Influencers Weekly Devotional

The Spirit of Elijah by

Rocky Fleming

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” Galatians 6:9 (ESV)

Much has been said and written about the “spirit of Elijah.” Most people understand this to be a compelling voice and persuasive expression that will turn the heart of the people back to God, as mentioned in Luke 1:16-17 about John the Baptist. It was said that John would go in the spirit of Elijah before Christ. He wasn’t the prophet Elijah. But, he had the message, heart and spirit of Elijah in him. Perhaps you are like me to think this spirit is bold, courageous, and authoritative. Would you be surprised to learn that it might also include feeling defeated, alone and forsaken, for there is another side of it? Let’s take a look. Elijah, the prophet, turned the hearts of the people back to the Lord because of the mighty works God chose to do through him. You might want to read about it in 1 Kings 18. In this chapter, you will see a mighty work of faith by Elijah, a mighty movement of God as a result, and a mighty authentication of Elijah as a true prophet of God because he had courageous trust in God. After the dust settled and God had shown Himself in a magnificent way, the things Elijah had hoped for had been done by God. It had to be for Elijah one of the greatest “spiritual highs” ever recorded in the history of the Bible. It was a great, great day for Elijah, and for the followers of the One True God, who were delivered from the false gods and their prophets who had invaded their land. Can you imagine how Elijah must have felt at the time? Wish it could have stopped there, but it doesn’t. In Chapter 19, we see Elijah fall off that high and into the depth of despair, and we wonder what happened to the mighty man to make him go into despair so quickly. What happened? A simple threat from an evil woman hit Elijah at the wrong time and place, and it took him into the pits of discouragement. It’s hard to understand that he went from the mountaintop of success and ministry prosperity, to the valley of despair in a matter of days, if not hours, because of an empty threat by someone who had no power over him. But, it did happen to Elijah, and it could happen with you. It is this “other side” of the spirit of Elijah that I want to discuss with you. This side is not the result of being on a spiritual high because of the great works of God that we see, but rather the low that can sometime follow it. Believe it or not both extremes serve two great causes. One cause lifts us up on a spiritual mountaintop to see things as they ought to be and could be if we will aggressively trust the Lord. It is in this place we see the rewards of faith, and the downloading of great burdens when we entrust them to the Lord. We love every minute of our time there. On the other hand, the other side of this spirit of Elijah takes us back to the reality of the situation we live in, and to see that work is still needed. This was the case with Elijah. I think he thought that the work that had been done was enough to turn all the hearts of the people, including King Ahab and his wife Jezebel to the One True God. At least he hoped for this and anticipated it. It must have been a shock to hear those threats from a hardened, ruthless woman declaring she had not changed, and she was coming after him. Elijah had thought his work was over and all was well, only to be rudely awakened from his illusion and be reminded the same power structure he had hoped was defeated was still in place. Have you ever been in a similar situation when you expended great energy and resources in overcoming a great challenge, only to learn that you had only come close to the end, but not all the way? It is similar to someone who has gone through a lengthy battle against cancer and hears the words “remission,” only to learn a short while later that cancer cells have returned. The low goes to a high, and then back to a low. Only it doesn’t go to the same baseline. It goes lower than before. Such was the case with Elijah. The man and his spirit bottomed out. He ran. He crawled under a broom tree and asked God to kill him. The same man who had faced down 450 prophets of Baal in a duel to the death, was now so discouraged by a simple threat of a woman, that he wanted to give up and die. Isn’t it strange the way our mind, body and spirit works in sync, and when one is out of sync, the others tend to fall apart? Often times our perceived problems are not as bad as we think, which was the case for Elijah. Can we learn something by the way God handled Elijah’s care during this perceived difficult time for him? Can you also trust God to take care of you when you are not able to see clearly a solution to your problems? What must we do when we go through the dark side of the spirit of Elijah? I think it would be good to see what happened to Elijah when he went through his time. The first thing we see is that he went to sleep. God let Elijah rest and sleep. This is an example of what some doctors would call “sleep therapy,” and I think God didn’t respond to Elijah’s request for death for He knew Elijah simply needed a good night’s sleep. Next, we see an angel feed Elijah with bread and water to take care of his nutritional needs. Sometimes our emotional needs are best addressed by looking at our physical needs. Maybe we are making our problems a spiritual or mental concern when it is something else? Elijah needed more rest and more food, so the angel put him through a second round of this therapy. What happened? Afterwards, he arose from sleep and operated in the strength of that rest and food for 40 days and nights, as he made his way to Mount Horeb. Talk about nutritional loading? We could sell that diet to a lot of athletes, if it was only about one’s physical preparation for a marathon race. But it wasn’t just about preparation for a run through the wilderness for Elijah. It was about restoring Elijah back to his purpose. It was about bringing the man back from a down cycle that often follows great victories. You see, simply taking off and getting away from the demands on our life in an exceptionally difficult time of our life is sometimes needed, and we need to give ourselves permission to go to this place, if necessary. But, this is not the place God wants us to hang out and live. To do that would be to live in a spirit of defeat. No, this should be a temporary place. It is a place for our life to be restored to our purpose and God's power, by being revived and reminded how desperately dependent we are on Him. We sometimes forget this when things are going well for us. When we are on the mountaintop side of the spirit of Elijah, we do not feel any desperation or perceive of defeat. We are lifted above these things. But, it is also a time that our pride, our egos and the ease of things can take our eyes off God, and we forget that it is He at work and not our self. This is why I said that two great causes are served with both sides of the spirit of Elijah. One cause lifts us to a spiritual mountaintop to help us see the great God we serve and the great power that He makes available for His purposes in our life. The other cause is to keep us grounded, dependent, and aware that we still live in a land that is not our own. We are refugees passing through this world, and bound for our Promised Land. We do not reside in this place. We sojourn through it, and it is the dark side of the spirit of Elijah that reminds us of this truth. It has a great purpose, and this is why God permits it to invade our life. When Elijah made it to Mount Horeb, he got an answer from God to his complaint that he was alone, and that all the other prophets had been killed. As I said, it wasn’t as bad as he perceived, for God told him that he was not alone, and there were 7,000 who had not bowed to Baal. He also gave Elijah his marching orders, and it was back to the hunt for this mighty prophet of God. The spirit of Elijah with his purpose had beenrestored to him, and he was now operating at full speed. What can we learn from this story? Men, if some of you find yourself on the dark side of the spirit of Elijah, don’t panic. Instead, learn from the lesson we see in Elijah’s life, and the way the Lord ministered to him. Submit yourself and rest in God’s loving care, and you will come back. Do not doubt it. You will come back from this darkness you are in. So, if you are there now, take the time you need to restore, and then come back to your race. We need you to be able to run it the best you can, by running it boldly, courageously and with honor to our King. Download file