41 AND ELIJAH SAID TO AHAB, ‘GO, EAT AND DRINK, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.’ 42 So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, BENT DOWN TO THE GROUND AND PUT HIS FACE BETWEEN HIS KNEES. 1 Kings 18
The Lord had just given Elijah a great victory before Israel (Destroying the prophets of Baal (450) and Asherah (400)) but now he’s alone again with his God on the top of Mount Carmel. Interestingly, he tells Ahab to go and feast, BEFORE the drought has broken. He didn’t tell the King or the people to fast and pray before God, but to feast on the top of the mountain in anticipation of the rain coming, ‘for there is the SOUND OF A HEAVY RAIN’.
THERE’S A TIME TO FAST AND A TIME TO FEAST BEFORE GOD, BOTH ARE APPROPRIATE AT A GIVEN MOMENT!
23 The whole assembly then agreed to celebrate the festival seven more days; so for another seven days they celebrated joyfully. … 26 There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. 27 The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling-place. 2 Chronicles 30
Hezekiah led the people of Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unlevened Bread for two weeks, a double period of feasting, before their Lord.
Returning to Elijah on Mount Carmel, we see him withdrawing from the people to humble himself before God and intercede for the rain. It was Elijah who had declared to Ahab, ‘As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.’ 1 Kings 17 Elijah had a responsibility before God to cancel the words he’d declared breaking the drought over the land and call for the rains. His business was on his knees while the people celebrated God’s mercy and goodness, soon to be literally poured out. Elijah persisted seven times, the number of completion, before the breakthrough came, ‘a cloud the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea’.
There will be times in our own lives when it’s right to earnestly seek God in prayer, but there are other times when we should praise God for the answer.
At one of Kathryn Kuhlman’s miracle crusades she stopped ministering and said someone was grieving the Holy Spirit by crying out to God for a healing that had already been granted, a child with severe eczema, I believe. There comes a time when we should praise God for His goodness and believe that the rains or answers are coming. Hallelujah
May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.