last time for the fire, and he found it.
God became Elijah’s consuming fire that day, and I am here to tell you He will do the same for you. Halleluiah! God had his way once again, because of a faithful servant named Elijah came and proved his faith in his Lord God in front of hundreds of people. And you know what happened after God sent the fire? Are you ready for this?
Verse 39 says, “When the people saw this, they fell prostrate and they cried, “The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God!”” These people not only cried out once, “The Lord, He is God.”, but they cried out twice, “The Lord, He is God.” They came back to God when God revealed Himself through Elijah’s faith. They came back to God when God sent the fire. You see the whole reason for this “God” challenge was not for Elijah to show his power, but for God to show His power through Elijah’s faith, and that is what changed the hearts of the Israelites back to God, that is what happened. God’s goal was accomplished.
Conclusion:
So, what about your life? Are you prepared spiritually to prove your faith in God? Do you pray continually in your Christian walk? Are you ready to present God fully? Or are you wavering between God and the world? Are you ready to start practicing the three P’s?
The hiker was called to the desert. He prepared carefully for his call. He did not waver. He was determined. However, when the storm came, he was huddled in a ball scared, discouraged, and ready to quit. What if he did quit? What if he let the storm wash away his call? Then all that preparation went to waste. However, we know the end of the story. We know the hiker does not quit. We know he does not let the storm wash away his call. No. He found the fire and he pressed on. What a great ending. Therefore, I will ask you again. What about your life? Is it headed for a happy ending? If not, do you want it to? God wants us to accept Him not only inwardly, but also outwardly. If you have not accepted Him inwardly, then do it today. God needs you in His family. God wants to help you in your storms. God is here for you, but you have to accept Him first. If you have not accepted Him outwardly, then it is time to start now. Start practicing the three P’s: Prepare Spiritually, Pray Continually, Present Him Fully in your life, and if you do God will prevail.
