“When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, ‘Is this you, the cause of disaster to Israel?' He said, ‘I have not brought disaster to Israel, but you and your father’s house have, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and you have followed the Baals. Now then, send orders and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and four hundred prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.'” – 1 Kings 18:17-19
Elijah proclaimed to King Ahab that there would be neither dew nor rain in Israel except at his word. This declaration came as a consequence of the wickedness and idolatry prevalent in the kingdom under Ahab's rule. Prophet Elijah knows his bible; he read about the severe consequences of forsaking God's worship and falling into idolatry.
“Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you.” – Deuteronomy 11:16-17
As long as God remains your source, you remain under his covering and blessings' canopy. It is that simple! God revealed to his people in Deuteronomy 11:16-17 that forsaking him would shut up the heavens and prevent rain, leading to famine, death, and destruction of lives. We understand judgments as bad, but judgment is a good thing because it signals to us where we are spiritually and where we are heading. It is God's mercy for us to notice judgments! We don't even deserve to see his judgments at all. He is a merciful God who always wants to save those who perish. But again, we understand judgment in the wrong way! I will explain to you this before revealing to you the great hope we have to shift our nations back to LIFE and blessings.
I don't see judgment as an event in time when God sees us behaving badly and then he opens the heaven and throws a judgment to teach us a lesson. Most people see God through their lens of anger and misconception of his goodness and wisdom. God's judgments don't work like that in my opinion! I told you earlier, that it is God's mercy for us to reveal judgment to help us navigate back to him and LIFE.
How many lives were saved because their body/health signaled to them something visible that we call symptoms? Maybe someone eats unhealthily all the time but suddenly (it's not sudden, it is an accumulation) that person manifests outward symptoms signaling to him or her that they are doing something wrong inwardly that is unplugging them from life, health, and protection and leading to death, doom, and gloom. THAT WAS A GOOD THING, right? TO SEE IT.
I see God's judgments like that. We are doing something wrong, not according to his nature, word, and will, and then we see the rotten fruits of it and we call it judgment. OH GOD IS JUDGING ME because I did this and that! STOP it silly. God loves you, and it is his mercy that he is revealing to you that you are on the wrong path and he wants you to repent and reroute. Don't you love it when your GPS shows you are going in the wrong direction? If you are sensitive enough and I AM SURE WE ARE ALL SENSITIVE TO OUR GPS, we will respond and engage immediately to correct our paths saving us from all kinds of troubles. No sane person would say, oh wow, my GPS is judging me for going the wrong way, for doing my own will. Your GPS is programmed to help you stay on track, and the signals, voices, and beeps (the judgment) are to help you notice this quickly! Oh judgment is good now that you are seeing it the right way!
God's people lost it, from King Ahab to all the nation, they forsook God and worshiped idols and wrong ideologies. That famine was good! It was an alarming signal trumpeting to the nation that they are no longer connected to blessing. God wants them connected again! That's why he had Elijah proclaim “the judgment” sounding the alarm, giving his people an opportunity to see it as it is and go for repentance to connect back to LIFE because you are made for LIFE, and everything will beep and signal to tell you otherwise.
The judgment reveals to you the wickedness of sin because sin in nature is deceiving and “promises” you a good life. Judgement is God's mercy allowing us to see the truth of the matter.
Let's go back to the opening verse:
“When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, ‘Is this you, the cause of disaster to Israel?' He said, ‘I have not brought disaster to Israel, but you and your father’s house have, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and you have followed the Baals. Now then, send orders and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and four hundred prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.'” – 1 Kings 18:17-18
Ahab, the deceived, accused Elijah of causing trouble to Israel by judging them for drought and famine. Elijah was just a spokesman for God; he didn't do it. Elijah was for Israel and not against it; he was a prophet for this reason: to establish truth and bring protection and deliverance. But Ahab lost his mind to deception because he worshipped idols and stopped seeing the truth and who was with him or against him (Romans 1). This happens when we sin; we harden! So Elijah told him it is not me who brought this on Israel but you and your father's house have because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and you have followed Baals. Let's also remember that Omri, King Ahab's father, was also a wicked King and followed this path too.
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” – Proverbs 14:34
So God has a solution to this; he wants to SAVE! We know what happens next on Mount Carmel; the solution was presented to Israel.
God demonstrated himself because of ONE man (the Church owes it to people), and the whole of Israel worshipped God again and forsook Baal and slew their demonic prophets, and rain came back! The economy shifted in a day, and life was preserved. But King Ahab DIDN'T REPENT when we continue reading the story, he stayed in alliance with Jezebel. So why would God lift the curse off of the Land?
Elijah said to Ahab that he and his father's house were the reason they brought disaster to Israel. But on Mount Carmel, we see that only the people of Israel repented and not King Ahab and his household who were in leadership. The problem was with Ahab, and Ahab didn't repent on Mount Carmel. Why would God restore the nation to blessing?
I think I understand two things here. God can bring life to a nation if the leadership aligns with him, but if the leadership remains wicked and doesn't want to repent and change the laws and honor God, the Lord still wants to save and have mercy on the people and the land, so he would visit the people of the nation and deal with them to repent. In this story, ALL ISRAEL on Mount Carmel worshipped Jehovah again, but the King of Israel remained wicked, and God saw that BIG and for their repentance overrode the wickedness of the King and restored the land. “When ALL the people saw this, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God!”
If kings and queens of your nations are wicked and don't want to repent, the Church can and must invest anyway in the people of the nation by leading them to repentance through crusades, evangelism, etc. disciplining everyone! This path is what I believe the Church is heading toward.
Revival is coming to the land; people will repent, and we will see God blessing and healing the land again.
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” – Acts 3:19
Amen
God bless you
Tony Francis
Let's continue this conversation below in the comment section… What's on your mind?
Powers of Christ Death and Resurrection
Christ’s death has spiritual significance as well as physical significance. Christ’s death and resurrection is being celebrated across the world, especially in Christendom, in the name of Easter, but very few really understood the meaning of His death and resurrection, and it physical and spiritual impart.
Let’s really look at it, is it not absurd to tell a man ‘Christ died for you’, Christ who died by crucifixion more than two thousand years ago and the man probably his lineage has never been born by then. Pray, tell, how do you think it sound? Ridiculous, I suppose!
True, Christ death is for all human beings, living by then and by now, being born into the world by then and by now, and yet to be born. It was not just death on the cross, great power of God was released at his death, powers that completely put to destruction ‘special forces of Satan that were holding them world against God; serving as barriers between Him and man, subjecting the world into occult, sin and death. The Bible said, “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land … And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people,” (27:45-53, NIV).
Closely observe this passage, “…he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.” If the death of Christ wrought such physical events, then think of what transpired in the spiritual realm at His death. Each of these has meaning, for people with understanding mind to comprehend. At His death, or the power of God that was released at his death, wrought great destruction to the powers of darkness in the celestial realms. Special forces (demons and evil spirits) of Satan the devil that enslaved the world (even though the world was ignorant of this, for this transcended far beyond the physical and natural world), serving as barriers between God Almighty and human being living by then and being born into the world by then, fell to destructive power of Christ death; as the barriers were broken. The temple curtain torn, a spiritual significant that the door to God Almighty is now open widely for every human being to come to Him with no barrier (except barriers made by humans themselves who loves sin and its vain pleasure than God and Christ). Hades and Death (the most dreadful and one of the most powerful plane in the kingdom of forces of darkness on earth and in heavenly places) lost their overwhelming powers as Christ death freed the dead that has fallen to their powers (few saints actually, with spiritual significant that death has no more hold on the saints of God, those redeemed by Christ through their willingness to come to God through Christ the only True Way). From the time of Christ death onward to our presence days and far into the future, every human beings living in the world and being born in the world is no longer under the powers of these ‘special evil forces’ (except through human-created medium through sins and evil practices) – this is part of the source of the saying that ‘Christ died for you and I’ even after more than two thousand years his crucifixion took place.
Christ Himself did not remained dead for ever, he resurrected from the dead. The scripture accounted that, “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me,” Matthew 28:1-10. Glory be to God in the Highest, Christ Himself, whose death freed the dead saints from the powers of Hades and Death, did not remained dead for ever – He broke the power of death over him!
His resurrection completed the total defeat of Satan and his forces of darkness, now there is no other name than that of Jesus Christ that one can be saved from the wrath of God Almighty coming furiously upon the sinful world. Christ Jesus is the True Way, a burden bearer and a friend of all sinners who is ever ready to share in our sorrows, problems, pains and affliction. May God the Father be praised forever for giving His only Son Jesus Christ, who has redeemed mankind back to Him; reconciling the gap sin and its powers had wrought between Him and humankind.
Samuel Akinola