Sound always indicates something: it can be good or it can be bad, but something of sound is occurring! When 120 men and women had gathered in the upper room waiting for the promised
power, the Bible says: Suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a mighty
rushing wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
There was a sound: The sound was an
indication (Something is coming).
Suddenly cloven tongues as fire appeared on each of them and they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit
gave them utterance.
These men and women came together in prayer. They came with one thought to receive the Promise!
I hear the sound of an abundance of rain: Elijah spoke in a place and a time
where there had not been rain for sometime because famine had been present in the land for some 31/2 years.
What did that mean ? (Rain) as being the river of God meant for Israel: new
life, restoration, the rivers will run again, fish will be caught again, the
crops will grow again, there will be gladness and joy that will have replaced sorrow, there will be laughter where
there has been weeping.
Psalm 65:9-13……..9 You visit the earth and water it,
You greatly enrich it; The
river of God is full of water;
You provide their grain, For so
You have prepared it.
10 You water its ridges
abundantly, You settle its furrows;
You make it soft with showers, You
bless its growth.
11 You crown the year with Your
goodness, And Your paths drip with abundance.
12 They drop on the pastures of
the wilderness, And the little hills rejoice on every side.
13 The pastures are clothed
with flocks; The valleys also are covered with grain;
They shout for joy, they also sing. NKJV
We STAND! We look and are expectant. It is not giving up, but it is praying in giving thanks for the answer is coming. The fire burns brightly, giving away to a new strength to continue in the Lord!
The more You and I spend with God, the more we will hear Him speak. Even in the midst of chaos, in the time of a bad report, the Lord still speaks. There are days I can walk outside and I sense change. It is there in the atmosphere! I cannot see it, I cannot hear it, but there is a sound of change in the atmosphere.
So God tells Elijah in a sound, abundance of rain. IT IS A DOWNPOUR………….. GOD IS PROCLAIMING IT IN THE SPIRIT REALM…………IT IS ONLY PICKED UP IN THE SPIRIT REALM………in 1 John 5:3-4…..we are told this: 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. NKJV
Our faith, our trust in the Lord, and hearing HIM declare that there will be rivers in the wilderness……..….. Isaiah 43:19-21…19 Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. 20 The beast of the field will honor Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I give waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My people, My chosen. 21 This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise. (NKJV)
When we trust the Lord and are
expectant, we can know in our spirit man that we have changed, we have grown,
and not trusting in the flesh creature anymore. Our spirit man is in the
ascendancy to receive what the Lord speaks and to declare to our body, the five
senses, get ready for abundance is on its way.
When we really start to hear Him, we move from Hindered Street to Power Boulevard and the atmosphere is changing.I declare His Word of abundance over me and my family and move to more than enough Avenue!
We can see God turn things around for our good!
The rain was on the way but
there was work to be done: Ahab went to
play and Elijah went to pray.
E.M. Bounds, one of the greatest men of prayer that ever lived said: “God
does nothing except in answer to prayer.”
So if things seem to be stagnating around us and nothing appears to be moving
then we should be looking at our Prayer life. When we have no prayer, we have
no life! If you have no prayer life then you have no power in your life!
John Wesley was quoted as
saying, “Prayer is where the action is."
"We have to pray with our
eyes on God, not on the difficulties." Oswald Chambers
"Prayer is not
learned in a classroom but in the closet." E. M. Bounds
Before interceding in prayer, we must find the quiet place to worship God. We are to have the thankful heart. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. If we truly are the Redeemed, then we must let God know how thankful we are to be HIS REDEEMED! Psalm 107:1-3 NKJV…….Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy, 3 And gathered out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south.
We cannot look at the
circumstances surrounding us. The servant returned with an answer……….. I’m
looking but I don’t see any evidence of an answer to your prayer.
But Elijah just keeps on praying, he sends his servant back to the sea and
while the servant is running Elijah is praying.
There are times that we must continue to pray. In prayer, we continue to look
at the Word and not the circumstance……EVEN …..when a word from God in our
spirit has come, we keep on praying. We hold in our heart: the sound of abundance of rain.
We should never stop if the answer does not come right away! We are to continue
our worship to God, and keep expecting. For
every moment we move aside to the secret place and pray, we put pressure in the
spirit man to hear God completely, with no noise, only the sound of His voice
speaking.
What am I expecting? What are you expecting? What do you require? God gave me a sound…………..I heard it……….I keep praying,
keep seeking, I keep knocking and believing I will see what I heard in the
spirit. I give thanks for a "hearing ear" to hear Him speak to me!
It is on the 7th
return to Elijah that the servant speaks……..” Behold there ariseth a little cloud out of the
sea.” He heard the sound in the spirit
and then a Rhema word came………
A Rhema word: A specific word, for a specific purpose, for a specific time.
There’s something about faith that lets you see the greatness in little things:
Faith can see: mass destruction in the jawbone of an ass ( Judges 15:16-17), a
small child’s lunch feed 5000 men ( Mark 6: 30-44), or a king in small ruddy-faced young boy who
shepherds sheep ( David: 1 Samuel 16: 1-13).
Elijah prayed and the servant
saw……..he saw the cloud the size of a man’s hand………….but Elijah remembered the
sound……….it was a gully washer coming, it was going to be the rainstorm of
rainstorms to end drought and to fill rivers to overflowing capacity.
I don’t care how big the
problem may seem to you, or how long it has existed: The promises of God come
in concentrated form and one little word from God will set you free, and will "destroy" that thing forever.
Jesus said: All it takes is faith like the size of a mustard seed and you can
command mountains to jump into the sea and they will have to go.
Jesus told us in Luke 17 of
faith……….. Luke 17:6………….6 So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a
mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and
be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. NKJV
Elijah got off his knees and told Ahab: It’s here, The rain is here, If you
don’t get that chariot rolling you aren’t getting off this mountain.
And while Elijah was prophesying, the wind blew, and the clouds turned black and
the rain came. It was Elijah who heard it with his spirit man, prophesied it with his mouth
and saw it with his eyes.
And then Elijah out ran a king in a chariot and horse to get to the city where the queen was waiting.
How did Elijah do that? How could he outrun a chariot drawn by a fast horse in the mud? Prayer helped him! That which he prayed for the nation would also come to him. Seeds sown for the good of another came to Elijah. Elijah had a relationship with God. And it was God who broaden the path under Elijah.
Behaving under pressure is revealed by how we behave in everyday life when a "suddenly" appears. Because a "suddenly" can bring extra pressure to you, your well-being and your check book or savings account!
Prayer picks fights! Prayer seeks God and His presence. Prayer seeks that which belongs to God. Prayer helps us to guard truth! It is carrying the right name of Jesus as our treasure which is above silver and gold! Prayer in us and through us will set up the word which has free course to be free running through our lives that is of His justice, His peace, His strength, His power and His love.
Prayer is submitting to God and resisting the devil: James 4:7-8 NKJV Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinner; and purify your hearts you double-minded. Choosing prayer in the time of prayer for Elijah was choosing to draw near to God to hear Him and to receive rain! Faith is not accidental. Faith is a like a bull dog holding onto the edge of someone's coat with teeth showing and with no outward appearance of letting go of that coat edge. It is being determined to hear God, being determined to embrace God's life and renounce the enemies lies.
Prayer is knowing God and being known by Him! And the opposite will appear, that those who pray will be known they just came from God and He God knows them well because they speak with a bold response of a believer by faith in Him.
Today, you and I have the Holy Spirit. May He the Holy Spirit magnify the ability in prayer through us. May we forget the past and regard today that is alive unto God where His counsel to us is wisdom and revelation through Christ Jesus. May our eyes be opened and our ears to hear what the Lord will speak. For by the Spirit of Grace, we are directed into a spiritual life where abundance is seen and received in the physical. It is that place where we give thanks as we walk into that abundance place that it our inheritance.
Are you ready to pick a fight? Are you ready to see abundance come? Make sure you are kneeling for the "right thing" for it is found only in God and in Him alone. Amen!
