Elijah - Training, Obedience, Presence of God

[00:00:00] Now, if we could turn to the word of God, to one kings and chapter 18. [00:00:09] One kings and chapter 18. [00:00:13] From verse 16, I'm going to read in the living Bible. [00:00:23] Now, it may well be that a little of this might shock some, but I have looked it up, and I see that it is quite correct what he says. So if you are apt to be shocked by the living Bible in this thing, I must tell you that it is, in fact, a little more honest translation than our authorized version in this particular matter from verse 16 of chapter 80. So Obadiah went to tell Ahab that Elijah had come, and Ahab went out to meet him. So it's you, is it? A man who brought this disaster upon Israel. Ahab exclaimed when he saw him. You're talking about yourself, Elijah answered. For you and your family have refused to obey the Lord and have worshipped Baal instead. [00:01:26] Now bring all the people of Israel to Mount Carmel with all 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who are supported by Jezebel. So Ahab summoned all the people and the prophets to Mount Carmel. [00:01:45] Then Elijah talked to them. How long are you going to waver between two opinions? He asked the people, if the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal is God, then follow him. [00:02:00] Then Elijah spoke again. [00:02:02] I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, he told them. But Baal has 450 prophets. [00:02:10] Now bring to young bull the prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without putting any fire under the wood. And I will prepare the other young bull and lay it on the wood, on the Lord's altar with no fire under it. Then pray to your God, and I will pray to the Lord and the God who answers by sending fire to light the wood is the true God. And all the people agreed to this test. [00:02:44] Then Elijah turned to the prophets of Baal. You first, he said, for there are many of you. Choose one of the bulls and prepare it and call to your God. But don't put any fire under the wood. So they prepared one of the young bulls and placed it on the altar. And they called to Baal all morning, shouting, o baal, hear us. But there was no reply of any kind. [00:03:09] Then they began to dance around the altar. About noontime, Elijah began mocking them. You'll have to shout louder than that, he scoffed, to catch the attention of your God. Perhaps he's talking to someone, or he's out sitting on the toilet. Or maybe he's away on a trip or is asleep and needs to be awakened. So they shouted louder, and as was their custom, cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out. They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice. But there was no reply. No voice, no answer. [00:03:55] Then Elijah called to the people, come over here. And they all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel, and used the stones to rebuild the lords altar. Then he dug a trench about 3ft wide around the altar. He piled wood upon the altar and cut the young bull into pieces and laid the pieces on the wood. Fill four barrels with water, he said, and pour the water over the carcass and the wood. [00:04:30] After they had done this, he said, do it again. And they did. Now do it once more. And they did. And the water ran off the altar and filled the trench, the customary time for offering the evening sacrifice. Elijah walked up to the altar and prayed, O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, prove today that you are the God of Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command, O Lord. Answer me. Answer me so these people will know that you are God and that you have brought them back to yourself. Then suddenly fire flashed down from heaven and burnt up the young bull. The wood, the stones, the dust, and even evaporated all the water in the ditch. And when the people saw it, they fell their faces upon the ground, shouting, Jehovah is God. Jehovah is God. Then Elijah told them to grab the prophets of Baal. Don't let a single one escape, he commanded. So they seized them all, and Elijah took them to Keishon Brook and killed them there. [00:05:43] Chapter 19, verse one. When Ahab told Queen Jezebel what Elijah had done and that he had slaughtered the prophets of Baal, she sent this message to Elijah. You killed my prophets, and now I swear by the gods that I'm going to kill you by this time tomorrow night. So Elijah fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a city of Judah, and left his servant there. Then he went alone into the wilderness, traveling all day, and sat down under a broom bush and prayed that he might die. I've had enough, he moaned to the Lord. Take away my life. I've got to die sometime, and it might as well be now. [00:06:26] Then he lay down and slept beneath the broom bush. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him to get up and eat. He looked around and saw some bread baking on hot stones and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. [00:06:43] Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, get up and eat some more, for theres a long journey ahead of you. So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel 40 days and 40 nights to Mount Horeb, the mount of God, where he lived in a cave. [00:07:01] But the Lord said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? [00:07:06] He replied, ive worked very hard for the Lord God of the hiddens, but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you and torn down your altars and killed your prophets, and only I am left. And now they are trying to kill me, too. [00:07:24] Go out and stand before me on the mountain, the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose. But the Lord was not in the wind. [00:07:44] After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. [00:07:57] And after the fire, there was the sound of a gentle whisper. [00:08:04] When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his scarf and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And a voice said, why are you here, Elijah? [00:08:19] He replied again, I have been working very hard for the Lord God of the armies of heaven, but the people have broken their covenant, torn down your altars. They've killed every one of your prophets except me, and now they're trying to kill me too. [00:08:36] Then the Lord told him, go back by the desert road to Damascus, and when you arrive, anoint Hazael to be king of Syria. Then anoint Jehu son of Himshi, to be king of Israel and anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel, Muholah to replace you as my prophet. Anyone who escapes from Hazael shall be killed by Jehu, and those who escape Jehu shall be killed by Elisha. And incidentally, there are 7000 men in Israel who have never bowed to Baal nor kissed him. [00:09:18] Now, last week we looked at the life of Elijah and drew just two lessons from it. [00:09:28] I suppose Elijah is one of the greatest characters in the whole of the Bible. [00:09:36] When God wanted to symbolize the whole of the Old Testament, all that he had said, all that he had done, all that he'd revealed, he expressed it in these two men, Moses and Elijah, who talked with the Lord Jesus at his transfiguration. And of course, in jewish circles, Elijah and Moses represent the whole of the Old Testament. Now, there were two simple lessons we took last week. We can't possibly take all of them. I'd hoped to have taken three last week. We only got the two. And the first was found in his name, Elijah Eliyahu, which simply means the Lord is God. Or even more correctly, my lord is God. [00:10:27] My God is the Lord. Sorry, my God is the Lord. And perhaps some would say with even greater emphasis, it perhaps ought to be my God is the Lord himself. And we took from that the great lesson of the sovereignty of the Lord in the life of every child of God. The sovereignty of the Lord in the life of every servant of the Lord. Certainly Elijah knew it. He knew what it was to be absolutely under the command of heaven. And he used that phrase again and again. The God of the Lord, as the Lord liveth before whom I stand. [00:11:10] His whole life was an expression of the sovereign authority and rule of God, the kingdom of God, breaking again and again into human affairs, as it were, overruling in the ways of men and breaking in. Well, we won't stay any longer this evening with that or we won't go on to our other lessons. And the second one was the wonderful lesson we discovered in one, kings 17 one and comparing it with James 516 18. A man of like passions with us. [00:11:54] And he prayed fervently. [00:11:58] I think it is an altogether false picture that people have got about, lied to being astir, austere, remote man. [00:12:07] I deliberately read the version in the living Bible because I think the way he spoke reveals not perhaps quite so stern a man as you might imagine, but a man with very real humour. There was fire in the man. There was also. He was a man of like passions with us. The more you get to know Elijah, the more you find he was just the same as we. [00:12:37] But the wonderful thing is this, that he may have had the same feelings and the same affections and all the trouble that come from feelings and affections just the same as all of us. But he went further. By the grace of God, he prayed fervently, or he prayed in prayer or with prayer, as it is literally. Now, that was our next great lesson. And we looked at the prayer life of Elijah, the way that in faith he simply interceded, the way he shut the heavens up, the way he opened the heavens, not in a kind of arbitrary manner as if it was Elijah doing it and heaven sort of saying, all right, Elijah, we'll fall in with that. But much more. It was that he was so in touch with heaven so in such a living relationship to the throne of God. As he said, the Lord liveth before whom I stand. That he knew, as it were the Holy Spirit made him aware of what the will of God was. And then he became the instrument by which outwardly that will of God was fulfilled or realize both in the shutting up of the heavens and then in the unlocking of the heavens fire coming down out of heaven and on a number of occasions and so on and so forth. That was another great lesson. Now, this evening I want to go on again. I'm just hoping that we'll be able to take three lessons because all these three lessons are connected. And the first is all to do with Elijah's stay at Cherish and Zariphath. [00:14:23] Cherith and Zarephath. Now, that is chapter 17 from verse two to verse 24 nearly the whole chapter of the whole 17th chapter of one kings. [00:14:41] Now, I hope you've all read this chapter. Elijah was told to go first to cherith verse three. [00:14:51] Get thee hence and turn thee eastward and hide thyself by the brook. Cherith, that is, before Jordan. And then a little later when the brook dried up at Cherith he was told in verse nine, arise, get thee to Zarephath which belongeth to Sidon and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain thee. Now, the lesson here is tremendous. [00:15:25] It is simply this. [00:15:27] We must know and experience the chastening hand of God his training, his education by the cross and the spirit if we're going to be usable to him. [00:15:46] It's as simple as that. Very easy to say, not so easy to experience. [00:15:54] This whole. [00:15:58] This whole portion, this phase in Elijah's life is full of instruction in the chastening of God in the hand of God educating his servant, training his servant in one sense, you might say preparing his servant for fuller service, deeper service. Now, it doesn't matter who you are. Every child of God, every servant of the Lord must go this way. [00:16:39] If you and I have an argument with the Lord his education of us his chastening hand his pruning work we shall surely put ourselves out of the will of God. [00:16:57] It is impossible, even as simple as a simple child of God to really go on with the Lord unless you are prepared for his chastening. [00:17:10] Now, of course, unfortunately, some people have got a completely false idea of chastening. They think of it as a kind of steamroller, a bulldozer something that sort of flattens you so that after the Lord's finished with you, you're sort of stuck on the floor. [00:17:27] You're just a kind of vague shape. You've lost your personality, you've lost your color, you've lost your personality, you've lost your originality. You've lost everything. God has sort of gone over you like a steamroller. Nothing could be further from the truth. [00:17:45] The chastening work of God is far from destroying us. [00:17:53] It is making us. [00:17:57] Mister Sparks always used to like to use the word which is an exact and literal translation of the word, the greek word which is translated normally, chastening. He used to like to translate it. Child training. [00:18:14] Childling training. Someone up in the way that they ought to go. [00:18:22] Now, all of us, if we've had good homes, have had times when we suffered. [00:18:28] Now, it wasn't that our parents were some harsh victorian type, but rather that we by nature were somewhat rebellious and difficult. And there were times when we got smacked or dealt with, or things were denied us, and we made a great show of it. We had tantrums, we did all kinds of things. But if they're good parents, no yielding. No yielding. And we are thankful for it. [00:19:02] I know of no child who, having grown up, is not thankful for parents. The real training, the loving training of parents. Now, if you turn to Hebrews and chapter twelve, of course, it's all put in scripture. Here it is, from verse five. [00:19:25] Ye have forgotten the exhortation which reasoneth with you as with sons, my son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art reproved of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. In other words, the more the Lord loves you, the more education and the more training youll have. And if youre a son that the Lord is receiving as a son. Now, what does this mean? We can be children and not sons? In a sense. [00:20:09] Let me put this quite clearly. You may have children, but your children cannot take over the business. They can't run the farm, they can't administer the home. They're children. But you can have a child who is a son when he grows up. He can run the business, and very successfully. He can run the farm, and very successfully. He can run a home. And very successfully. He's still a son. He's still your child, but he's grown up now. Those whom God has in mind for sonship, that is his own beloved children. He wants them to be his sons who are going to govern in his kingdom, who are going to sit on the throne? Who are going to be given responsibility in the things of God and the work of God he scourges. [00:21:05] In other words, the Lord has his eye on us for the future, and he wants to prepare us and educate us wholly with the future in mind. The chastening hand of God. Turn. [00:21:21] Let's just go on. Verse seven. It's for chastening that ye endure. God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father chasteneth not? But if ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons? [00:21:39] Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection under the father of spirit and live far from steamrollering the life out of us, squashing the life out of us? Shall we not, under the chastening hand of God, know what it is to live spiritually, to come through with more life than we had before? Now, if you turn back to John and chapter 15, John 15, two, we've got exactly the same thought in a different way. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away. And every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit. So now, here is an interesting thing. [00:22:33] When you have got a little bit of fruit, then God chastens. [00:22:39] When there's a little bit of fruit, he waits for the fruit, and once there's a little bit of fruit, however small, the Lord cuts it back. Cuts back the branch in order to bring more fruit. And later, when you've had more fruit, the Lord will cut you back a bit more for more fruit. [00:22:56] It is this work of God. Cherith. Zarephath. Cherith, zarephath. Now, we have it most wonderfully in the very word cherish. This is why I believe in the inspiration of scripture. It's quite remarkable. Sometimes it's childlike. Sometimes it surpasses the wisdom of men. Here you've got it in this little word, cherith. Cherith simply means. It comes from a root, hebrew root, mean karat, which simply means to cut off or cut down. [00:23:29] And it's thought by some that it was used because of the way this little stream cherry, the little stream itself, cut a gorge in the wilderness of Judea. A deep trench cut right into it. So they gave it the word cherif. [00:23:47] Cherish. [00:23:49] But of course, for us, spiritually, what a lesson there is in the very name. Go to the brook, cherith, and hide thyself there. The place of being cut down, the place where your natural life is going to be cut off, where somehow or other you're going to know the cross. I have been crucified with Christ. [00:24:15] Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. That is the spiritual meaning of the brook keret. Now, zarifav is even more interesting. Again, the root word in Hebrew, in all Hebrew words go back to roots. They all have roots. They're quite unique in many ways. And the little root here means smelting or refining. And it's exactly the same thought after God had cut down poor Elijah to size, cut off his natural resources, made him absolutely dependent upon heavenly resources. Then he sent him off to Zarifath where a great refining work went on. It was one thing to get it straight from the Lord. It was another thing to have some poor little widow woman who evidently had some skeleton in the cupboard, by the way, in her past, something to do with her son, for later on when the boy dies, she says, has the Lord visited me for my sin? [00:25:19] By inference, by implication. We think that it must be something to do with the way she'd been living in the past. [00:25:28] And it was this little widow that had been commanded by the Lord to sustain the great prophet Elijah. A refining work. Sometimes God uses our friends, sometimes he uses other children of God. Oh, it's one thing to get it direct from the Lord to get sort of our sustenance, but, oh, we find it much harder when we have to rely on sometimes on others and let them do something. And God comes to us through them. [00:25:51] We'd rather have the ravens feed us direct than a widow woman. [00:25:59] Now, this is God's refining work. You've got these two things together, first of all, the cutting down work, and then you've got the refining work. [00:26:11] Now really all it is is life out of death, the cross and the spirit, education, training in the indwelling life of Christ. Now, let me get this as far as I possibly can clear this evening. There are people who think that somehow God will sort of fall on them out of heaven and they'll be completely submerged in some huge Amazon like river of life that sort of wafts them along. Now, I don't think this is always true by any means. There are one or two who start off like that, and then God has to turn them upside down and get them back to Cherith and Zarephath. But for most of us normal believers, we start with Cherith and Zarephath and come to the great Amazon line river. In other words, what God has to teach us is this thing is absolutely divine in origin. [00:27:09] We have to learn that the river that keeps us alive can be a trickle, but it will keep us alive and there is nothing else worth having. [00:27:19] So our only answer in our life is to live near the brook. [00:27:29] Life out of death. Now, if you could visit the place, you would see it straight away. [00:27:35] Miles and miles and miles of arid, waterless wilderness. One great ravine and a little brook that babbles just about a foot in when we were there. Just about a foot wide, 18 inches wide, perhaps six inches deep. But that little brook keeps you alive. [00:27:59] Life out of death in all the surrounding death. [00:28:03] Life. [00:28:05] Now isn't that exactly what the resurrection life of Christ is? Everything else, death, a world that lies in the evil one all around us, the world, the flesh, the devil. And yet we are miraculously kept alive. Sometimes I marvel at some saints. I hear people moaning and groaning and they have the most marvellous circumstances in my travels. Sometimes I see people, I am just tremble to think how they keep alive spiritually with what they put up with, the lack of fellowship, the death all around them. And yet, amazingly, they stay alive. And much more than just alive, they've got something to give, really something to give. Every time you touch them, you touch the Lord and you receive something of the Lord through them. And I think some of these moaning minis, and not only moaning minnies, moaning herbs as well. [00:29:09] Oh, everything so terrible, surrounded by fellowship, freedom of worship, everything else on a plate. And yet we can't bear one little thing, this little thing, that little thing gets us down. It's terrible, isn't it, when you really think of it. And as often as we say to one another, it's only when these things are taken away from us, things like health, things like our possessions, things like our freedom, that we suddenly realize how wonderful it was to have them, how familiar we were with them. [00:29:45] Well, now, I'm just saying, here's a wonderful picture of life out of death. Can any child of God really of with God really know the Lord, who does not come to this experience? [00:30:01] That all real life is in Christ, and that somehow or other, the only way that life can be known and experienced is when my old man knows the cross. [00:30:17] I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me life out of death. We find it, don't we? In Paul's experience, I think of two corinthians, chapter one and verse eight. Listen to him, just putting his experience of cherith and zarifath into these words. For we would not have you, ignorant brethren, concerning our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were way down, exceedingly beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life. Yea, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raiseth the dead, who delivered us out of so great a death and will deliver, on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us. Now, that is cherish. [00:31:14] That is cherish. Sentence of death within ourselves. That's Zarifath again. Both these places in Paul's experience. You've got it again. A little further on in the same letter, two corinthians four and verse seven. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side, not straightened, perplexed, yet not under despair, pursued, yet not forsaken, smitten down, yet not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus. That the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body, that is cherish. That is that for we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh enough life in you. Now, that's that experience. Or again, if you turn over to Philippians and chapter three and verse ten, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, it's the same thing again. It doesn't matter where you a small brook in an arid wilderness, ravens bringing your food, a jar of meal, just a tiny jar of meal that keeps you alive for months. [00:32:44] Miraculously, a cruise of oil and a dead lad brought back to life the whole thing. Life out of death. Life out of death. Life out of death. [00:32:58] That's why I believe in the authority and inspiration of the Bible. [00:33:03] Who would have ever thought that here in this little chapter, you've got the lesson being hammered home. Blow after blow after blow after blow. Every single bit of it is the same lesson. [00:33:15] Stay by the brook. A little brook in an arid wilderness. [00:33:20] Let the ravens bring you. [00:33:23] That's death. Or any good jew, would he allow a non kosher bird to bring food. A raven is expressly forbidden. In Leviticus, chapter ten is expressly forbidden. Any of the ravens sort are unclean, must not be eaten and must not be touched. How have you ever heard of such a thing? A non kosher type bird bringing your food. [00:33:51] Now, any of you who know anything about that kind of background will know just how careful the orthodox are over touching even food that's not handled properly. [00:34:04] I say that's death to self and death to tradition. To have your meal bought every day by a non kosher bird. [00:34:13] Look at them winging in along the ravine. I mean, that's something, isn't it? Some of us have got so into a theological straitjacket we could never break out of it. And the cross sometimes, sometimes means that we have to die to our own cherished traditions, to our own theological straitjacket, so that God can bring life out of death. [00:34:38] Sometimes we have to let the ravens feed us. [00:34:43] Sometime some years ago, I remember someone storming about what they felt about us and blah, blah, blah, and they couldn't get anything, couldn't get any life out of anything. [00:34:55] I just reminded them Balaam's ass once spoke the word of the Lord. [00:35:00] They ought to be able to listen to their. And ravens bought Elijah food. [00:35:05] If your heart is right, an s can speak. [00:35:11] And if your heart is right, ravens can bring you food. [00:35:19] There's such a lot in this whole thing. It's a hidden life with God. Our own resources finished, our own resources cut off, cut down, cut back. [00:35:29] A life hid with Christ in God. That's the broad cherish, that's the experience of Zarif. [00:35:42] I think of the pruning work of the Lord in our lives. Once he starts, when we first we get saved, it's all wonderful. And then God starts on the pruning and the chastening, and then we find the christian life. Well, what's gone wrong with it? We think chip, chip, chip is cut this bit away. Chip, chip, chip, he's cut that bit away. Clip, clip, clip. He's cut that bit away with it. Whatever's happening, something wrong with this place. Perhaps I ought to go somewhere else. Clip, clip, clip. A bit more goes. Well, if you trot off somewhere else, you'll find clip, clip, clip and a bit more's gone. [00:36:14] Law doesn't stop his work. [00:36:18] It's a pruning work of God. God doesn't change his lessons. His lessons are quite ordered. He's got classes for you. And if you're going to be difficult, you'll stay in that class until you learn the lesson. And do you know, there are some christians who have been in class one and two the lower class of the kindergarten, the whole of their christian life, they can't learn the lesson. They say, I think this is wrong and I think that's wrong. I'm not going to have this, I'm not going to have that. And so they stay in the class. They never get out of it. They never graduate. It's a wonderful thing to graduate in the classes of Christ in the school of Christ. From class to class, go on, you're learning lessons. God's doing something with you. Instead of arguing and fighting so that the Lord has to say, right, 40 years in the wilderness. It was the kindergarten class. The whole generation went round and round for 40 years. And at the end they had hardly learned the one lesson. [00:37:14] What a shame. Get out of it and go over Jordan into the second class, the next class up in the promised land, get a few more lessons of them. There's another class taking Jerusalem. That's another class. [00:37:28] The ones that went over and got Jericho and so on and AI, they never took Jerusalem. They're fighting the death of it. So the Lord had to wait for 400 years to David came along with his men and there was the next class. And up they went onto the next class. Now, classes in God's work. Well, anyway, just seek to take in as much as you can. And another point about this, one step at a time. Oh, how we love to get them all over at once. But the Lord said, go to the brook, Cherith, and stay there and the ravens will feed you. [00:38:06] And then the Brooklyn. Now this is a great problem to some christians. They've suddenly found life in Christ. They've found the source of perennial life and it's absolutely wonderful. And they talk about the cross morning, noon and night, and then it dries up. [00:38:30] How can it dry up? They say it can't, but it does dry up because God won't keep you at the book here, Cherith, all the time I'm going to feed you with ravens all the time. So then the word of the Lord comes to Elijah. Now this is an interesting thing. Elijah didn't get into a panic and said, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? The water's dried up. [00:38:49] The Lord said to him, all right, Elijah, now you just go off to Zarethat and there's a little widow lady there with a son. I've told her to look after you. The interesting thing is that she didn't seem to know about this word of the Lord to her when Elijah appeared. [00:39:05] But there must be something in it because when he told her, you know, now, he said, you just go and take those few sticks and the little bit of meal you've got and that little bit of oil and give me a meal. And then if there's any of you can have it afterward without a murmur, she went off and did it. Now, that takes something. Now, you mothers, you know how you don't. You don't mind doing all kinds of things for others for the service of God when you've got through. But I mean, to have some great big strapping servant of the Lord and a man at that come in on you and say, just when you. You've got your last little mouthful for your boy and yourself and say, now, then you just leave the child alone and yourself. You cook that for me. And afterwards, if there's any over, you and the boy can have it. I said, that takes some. That takes some taking. [00:39:58] There are not many believers who could take that kind of thing. But she took it without a murmur. [00:40:04] To me, it's all very interesting. The whole of this phase is filled with instruction. [00:40:10] For instance, God said that he would feed him with ravens there, one step at a time. So if a lie to his wood said, I'm bored with this spirit. I think I'll go down a little nearer Jordan. The ravens wouldn't have come with his food. [00:40:25] God said the ravens would go there. And that's where sometimes we make a mistake. In this life of the cross and the spirit. We think, I'm getting a bit tired of this. I think I'll move down the river or up the river, and then there's no more provision. God says you must keep God's appointments. If God says he'll feed you there, he'll feed you precisely there. [00:40:45] Another thing is, as I've said before, what faith. There is no less. I mean, such a silly thing to tell a great strapping man like Elijah, who could run very fast, by the way. So he obviously had some appetite. [00:40:58] I mean, it's practically obvious he had an appetite of some kind. [00:41:02] I suppose he would live on stakes and things like that, I don't know. But the point was that it must have taken something for this man to just be told, go to the book right in the middle of a wilderness desert. And furthermore, it took faith to eat the food that ravens brought. Any of you who know anything about the habits of ravens, apart from what the Bible says, know very well they're carrion birds. They live on dead flesh, and they're not too fussy about how long it's been dead. [00:41:34] So one old lady once said to me that she thought it took as much faith to eat the food as to bring it. [00:41:47] You think about it. I don't suppose I'll put it in a way that some of you would understand it. Supposing you and the cat bought him something, how many of you would sort of sit down and cook it? [00:42:04] I think you would have some little bit of feeling in the stomach before and after. [00:42:12] You see, the point was that it was faith all along the way anyway. And the same really, with zarifat, that jar of meal, that cruise of oil. The point was, once that little widow woman did what she'd been told through the mouth of Elijah by the Lord. Then immediately the miracle started. And that always happened. You never get a miracle till you obey the Lord. But when you obey the Lord, the miracle starts. [00:42:39] She went back day after day, opened the jar and there was that little bit of meal at the bottom. Isn't it extraordinary? Scraped it out, had another meal. Next day went or whatever. Next meal, there was the meal at the bottom. Scraped it out. Went on like that, month after month. Poured a little bit of oil out, just a bit at the bottom. Each day she poured it out. It was still at the bottom. And poured it out. Still at the bottom. Poured it out. Why didn't the Lord fill it up and give her a bonanza? [00:43:04] You really fill it up. So, as you say, ah, this is terrific. But never, you see, it was cutting back of natural resource. Never too much. [00:43:14] Just make you absolutely dependent on the Lord. Just a little water, just some morsels of food by ravens. Just a little meal in the jar, just a little bit of oil. But now something else is added in this time it's got others. [00:43:30] Up to then, it was only Elijah. Elijah being kept alive, Elijah learning, Elijah being trained. Now from Elijah, the little old lady is getting trained as well. She's getting educated. She's coming to the blessing and her son. [00:43:46] That's what always happens with God's training. It's for others. Others start to get the blessing as well. [00:43:52] And of course, the little lad died. And Elijah went up and stretched himself out on him for three times. All let his soul come back into him. And he got him back. [00:44:04] Life out of death. [00:44:08] A wonderful thing to really trust the Lord completely. Well, now, I think that as I've said so much in this whole matter, because no child of God or servant of the Lord can know the cross and the spirit unless they're prepared to trust and obey. [00:44:32] You must trust and obey. To know the cross and the spirit. No one's going to let go of their life if they don't trust. [00:44:39] So people say, how can I start? How can I start? Has it got to be some cold, colossal experience that's going to come? No, just trust and obey. [00:44:49] Trust and obey and you'll come to the cross on the spirit. Now, I want to put it the other way around. It's quite the opposite, too, strangely enough. You see, you can't know the cross and the spirit unless you're prepared then to trust and obey. It catches you both ways. Trust and obey. You'll be brought to it. And when you're brought to it, the only way you'll come through it is to trust and obey. [00:45:17] God does some extraordinary things when we're under his chastening hand so that we can't understand it's inexplicable. And the only key is trust and obey. Trust and obey. Only when we're outside of it, looking back, do we see it all in property perspective. Well, there we are. I hope that helps you. That's another lesson. [00:45:42] It's there's provision, there's protection, there's life. [00:45:47] Resources beyond the natural and the human are when we're prepared to submit under the chastening hand of God. Now, the next lesson this evening is the chapter we've read together, kings, chapter 18. And it's the confrontation on Mount Carmel. This was the great confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal and the prophets of the Asherah. The Asherah, by the way, are groves. They're just trees, but they were the places where all the prostitution and immorality went on. [00:46:28] Now there were 800. Most people think there are only 450, but there are 850 in all of these false prophets, the priests of the Ashra and the prophets of Baal. 450 prophets, 400 priests, 850 together, leading ecclesiastical dignitaries in this great confrontation with Elijah, with the Lord. On the one side we have the Lord, on the other side we have Baal and all his devotees. Now, the supreme lesson here is quite simple. I don't know what you think it is, this is a well known chapter and everyone's got their idea. But to me, the supreme lesson of this chapter is the manifested presence of God. The manifested presence. [00:47:23] Cherith and Zariphath were the hidden, indwelling presence of the Lord. Something, right, hidden, cut right back, hidden away from public view, from public gaze, a life with God in the spirit. [00:47:39] But the lesson of one, kings 18 is the manifested presence of God. That is, that it is not only vitally necessary to know the life of Christ, but also the power of Christ. [00:47:59] It's not good enough just to know the life of Christ, keeping us alive in the desert, helping us to come through so that we know provision and sustenance and protection. We must know the power of Christ that will enable us to stand public in the eyes of the whole world and see the vindication of God's purpose and of God's will. In other words, we must not only know the indwelling Christ, but the empowering Christ too. [00:48:30] Carmel just simply means kermel, vineyard of God. Vineyard of God. And there you've got it once again in its very name. This whole contest was in the context, as it were, of the work of God. Here we've moved out of a life with God, a secret life with God, your own original life with God, into the service of God, into the work of God, into that great battle between God and Satan, between good and evil, between truth and the lie, the vineyard of God. And the lesson is the power of the Holy Spirit in service in the work of God, every child of God, every servant of the Lord, if they are to overcome, if they are to see truth vindicated, if they are to see the purpose of God fulfilled, if they are to see the work of God established, must know the fire of God. [00:49:41] Now it seems to me a wholly inadequate conception that the fire of God is reserved for special people. [00:49:56] Who is special when it comes to the Lord's words? Ye shall be witnesses unto me. [00:50:07] Every single one of us sooner or later must know and must experience the fire of God. [00:50:15] It is the only way God's truth can be vindicated. It is the only way the purpose of God can be established. The nation will just go to wreck and ruin while Elijah lives in the Brooklyn, while he's at Zarifath. Listen to me. The whole nation will go over to Baal. It will go over to the Asherah. He can stay at the prokaryot for as long as he wants, but it won't affect the nation. [00:50:44] When it comes to the battle for the souls of man, when it comes to the battle for the soul of a nation, he's got to get out up onto the mountain, out into the public eye, and he must know the fire of God. [00:51:00] If the fire of God is not there, then it's all lost. And Elijah, for one person, at least in his own day, was wiser than many believers in ours. He knew that unless God answered by fire, they were completely lost. [00:51:21] He said, let the God that answers by fire be God. [00:51:31] No, dear child of God. He had all the experience of that risen life, of the provision of God, of the secret way with the Lord, of being hid with Christ in God. [00:51:42] But he was wise enough and small enough to know that when it came to the confrontation with evil, he had had the fire of God. [00:51:55] Have you got the fire of God? Have I got the fire of God? Can we stand in the office? Can we stand in our home? Can we stand amongst our unsaved circle of friends? Can we stand against the tide? Do we know what it is to gain the victory? [00:52:16] Fire. [00:52:18] O, we must know the power of God. Let me put it in other ways, just in case people get the wrong idea. We must know the manifested presence of God. [00:52:29] The manifested presence of God. [00:52:38] In the Bible, fire is always the symbol of the manifested presence of God. [00:52:45] I will go right back to one of the earliest accounts in Genesis and chapter 15, verse 17, where God made a covenant with Abraham and he saw a smoking torch and a flaming fire going up and down in the midst of a dismembered animal. [00:53:04] It's a picture again. [00:53:07] It was Abraham. [00:53:10] It was Abraham woken up dead, finished, and the fire of God in him. [00:53:23] That was how God was going to fulfill his purpose through Abraham's life. Go on to Moses. And what did God do in Exodus three? God didn't meet Moses in some dramatic way. Could have rolled like some great thundercloud down the mountainside to meet him in person, as he did sometimes later. But God chose a little thorn bush, a little scrubby, insignificant, ugly thing, and got into it in fire. And the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. It was the great meeting of God with Moses. And Moses was wise enough to know that it was he himself that he was looking at in that thorn bush, and it was God himself who was in it. [00:54:08] So he knew. When the Lord said, when he said to the Lord with his tongue in his cheek, who shall I say sent me? God said, you knew very well, I am Moses. Nothing. God, everything I am has sent me. I am is with me. I am is in me. And that is the key to the history of the people of God. In the old covenant. It is the I am. That I am is in the midst of a poor, failing human people. [00:54:44] Fire. [00:54:45] You find it everywhere you look. [00:54:48] How did God settle the rebellion of Korah, of Baihor Nadan? Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them. [00:55:03] What about the. When the tabernacle was set up, what happened? The cloud filled. Oh, you said. But it's the cloud. That's not that you was. It was the pillar of cloud by day, but at night it was fire. [00:55:19] Fire has always been the symbol of the manifested presence of God. [00:55:27] On the day of Pentecost, what happened? The Holy Spirit came with the sound of a rushing wind and fire. [00:55:38] And the fire was, as it were, clean, split up, scattered. A tongue of flame, flame of fire sat on every one of 120. [00:55:55] Fire. [00:55:57] It was the manifested presence of God. [00:56:01] Those weak little people who'd been squabbling, who'd been disillusioned, who was all at so jealous of position and everything else and what they were going to be would turn, as it were, overnight into a body, an organism filled with the presence of God. Manifested presence of God. [00:56:24] Jesus began to do things through them just as the same things he'd done when he was alive. He began to do it all again. So then, and that's the story of the book of acts. So I could go on and go on. I mean, it's amazing, really. Once you begin to see it, it's simply everywhere. Fire is the symbol of the manifested presence of God. If you want to put it another way, it's a symbol of the holy spirit. [00:56:58] Now, we could say a lot about this, but we won't. But fire speaks of all kinds of things, doesn't it? It speaks of energy. [00:57:08] John the Baptist said of the Lord Jesus, he shall baptize you with the spirit and with fire. [00:57:15] And then a little lady said, everyone shall be salted by fire. [00:57:23] It's the manifested presence of God. Now, it doesn't matter how we turn, where we turn. We can think of it in all kinds of ways, whether it's in gifts, whether it's in functioning, whether it's in expression. It means that somehow other God equips us to stand in his service and to do the will of God so that we not only have an inward life with the Lord and an inward character, but we have the equipment and the power to do the will of God and to see the service of God fulfilled. Have you got such power? Have you got such fire? [00:57:59] Fire, of course, speaks of purging as well. We know that he says he will thoroughly burn the chaff. [00:58:07] Fire speaks of light as well, the pillar of cloud and fire giving light by night, signifying where the Lord was, his presence. We know, oh, we could go on. We could go on. Fire gives warmth and we know that the love of God has been shed aboard by the Holy Spirit being poured into our hearts. [00:58:32] So we could go on and on. But you know, this matter of dear Elijah up there on Mount Carmel, this confrontation with evil. I mean, the fact is that how did he know this? How did he experience this? Now here's a point which I hope every one of you will take in. [00:58:52] It's not that Elijah could say, look at me, I'm a great fellow. [00:58:56] See what I've been doing? [00:58:59] Elijah's quite calm and quite detached in this whole thing. He watched them dancing up and down, raving, cutting themselves, one man against this 850 with the 450 in the forefront here and the old evil, satanically possessed king with that evil, more evil woman Jezebel in the background. [00:59:25] It was an extraordinary situation. But I mean, dears Elijah and what does he do? There are three things which seem to me to be the basis. The first is he repairs the altar of the law. [00:59:38] And if you look in the verses one kings, 1830, he repairs the altar of the law. And verse 36, he doesnt pray to the Lord till the evening sacrifice in the house of God at Jerusalem, exactly at the moment that the sacrifice is being made in the temple at Jerusalem, he prays. Now what does this speak of? It speaks surely of the cross and it speaks of the finished work of Jesus Christ. And that is the basis upon which alone God will give us fire. [01:00:09] Do you think you've got to be good enough to get the fire? Do you think you've got to be zealous enough to get the fire? As if somehow God has saved you by grace and will fill you with fire by some other means? No, it is the finished work of Jesus Christ. [01:00:23] Elijah didn't say, now, Lord, you answer. After all, I'm extremely faithful. [01:00:29] You let that fire come down, Lord, here I am all on my own. [01:00:33] I've been very, very zealous. Strangely enough, when he fell and collapsed, then he started talking about how zealous he was. That's very interesting, but at this point he never talked about his zealousness. All he said was, Lord, just remember, remember you're the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Israel. Show that you're the God of Israel here. [01:00:57] Now, if you want to know the fire, if you're going to serve the Lord, and every one of us ought to serve the Lord, if you want to know the power of God, the manifested presence of the Lord in your life, the only way you can possibly know it is through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Stand on that basis, repair the altar of the Lord. If you've been trying to produce your own good works to please God, if you've been trying some error. You've forsaken the altar of the Lord and you've been trying to sort of somehow win the favor of God by what you are, forsake it and repair the altar of the law. [01:01:32] There's only one sacrifice that has anything, any influence with God. It is the sacrifice of the lamb. [01:01:40] And the second thing is, and mark this very carefully, the second part of this basis is the unity of God's people. [01:01:49] Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes. Now this is ridiculous, there'd been a complete cleavage of the nation. Two were down the south part and the other ten were up the north. And Elijah was part of the northern kingdom. He had nothing to do with the southern kingdom, yet he raised twelve stones. [01:02:09] Why? Because he was saying, I don't care whether there's been division after division after division after division. As far as I'm concerned, there's only one people. [01:02:19] And what's wrong with these Christians? What's wrong with us that we recognize all these denominational differences, sectarian differences, all these things that divide us, we can have, we can win no favour with God. We can influence heaven not one whit, by sort of saying, I'm a Baptist or I'm this or I'm that. You'll never get anywhere with God like that. [01:02:43] The only way you can ever influence heaven is by saying, lord, you're redeemed people. That's the basis for fire, that's the basis for service. I'm not serving Episcopalians, I'm not serving brethren, I'm not serving this or that or the other. I'm serving the people of God. I'm the servant of Jesus Christ. Are you the unity of God's people? [01:03:09] And the third thing is faith. Oh, this is the hardest thing of all. Dig a trench if they like. You might be out 1 yd. Why, what a funny thing to do. Keep everyone away, no hokey pokey business. Everyone can see that someone doesn't shove you and sort of quietly come up the back and shove a flaming torch in the back. [01:03:32] Someone paid by a large one. Smack. [01:03:36] Big trench, right round. Then he says to the men, now then, fetch water. Fetch water. Big barrels, big barrel. [01:03:43] Pour it over. [01:03:46] Let's do it again. [01:03:52] Well, I mean, I bet the prophets of Bailey wonder they'd been dancing up and down for the whole day from morning to the evening till nearly sunset. And now they watched this crazy old man pouring water over the wood. They must have thought he, he was making it as hard as it as he possibly could for God. I don't think he was making it hard for God. What he was doing was making it hard for man. [01:04:16] There's a difference, you know. [01:04:18] He was making it very hard for man. No one could set that lot alight. [01:04:25] Oh, he says, go on, bring that up again, another lot. This time the water filled the trench right round, so there's like a moat right around the whole thing. [01:04:34] Faith. [01:04:37] Oh, how we're always trying to pull strings in the work of God. [01:04:42] We get afraid that something won't happen, so we pull the strings so that somehow or other it looks as if it has happened. But there's no need to, no need to. All we've got to do is dig a trench around, whatever God's going to do, and fill, fill the whole thing with water. [01:04:55] God will do the rest. Then he just quietly prays and like a flash of lightning, like the fire gun, burns up the wood, burns up the sacrifice, licks the stones, licks up the water so that it evaporates completely. And of course, all that great people who'd all backstitched them so easily fell flat on their faces and said, the Lord is God. The Lord is God. [01:05:24] Now don't take too much notice of the people on this matter, but do take note of the fire because you have a tremendous lesson there. Now we shall have to close, but what I will do is I will just touch on the last lesson and leave it with you. And if we feel we ought to ever take it up again, we will. [01:05:48] Let me just say about this lesson. We are in the same confrontation today, I don't suppose for years. Could we so honestly and so literally say that we're in the same conflict as Elijah. We've got prophets of Baal and priests of the Asherah, free love and all its filth, a great confrontation with truth, with God, with the kingdom of God, with the gospel, with the word of God and the standards of God, the law of God. We are in this same battle, dear child of God, thank God if you've got a life with the Lord. Thank God if you know the chastening hand of the Lord, thank God if you know his education, the cross and the spirit. But I want to say, without being misunderstood, it's not enough. [01:06:44] In this battle, we've got to know the fire of God as well, the manifested presence of the Lord. Now, the last lesson I can only touch on, it's found in one kings, chapter 19. It's the flight to horeb, the flight after the tremendous triumph at Carmel, a total collapse of Elijah. Before Jezebel, Elijah faced 850 false prophets and priests, a satanically inspired king and a backslidden nation. [01:07:22] And he faced the whole lot in the power of God. [01:07:26] And he saw the victory of the Lord before one woman, he flees. [01:07:36] Now, it has been one of my long held convictions that women have tremendous power. [01:07:46] I think all this women's lib is a load of nonsense, generally speaking, because it goes on the basis that women are inequal and sort of powerless and have no authority, never been able to influence men. All through history, women have influenced men. [01:08:04] And when finally the story is told, you'll find they've influenced them far, far more than the history book says. [01:08:12] Jezebel was such a woman. [01:08:17] It seems to me that Elijah was quite prepared to meet 850 prophets and priests, a wicked old king and the whole nation that had backslidden. But that one woman, Jezebel, with her sophisticated, refined ways, he fled before her, fled before her. [01:08:43] At Mount Horeb, God meets him, and with gentleman but firm words, God asks Elijah what business he has to be there. [01:09:03] And Elijah, as we all do with great pathos, starts on the old story. [01:09:12] Oh, he says, lord, I've worked so hard. [01:09:16] I've done so much for you. I've been so faithful, Lord. [01:09:21] And they've killed everybody, Lord. I'm the only one that. And now they're after me, Lord. And of course, if they get me, Lord, I just can't think what's going to happen to your purpose. [01:09:34] It was full of pathos. [01:09:38] Then God answers by a tremendous object lesson. [01:09:46] Go out, he says, go out, Elijah. Stand outside the gate. [01:09:51] Elijah goes out. And the Lord passed by. Now in the Hebrew, it's in the person that was happening. The Lord was passing by and a great storm of wind hit the mountain and loosed the rocks. My just to mend that the Lord was not in the wind. [01:10:17] And then there was an earthquake and the whole thing shook. [01:10:25] But the Lord was not in the earthquake. And then there was a fire. [01:10:32] Must have reawakened memories. [01:10:35] There was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. [01:10:45] Then there was a still, small voice. [01:10:51] A gentle whisper is the way the living Bible puts it. Actually, literally, it's a sound of gentle choir. [01:11:02] And when Elijah heard that, he wrapped his mantle over his head and just stood there. [01:11:11] And then the Lord said, elijah, what business have you got to be here? [01:11:18] And as if the needle had got stuck in the record off, Elijah starts exactly the same. This is what we all do. And we've served the Lord for we know just how to do it. We've got so used to it. It's like an old record, a needle stuck. Oh, I've worked so hard for you, Lord, and here I am worn out, Lord, and have killed all these others. And I'm the only one left now, Lord. And if anything happens to me, I don't know what's going to happen. [01:11:47] What was the lesson? [01:11:50] It's a tremendous lesson, tremendousness. The lesson is simply this. [01:11:58] God, Elijah was used to great winds, storms. [01:12:05] He was used to earthquakes. You could almost say his ministry was a kind of earthquake ministry. [01:12:12] It was a ministry of fire. [01:12:17] He had known what it was to have an inward life with God. He knew the discipline of God. But unknowingly he had started to put everything on. The manifestation, the fire, the wind, the earthquake was the sign of the Lord's presence, the voice that was the Lord's presence. [01:12:46] Woe betide any believer who once having known the fire of God, of the great works of God, the miracles of God, the signs of God, the gifts of God, all the activity and excitement of the power of God. [01:13:02] Woe betide us if we forsake the still, small voice, if we start to put all the emphasis on that and not the still, small voice. Now, this is absolutely true because I want you to go away and think about it. Reflect upon it. You see, the point was, who had told Elijah to go up to meet Ahab, the still, small voice? [01:13:27] Who told Elijah to build the altar and confront the prophets of Baal and Azure? They're still small boys. [01:13:37] But when Jezebel faced Elijah he never waited for the still, small voice. [01:13:46] All he could hear was Jezebel's voice ringing in his ears. [01:13:52] What a lesson for every one of us. [01:13:56] My sheep hear my voice. [01:14:01] As many as are led by the spirit of God. They are the sons of God. [01:14:08] There are very few believers who are led by the spirit of God. [01:14:13] Very few. [01:14:15] The still, small boys. And isn't it interesting? All those people who so easily backslid and so easily came back. The Lord is God. The Lord is God. Only within a few years slipped back again. [01:14:30] But the Lord said, incidentally, Elijah, there are 7000 who listen to this still, small voice that is the remnant of the people of God, the faithful web. Now, I say that that's a tremendous lesson. I want you to think about it. [01:14:48] We must know the fire of God. We must know the mighty acts. But we must never forsake the still, small voice of God. That is the key to everything. It is the key to the christian life. It is the key to church life. It is the key to true service. It is the key, in the end to being kept truly in the power of God, the still, small voice of God. May he keep every one of us in that way. [01:15:17] And for your encouragement, just two little things about that last story you can think about. The first is how gentle, what faithfulness, how can I put it? The gentle faithfulness of God when his servant falls. I mentioned this last week. I mean, the Lord could have just forsaken Elijah. What's he doing? Going to horrible. But no, the Lord doesn't do it. He not only allows him to go there, but he gives him the food to get him. [01:15:55] And at the other end he meets him with the question, now, just be sure of this. There are some people who think that provision is always the sign that it's God's will. It's not always the sign that it's God's will. Sometimes we can be going in the wrong direction. [01:16:12] You know that the two were walking to Emmaus, were going in the wrong direction, and the law walked with them in the wrong direction. And it says explicitly in record that when they came to turn in, the Lord went on to go further in the wrong direction. [01:16:25] But the whole idea was to get them to turn around and go back in the right direction. [01:16:29] And when God in his infinite mercy, he knew his dear servant was too worn out. No good arguing with him. No good sort of shaking him back and saying, elijah, what are you doing here? When he was under the broom bush, Elijah was to leave me alone. I want to die. [01:16:46] That would have just finished Elijah. He would have probably said, lord, I want to die here and now. [01:16:51] So the Lord said to an angel, go and cook him his supper, let him have a good sleep and then cook him his breakfast and then send him off the strength of that food 40 days. And when he comes after 40 days and nights, the horeb, I'll be there the other end to meet him, and we'll have it out. [01:17:15] We'll have it out. And God always has it out in the end, always has it out with his sons in the end. He'll always meet you the other end and have it out with you in love. And what a beautiful way the Lord does it, how gently he does it. What are you doing here? Elijah starts, and Lord knew it a lot of. [01:17:32] I mean, of course it's true what Elijah said, but the Lord knew that it wasn't a real thing. Elijah might as well said to him, I'm fighting the death of Jezebel. But of course, he wouldn't say that. [01:17:42] So then the Lord said, you go outside. And so Elijah learned his greatest lesson. [01:17:48] The still, small voice. [01:17:51] How we need to be attentive to that voice. How we need to wait for it if we can't at present hear it. And how we need to be alert even when it's the gentlest whisper. [01:18:09] May the Lord help us. And the other little thing is, remember, after great triumph, watch. [01:18:17] All the greatest collapses in scripture have come after the greatest triumphs. [01:18:25] Now, never forget that. If you forget everything else all the greatest collapses and defeats have come after the greatest trials. Watch. [01:18:39] There are some lessons then. I wish I could go on about translation and transfiguration and all those kind of things. Let's just pray Lord will help us to understand ourselves. [01:18:53] Now, Lord, we pray together that thou wilt somehow write some of these lessons upon our hearts. Maybe not all of them, Lord, we can retain. But, Lord, for each one of us there must be something. And we pray that that which is for us shall be, Lord, livingly brought to us, explained and interpreted by thy spirit. And these other things that perhaps at present we don't understand keep them, Lord, stored in our hearts and may they at the right time spring into life. Lord. [01:19:28] Father, we commit ourselves to thee. Thou knowest the day and the generation in which we live. And we pray that we, too might know that fire of God that manifested presence of thine Lord. [01:19:43] And that we above everything else may know the still, small voice. [01:19:50] We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus.