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by Cheryl Lindley, ARC Global, an international community of Apostles & Prophets.

Intention
To encourage us all to continue praying and believing that, ‘He who has promised, is faithful.’

Scripture
The Contest on Mount Carmel
V.1. Later on, in the third year of the drought, the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and present yourself to King Ahab. Tell him that I will soon send rain!” 2 So Elijah went to appear before Ahab.

Meanwhile, the famine had become very severe in Samaria…
v.41. Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go get something to eat and drink, for I hear a mighty rainstorm coming!” So Ahab went to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and bowed low to the ground and prayed with his face between his knees.

Then he said to his servant, “Go and look out toward the sea.”
The servant went and looked, then returned to Elijah and said, “I didn’t see anything.”

Seven times Elijah told him to go and look. Finally the seventh time, his servant told him, “I saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.”
Then Elijah shouted, “Hurry to Ahab and tell him, ‘Climb into your chariot and go back home. If you don’t hurry, the rain will stop you!’”

And soon the sky was black with clouds. A heavy wind brought a terrific rainstorm, and Ahab left quickly for Jezreel. Then the Lord gave special strength to Elijah. He tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel.
~ 1 Kings 18 (NLT)

Reflection
On 12 & 13 October, we began to see rain falling in our coastal towns in Queensland. These are not the parts of the country severely affected by drought, but nevertheless there are areas that are very dry. Some towns that received rain were dangerously close to running out of water.

Like Elijah, we can say we have seen a small beginning. We have seen just the first instalment of what has been promised. Let’s be encouraged to continue to believe for an even greater outpouring of rain.

Matthew 21:22 encourages us, ‘You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.’

My daughter Sarah told the story of how her little girl Lucy (3 years old) was playing basketball with her dad. As she threw the ball as high as she could, her dad caught it up and propelled it further, and the ball would go through the hoop.

What a great picture of what happens when we pray in faith. As we in faith offer up what we can do, the Father catches it up and does what would be ‘the impossible’ for us. We score, when in reality, there is no way we could have.

God delights to respond to childlike faith, as we simply pray and believe.

As we pray with child-like faith, our Heavenly Father can use that faith to accomplish infinitely more than we can ask or even imagine.

‘With God, nothing is impossible!!’ Just like Elijah, when we know God has promised rain, we must continue to pray and not give up. Elijah kept looking and refused to stop praying, until he saw what God had promised manifest.

He persisted in faith and received what he had asked for.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, You have called us to pray because You want to answer our prayers.

Your promise is that if we repent, as 2 Chronicles 14:7 states, You will come and heal our land.

Lord, we believe Your promise. We believe that as we pray and repent before You that You will send the rain to our land.

Thank you, Father, for the rain we have received over the past weekend. We continue to say, “We receive what You have done, but we believe for an even greater, drought-breaking outpouring of rain all across our nation.”

We pray in Jesus’ powerful name, Amen.