Part 1: Elijah’s Spiritual Victory-Two Mistakes We Can Learn From

We need to come into understanding that what we face in this world is not person against person, or party against party, but of God against gods. In order to change the landscape of something you must first deal with the spiritual root of the problem or else it cannot and will not change. That’s why God says...“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” Ephesians 6:12. Too many times we attempt to change a person or an area but fail to see what is happening behind the scenes, the invisible realm. To make a real impact we must deal with this aspect first.  

In the upcoming blog post’s I tackle major takeaways that will help you deal with key spiritual and practical elements regarding your life and pitfalls to avoid. Let’s jump into Elijah’s story…. 

Elijah was in a spiritual battle that would dictate the direction of the Israelites. He had successfully dealt with the pagan worship in the land by executing the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:20-40). Through God’s power he sent down fire from Heaven which caused the people to believe in God. 

However, just a few chapters further down he had to face queen Jezebel who was leading Israel at the time. Jezebel heard news of what had happened to her prophets in (1 Kings 19:2) and sent a messenger to tell Elijah that he would be dead by the same time tomorrow. 

Elijah was overcome with fear and exhaustion after winning the battle he had faced. Hearing this news was too much for Elijah, so he ran for his life (1 Kings 19:3). This decision inevitably caused him to lose his position as major prophet and pass the baton on to Elisha (1 Kings 19:19) 

The main objective Jezebel tried to achieve was to create her own spiritual epicenter of demonic worship and sorcery (1 Kings 18:13). She was intent on eliminating all of Gods prophets (1 Kings 18:19), she was using her means of power to control and pass decrees that took advantage of others (1 Kings 21) and she used fear to stop her opponents (1 Kings 19:3). She rebelled against Gods word and prophets which caused God to curse the land with drought (1 Kings 18:1) 

So how did Elijah overcome spiritual oppression and how can we? Here are some key take aways... 

First thing we can learn from Elijah was that he restored spiritual worship back to God (1 Kings 18:18). Second, he is as a man that prayed fervently. His fervent prayers caused the rain to come back to the land (James 5:17) and third he confronted the spirit of the age (1 Kings 18:19-21) 

How do we accomplish the first step, establishing worship back to God? We must examine our own lives and see where we have placed God in the back seat. The people of Israel, at the time, were being swayed in two directions. Elijah confronted them to choose who they will worship, either God or Baal. (1 Kings 18:21). Sometimes, if we are honest with ourselves, we have not given parts of our lives whole heartedly to God. We need to surrender these parts to Him. Many people can’t face the greater battles, such as facing Jezebel because they need to first readjust their own heart posture towards God. What areas of your life are you still holding back from God? Your finances? Your anger? Your insecurities? Your sex life? Whatever it is, to receive a God kind of victory you must give it to God, your entire life must be His. If we choose not to, then like the Israelites, we may find that we are going to face desert-like seasons in our lives. When there is no presence of God, and we must ask why? Sometimes our greatest distance from God is self-produced destruction that we must face and admit.  

The second step we must do is give our entire heart to God. When we do that, He promises to fill us with His Spirit to give us the necessary power to pray. The people of Israel had fire come down (1 Kings 18:38) this symbolizes dedication and purity of heart. When we allow God to take away our impurities of character to be connected to Him. It is hard to pray with passion when we know we are holding back something. Once we make that commitment, even though we may falter at times, we can begin making requests to God with boldness (Hebrews 4:16). Fervency means that we begin to pray for things repeatedly rather than once. Elijah prayed seven times until his prayer was answered (1 Kings 18:44). Most of us quit by the third time when we ask God to move. When we step into this realm of praying with fervency then we keep asking until we see it happen.  

Third, after we complete the first two, we can begin taking a stand (Ephesians 6:14). If we don’t have Spiritual power backing us, and we try to put up a spiritual fight, we may find that we are standing alone and ultimately fail. When we stand in boldness with God, we can begin facing anything that may stand in our way. Once Elijah called for fire to come down, and prayed fervently, he then personally told Ahab that now the blessing was coming, rain was on the way! Elijah outran Ahab’s chariot by the Spirit (1 Kings 18:46). He must have run at a speed of over 40 miles per hour! It is in this realm that God begins to accelerate things in our lives. Requests we have been waiting for years to happen can happen in an instant. Battles can be won with ease, that previously were impossible to win. When God fills you, you begin using God’s energy to endure and overcome any trial.  

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 

God Bless!!