Tony Evans - Praying and Waiting for God's Timing
The lesson that you and I are gonna learn from Elijah today, I want you to right now put everything out of your mind you've ever thought about prayer for a few moments, and I want us to learn from Elijah this point of contact and how it works. I want you to experience it today and its supernatural ability to let you in on the will of God. To understand why prayer is your point of contact, you have to understand what God decreed when he made man. When God made Adam and Eve, he gave three words that would forever control how he would interact with history. He said, "Let them rule". In other words, God says, "I'm going to do what I do in the physical, visible realm from my invisible, spiritual realm, and I'm going to do it through men. And the way men make contact with me is through prayer".
In Isaiah chapter 65, verse 24, you don't have to turn there, but God says, "Before you call, I will answer. Before you call, I will answer". In other words, the answer has already been made. It's just waiting on the call. God has already decreed his will for you. We'll talk about that more in a moment. He's already decreed what he's going to do, and he's decreed it before you've ever talked to him about it. So let's get this straight. Prayer activates the decree and the will of God. It doesn't make it happen, it just grabs it because it has already been decreed to happen. Prayer is the mechanism that grabs something out of the invisible realm so you can see it at work in the visible, physical realm. So God has decreed for every Christian, the sum total of your life, what he will do, and what he won't do, and when he plans to do it, but it's with a condition. And the condition is prayer.
Now, with that understanding, let's go to today's story in the life of Elijah. Let me start off by reading two verses. Chapter 17, verse 1 of 1 Kings, "Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, 'As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.'" So Elijah tells Ahab, "It's not gonna rain". Chapter 18, verse 1, "And now it happened after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, 'Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth.'" So in chapter 17, verse 1, he says, "It's not gonna rain". In chapter 18, verse 1, he says, "It's getting ready to rain". In chapter 17, verse 1, God says, "I'mma close heaven". In chapter 18, verse 1, God says, "I'mma open heaven". And both of those statements were made by the same person.
So before we go any further, let me explain why this rain thing is there in the first place. Ahab didn't make this up. You see, in Deuteronomy chapter 11, verses 13 to 17, this is what God said. God says, "If you go worship idols, I'mma close down heaven so it won't rain". But he says, "If you turn away from other gods, then I will open up heaven and I will let rain again fall on the earth". So the whole reason Elijah is praying is based on something God had said years early to Moses. So Elijah reaches back to what God had already said and by the leading of God applies it many years later to the situation we find him in in what we've gone over so far in 1 Kings 17 and 18. In other words, his prayer was tied to God's Word. Or let me say it another way. If you don't know God's Word, you don't know how to pray, because God's Word must be the basis or the foundation of your request.
The reason why many of us pray so generally, "Lord, bless me. Lord, help me," which means you've said absolutely nothing, you've been so vague, is because you don't have a point of contact that you know about that you can point to in Scripture that becomes the basis of your request. The Book of James chapter 5. In James chapter 5, that's after Hebrews, before 1 Peter, let me read, beginning with verse 16, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effectual prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much". Now, watch this. "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain". So he's taking us back to Kings. "And it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit".
Stay with me here. God said, "It's not gonna rain". God said, "It's now gonna rain". There's a gap of 3 1/2 years between when he said, "No rain," because of the idolatry, and when it was gonna rain. So watch this. The change with the rain only came when the idolatry was addressed. As long as there was idolatry, there would be no rain. Many people want God to send rain in their lives, called blessings, without wanting God to change their lives. But I want you to know something else. God said, "It's not gonna rain," 17:1, then he said, "It is gonna rain," 3 1/2 years. But notice, when you read James that we just read, it says he prayed that it would not rain and then he prayed that it would rain. But wait a minute, God had already said it's not gonna rain. God then said it is gonna rain. So if God already said it, how come he had to pray about it? Because what God has decreed needs a point of contact before it is delivered.
So even though God decreed rain, start and stop, he didn't let it rain until Elijah made it a prayer matter. In other words, he was gonna stop the rain when he prayed. He was gonna start the rain when he prayed. So God's decree had to wait on somebody to suck it down. So God has decreed certain things for your life, his will, and it's sitting up there to be delivered at the proper time when the point of contact is made. So that means if you and I understand effectual fervent prayer as illustrated by James in the life of Elijah, you and I can affect heaven opening, heaven closing, no rain, rain. We can affect it just like Elijah affected it. And let me tell you why and then I'll tell you how. You know why? Because James says that Elijah was of like nature as us. So if you're here today looking for a miracle that will open up heaven, shut heaven, that is, bring the supernatural into history based on the will of God, tied to his Word, you must be an effectual, fervent, righteous prayer.
All right, verse 41, it says, "I hear the sound of the roar of a heavy storm". That's what he says. Elijah says, "I hear a thunderstorm". But wait a minute, in the verses to follow, there is no storm yet. In fact, you're gonna see in a moment the sky is clear. In fact, there's not even a cloud in the sky. In fact, nobody hears this but Elijah, 'cause Elijah has to tell Ahab that there is the sound of a storm 'cause Ahab can't hear. So let's get something straight. Your proximity to God will determine what you hear. See, if you are not close to God, you won't hear the will of God applied to you. You'll be like Ahab, "What you talkin' about?" 'cause you don't hear anything.
One of our problems is we wanna hear from God while keeping our distance from God. No, Ahab could hear the will of God and he could hear the timing of God's will. See, he already knew what the Word of God said, Deuteronomy 11, but the question on the floor is, how do I know that Word in Deuteronomy is applicable to me right now? That has to do with spiritual distance. He heard something other folk couldn't hear 'cause he was in a proximity that Ahab didn't have. And so he could pick up things that other folk couldn't pick up because of his proximity to the Lord. What made his proximity so close? It said Elijah was a righteous man. He lived his life to please the Lord. But it gets deeper 'cause verse 42 says, "And Ahab went up to eat and drink but Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees".
Stay with me here. Elijah goes up to Mount Carmel. He doesn't go with Ahab. He goes up to Mount Carmel. He separates himself and he finds a place to get alone with God. In other words, what he was getting ready to ask for was so big, what he was getting ready to call on from heaven was so deep, that he needed an undistracted environment for his discussion, okay? Do you have a place you can go? A closet, a room, a bathroom, or something, some place you can go where there will be undistracted communication. This thing was so deep and so big, he went up to Mount Carmel and he wanted a concentrated time. Even though God had already decreed it, he needed to make a point of contact with God, being a righteous man, and so he went up to Mount Carmel. He separated himself. But look what he did when he separated himself. It says, "He bent down, put his head between his knees".
Okay, you didn't see that. He bent down and put his head between his knees. What my boy doin'? In Old Testament days, they didn't have stirrups for pregnant women. They didn't have a place where a woman would lay up and put her legs on the stirrup for examinations or to give birth. Uh-uh, what the women did was crouch down, put their head down, and then somebody would say, "Push, push, push, push, push, push". In other words, it was the position of labor. Why? It was the position of labor 'cause he's about to give birth to a miracle. It was the position of labor because he's getting ready to give birth to something supernatural. See, when you need God to do something not regular but super unleaded, when you need God to do something not ordinary but extraordinary, you gotta get in a position of birth. But no woman gets in a position of birth unless she pregnant. The whole point of birth is that you are pregnant.
See, some of us want God to give birth when we haven't even let God get us pregnant. We don't have the pregnancy of his presence, the pregnancy of his life, but we want him to give birth to a miracle. He knew that he needed the miracle heaven to open so he got in a position and he labored. This is the biblical word "travail". Travail means to be in labor. You say, "Why do I have to go through all that"? 'Cause you're giving birth to a miracle. You're giving birth to something supernatural. This is not regular ordinary. You're asking God to do something out of the ordinary. But he needs a point of contact, 'cause it says, "An effective fervent prayer of a righteous man". He said to his servant in verse 43, "Go up now and look toward the sea". In other words, look for the answer 'cause it's a storm, so look for the answer. "So the servant went up," verse 43 says, "and looked and said, 'There is nothing.'"
Okay, let's stop there. He prayed and nothing happened. Anybody know that feeling? You prayed and nothing happened. He went up and said, "I looked for an answer but there's no answer to the prayer". But then he goes on and he says, "And he went up and looked again. 'There's nothing.' He said, 'Go back seven times.'" Go back seven times. Seven is the biblical number of completion. And so, notice this now. He's persistent. He keeps going. And so, look at this now. The man comes back after the seventh time, verse 44, and says, "Behold, a cloud as small as a man's hand is coming up from the sea". Okay, we've gone from seeing nothing to seeing a cloud this big, a cloud the size of a man's hand, a little, tiny cloud. He said, "Well, no, I've been going seven times and the only thing now that's showing up is a cloud the size of a man's hand".
You see, he prayed expectantly. He expected to see something. Now, what he saw wasn't much 'cause all he saw was a cloud with a man's hand. That's a tiny cloud. But that's all he needed to see, 'cause sometimes God doesn't give it to you all at once. He lets you see a little somethin' somethin'. And a little somethin' somethin' says, "I'm listening. I'm hearing you. We're not ready to complete it, but when you see that little cloud". He said, "Oh, you saw a little cloud"? He went and told Ahab, "Go get your chariot, go to Jezreel, 'cause it's getting ready to thunderstorm up in here, up in here". Why? Because sometimes God gives you a little down payment. He doesn't take care of everything, he just show you a little, a little, a little... you remember the song, "A little somethin' somethin'," you know? Yeah, he gives you a little somethin'.
In the last verse, "Then the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel". Oh no you didn't. Okay, wait a minute. Watch this now. In the previous verse, Ahab has got a chariot, which means he has horses. Horses are pulling his chariots. And these are multiple horses 'cause he's the king. So he's got a group of horses pulling his chariot from Carmel to Jezreel, which is 15 miles. His runner was nowhere to be found and Elijah becomes his runner. But wait a minute. Elijah says he had to girdle up his loins. That means he had to pull up his robe, tuck it under his belt, and run. That's an old boy here. Old boy is running 15 miles and he's outrunning the horses, okay? He ran, oh, it makes me think of Isaiah 40, "Those who wait upon the Lord shall get new strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint".
Somehow it's a, you say, "How do I know this is a supernatural track star"? Because it says, "And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah". And so he started kicking it, he started kicking it, because when God comes through for you, even though you've had to wait for it, you'll be like Caleb who said, "I started when I was 40. Now I'm 85, but God has given me strength at 85 that I had at 40 and it was worth waiting on him for my change to come". God can take you and give you strength for whatever he's gonna bring your way when you suck it down from up there down here through the effectual fervent prayer.
Now, let me close with something. A number of years ago, for those who haven't heard this story, I was doing an evangelistic crusade in Columbia, South Carolina. This crusade was at the Brice Football Stadium, which is the football stadium for the University of South Carolina. It was Sunday night, the first night of the crusade, when somewhere between 15.000 or 20.000 people had gathered in the stadium for us to preach the gospel to. Before the service, all the ministers and the planning committee got, went downstairs underneath the stadium to pray. A gentleman came in and said, "We've just been warned that a major storm is coming and it will be here by 7 o'clock". It's now 6 o'clock and the meeting is supposed to begin at 7:00.
So based on the meteorological report, we were gonna be drenched with a heavy thunderstorm at 7 o'clock. So we went into prayer, and we prayed that God would hold the rain, and we prayed that God would allow the service to go on, and we prayed. The ministers prayed, but every minister including me prayed a safe prayer. At the end of the prayer, a 5'1" lady named Linda, me and Sister Evans were there, named Linda said, "May I pray"? We said, "Well, yes. Yes, go ahead and pray. You know, we need all the prayer we can get".
Here is the summary of Linda's prayer. Linda said, "Lord, we are here doing what you ask us to do. You ask us to win people to Christ. You ask us to proclaim your Word. We have spent money, time, energy to put this crusade together, doing what you told us to do. So you would embarrass yourself if you let it rain because you control the weather. So therefore, Lord," here it got crazy, "I command you to stop the rain". All the preachers, they would just look at each other and wait for lightning to strike, 'cause we got this little 5'1" lady commanding God with the rain. We walk up. It's now 7 o'clock. It's time for the service to begin.
The MC comes out and he says, "Ladies and gentlemen, we know that rain is supposed to come. The sky is dark behind us. It's coming this way. We know it's supposed to come. We're just gonna go as long as we can go, so if you'll just remain here as long as you can, we'll do as much as we can," 'cause it wasn't looking good. You could hear the thunder in the background. It's coming this way. As we begin the service, we're 10, 15 minutes into the service, and now it's black. It's thundering behind us and you can begin to hear the rain. It begins to drizzle. True story, it begins to drizzle.
So now everybody is stirring because people are getting ready to leave. Some people probably heard the meteorological report and brought their umbrellas with 'em, so a few people were starting to open up their umbrellas, but you could see people were getting ready to leave 'cause you got thunder and lightning coming this way. I'm looking down. Linda is sitting next to a gentleman. The gentleman opens up his umbrella 'cause it's getting ready to rain, it's drizzling, and he puts the umbrella over Linda. Linda takes her hand and pushes his hand back and refuses the umbrella. And then it happened. As we sat there at Brice Stadium, as the rain came up to the stadium, with our own eyes, the rain split. Half of it went around this way, half of it went around that way, and then the rain came back together at the other end of the stadium.
The preachers were being spiritually polite, but Linda gave an effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person. She got down, and put her head down, and pushed, and pushed, and pushed. And like Jacob said, "I'm not gonna let you go until you do something. I'm gonna give birth to a miracle". Somebody here today needs a miracle in your life, needs a miracle in your emotions, needs a miracle in your home, needs a miracle on your job. If you commit to righteousness, if you commit to prayer, if you commit to Mount Carmel, and if you get pregnant with God's life and are willing to go into labor, what happened to Elijah, James says, is available to you.
Because he says authentic people see God. Well, because they are for real, God can be for real with them. What he's offering you is a new life. Regardless of your past, regardless of all the things you've done, he says, "Follow me". There's no room now for secret agent Christians. We don't need any spiritual CIA representatives. It's time to let it be known where you stand. Love is a decision of the will to serve somebody who you may or may not like. It may take you years to get to like somebody. You can decide to love 'em right now. If you got ugliness in your life, your mama didn't treat you right, your daddy didn't treat you right, he's gonna use all that ugly stuff to take your life and make your life so you can save somebody else's life.