13 and verse 14 verse 13 and 14
of 2nd Kings chapter 2 he took up also that is Elisha took up
also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and went back and
stood by the bank of Jordan and he took the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him and and smote the waters, and said, Where is
the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten
the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went
over. My subject this morning is Where
is the Lord God of Elijah? This question, of course, was
asked by Elisha After he picked up the mantle that fell off of
Elijah when he was caught up into heaven, when the chariot
came for him and the horses, and when he was taken away, he
dropped his mantle. This was a coat-like, kind of
a wide-flowing outer garment that had no sleeves in it. and
it fell off when he was caught up into heaven and so Elisha
picks it up and he took this mantle and he went back and stood
by the bank of Jordan he had just passed over Jordan with
Elijah and he went back to that bank where Elijah had took his
mantle and had smitten the waters and they parted hither and thither
And so he went back and smit the waters with this question
upon his heart, and that was, where is the Lord God of Elijah? Now the great object for our
souls to seek after in this life as the Lord's living family is
our God. We're here to be seekers after
God. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he's near. Let the wicked forsake
his thoughts. Let the unrighteous man forsake
his ways. And the Lord will have mercy
upon him. Our God will abundantly pardon. The great object, I say,
of our souls in this life as the living family of God is to
seek after our God. We love him. We love his people. We love his work. But all is
dull, all is vain and empty, if the Lord himself be not there. If the Lord is not here, all
is vain, all is empty. We love the ministry of God's
Word. By it our lives are encouraged
and nourished. and edified, but still if God
himself be not in the Word, if God himself be not with the Word,
what does it avail us? What does it avail us to take
our Bibles down and read the Bible? What does it avail us
to come and listen to a sermon if God be not in it? If we do
not find the Lord in it, if the Lord does not reveal himself
through it, then what does it avail us? Our spirits must be
sustained in this pilgrimage of ours by the Holy Spirit or
else we shall faint and die. We need the Lord. We need to
find the Lord God of Elijah. in reading a book, or in private
devotion, or in coming to the assembly of the saints, our chief
question is, where is the Lord God of Elijah? Now you take a
book, a good book, a gracious book, a spiritual book written
by somebody who is a spiritual individual, and you begin to
read that, and sometimes the Lord is so gracious, he reveals
himself on the pages of that book. And then when you begin
to pray and you enter into your closet, is it not that the Lord
there sometimes manifests himself to you? He reveals himself to
you. He comes and touches you with
a touch from heaven, a touch from his own hand. And then,
beloved, when we come into the assembly of the saints, what
happens? Well, some people have testified
that they heard a word from the Lord. Some people say that they
hear something that stays with them, something that encourages
them, something that stabilizes their heart in the way, something
that helps them to endure the hardships and the difficulties
and the trials of life. Well, beloved, that's when the
Lord reveals Himself. If we do not find God in all
these things, If we don't find the Lord in all of these things,
what do we find? What do we find? Well, the answer,
of course, is nothing. And we have just mere husk, whereas
the precious, priceless kernel is lost to us. What we need is
to find the Lord God of Elijah. We need Him. We need the Lord. In prayer, do we find the God
of prayer? When you call upon the Lord,
do you find God? When you sing, do you feel that
you've truly praised God? Have you found, or has your song
found Him as it were? Do you feel that you worship
when you've been singing these great hymns of the faith? Or
what an effort it is. I know that it is an effort,
but what an effort it is sometimes really to get to God in all these
things. What an effort. It is indeed
one of the burdens of our hearts is that in those things that
we participate, those things that we are involved with, that
we shall find the Lord. The poet said, I will approach
thee, I will force my way through obstacles to thee. Another one
said, I will break through gates of brass, I will leap over the
lostiest wall, but I must get to my God, the living God. Oh, when shall I come and appear
before God? I wish we were always in that
state of mind. I feel that there are many, many
people that are careless. Many people are indifferent.
Many people couldn't care less whether they ever find the Lord
God of Elijah or not. Many people are not really interested.
especially in our day, in this religious atmosphere of our day. People, they're not concerned
whether God is ever found or whether the Lord ever reveals
himself or whether the word of God ever comes with power or
not. They know nothing of that and they're not interested in
that. But the true people of God is asking today, where is
the Lord God of Elijah? We cannot live without him. In
Him we live, the Bible says, and have our being. We cannot
be strong without Him. We are only strengthened by the
power of His might in the inward man. We cannot rejoice without
Him. Our souls, Augustine said, were
made to rejoice in God and to have Him as our portion. and
we cannot rejoice truly without finding the Lord God of Elijah. It would be no, listen, we would
not even want to be in heaven without Him. Without Him, we
wouldn't want to be there. It would be no heaven to me if
the Lord was not there. if he was not there and David
the psalmist said long ago whom have I in heaven but thee and
there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee so beloved
the thing that I'm saying here is that we need to be asking
this question that Elijah, that Elisha asked when Elijah had
been taken up to heaven. And I want to look this morning
a little bit at this God of Elijah, this God of Elijah. Now somebody
said, well, you know, one commentator said, what we ought to do is
look at Elijah's, or look at God's Elijah. That's what we
ought to do, look at God's Elijah. Well, I think that anybody with
an ounce of spiritual understanding will know that the subject here
in this text is not God's Elijah. The subject is the God of Elijah. That's the subject. Now I'm not
here to in any way distract your attention from Elijah. Elijah
was a very earnest man. Elijah was a very faithful man.
Elijah was a man of like passions as you and I. Elijah was a praying
man. Elijah was an obedient man. Elijah
was a pure man, I believe, from the standpoint that he lived
his life before God. He said, I stand before the living
God. He knew his life was open to
God and he lived that way. He was a very earnest and zealous
man after the Lord. He was a seeker after God and
God's will. He was a man who communed with
God. I'm not here to take away. from Elijah. I'm here to talk
about Elijah's God. And we will say with Elijah this
morning where is the Lord God of Elijah. Number one, I believe
that the God of Elijah is the one who kept Elijah from when
all the rest had turned away and turned aside in his day. Elijah lived in a very difficult
day, a very trying day. And he felt at one time, he said,
I'm the only one left. And they seek my life to take
it away. I'm the only one left. You might as well, Lord, take
me on out of this world and take me on to glory because I'm the
only one that's standing in this day. The Lord had 7,000 that
had not bowed their knee to Baal that Elijah didn't know about.
But Elijah felt that he was all alone. And we know that Jezebel,
the Sidonian queen had Ahab, who was the king at that time,
entirely under her power, but there was one man, at least,
whom Ahab and Jezebel could not touch, and that was this man
Elijah, in whom God had come to dwell, and in whom God's power
dwelt, And Elijah was strong, able to stand in a wicked and
sinful day against all those who opposed God and His truth,
because the Lord greatly strengthened him. So, beloved, listen. Whatever you're called upon to
do, as one living in this world, God-fearing, I hope and trust,
one who is wanting to obey the Lord, do that which is right
in the sight of God, one who wants to serve the purpose of
God in your generation, one who is shut up to one way, and that
is God's way, I hope this morning that you take some encouragement
to know that When you find the God of Elijah, you will find
a God who will put some backbone in you and will strengthen you
and enable you to stand whether anybody else does or not. The
God of Elijah is a God of strength. He's the God of everlasting strength
and power. He's the Almighty God, and He's
the only one that can make us stand in an evil day. He's the
only one that can make us go up against the prophets of Baal
and challenged them as Elijah did. He is the God that answereth
by fire. Now I want you to turn with me
to the book of 1 Kings. Turn back to 1 Kings chapter
18 and you remember this challenge which Elijah made unto the prophets
of Baal. Elijah came in verse 21 unto
all the people and said, how long you halt between two opinions?
If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then you follow
him. The people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah
unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord.
But Baal's prophets are 450 men. Let them therefore give us two
bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and
cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire
under. And I'll dress the other bullock,
and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. And call you on the
name of your gods, and I'll call on the name of the Lord. And
the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people
answered and said, it is well spoken. And Elisha said unto
the prophets of Baal, you choose. Then one bullet for yourself,
dress it first for your many, and call on the name of your
gods, but put no fire under it so you get the picture here and
if you go down here a little bit came to pass in verse 29
when midday was passed and they prophesied until the time of
the offering of the evening sacrifice that there was neither voice
nor any answer Nor any that regarded their gods would not answer their
god had nothing to say there was no fire Came down from their
gods and elijah said unto all the people come near unto me
And all the people came near unto him and he repaired the
altar of the lord that was broken down and elijah took 12 stones
according to the number of the tribes of the son of Jacob, unto
whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And with the stones he built
an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench round about
the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. He put the wood in order, cut
the bullock in pieces, laid him on the wood, and said, fill four
barrels with water, and poured on the burnt sacrifice and on
the wood. And he said, do it a second time,
and they did it the second time. And he said, do it the third
time, and they did it the third time. And the water ran round
about the altar, and it filled the trench also with water. And
it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice,
that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham,
Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art
God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have
done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me,
that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that
thou hast turned their heart back again. Then, listen to verse
38, the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice
and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water
that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it,
they fell on their face and they said, the Lord, he is the God,
the Lord, he is the God. And Elijah, whose name means
Jehovah is God, said unto them, take the prophets of Baal, let
not one of them escape. And they took them, and Elijah
brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. Now, beloved, this is Elijah's
God, the God who answers by fire. The God, listen, and it wasn't
no little fire that could be put out with a little bit of
water. No, they poured water upon the sacrifice and upon the
wood, and it stood all around the altar. And yet the Lord sent
down his fire from heaven and burn up all of this sacrifice. Beloved, do you know that there
was a time when there was a wicked king? And this wicked king sent
some of his servants. The king was sick, sickened to
death. He sent some of his servants
over to a heathen nation to consult of their gods as to whether or
not he would get well or not. Well, Elijah, he met them as
the servants were on their way over to this heathen nation and
to talk to these heathen gods. And he stepped in front of them
and said, you go back. He said, is it because there's
no Lord, no God in Israel, that you're going over to this heathen
nation to ask whether or not the king is going to live? You
go back and tell him that he's not coming down off of his bed.
He's going to die. And so those servants turned
around and went back to the king and Elijah went over and sat
on a hill. And so as the servants returned
to the king, the king said, why did you come back so soon? Why
are you back? And he said, well, we met a man.
And that man said that you was not coming down off of your bed.
He said is there not a god in Israel that you can consult,
that you got to go over here and consult the gods of these
wicked nations? And this man said you're not
coming down off of your bed. You're going to die. And so the
king sent a captain of 50 and 50 men over to get Elijah and
so they went over to the hill where Elijah was sitting and
Elijah said if I be the servant of God Then let fire fall down
from heaven and consume the captain of 50 with his 50 And so that's
exactly what happened. Fire fell from heaven and consumed
that man who had been sent out by the king. And so then there
was another 50 sent out and a captain of 50. The same thing happened
again. He said, if I be the servant
of the living God, then let fire fall from heaven and consume
you. And so it happened. And when
the third man came out, well, he bowed down very humbly, because
he didn't want to be consumed with fire, and begged for mercy,
and asked. And God spoke to Elijah and said,
you go back, you go with him. It's OK, you go with him, that
he'll not hurt you. And so Elijah went with him to
the king. and told the king that he's going
to die, that he would not come down, that he would not get off
his bed. He was going to die. This is the God that answereth
by fire. This is the God who is able to
intervene. And that's just exactly what
happened in this case here. The Lord intervene on the behalf
of this prophet, and God will answer by fire. The Lord will
answer. And even the prophets of Baal,
not one of them escaped, but they were consumed by the hand
of Elijah. He stood like a rock unmoved
and he was unmovable for the most part of his life. He was
steadfast and firm. It is true that he got discouraged.
It is true that he went and sat down under a juniper tree. It
is true, he said, Lord, go ahead and take my life because I'm
no better than my father's. He did get discouraged, and he
did run from old Jezebel, but the Lord sustained him. Now,
the God of Elijah is the God that provided for him at the
brook Cherith and at Zarephath. And this is the God who is the
God of provision, the God who can provide. In 1 Kings chapter
17, if you would turn back there with me, I'd like for you to
see this. And let's look at verse 9. 1 Kings 17 and verse 9. The Lord said, well first of
all, let me just back up a little bit in this chapter here, and
I want to say a word about him going over to the brook and the
ravens being commanded to feed him. I want you to see this.
The Lord God provided for this man. about the God of Elijah. And so when we're talking about
where is the Lord God of Elijah, then I think we should know these
things about Him. And the word of the Lord came
unto him, saying in verse 2 of chapter 17, Get thee hence, and
turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Shireth,
that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt
drink of the brooks, and I have commanded the ravens to feed
thee there. So he went and did according
to the word of the Lord, for he went and dwelt by the brook
Sheareth, that is before Jordan, and the ravens brought him bread
and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening,
and he drank of the brook. So you see how the Lord provided
marvelously for his servant Elijah. This is the Lord God of Elijah,
the God that sustains and the God that provides. And it came
to pass, after a little while, the brook dried up because there'd
been no rain in the land, because Elijah had prayed, you remember,
that it rain not, and it rained not on the earth for the space
of three years and six months. And the word of the Lord came
to him and said, I want you to go to Zarephath. dwell there
he said I have commanded in verse 9 a widow woman there to sustain
thee and so the Lord is taking care of him over by the brook
and now he says I want you to go over here to Zarephath so
he went to Zarephath and when he came to the gate of the city
behold that widow woman was there gathering sticks and And he called
to her and said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel
that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch
it, he called her and said, you bring me, I pray thee, a morsel
of bread in your hand. And she said, as the Lord by
God liveth, I've not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel.
I don't have a cake to give you. All I've got is a handful of
meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruise. And behold,
I'm gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for
me and my son that we may eat it and die. And Elijah said unto
her, fear not. Fear not, go and do as thou hast
said, but make me therefore a little cake first, and bring it unto
me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the
Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither
shall the crucible fail until the day that the Lord sendeth
rain upon the earth. And she went and did according
to the saying of Elijah, And she and he and her house did
eat many days, and the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did
the crews of all fail according to the word of the Lord which
he spake by Elijah. So don't you see, beloved, that
the Lord, the God of Elijah, is the God of provision. He's
the God that can make a way. He's the God that can provide.
The God of the Bible can wield the power of nature and providence
to bring to pass His purpose. and to accomplish that, even
if it's to subdue a wicked nation unto himself, a wicked people
unto himself. God has the ability to bring
to pass his good will and pleasure. And so we see that he is this
God that's able, this God that's able. Don't you ever for a moment
doubt that your God is a God who is able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we're able to ask or think according
to that power that works in us. Now the next thing I want to
point out about this God of Elijah that we're asking where he is,
is that he is the God that raised the dead. He is a God that can
raise the dead. Now this is very important to
me, and it ought to be to you. In 1 Kings 17, we begin with
verse 17 there, and you remember that Elijah is now spending time
in this widow woman's home, and she has a son. Okay, and it came
to pass After these things, after the Lord sustained them, and
the barrel of meal wasted not, and the crucible of oil failed
not, it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman,
the mistress of the house, fell sick. And his sickness was so
sore that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto
Elijah, what have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art
thou coming to me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay
my son? Is that the reason why you came
here? And he said unto her, give me thy son. He took him out of
her bosom, carried him up into a loft where he abode, and laid
him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord and
said, O Lord my God, Hast thou also brought evil upon the widow
with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched himself
upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said,
O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him
again. And the Lord heard the voice
of Elijah, and the soul of the child came in to him again, and
he revived. And Elijah took the child, brought
him down out of the chamber into the house, delivered him unto
his mother, and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. And the
woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man
of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.
So don't you see here, beloved, how that, and I took note of
a couple things here. One is that when Elijah is praying
for this child, in verse 20, he cried unto the Lord and said,
O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with
whom I sojourned by slaying her son? Elijah recognized that God
was in this. situation and that life or death
was in the hands of the Lord that God is not only the God
of the living he's the God of the dead and you know preachers
they just mealy mouth around and always having such a difficult
time trying to say anything to people in hard and difficult
times when calamities have come upon people, tragedy as men call
them, have come upon people, people have died, people have
been hurt, and so on, and preachers are saying the Lord didn't have
anything to do with it, God's not involved with it, the Lord
would never be involved in anything like this, you can't blame God
for this, and so on and so forth. Brother, sister, let me tell
you that according to what the word of God teaches me, that
there cannot be evil in a city without the Lord bringing it,
And the Bible teaches me clearly that life and death is in the
hands of the Lord, that He has the key to life and He has the
key to death. And this situation was for the
glory of God, is what it was. This situation was that the Lord
would show Himself off before this widow woman and Elijah,
and would even show Himself off to us as being the God that can
raise the dead. Now we attempt here to preach
a gospel which we know that God Almighty has got to raise people
spiritually from the dead before they can believe it. So it's
with great encouragement that I look at this. God is able to
raise the dead every time he saves a soul. He raises somebody
spiritually speaking with a spiritual resurrection. God must bring
them to life. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. The Lord must make a man live
or he'll never live. Life is in the hands of the Lord
Jesus Christ and he only can make a sinner live. So I say
to you this morning. We've got to believe in the Lord
God of Elijah, and we must pray Where is the Lord God of Elijah
when we get up to preach because it's only this God that can raise
the dead Now then also it's encouraging to me in this way that whatever
be your situation if you're halfway between life and death If you're
here this morning afflicted and greatly afflicted, you take courage
from this. Where is the Lord God of Elijah?
You ought to be asking that question day by day as you pray about
your situation. Here is a God who can hear the
voice of a man and respond and revive your life. Here is a God
that can raise you up. Here is a God that has the ability
and the power to raise you up and to strengthen and heal you
according to his goodwill and purpose. And it just may be that
this God would show himself off again and that he would revive
you and heal you and lift you up and strengthen you. This God
is about that. He is the Lord God of Elijah. Now then, the next thing I want
to say is that he is the God who gave Elijah a meal one time
that was such a wondrous meal that it sustained him for forty
days and forty nights. Now I want you to look at this
with me, if you will, in 1 Kings chapter 19. I want you to look
at this. This was very interesting to
me. I'm talking about the Lord God of Elijah. I want to find
him. I want to find him. And I want us all to be asking
where he is and looking for him. Now then, over here in the 19th
chapter, After Jezebel, after Elijah had slain the prophets
of Baal, and word came to Jezebel, she set out after Elijah to destroy
him. And when he saw that, he rose
and went for his life. came to Beersheba, which belongeth
to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a
day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a
juniper tree. That's in verse four, chapter
19. He requested for himself that
he might die, and said, it is enough now, O Lord, take away
my life, for I'm not better than my father's. And as he lay and
slept under a juniper tree, behold, there an angel touched him, and
said unto him, arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there
was a cake baking on the coals, and a cruise of water at his
head. And he did eat and drink and laid him down again. The
angel of the Lord came again the second time and touched him
and said, you rise and eat, because the journey is too great for
you. The angel woke him up twice and
told him to eat. Who do you think furnished this
meal? It was the Lord God by the hand
of the angel that furnished him this meal. And he arose and did
eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat forty days
and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God. So you see this
meal sustained this prophet forty days and forty nights. In the
strength of that meal, in the strength of that meat, he went
forty days and forty nights. I thought about some of the spiritual
meals that I've had in my life, some of the spiritual meals that
have sustained me in a barren and dry land. In a time when
there's very few words, when you don't hear much that's worth
listening to, in our day and time, beloved, one grain of meal
to a gallon of water is about the quota from most preachers.
They don't have much to say. And if you listen to them, and
you listen to them from December to January, you'll not hear very
much that will be very trying to your mind as far as you'll
have to really apply yourself to get anything out of it. Somebody
recently, and I think it was Brother Conrad Whitkey, been
over in Seattle, I believe it was, and he said he attended
a church over there, and he said he just never knew before that
somebody could talk so long and not say anything. But nevertheless,
that's what he experienced over there. And that's very true.
That's what's happening now. one grain of meal to a gallon
of water. Mighty, mighty thin. Mix water
with the milk until you can hardly tell that it's milk. Just nothing. There's nothing in it to satisfy
or sustain the soul. But God gave Elijah 40 days'
meat at one meal. And beloved, I asked you this
morning, did you ever get a meal such as that? Did you ever have
one? I've had a few. Spiritual meat,
that is. Spiritual food. Eating of discriminating
grace. Eating of electing grace. Eating
of a love without beginning, love without change, and love
without an end. eating of an atonement that atones
and really does, sure enough, put away sin. That indeed, I
say, puts away, that remits sin. The meat of union to Jesus Christ,
of being in Him and safe before God as we stand in Him, having
been made well-pleasing, holding without blame before the Most
High God. Have you ever got a meal on something
like that? A meal that will stay with you,
A meal that will enable you to endure. A meal that will just
put strength in you. Oh Elijah, he didn't sit down
at the table again for a long time. You don't know this morning
that you ever will sit down to another spiritual meal. This
may be the very last meal you'll ever get. in your life, a spiritual
meal, you may languish on a bed of illness and affliction for
weeks and months to come before God takes you out of this world.
And wouldn't it be wonderful if you could say, well, I got
a meal. I got a meal. I got a meal. I heard about the
Lord God of Elijah. And the question on my mind is
I lay and languish. is where will I find him? Will
I find him to get another meal, something to sustain me, something
to keep me, something to enable me to endure and stay under the
load that I must endure in this world? Have you ever had such
a meal as that? Send us back this food. Don't
let us ever be satisfied until we get a meal that will enable
us to endure, that will enable us to stand the test, that will
enable us to stay under the load. Lord evermore give us this bread,
this bread that you gave, oh Elijah, this bread that can strengthen,
this bread that can sustain life. in this world. Beloved, we need
it. We need it. Well, that's all
the time I have on that particular thought. There's one other thing
that I want to talk about just a little bit. I've got just a
few minutes left. And that is, when could we really use this
prayer? that was on the lips here of
Elisha. When could we really use it?
Now you remember the story about how that Elisha was down on his
father's farm and he was plowing and there was 12 yoke of oxen
plowing, one right after another, and Elisha was the last in the
row. plowing on his father's farm
and the Lord had spoken to Elijah and said I want you to go and
I want you to well let me just read it to you here the Lord
said to him you go return on by way to the wilderness of Damascus
and when you come I want you to anoint Hazael to be king over
Syria Jehu the son of Nun you anoint to be king over Israel
and Elisha you anoint him to be prophet in your room. That's verse 16, 1 Kings 19. I want you to anoint him to be
prophet in your room. Shall come to pass that him that
escapes the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him that escapeth
from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet I've left me
7,000 in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal,
every mouth which has not kissed him. So he departed from thence
and found Elisha, and he was plowing with 12 oxen before him,
and he was the 12th, and Elijah passed by him, and when he passed
by him, he cast his mantle, that coat I was talking about, had
no sleeves in it, this coat, this outer garment, he cast his
mantle upon Elisha. And Elisha, he knew what it meant.
He left the oxen. He ran after Elijah. He said,
let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then
I'll follow you. And Elijah said, go back again,
for what have I done to you? In other words, if you've got
other things to attend to, the Lord's not bid you to follow
me, and you don't have a heart for it. then go on back. And
he returned back from him, took a yoke of oxen, listen to this,
and he slew them. He said, I've got a heart for
it, you bet I have. He took the yoke of oxen, I suppose
it was the one that he was plowing with, and he slew those oxen,
he borrowed their flesh with the instruments of the oxen,
took the plow, took the wood, threw it in the fire, and burnt
the wood, and borrowed the flesh of the oxen, gave it to the people,
they ate it, they had a reunion around that oxen, that slaying
oxen, and then he arose, and he said goodbye to his people,
and he went after Elijah, and he ministered unto him. And so
that's the reason why I was with him. And Elijah tried to shake
him off. You heard the story, I read it
to you. He said, I'm going to, I've got to go to Bethel. and
i've gotta go i've gotta go uh... uh... to jordan i gotta go to
these places and you better just stay here let me go ahead on
and elijah said no no i ain't gonna do that i'm gonna stay
with you i'm gonna stay right with you because he was called
to do it and he was the prophet he was to be the one that was
to be the successor here of the prophet of fire he was to be
the successor and so beloved when Should we have this prayer
especially upon our heart? Well, when we're called upon
to undertake some new thing in our life, deal with some new
set of circumstances, to deal with maybe a work that we're
completely unable to do that's far and above us, or if there's
a great weight of responsibility that falls upon us, we should
remember And pray this prayer, where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is the double portion of
that spirit that was upon my predecessor? Where is this God
of Elijah? Where? Now he has Elijah's mouth. But it is only a relic apart
from the God of Elijah. What good does it do to have
the mantle if you don't have the Lord God of Elijah? And so
you say, well, I got the job. I got the job. I've been called
a pastor of this church or that church, and I have this work
to do and that work to do. Well, what difference does it
make? That's all that is is just a
relic. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? If he can get Elijah's
God, then the mantle would mean something. But it won't mean
anything unless the God of Elijah is with him. So whatever you're
called upon to do, I don't know whether God will ever lay hold
of any of you young fellas and say, preach my word. God ever
speak to you in the night and say, and the Lord speak to you
and you like Samuel saying, speak Lord, speak, thy servant heareth. And the Lord says, I want you
to do this, I want you to do that. Then what are you gonna
do? What are you gonna do? Well, the best thing for you
to do is say, where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is he at? The God who can provide, the
God who can sustain, the God who can answer. A God who can
raise the dead. If I have this God with me, I
can go on, I can do. All right? The second time is
this. When some great difficulty lies
in your way, you remember that Elisha had went over with Elijah
across that deep, rapid stream, the Jordan River. And how, now,
he went over with, he went over with this mighty man of God who
took his mantle and smoked the waters and they went hither and
thither and they walked over on dry ground. How's he gonna
get back? How's he gonna get back? There's a difficulty. There's a problem. There's something,
there's something here that's gotta be dealt with. What are
we gonna do? How are we gonna deal with this?
Well, you see what he does is, He takes that mantle and he strikes
the water and he says, where is the Lord God of Elijah? And
the water divides and the prophet walks through. You see, this
is the time when we must ask the question and pray the prayer.
Where is the Lord God of Elijah? When some difficulty is upon
us. Some situation we don't know
what to do about. We don't know how to get through.
We don't know how to do anything about it. We can't handle it.
The situation we've got to have the intervention of God. Now
I realize that sometimes people look upon preachers as being
people that build fires, try to build fires. They don't have
any way of putting them out after they build them, but they just
build fires every place they go. Try to stir up people and
get something started and get something going. Well, my friend,
this morning I'm not here to build a fire. I'm not here to
try to get something going. I have no agenda of my own. I'm here representing the Lord
God of the Bible, the God of the Bible. And I'm here to tell
you this morning, whatever you think about it, whatever you
may suspect, I'm here to tell you that without intervention
from God, there are some difficulties ahead of us that are going to
take us under. There are some difficulties that
we cannot handle ourselves. It is time to begin to look for
the Lord God of Elijah. We need an intervention from
God in this place, among this people, with this body. We need
an intervention of God. Now, beloved, there are some
difficulties that need to be solved. some difficulties. Now whether they be in the heart
of an individual, whether they be circumstances that will not
yield to whatever prayers so far that we've offered up to
God and will not yield with whatever wisdom we've had to apply to
them, there's difficulties that must be solved. Now, beloved,
there's some difficulties here that need to be solved by God. We are not able to solve them.
I don't have the wisdom to solve them. I don't have the leadership
qualities and abilities to solve the problems we have. I do not
have the ability personally to solve the personal problems that
I have in my own situation. I do not have the ability to
do it. There are difficulties that we must lay before the Lord
that He would solve. The best thing we can do in all
times of trouble and trial is to lay the matter before the
Lord and say, where is the Lord God of Elijah? Would He come
and would He intervene in this situation? He has the solution
to all of our problems. He has the answer to all of the
riddles. that we're trying to work out,
that we're trying to solve. Now, beloved, there's nothing
which can possibly be beyond the power of Him whose name is
Jehovah the I Am, the all-sufficient God. Nothing can be beyond his
ability and his power now beloved listen. This is the place where
I'm at this morning I'm praying if I've said it once I have prayed
it 50 to 100 times in the last week Where is the Lord God of
Elijah? Now, beloved, I have laid out
some of my situations before this God, and I want a solution. I want a solution to some of
the problems. I want to see the hand of the
Lord revealed. I want that God would manifest
Himself in these situations. And I personally am very weak,
and I am rather weary, waiting around, tired, and just practically
exhausted and wrung out by just simply just sitting by and these
solutions not coming. They must come and I lay these
situations before the Lord and I want that this God would intervene
and solve some of our problems. We need his intervention. Now
I do not look to you as being the solution. I do not. You are no wiser than I am when
it comes to these matters. You're not any more able than
what you manifested yourself to be. I judge in solving the
problems that must be solved. I just say this morning there
is a God. And that God is the Lord God
of Elijah. This God can intervene. This God can work. This God is
able to do. He is able to do. We read it
over and over, didn't we? Didn't we read it over and over?
Didn't we see him in action this morning on the pages of Holy
Scripture? Did we not see it? Belovedest
God can work. I will have it. I will have the
solution. I will have it. The Lord will
solve my problems one way or the other. The Lord will intervene. I believe that. I believe with
all my heart. I cast myself on Him and whatever,
wherever it takes me and whatever it costs me, That is in the hand
of the Lord. That's up to His wisdom. That's
up to His plan and His purpose. But the solution must, must be
given. We must have it. Now you say,
well I don't see all of it. I don't see all of that. Well
you may not see it all. And I said to you earlier, you
may think I'm just building a fire, but I'm here to tell you that
you'll see it later on. There are difficulties that must
be solved. The Lord must intervene. He must. Father, in the name
of Jesus, we've said all we know to say. We have called upon your
name. We will continue to call upon
your name. We have waited on thee. We will
continue to wait on thee. We have trusted thee. We are
thy servant. We are the sheep of your pasture. And we come and we ask this morning
for your intervention. The folks on my left, have problems,
they have difficulties, they have burdens, they have distresses,
they have afflictions, they have need of thee. Folks on my right
have need of thee. Only you know the various problems
and afflictions and the burdens of mothers and fathers that sit
on my right here this morning. You know, our Father, those things
that they are so burdened about, and I just pray that you would
hear the cry of their hearts, and that you, the living God,
who can work, who is able to do, Lord, that you would come
and appear on our behalf, and strengthen us, and help us, and
deliver us, oh Lord, and solve the problems of our life. Thou
dost know all things. And so we ask that you, according
to your wisdom, would apply your wisdom and grant that whatever
comes to pass in this little people, in this little assembly,
that it might be for the glory and honor and for the spread
of the saving gospel of Christ until he comes back to this world
for his own. We beg it in Jesus' name and
for his sake alone. Amen.