Hearing God: Are You Listening?

Elijah, the great prophet of the Lord in the apostate kingdom of Northern Israel, lay in a heap on the dusty ground.

Not two days before he had worked a mighty miracle. At God’s will, he challenged horrible King Ahab and Queen Jezebel to a showdown: he represented the Lord God against nine hundred priests of the false gods Baal and Asherah, the pet gods of Ahab and Jezebel.

The challenge? In front of thousands of people, each side would sacrifice a single bull on their respective altar. The worshipers would then call down fire from their god to burn up the sacrifice. The winner’s deity would claim the hearts of Israel.

Elijah had told the priests of Baal to go first and go they did. For three hours, 450 of them screamed out their prayers, and cut themselves, and danced around the altar, and crawled on the ground.

“Shout louder!” Elijah had taunted them. “Maybe he can’t hear you!”

So, they danced, screamed, and cut even more. By late afternoon, the altar was drenched in their blood as well as the bull’s. And guess what? The god Baal never showed. The altar and the sacrifice were cold.

Then it was Elijah’s turn. In front of the mob of royalty and peasantry, he acknowledged the true God and repaired the Lord’s broken altar as the people watched. He dug a trench around it and had servants fill up the trench with water and pour even more water to soak the sacrifice.

Once everything was good and wet, Elijah prayed aloud so the people could hear him.

“Lord! The Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, show us all that you are God in Israel!”

At the prophet’s shout, the Lord’s holy fire roared down from heaven. Streams and rivers of fire burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the dirt; and even the water flowing in the deep trench.

And the people fell down and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”

God’s power had exploded in Israel.

But Ahab hated God and hated Elijah, and Jezebel hated even more. The wicked pair sent the army after Elijah, who ran for his life into the wilderness where he begged God to kill him.

But God wasn’t finished with Elijah. The Lord sent an angel to give him food and water and to tell him to rest for a night, for he had another journey to make.

Elijah traveled on, forty days and forty nights, until he came to the holy mountain of Horeb, the mountain of God.

And God came to him and asked, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” As if God didn’t know! But He knew what He was doing.

Understandably, Elijah issued a litany of complaint: “The Israelites rejected you, they killed the prophets, and they’re trying to kill me too!”

The Lord answered and told Elijah to stand on the mountain in His presence, for the Almighty was about to pass by.

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind there was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 

After the earthquake came a fire but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire came a gentle whisper, a still, small voice. The whisper asked the same question as before: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

And Elijah repeated what he had already said. But this time, he heard God. Instead of complaining and wanting to die, he simply described his situation and waited for the Lord to tell him what was next.

And the Lord did. Elijah listened and went to the Desert of Damascus to anoint a new king over Israel in the name of the Lord God Almighty and to call a new prophet who would rise up when Elijah’s days were done. (Told from 1 Kings 18-19)

Unlike Elijah, you may be doing wonderfully well. You are serving the Lord and seeing good harvests. Everything is fine.

But in this world, things happen. Believers aren’t meant to sit on their hands. God will call you out to more challenges. Will you be ready when He does? Are you listening?

Or you may be doing all right in some areas of your life, but others are a mess. You think that if you could just solve this one thing – lack of provision, or anxiety and depression, or an impending divorce, or a distant child – whatever it is, the problem hurts. God will help you, but will you recognize His voice when it comes? Are you listening?

Or you may be more like Elijah. You used to be close to God, then everything blew up. You’re exhausted and on the run. Nothing more to live for, everything is dust and ashes. God will sustain you and save you if you recognize His voice when He speaks. Are you listening?

Because God is speaking.