“…As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

1 Kings 17:1

Elijah was a man who knew the power of words. As a man of God, he established a decree for the whole nation. He made this decree before the highest political authority in the nation. The king did not know Elijah and, therefore, didn’t regard him with much importance. As the days and the months passed the pressure increased, to the point where Elijah became the most sought after person in the entire nation. The drought he prophesied about was the most serious in the history of Israel because it lasted three and a half years. All of this was the result of a judgment from God over the people. The reason it had happened was that the people had distanced themselves from God by worshipping Baal. In other words, they had adopted another god that was not the God of Israel. By this time they had already killed just about all the prophets of God and they had dedicated themselves to honor the prophets of Baal. The witches, fortune tellers, and spiritualists were all enjoying great popularity and the people believed in them.

After three years, Elijah presented himself once again before King Ahab and managed to establish a meeting. The 400 prophets of Baal, Elijah, and the people of Israel all agreed to meet on the top of Mount Carmel. Elijah wanted to demonstrate that they were worshipping a false god. He proposed that each would cry out to their god to demonstrate his power. The god who responded with fire would be the one true God. The people accepted this challenge. However, despite the desperate pleas of the prophets of Baal to their god, nothing happened. There was no fire because Baal was not God. But when Elijah cried out to the Lord, He sent fire and it consumed the altar, the firewood, the rocks, even the soil and went so far as to lick the water from the trench.

For Elijah it was not easy to confront a rebellious nation, but he believed God and obeyed Him. Due to his obedience, God responded with fire. He took the sacrifice, the firewood, the water and everything that the prophet had offered Him and He was pleased with that offering. Obedience brings about rewards!

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
When you join your mind with the thoughts of God, His fire will come and burn all that is out of order. Besides that, He takes His life and places it as a flame that burns inside your being, bringing salvation to your house, your family, city and nation. This is all perfectly possible and can come upon us as the result of having offered our lives to God.

TODAY’S DECLARATION
“I have offered my life to the Lord, His fire purifies me and the power of His anointing comes to me.”

Today’s post is an excerpt from Pastor Cesar Castellanos’ book, Declarations of Power for 365 Days of the Year: Volume Two.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING

• Old Testament: 1 Kings 11; Psalms 119:49-56
• New Testament: Luke 2:21-40; Ephesians 4:1-16