Only people of faith can sincerely entertain and even more obey the word of continuing when the reality of the circumstances begs the participant to rethink everything and even to take the easy way out.

   Still, the Word from Elijah in I Kings 18:43c gives clear indication to all people of the 21st century.

   Like the world today, Elijah and those who lived during his time were experiencing their own severe recession. Resources had dried up for all – the rich and the poor. Much like today, the people were anxious to find solutions to recover the strength of the economy. Elijah knew that the only solution had to come from God.

   Since God was the one who dried up the resources (the rain), only God could restore the resources.

  The Bible passage finds Elijah in verse 41 promising that there will be a change from the decline of resources. Elijah is promising Ahab that God will solve the root of the problem – the lack of rain – by supplying an abundance of rain.

   This now brings to light three critical points that will aid the world and the church today.

   First, it is worth noting that Elijah made a promise that a change will come. He made that promise because God told him to make it. Even more important to note that after the prophet spoke the Word of God, he went into intense prayer and spiritual warfare. He did not speak God’s Word and then believe God’s Word and then wait for the manifestation. He went into intense prayer. This is the first critical point. After we are certain that God has promised a change and we have spoken what God has promised, we would do well to increase (not coast) in prayer. Notice that Elijah in this passage stayed in his prayer posture until the change occurred. Did his refusal to take a break from prayer reflect weak faith? On the contrary, Elijah recognized that prayer is necessary for a prophetic move of God. Here is how so many believers miss the greater revelation of God. We need to keep going in prayer until the answer appears!

  The next great point teaches us what to do when nothing is happening. It comes from Elijah’s servant. In verse 43, Elijah told the servant to go and look over the sea from the top of Mount Carmel to see if there were any rain clouds. Elijah had given God’s assurance that the rain would come and now it’s time to behold the evidence of the change beginning. The servant obeyed and went to the top of mountain and the Bible records that the servant saw “nothing.” Here is where another point begins to instruct us. How many times have we heard from God and in some cases from prophets and leaders who have a great reputation of not missing God (like Elijah)? Yet, after the prophetic word and even after intense prayer, there is nothing! If we do not heed to lesson learned by Elijah’s servant, we risk entering into doubt about our ability to hear from God. This can be one of the most pressure filled life of a believer - to stay in a marriage, stay in business, stay in ministry, - when nothing is happening. Elijah knew what to do with the nothing of his situation. Keep going until it (the answer) appears!

   The final point is dealing with God’s timing. Elijah, while still in his prayer posture, confidently declared to the servant to “go again seven times.” Wow. We must keep it real and inject a point most leaders know is true for the 21st century. Can you imagine telling a business employee or a church member to keep doing the same thing and that employee or member is seeing nothing happening? Clearly, the majority of these workers would not have made the third trip for Elijah. Yet Elijah then and God now is commanding all to keep going – even when nothing is happening! Why could Elijah make this declaration? It is clear. Prophetically, he knew the timing of God and he declared it to the ones connected to him. For us today, be it known, as we do as Elijah did and stay in our prayer posture, God will prophetically give us His timing when it will appear. God will say…about this time tomorrow, this year or something to that effect. The bottom line is that God does have a time set for the answer to appear. We must show God that like Elijah even others in the Bible (Abraham, Job and more), we are willing to keep going even when nothing is happening. Why? We believe like Elijah that abundance is coming!