Both the Old and the New Testaments speak of a coming Elijah. Who is this man? Jesus says that John the Baptist was the Elijah that came before His ministry, but hinted that there would be another one before His 2nd Coming.
“And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.” Mark 9:11-13
The reason I say that there is another ‘Elijah,’ is that John did not restore all things, so in the time of Jesus this prophecy was still unfulfilled. The Angel told Zechariah before the birth of John the Baptist that he would go before Christ in the ‘spirit and power’ of Elijah.
“And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous--to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Luke 1:17
To me this prophecy has a double fulfillment and is yet to be realised. The original Elijah had miracles and power in his ministry which John the Baptist did not have. He only had the ‘spirit’ of Elijah calling the people to repentance, so it is obvious that this word was still only partially fulfilled.
“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” Malachi 4:5-6
We also see here in Malachi 4 the coming Elijah would appear before the ‘Great and Terrible’ day of the Lord which is the 2nd coming and not the 1st coming. When Jesus came the first time he came as a lamb for the slaughter, but when He comes again, it will be as a King in judgement.
Without going into to much detail in this study I would like to say that the Elijah who comes before the 2nd coming is the Spirit filled Church walking in the ‘spirit and power’ of God, preparing the way of the Lord.
Church that brings about Revival restoring all things, all that the Church had lost in the Dark Ages, doing the works that Jesus did and greater works than these, John 14:12.
Isaiah chapter 2 starts with these encouraging verses on the End Times and speaks of a coming revival. It also speaks of God’s House being exalted and people saying one to another, “Let’s go up to the Mountain of the Lord.” This would be a coming revival before the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord that is spoken of later in this chapter. The Zion spoken of here is the Church. Hebrews 12:22
“In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Isaiah 2:2
I’m convinced that God in His mercy wants to bring revival before there is judgement. Mercy always triumphs over judgement. Look at the wonderful revival that happened before the first world war, especially in Wales where thousands were swept into the kingdom. Unfortunately, many of those young men went off to war and never returned. Praise God they were ready to meet their Maker though and most likely witnessed to others with them in the trenches. Even though many died in this war, at least they went to be with the Lord. When God raps up the ages, I’m sure He’s not wanting to see souls lost but will have mercy on us with a great move of God before the end. Judgement can cause people to repent and turn to God.
“My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgements come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.” Isaiah 26:9
We see the same thing prophesied in Haggai. Where there is a shaking of the whole earth before the Desire of all Nations comes. Jesus is the Desire of the Nations. In this verse God goes on to fill His house with glory. Haggai 2:6-9
“For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.” Haggai 2:6-8
In the last few years I have never seen such trouble coming on the earth, with sickness, suicide, the falling of nations, disasters, death on the roads and violence everywhere. Now we have a world wide virus, that’s like a curse breaking out all over the earth. This curse is spoken of in the book of Malachi and the only remedy seems to be the coming of Elijah to turn men’s hearts back to God. Look at the beginning of Malachi chapter 4. There is the fire of judgement that punishes the sinner but at the same time the righteous are being blessed.
“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” Malachi 4:1-2
John the Baptist came before Jesus’ ministry and called the nation to repentance, and to turn away from their idols. This was followed by the appearing of Jesus and a great move of God with 1000s coming into the kingdom with amazing healings and miracles. The time of grace eventually came to an end though and Jerusalem fell to the Romans in AD70 with millions perishing in judgement.
In the days of the original Elijah he too called the nation to repentance and after some amazing miracles they repented and the nation was changed.
I don’t believe the coming Elijah will be just one man but the Holy Spirit ‘the Spirit of Elijah’ coming upon the Church. The mission is now for the whole world and not just for little Israel, one man could not complete this task.
With all the shaking taking place in the world we need to be on God’s side, and not sitting on the fence. The original Elijah challenged the people and asked them ‘who was on God’s side’, at first they were non-committal until the fire fell.
Right now the earth is being consumed by a curse and it’s time for a revival. God wants to raise up His Elijah (His Church) with unique qualities. He wants Christians who are not just spectators but participators. Something I have noticed about Elijah was that he had confidence in his God and in the words that he spoke.
“And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” 1 kings 17:1
Notice how he said that it will be according to his word. He had confidence in his words. If we want to be God’s Elijah’s, then we too need to be more careful with our words and train ourselves to speak with more confidence. When I look around today I see how careless people are with their words and I’m sure a lot of the trouble people are in, is because they are reaping a harvest from their careless words. We Christians need to realise that our words have the power to kill or to bless. Life and death are in the power of our tongues.
“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Proverbs 18:21
We don’t have much confidence in our words anymore and instead of speaking to our mountains and commanding them to go, we run to the world for help without even asking God what we should do. We have become lazy. David took down Goliath with a small stone, but before he did that he slew a lion and a bear. He practiced on smaller things first until he had graduated to the size of a giant. If we don’t start coming against smaller things, like colds today how will we come against cancer when it knocks on our door.
We were created in God’s image and He was the one who spoke the worlds into being. He didn’t twitch his nose like Samantha the friendly Witch in ‘Bewitched’, but used His words. He has given us the same type of authority. Satan knows that we have power in our words and gets us to use them against ourselves. Often we self-destruct by saying things like, “I’m dying to see you.” “It’s killing me.” These idle words should not be coming out of our mouths. We should be speaking life. Satan wants us to watch and listen to things that fill our minds with fear, in the hope that we will voice those fears shaping them into words. He often puts thoughts in our minds and then wants us to voice them. Speaking them enough will cause you to believe them and they will eventually come to pass.
“For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.” 1 Peter 3:10
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29
As God’s Elijah we need to revisit this whole area of the tongue, for our words can change the direction in which we are heading. We can either bring blessing or cursing upon our lives. Unfortunately, there is a harvest developing around us from the evil that people have spoken over themselves. James says that our tongues are like rudders that can steer our lives, and it is so true.
We as Christians often moan, criticise and are negative, to our own destruction, and our angels have to work overtime to clean up the mess we are making with our tongues. We speak with a ‘forked tongue,’ sometimes blessing and other times cursing. This type of speech can disqualify us from the blessings that are meant to be ours as God;s Elijah's.
Look at this great example; The Children of Israel were coming towards the Canaan Land that God had promised them. Twelve spies were sent in to check out the land and 10 came back with an evil report.
“And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.” Numbers 14:36-37
The 10 spies actually can back and told the truth. There were giants and walled cities in the land, with people who were a lot stronger than them. Yet God called their testimony ‘evil.’ It was evil, even though it was a fact, because they believed that fact more than what God had already said. He said the land was theirs and not to be afraid. They were presented with facts and truth but preferred to choose the facts over truth, just like we are presented with facts and truth each and every day.
We should be asking ourselves, “What does God say about the matter?” Ignorance is not an excuse. Caleb and Joshua were of a different spirit and they were able to enter into the land while the others perished in the wilderness.
“But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereunto he went; and his seed shall possess it.” Numbers 14:24
The Prophet Elijah ‘back in the day’ challenged the people about the idol worship of Baal and Ashtoreth. This was a big problem then and I feel it still is today. A lot of our troubles people have are because they are worshipping idols. Look at this verse.
“Sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god:” Psalm 16:4
You may say that we are Christians and God is speaking to sinners or Pagans about their idol worship in this verse. They are the ones who worship idols, and not us. Not so, look at these other verses about idols that are for Christians.
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” 1 John 5:21
“Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.” 1 Corinthians 10:41
We Christians can have idols too. Idols are anything that takes Jesus’ place in our hearts. Isaiah chapter 2 goes on to call God’s people to repentance and to throw away their idols.
“Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord. You, Lord, have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and embrace pagan customs. Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots. Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.” Isaiah 2:5-8
Isn’t this a picture of the days in which we are in now? Our land is full of chariots (cars) and even the Church is adopting pagan ideas. They worshipped the work of their own hands back then, in other words, they did their own thing. An idol is anything that takes the place of God in your life. Jesus is always asking us. “Do you love me?” Christ doesn’t want to be an optional extra in our lives, He wants to be number One. Lord of all or not Lord at all.
Susanna Wesley the mother of John Wesley said. “Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of or takes off your relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself." — Susanna Wesley (Letter, June 8, 1725)
I think that a lot of our troubles can be from our resisting the Spirit to throw our idols away. If we don’t listen to His still small voice, then He may have to begin to shout at us through circumstances. He will not stop working on us until He is number one in our lives.
These are the days of Elijah and God is shaking everything that can be shaken in the earth before Jesus returns. Time is running out and there is a call going out for repentance. The Spirit wants to get the Church right with God. The Bride is to get herself ready. It’s a time of fire. His fire can either be a blessing to those who are right with Him or a curse to those who have things that He wants to burn up in their lives.
Whose side are you on in these desperate days? Are you going to be an Elijah who prepares himself for the task ahead? Are you tidying up your act, or are you just going to sit back and see what happens. Don’t be a spectator, be a participator.
God is looking for Elijah’s. There is a situations vacant. Will you apply for the job?