A Spiritual Father to Follow

Elijah the Tishbite offers an extremely important and powerful spiritual model for all Believers to follow today. Just as our culture mirrors his culture, our lament must echo his. His calling is our calling. God's holy fire burning in Elijah's bones must also burn within ours!

Elijah lived a life of passionate, radical obedience to God. His lament for his nation and its people was extreme, unrelenting, and fierce, because the divine cause and Kingdom purposes of God on earth were faltering.

Elijah lived at a time when tens of thousands of God's people had forsaken His covenants, thrown down God's altars, and slain His prophets (I Kings 19:10). He was chosen as a prophet of God to live and prophesy during the reign of two of the most wicked rulers imaginable – Jezebel and her puppet, King Ahab.

Beloved, we, too, live amidst despicable evil, injustice, godlessness, and passivity. It is time to examine our lives in light of the life and calling of Elijah!

Not of This World

In the midst of an extremely evil regime, Elijah lived a profoundly holy life set apart from cultural influences as a humble servant of God. Underneath his ragged garments, Elijah's righteous and courageous heart throbbed for the glory of God to return to the nation. Unlike the wicked rulers and citizens of the land in his day, Elijah ate the most meager fare of birds' food and widows' portions.

This was a deeply humble friend of God who eschewed public attention and worldly acclaim for the greater calling of intimate communion with the King of kings. Despite his public calling, Elijah spent much time alone, often attended by the invisible hosts of God.

Elijah lived a life of remarkable sanctification and self-denial – and became a spiritual champion. He was a strong oak of righteousness, determined to uphold purity in the midst of the most extreme evil imaginable.

Elijah's name is a key to his calling – and ours. The Hebrew name Elijah or "el-yaah" literally means "Yah(u) is God," a "doubling" of the name of God. Although Elijah must have been filled with horror when he learned of the reeking perversities, violent cruelties, and extreme licentiousness of Ahab's idolatrous capital, Elijah's very name, "el-yaah," testified of the "I AM that I AM," the God who keeps covenant with a crooked and perverse generation!

A Bold Voice to Echo

Dear Believer, we must understand that Elijah's humility and holiness made him neither timid nor silent within a culture hostile to God. He declared God's righteousness and divine justice with a fearless, uncompromising voice. He was not afraid to declare the truth! He feared no one! He sounded the trumpets of Heaven! Holy anger burned within Elijah like unquenchable fire – the holy jealousy of God for His beloved Bride.

Hear this, Church! Like Elijah, we must cry out against the perversity and injustice in our land! We must not stay silent! We must speak as the oracles of God to declare and decree the purposes of the Kingdom of God on earth!

Indeed, everywhere courage is honored and service admired, Elijah is lauded as a hero of the faith, one of Heaven's greatest saints. Elijah was a seer who saw his nation and his God clearly. And so must we!

Elijah was a great heart who loved his God and His people deeply – and so we must not let our love grow cold!

Elijah was a hero who dared to believe the Word of God, a Believer not unlike you or me who stood strong against all opposition, casting caution, timidity, and doubt to the wind. Beloved, we have the precious and powerful Holy Spirit within us, the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead! How much more can and must we stand strong and valiant in the midst of this evil and perverse generation, declaring the righteousness and justice of our risen Lord Jesus Christ!

Part of God's Remnant

Indeed, amidst any corrupt, contaminated culture – especially when wickedness seems to run unchecked – the Lord God always preserves a remnant, a people whom He calls and anoints to confront the gross abominations and sins of the land.

This is the remnant of faithful followers of the Lamb, the Bride who "has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7), "who has clean hands and a pure heart" (Psalm 24:4).

Just as Elijah railed against the apostasy, carnality, injustice, and perversity of his day without bending or breaking, so must we!

Called As Elijahs In Our Day!

Our times call for the very same boldness, holiness and humility that Elijah possessed. The Lord is calling forth His brave and sanctified remnant, those who have been washed spotless by the Blood of the Lamb and know their authority in Christ.

What is our calling? God is saying, "Come out from among them and be ye separate" (2 Corinthians 6:17)! He is calling us to become dread champions, shining beacons of hope, and unconditional agape love in an ever-darkening world.

But we must first become truly separate – casting off the idols of Baal in our hearts and homes – in order to then confront the evil carnality of our age in our neighborhoods, school districts, governments, businesses, and churches. We are to return to holiness, humility and Kingdom purpose, and then call the nations back to holiness, humility and Kingdom purpose!

Holiness is not to be attained through striving, however; holiness is the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through our intimate communion with Him, through yielding and abiding to His Spirit continuously, He perfects all that concerns us! Philippians 2:13: "...for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

Distracted and Doubting

Unfortunately, many Believers are weighed down by the cares and worries of everyday life, or lulled to sleep by the spirit of the age seducing us away from our first Love, Jesus Christ. We no longer experience the fear of the Lord and turn away from His abiding Presence, thus abandoning true holiness, humility and courage, choosing instead a life of easy entertainment, career ambitions, and empty "religious" activities.

Many Believers are simply too burdened by bills, incapacitated by illnesses, or rendered unfruitful by depression and hopelessness to concern themselves with a nation poised on the brink of disaster, ready to implode.

Why? We fail to believe the Word of God and thus fall prey to the enemy's distractions, doubts, and terrible destruction. We feel powerless. We become lethargic or fearful. And as a result, we choose to remain silent and passive – to avoid inconvenience, unpopularity, or the pain of true persecution.

Receive His Double Portion!

How can the same fire that burned in Elijah's bones also burn in ours? Elijah passed from earth into celestial glory without dying (2 Kings 2), and with his passing, his servant Elisha received a "double portion" of Elijah's anointing. Here is the good news! This "double portion" is made available to every Believer through the resurrection life of Christ within us.

This word "portion" in Hebrew is extremely significant. Portion is the Hebrew word peh, which literally means mouth and suggests authority or commandment. Even more striking is the original root word of this term portion, which derives from the Hebrew root pa'ah. This word is an extremely powerful verb meaning to cleave or break in pieces, to shatter or to scatter into corners.

It is also extremely significant that this same Hebrew word peh is translated as the edge of the sword: "And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword" (I Samuel 22:19). In other words, this "portion" of the spirit of Elijah poured out upon the Body of Christ is the prophetic mouth of authority that speaks the sword of God's Word and shatters injustice.

An Anointed Word to Shatter Evil!

So, what is the double portion that the spirit of Elijah released with his passing? This double portion is our inheritance in Christ, the unstoppable Word which scatters evil!

Beloved, our portion is the same spirit that John the Baptist carried, provoking and compelling him to preach the Kingdom of God with shattering authority! This authority cleaves and breaks evil into pieces and is the very same Spirit who provoked the spirit of Jezebel in the evil king Herod, who then ordered the beheading of John the Baptist. Why did Herod behead this fiery prophet? To shut his mouth! To silence the word of righteousness and justice!

After John's beheading, however, this same Spirit descended upon all the disciples in the upper room, and eventually upon all Believers throughout the world! The harvest is always greater than the seed of the martyr that falls to earth and dies. John's mouth may have been silenced, but the Spirit of Truth is unstoppable. No one can silence God's Word. Even if we are beheaded, martyred, rejected or betrayed, the Kingdom of God will be proclaimed!

We must understand that the mark of the true prophetic Spirit of Christ is that nothing can stop His voice.

Pray For Fire!

May the Lord Jesus Christ, our eternal Prophet and King, release men and women today with this same spirit of Elijah – the anointed voice that will not and cannot be silenced! May we all carry Elijah's fiery passion for purity, his radical humility, and his unquenchable zeal for justice!

Let us shatter and scatter the evil, perverse idols in our nation to cleanse and heal our land (2 Chronicles 7:14)!

Beloved, pray for the fire of Elijah to burn in your bones! Pray for boldness and fearlessness to preach the Kingdom of God – for the Lord is coming soon! Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!

Bobby Conner
Eagles View Ministries