The SPIRIT of ELIJAH: God's Answer for Wimpy Men and Wicked Women [Sunday School Series]
Part 4: Defining the Spirit of Elijah
Originally preached May 26, 20224
1 Kings 17:1 NKJV - 1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, "[As] the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word."
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Adam Dragoon (00:00.494)
Thanks for listening to the Sermon Podcast from the Potter's House Church in Virginia Beach. Our vision is winning souls, making disciples, and planning churches. You're about to hear a message that was preached live from one of our recent church services. We hope that you'll open your heart to hear the Holy Spirit speaking directly through this message. Stay tuned after the message for information on how to get connected with us. Thanks again, and enjoy today's message.
Adam Dragoon (00:28.686)
school. Once again as we gather together we're in the middle of a series that I've titled, Confronting Wimpy Men and Wicked Women. God's Answer is in the Spirit of Elijah. So just to do a little bit of a review this morning, get your minds rolling, need your participation. This is not a sit and watch time, this is audience participation time, so please help me out.
Number one, we saw the origins of both the Ahab and the Jezebel spirit at work in the very first chapters of the Bible there in the Garden of Eden. How did we see that and what do you remember from what we learned? The spirit of Ahab and the spirit of Jezebel at work in the Garden. What do we remember from that? Noel?
Adam Dragoon (01:24.334)
Very good. Okay, we see both the Ahab spirit. So Ahab spirit is passive, is on the sidelines, is too busy with
earthly affairs to be involved in spiritual matters. It's a good thing that Ahab doesn't infect anyone today. Maybe I should say that one more time. Ahab is passive. He's on the sidelines. He's too busy with his business, with his career, with his hobbies. Then he is with spiritual matters. So then we see the spirit of Jezebel also at work.
because she was deceived, she was overtaken, and the spirit of Jezebel is a domineering, take charge, tyrannical attitude that jumps into battle with the serpent without asking for any support. I can do it! And so from the garden we see both of these powerful demonic strategies that have, over the thousands of years since then, have been refined, have been concentrated, and have been deployed against...
both God's people and worldly people for many generations. So the last two Sundays that we looked at this, we looked at first the historical character King Ahab. We looked at the lineage of kings that led up to his reign in the nation of Israel. And what do you remember from what we learned about King Ahab? What was the defining factor of his life? Shadon?
Adam Dragoon (03:24.43)
that he just wanted to just let Jezebel have control so he didn't have to be accountable for anything. Okay, that's true. But what's the Bible's description about Ahab? Yes, Mason. It describes him as being the most wicked of all the kings. Yes, so more than all who come before him that he did more evil in the sight of the Lord.
And so the way that this evil is translated, at least in this character of Ahab, is that the most evil thing that a man could do, that a king can do, would be to usurp his throne and to give that control and that authority into the hands of someone who doesn't have the best interest at heart, and that's Jezebel. So last week we looked at defining the Jezebel spirit, and what did we say was the best definition of the Jezebel spirit?
If we could boil it down to one word, what was it? Ms. Shakima, good morning. Control, that's right. Control. And so what Jezebel desires more than anything else, what she hangs onto, what she defends, what she fights for, is control. And what does she use in order to keep that control? What do we see? Chris? Manipulation. Okay, what else? She manipulates. Jaden? Takes advantage of...
Ahab not wanting to be accountable? Yeah, well she definitely feeds off of the Ahab who because he's passive because he he doesn't want to get involved She's gonna take advantage of that for sure want to add to that
It's along the same lines as manipulation, but I was going to say fear. Fear? She uses fear. Who is she threatening? Elijah. Elijah. And what does she say to him?
Adam Dragoon (05:15.79)
Noel?
May the gods of my land do to me more than if I don't make you as one of them. I'll kill you. So she's threatening. And guess what? She can back up those threats too, can't she? Because the Bible says very clearly that she's the one who massacred the prophets of the Almighty God. She is not into true religion. She is not into worshiping the true and living God. And she will attack anyone who
who is standing up for God. She's not afraid to use violence. There's one more factor that we missed. What does she use to keep control? David? Seduction. Seduction. Okay. So the Bible says in 2 Kings there where she, her strategy against Jehu is that she puts on her makeup and she gets her eyelashes and she gets her hair did and she puts on her nails and she gets looking fine because she understands...
that she can use her looks and her attractiveness to seduce men. And then we find in Revelation we find the words of Jesus who he confronts the church in Thyatira and what does Jesus say? Why is this account important in this discussion about Jezebel? Anybody remember? Well let's go there, it's in Revelation chapter 2 since nobody remembers it.
I think we just mentioned it in passing last week, so we'll jump in right there one more time. So Revelation chapter two, starting in verse 18, write this letter to the angel of the church in Thyatira. This is the message from the Son of God whose eyes are flames of fire, whose feet are like polished bronze. He commends them, first of all, I know the things that you do, seeing your love, your faith, your service, your patient endurance. I can see your constant improvement.
Adam Dragoon (07:17.71)
in all these things. But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman, that Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet, to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to turn from her immorality. Therefore, I will throw her on a bed of suffering, and those who commit adultery with her will greatly suffer unless they repent and turn from their evil deeds.
I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the one who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person, and I will give to each of you whatever you deserve." So he goes on, I also have a message for those who have not followed this false teaching. I will ask nothing more of you except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come. To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end, to them I will give authority over the nations. So in this...
message to the church in Thyatira, Jesus brings up, there is obviously a spirit at work, there is a woman who is seducing and leading people to sexual sin and idolatrous behavior in this church in Thyatira, and Jesus calls this person Jezebel. Not because that's her name, but because the spirit of Jezebel is inhabiting this person.
Thousands of years later, or maybe hundreds in this case, after Jezebel has died and gone, but the spirit has lived on and Jesus calls her out in this church in Thyatira. Okay, so today, let's take a pause there. Thoughts, questions so far? Anything to add? Okay, so now we're going to, what we've done so far in this study is we've defined the problem. And it's always easy to define the problem.
The harder thing to do is to find the solution. And so if it's obvious to us that there is a problem with Ahab, with men being weak, wimpy, passive, and uninterested in spiritual truth, that's a problem. If it's also a problem that there's a Jezebel spirit, which is tyrannical, which desires control above all things. And as I mentioned before, it's not that Ahab only affects men and Jezebel only affects women, that they can.
Adam Dragoon (09:41.838)
They can cross -pollinate as well. You can have Ahab -type women and you can have Jezebel -type men, 100%. But it's just the inherent weaknesses of who we are as men and women that men are more susceptible to Ahab and women are more susceptible to Jezebel. And so it's easy for us maybe to see these problems and to recognize them at work in the world today and more specifically in the church. But what's more difficult for us is how do we stop it? How do we confront it?
And the answer to that question is found with the introduction of the third character of this study, and that is Elijah. Let's get some scriptures this morning. I need some volunteers to read if I could get some help, Chris. First Kings chapter 17, First Kings 17 verse 1. Leanna is gonna get Acts chapter 5, verses 27 through 29. Then...
I will meet you in the next video.
Adam Dragoon (10:44.046)
Let's see, Sabin. Sabin can keep your Bible open in Revelation 2. We're going to read that scripture again. Revelation 2. And I think that's all I need for now. Okay, so into this account, the Bible has described in 1 Kings chapter 16 has given us this long line of evil kings that are ruling over the northern kingdom of Israel, the ten tribes.
that went astray from the teachings of the Lord and these kings led the way in setting up idol worship and became just like all of the pagan nations around them embracing their belief systems, their sacrificial systems, turning away from the living God. That's basically the whole chapter, 1 Kings 16. And it concludes by introducing us to Ahab, who the Bible says was more wicked than all of them. Did more evil in the sight of God than any of the rest.
And so now, verse 1, chapter 17, we are introduced to God's solution for this problem. And verse King 17, verse 1. Okay, so here comes this mystery character, Elijah from Tishbe.
or some of your translations will say the tishbite. And so immediately what we notice about Elijah is that he is a man of few words. He's not going to stand and preach a sermon to Ahab. He gives him the word of God. He is standing in the role of a prophet. Okay, so let me ask you, what do you think is the biblical role of a prophet? What does that mean? When you see...
teachings and preachings in the Old Testament specifically of a prophet. What is that to you? What do you take from that? What is a prophet? What is he supposed to do? Yes, Ms. Ernestine.
Adam Dragoon (12:54.318)
Say it again. Like an owner of, okay, okay, Chris.
Adam Dragoon (13:05.998)
would be the chosen man to voice the word of God. Okay, good. So he is supposed to give voice to God's desires, right? Okay, a prophet, does the prophet have his own opinions? No, he, the prophet in the Old Testament, when you see the word prophet, you can replace it with the mailman, okay? So you might have a letter that has a $5 ,000 check in it. That's good day.
or you might have a letter that has a five thousand dollar bill in it. That's a bad day. But either way, whichever letter he's got for you, the mailman is just there to deliver. He's there to take it from the one who sent it and to deliver it to the recipient. Okay? So in the Old Testament, a prophet is similar. The prophet is there not to deliver long expositions about what he wants, what he desires. He is simply the...
the mailman so he's delivering the message of God so why is this a problem what what happens to so many of the prophets in the Old Testament? They got killed and persecuted they got chased out of cities they got stoned they had a rough time. Why? Because they were called upon by God to deliver bad news to the politicians of the day. Now remember who Ahab and Jezebel are. Remember that he is the king of Israel that Jezebel is the queen.
And so they stand as leaders of their nations. They are politicians. OK? And so we understand politicians because we still have some around today, right? We don't have a lot of respect for our politicians these days. They say that getting an illness and disease is more popular than Congress these days. So there's people that we have.
have called upon to represent us. And so what is a politician? A politician is a contrast to a prophet. A politician will do and say anything to remain in power, right? Somebody who's slippery, somebody who takes a poll, somebody who is sticking their finger up and seeing which direction the wind is blowing. And I just need to catch a hold of that so that I can remain in authority.
Adam Dragoon (15:33.934)
So here's why I'm talking about politicians. In our world today, and in our church, we don't need more politicians. We need more prophets. The church today is filled with religious politicians who are carefully judging the public opinion. What does the audience think of what I'm about to say? What happens if I preach this message or that message? What happens if I actually teach what the Bible says and all of it, not just the parts?
that people like to hear. How many pastors in our world today have become politicians, carefully weighing whether their next sermon is going to cause people to stop tithing. So much of our church world today, unfortunately, is politics. When what God needs, He doesn't need politicians. He needs prophets. He needs men and women who are going to deliver the mail and worry, let God worry about the consequences.
Okay, so this is what we see in Elijah. First of all, Elijah, his prophetic ministry is defined by civil disobedience. So, remember the context of where we're reading this. Remember that Ahab and Jezebel, they have killed the prophets. They have torn down the true sacrifices, the true temples of the living God. And in their place they have erected all of these pagan shrines, these places where
ungodly and and wicked practices, bail worship, even child sacrifice is happening, sexual pagan nasty things are happening and these are all being encouraged by Ahab and Jezebel. And so here comes Elijah and the first thing that he says to them, he says, there will not be dew nor rain these years except at my word. This is his first word into the situation. This is a stand against
the powers of the world. He is willing to stand up against them. He is willing to speak against them. He is willing, even at his own risk of his own life, that he's going to not let them continue unchallenged. So can somebody tell me why, when Elijah says, there will not be dew nor rain, why was that such a direct confrontation and a challenge to Ahab and Jezebel?
Adam Dragoon (17:59.598)
See you then.
Because Baal is supposed to be a god of storms and rain and stuff like that. Exactly. So when they are worshiping Baal, they are praying that their false god is going to cause the storms to come to rain on their crops to produce a good harvest. And so Elijah comes into the scene, and he simply says, that's not going to happen. All of your pagan worship is not going to work. He's going to be the monkey wrench in this system.
And this is what we call civil disobedience. Can somebody tell me what civil disobedience means? What does it mean to you? Mom?
Joni.
A united effort by people who are not united with the majority making acts against the norm. Okay, okay, that's good. Noelle, want to add to that?
Adam Dragoon (19:04.526)
Would it be like anarchy? It is not anarchy. This is not just disobedience, it's civil disobedience. So it is not introducing anarchy into a situation. That only makes things worse. If Elijah was going to bring anarchy, well then he would just come in with uncontrolled force. He's going to raise up an army. But that's not what he does. It's civil disobedience. Want to add to that, Mason?
going against the norm imposed by the system, but in a calm and collected manner. Exactly. That's exactly what he's got. So remember, again, the situation. They've outlawed worship. They've made sport of massacring prophets. They've commanded their citizens to worship Baal and Asherah. So if you were a true follower of Jehovah in that day, what are you called to do? If the government, if your king and your queen come to your town and say,
Here's the new statue. You're supposed to come here twice a week and make a pagan sacrifice. What are you supposed to do as a true follower of God? You're supposed to disobey, aren't you? You're supposed to say, no, I'm not doing that. And people will die for that because the systems of power don't like it when the little people rise up and say, no. Is there a history of civil disobedience in the Bible? If so, can you think of some examples?
Adam Dragoon (20:35.214)
Was it the prostitute Rahab? Hmm, that's an interesting case. Who helped them on the wall? Is that the person I'm thinking of? Yeah, that is a correct story, but tell me why you think that that is civil disobedience. Because she wasn't supposed to welcome them in, and she also provided them a safe haven to come into the city and to do their agenda, not what the government wanted. Okay, that's good.
Very good. Yep. That's Liana.
Adam Dragoon (21:11.182)
The three men who were tossed in the fire. Okay. This is a perfect example. And their names?
so those are the names I don't like. Those are their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We should remember them by their Hebrew names, which is Hananiah, Meshael, and Azariah. And these three Hebrew boys, when everybody else, when everybody else was bowing down, they were saying, no, we're not gonna bow. Go ahead and kill us if you want to. But our God, who is able to save us, he is worthy of worship, and we're not gonna bow down. Yes, Noel.
Esther. Esther? Okay, explain. When the, what was his name, Haman decided to go to the king and say that there's a bunch of people who did not want to worship and to follow his rules to get rid of them, then, what was his name? I'm trying to remember. Esther's cousin Mordecai went to her and
telling her that she needed to figure out a way to save the people of Israel. And so they had a big fast. And at the end of it, Esther had told the king that it was Haman who wanted to get rid of them. So Haman was hanged instead of Mordecai, who was his true target, and the people of Israel. She had been put in a position of authority.
She had a position that very few people had. She had access to the king, but even with all that access, it was very dangerous for her to present this need. There was protocol, there was different things that she was supposed to do, but she just rushes into the courtroom of the king and presents this request. She could have been killed for that, but instead, God uses her. So that's an interesting case because she's the queen. She's the queen at the time.
Adam Dragoon (23:14.382)
But that's normally not what civil disobedience looks like. Civil disobedience means it's being done by people at the bottom, people who don't have a lot of wealth influence in the world. Andre? You. Daniel? OK. How did he practice civil disobedience?
Adam Dragoon (23:38.574)
Correct. So this is a great example because in Babylon, they're trying to attack Daniel. He's an old man. He's probably up in his 70s when this happens. And they're trying to attack him. They're trying to get him out of a position. And so they can't find any flaws in his character. They can't find that he's cheating on his taxes. They can't find that he's sleeping around with prostitutes. And so the only thing that they can find is that this is a man that prays.
So what we could do is we could go to the king of Babylon and we could tell him, hey king, did you know that Daniel prays to the God of Jehovah? He prays to the Lord most high. And that was an offense because he's not praying to the Babylonian gods. So they go to the council and they make a law. And the law says anyone who prays to any other god is going to be killed. So when that law passes, what does Daniel do? Does he hide? Does he run? Does he preach a sermon? No.
He keeps to his practice, which is he opens up the windows, he faces Jerusalem, and he prays. He says, you do to me whatever you're going to do. So this perfect example of civil disobedience. Deanna? Moses, technically, because he may have started at the top, but he fell to the bottom after he murdered her man, originally ran. And then once he got the...
like the message from the Lord, he went all the way back at the risk of pretty much putting not only him but the rest of his people in jeopardy, but he still was just standing up to Pharaoh so that he can free his people. And I'm sure a few of the, you know, as the, sorry, words have escaped my brain, plagues progressed and the people saw more of God's miracles, they started joining with Moses to stand up against Pharaoh.
How about the account that led to the life of Moses? How about when Pharaoh commanded that all the Jewish boys would be killed as soon as they're born? He made a law. And so a good, well -meaning citizen is supposed to follow the law. Is that right? That's what it says in Romans. In Romans, Paul tells us that if we want to have peace in this life, it would be a good idea for you to follow the laws of the land that you live in. So what happens when...
Adam Dragoon (25:57.198)
The Pharaoh makes a law that says kill all the Jewish baby boys. Well, what are good and righteous people supposed to do? On one side we have a command, follow the law. On the other side we have a command, the law is telling me to kill the Jewish baby boys. What are we supposed to do? We're supposed to disobey the laws of the king, aren't we? And that's what the Hebrew midwives did. They said, we're not going to obey that commandment. We're going to do what's right in the eyes of God.
But John the Baptist. The king and his wife, they was committing a sin and John the Baptist called it out. But in their power they could say whatever they wanted to say. But he called it out. That's right. That's why he lost his life ultimately because he is willing to call out sin even in high and public officials. How about Acts chapter 5? Who had that one? Acts chapter 5 verses 27 through 29.
Adam Dragoon (27:00.334)
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, saying, Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood on us. But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. That's what we need in the church today. That's what we need in God's people. We're supposed to obey God, not men.
that can lead us to civil disobedience. Can somebody think of examples where the church has been called to disobey the authority of the ruling class? Yes.
Adam Dragoon (27:47.374)
Yep. Yep.
That's right. So we do our best to honor the authorities that God has put over us. But when it causes us to disobey God, when the laws of the land are going against, do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, especially in these latter days, we're going to disobey. If you're going to send the police and shut down our church service, go ahead. We were willing to risk that.
Okay? How many churches shut down during that time? What is that? Ahab. That is Jezebel in the government colluding with Ahab in the church and Elijah with the Messiah. Where is the Elijah? Stand up and say, no! We're not going to follow your edicts. We're not going to follow your commands because they're forcing us to disobey God. What else?
Adam Dragoon (28:46.734)
You've got to do what your heart says is right. Follow your conscience. Absolutely. Ramon?
Adam Dragoon (28:54.894)
So, can we consider Noah and David's situation as civil disobedience? Noah? Noah, when he went against the crowd and David, when he decided not to pay attention to his brothers and to the king, and he told him, God has helped me before, I know He's going to help me now.
Can that be considered civil disobedience? I think you're on the right track there, for sure. So the point of all of this is that we have to be aware that there is a Jezebel spirit at work in the world today, a spirit of tyranny, control, and guess who it's coming down on? People of faith. They would love nothing more than for every church to be shut down. They would love that. Because why? When people have a mind to serve the living God,
then they're not the obedient sheep that they want. And so, when there is obstruction, when there are attacks against Christianity, you know what another huge attack in our world today, somebody know what I'm talking about? There's another huge area where the government, the government, the president, the cabinet, even the congress, they are forcing us to try to believe something which is not God.
There's a few big things like that. Noelle? The LGBTQ society and the marriage act that they are trying to tell us that marriage is, they're saying that marriage is not defined by a man and a woman. It can be defined by a man and a man or a woman and a woman. Okay. Teresa, I saw your hand go up. She got it.
Okay, trans ideology, mom.
Adam Dragoon (30:56.206)
they also are marrying animals and dolls and trees and bridges and bridges yeah I I don't know in a public place like that when we wouldn't have to witness their honeymoon that would be just disgusting so yep Mason pretty much you're not allowed to offend anyone for any reason despite the fact doing so offends others like we can't call
trans person by their birth name or gender but yet they could call us bigots. Okay so again was Elijah when Elijah comes to confront King Ahab and Queen Jezebel is he angry? Is he upset? Is he sweating? Is he shouting? No he's just a mailman. I'm here to deliver God's word. What you're doing is wrong and God's gonna judge it. There's gonna be no rain. God needs people like that.
in our world today. We're not called to hate people. We're not called to be aggressive. We are called simply to stand on the Word of God and to be prophets of our generation. So when the government says, we're going to let anybody marry whoever they want, where's the church? Ahab. The church is led by Ahab. Passive, non -confrontational. we don't want to mention anything. We don't want to say. Just...
Just let them do whatever they want. We're just going to preach Jesus. There's a lot of churches like that. And it's not wrong to just preach Jesus. But if we're just preaching the love and the mercy, the grace, and the salvation of God and ignoring what Jezebel is doing outside of our door, then we're missing. We're missing in action. So Elijah's are necessary. We need Elijah's. Let's look at who is Elijah. Verse 1 again, Elijah the Tishbite, the inhabitants of Gilead.
So just looking into history, this city that he's from, Tishbeh, is apparently such a small ancient town that to this day, we don't even know exactly where it is. It wasn't on the map at the time, and it's not on the map today. It's a very small place. He literally started as a no one from nowhere. Very opposite of King Ahab. Ahab, we know his lineage. We know the king before him, the king before him, the king before him, all the way back to David and Solomon. And...
Adam Dragoon (33:25.006)
And so Elijah is completely the opposite. There's no family history. There's no lineage. There's no, nothing has been passed. It's just he shows up. Elijah from Tishpet. Where? I don't know. That's where he's from. Why is this important for us? Why is that important to you? Mason? Come on. Any one of you can be used by God. The spirit of Elijah.
can rest on any one of you. Doesn't matter where you're from, what's your background. If God can speak through you, then he can use you. Gilead, it says of the inhabitants of Gilead. So we know a little bit more about Gilead, which is the region where this city was located. So Gilead is a region known as a very remote place of refuge. It was a mountain area, place of a lot of peaks and valleys. It was desolate and a rocky hill country. And so,
The Gileadites, those people from Gilead, were known, generally, as people who lacked social etiquette and educational credibility. They were kind of the backwater, the country bumpkins, we could say. How many of you have seen the TV show Alone? Interesting show, gets your attention. So if you're not familiar with it, Alone is a TV program where they take these people and they send them out into this wilderness place.
where there's nothing, no people, and they see how long they can survive completely on their own. They give them a pack of tools and resources that they can use, but then the game is, whoever lasts the longest without any help from the outside world, that's the winner, and they get some large sum of money. And so you really see in that kind of show, if you've watched any of it, I've watched a few episodes, it's pretty interesting.
You see that it's not just a question of do you have survival skills. So much of it is about the mental. It's about can you stay sane? Can you avoid hurting yourself? Can you gather enough food to eat? And these shows, they go on sometimes weeks, sometimes six weeks, seven weeks, two months even. And so the biggest, to me, the biggest game, the biggest factor that's gonna cause success there is,
Adam Dragoon (35:51.054)
Can you be okay being alone? So many of them, it's not because they don't know how to fish or cook, but it's because they can't handle being alone, completely alone. Because man was not meant to be alone. So it's a battle of will. And so when I think about Elijah, I think he would probably do really well on this show. He's an outdoorsman. He's not dependent on anybody else, for right or for wrong.
At one point, the Bible tells us that he hiked about 100 miles of rugged terrain through the heart of Asherah worship while on Israel's most wanted list so that he could go visit the widow and her son at Zarephath. If you look at it on the map, he had to go through this very rugged terrain to get there. Second Kings chapter one, I don't think I got this one. Can somebody get this for me? Second Kings chapter one, verses seven and eight. Chris, you got that? Second Kings chapter one.
verses seven and eight. We get a little description of Elijah the Tishbite, what the Bible says about him.
What sort of man was he? the king demanded. What did he look like? They replied he was a hairy man and he wore a leather belt around his waist. Elijah from Tishbell, the king exclaimed. So they're trying to figure out who this guy was saying all these crazy things. They said just describe him to me. What does he look like? He's hairy. He's got a leather belt. Sound like he's from Texas. And as soon as they describe him they said, that's Elijah. I know that dude.
He's a little weird. And what I'm saying is that that spirit of independence, now we're not saying independence from God. He is completely dependent on the word of God. He's a prophet. But he's not into the customs of the day. He's not there to impress people. Do you know who else takes on the spirit of Elijah? In the New Testament. Who else reminds you? Somebody who's a little bit off. John the Baptist, right? The Bible says he's eaten bugs out in the countryside.
Adam Dragoon (37:56.878)
What's wrong with this dude? But he's preaching the Word of God. He's preaching repentance. He is not there to please people. He's there to prepare the way for Messiah. So why is this important to us? Why is it important? If we're going to be able to confront the controlling Jezebel spirit and the passive Ahab spirit, then what's going to be necessary for us as prophets, as messengers of God? Chris?
Just the confidence to stand on one's own and on God's word while everyone else is bowing down, to stand there and do what you're supposed to do, whether it may make people happy or upset, just because it's what God's called you to do. That's true, but what's the problem with that?
Andre? You're trying to do it in your own strength. But you have to depend upon the Holy Spirit to give you the boldness. Yes. And I'll just say this, though. We as the church, we have to realize that the Holy Spirit lives in us. That's right. So we have access to that power all the time. So when we get that revelation, we're able to go through these things. We don't have to say,
Well, I'm waiting until the Holy Spirit land on him. Because he's in us. And he said he would never leave nor forsake us. Amen. Amen. So, yeah, whatever Elijah had, we have even in a greater supply. So if the Spirit of God rested on Elijah to empower him to do what he had to do, what we have as sons and daughters of the king now, now that we've been redeemed and rescued and justified and sanctified,
Bible says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. That means you can be an even greater Elijah. Jesus said you'll do greater things than I did. The problem is that we don't do that and often because we're too interested in what people might think. If I really stand up for righteousness, if I really do what the Bible says, if I really sanctify my life and act as the messenger of God, how's it going to affect my paycheck? How's it going to affect
Adam Dragoon (40:12.366)
my family, how's it going to affect my future, where I live, what kind of stuff I own. Because often we're too worried about that stuff, right? We're too worried about the possessions, the earthly possessions and our bank accounts, and we're too worried about, you know, what kind of clothes we can wear, and we're too worried about what the world thinks of us. What Elijah shows us here is he's not worried about any of that. He says, I can get along with a burlap sack and a leather belt. I don't need to shave.
The hairy man. Okay, so let's look at his name Elijah. This is a good name Elijah when you break it down the name means this my God is Yahweh So can you imagine being Ahab or Jezebel? Just by speaking his name. They are violating what they believe Where is my God who is Yahweh? Where is he? Where is my God is Yahweh?
just by speaking out his name is causing them to have an internal conflict with their false world system. Can I tell you that's how the world should think about you? That just by thinking about you and your testimony and how you live for God, that that should be a speed bump whenever they think about sinning. That's how it should be. So if we break it down a little more, Elijah. Eli means the strength of the Lord.
And Jah, of course, is short for Jehovah, or my God is Jehovah. So the literal translation when you mash those two thoughts together, I live by the strength of the Lord my God. How did this man live that kind of a life? He certainly didn't do it on his own. And it's what we're talking about. He lived by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit sustained Elijah to live beyond his natural limitations to live a supernatural life.
The very first thing that he says in the scripture as we've read, as the Lord God of Israel lives, there will not be dew nor rain except at my word. So he is commanding the heavens to be closed. It's going to be Phoenix, Arizona from now on. No rain. He initiates a fight. You know, so often the church is trying to end fights. And sometimes we need to be starting a few. I'm not saying that we should, you know, we should be chaotic.
Adam Dragoon (42:38.446)
It's not chaos, right Noel? But when we are in a world that is attacking godly principles, sometimes the only way to confront that is with a fight. If you're the school kid and every day you get on the bus to go to school and you have a bully who's tormenting you every single day, sometimes the only language a bully understands is violence. We do not negotiate with terrorists. Or that's what we're supposed to be anyways.
That's why you can't let your two -year -old, your three -year -old, your four -year -old, you cannot let them be in charge of your house. Your four -year -old has a spirit of Jezebel. I will be in control. And many parents are Ahabs. whatever you want, little baby. We've got to have a spirit of Elijah. Sometimes we've got to start a fight. Sometimes no is a confrontation. Your reign is not going to fall, Ahab. When the world is all twisted up, people of faith,
need to be willing to confront. He's confronting the power of their false gods. Baal is worshiped as the god of rain. He's supposed to control the seasons, the crops, and fertility. So Elijah, by saying it's not going to rain, he's saying, nope, your god is not going to do what you want him to do. But see, in order for this to happen, miracles are required. Because guess what? Elijah, in his own strength, he doesn't have power over the weather.
He needs God's miracle working power. Is that correct? He has to stand on faith to believe that God's going to carry out this edict. Okay, so if we are going to have the spirit of Elijah in our wicked world, full of Ahab and full of Jezebel, if we're going to live according to God's Word, if we're going to be the messengers that God has called us to be,
It means that we have to live supernatural lives. Are you all with me? What does it mean to live a supernatural life? That supernatural, that word means above the natural. Okay? Our natural lives are things that we understand. We have natural lives, we understand, we go to work, you get a paycheck. That's natural. We understand. You live in a house, you pay the electric bill, you turn the switch, the light comes on. For some people, that's a miracle. But for us, that's natural. That's what we expect out of life.
Adam Dragoon (45:03.918)
Okay, but what I'm saying is, if we're gonna confront Ahab and Jezebel, we need supernatural lives. We need lives that include the miraculous. There is a list of miracles in the account of Elijah. Let me just go through this list. You can take your own time to do your study. But these are the miracles that the Bible says that Elijah, that God worked through Elijah. These are all in 1 Kings chapter 17.
Number one, God stopped the rain for three and a half years in answer to his prayer. Number two, the widow of the Zarephath, her oil and flour were supernaturally renewed every day. Number three, the widow's son died and then returned to life the first resurrection in the Bible. Can you imagine that? No record of ever a resurrection ever happening, but Elijah believed God and contended for a resurrection. Number four,
God fed Elijah with bread and meat delivered by ravens two times a day. Not a bad deal. Number five, God, at the command of Elijah, God sends fire from heaven. We're going to look at that one in its own study to destroy the prophets of Baal. Number six, God sent rain in response to Elijah's prayer after three and a half years of drought. So one day Elijah prays, Lord, don't send the rain. And God said, OK.
And after three and a half years, now the time comes for rain. He says send the rain and God sends the rain. That's miraculous. Number seven, in 1 Kings 18, Elijah outruns a horse to escape a coming flood. You ever seen anybody that can outrun a horse? No, that requires supernatural ability. God enabled this man. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah is hiding in a cave and God speaks to him through a whisper. That's a miracle.
2 Kings 1, fire comes down from heaven two more times, and then 2 Kings 2, the final chapter of Elijah's life. Did you know Elijah did not die? He's one of only two people in the Bible. The Bible records did not taste of death. One is Enoch, the other is Elijah. Do you know anybody who doesn't have to taste of death? No, this is supernatural. So all of these things give us a window into the life of this man.
Adam Dragoon (47:26.766)
yet God enabled him to work all of these miracles and we know miracles don't come from man. Miracles come from God. It was a supernatural life. So why is this all important to us today? Why is it important that we know about this? Is Elijah some kind of superhero? Is he kind of some, you know, God of thunder? No, the Bible says Elijah is a man just like us. Chris, you want to add to that? As Jesus said,
miracles that have been done before, you can do and even more now with the power of Spirit. So if all that was possible through God then, even more can be possible now through God if we just trust Him and follow His Spirit. I wish that the church would believe this. I wish the church would believe that any individual from anywhere, with any name, with any background, with any culture, doesn't matter where you're from, that any one of us can tap in to a supernatural God.
You and I can live supernatural lives also. We can see miracles. There is a strain of Christianity in the world today called cessationism. Can somebody tell me what that is? Anybody know? Cessationism. There are some entire denominations that accept cessationism as fact. And what cessationism means, unless somebody wants to grab it, somebody know what it is? Sabin?
that the miracles it gives to the Spirit are no longer in operation. Okay. So the argument goes that the miracles that we see in the book of Acts were only for that first generation of Christians. Were only for the apostolic age. After that, miracles ceased. That's where the name comes from. Cessationism, that things have ceased. That the miracles of God, at least in that way, have stopped. And I believe that's a complete lie. I believe that's a strategy from hell.
I believe that the devil would love it if Christians believe that they can't believe God for miracles. The devil would love it if people wouldn't even pray for miracles. The devil would love it if people would say, well, God, we know.
Adam Dragoon (49:37.838)
But underneath there is a spirit of doubt which says even if you don't. Now we believe that, okay? That's true. We're gonna be like the three Hebrew boys that say, Lord, even if you don't heal me, I'm still gonna serve you. Okay, I get that. But don't let that hide a spirit of fear. Don't let that be an excuse for doubting what God can do. And so often that's what happens and our faith is limited. Listen, God enables us to live supernatural lives.
The whole Pentecostal movement is built around God is moving. God is doing miracles. Whatever you see in the book of Acts, you can see it today. We pray for the sick. We see people get healed. We pray for deliverance. We heard a testimony, we're going to hear testimony this morning about Miss. Ernestine, God healing her body. That God still does supernatural things, supernatural timing. Listen, we know salvation is supernatural.
And if just coming to Jesus as sinners we can be saved, if that miracle can still happen, then why not all the rest? Because all the rest of the miracles are less than the miracle of salvation. God can use your life. You can keep a spirit of Elijah on your life too. Okay, we have a few minutes for questions or comments before we close here.
Perla. I was just thinking about, I think one pastor that I listened to, he was saying that God does not make miracles. Like he answered prayers. Like he already know what's going to happen in our life. It's kind of like, I already know what am I going to do for Savannah, whatever, next week or whatever. She might come and say, can you do this? But I already know if I might say no right now.
but I already know what's gonna happen, right? Because I kinda have control of her life. That's a goddess, he had control of her life, and he don't always answer the prayers that we request on our time, but he already knows what he's gonna do. And those miracles are just answer prayers, because he's in the business of, you know, but we have to come to him, he want us to come to him because he's our father. I still want Savannah to come to me, you know, to request or whatever, but I already know what's gonna happen.
Adam Dragoon (51:54.666)
It's not like there is miracles because God, that's his business. That's what he does every day. He just, but he wants us to come to him to answer. It's born out of relationship. That's so good. We're going to look next week at how Elijah, the reason why he lives such a supernatural life, because the Bible says he's a man of prayer. He had a relationship with God and he didn't do everything right. We're going to see that too. He made some mistakes and he fell in.
He was manipulated by Jezebel. Even an Elijah can become a target of Jezebel. But what I'm saying is that, what you're completely right, Perla, is that for us, what God does is supernatural. It's miraculous. But for God, it's normal. That's what he does every day. For God. And so we've got to begin seeing our lives through that lens. Mr. Andre. I just want to add this, because God has been dealing with me with this. You know,
The same way we have that zeal that all things are possible through Christ, you know, and we can do all things through Christ. We have to have that same zeal with him delivering us out of our sin. Amen. Because, you know, when it comes to that, I hear a lot of people in the church own that. But when it comes to seeing it, it's like, I can't get I can't, you know, you see what I'm saying? It's every excuse when it comes to seeing it.
God bringing us out of these addictions. Absolutely. But when it comes to that, we don't have that same God can do this. Amen. But when it comes to these other things, God can do everything. He can give me this job. He can give me that. But we the number one, the number one is bringing us out of sin. Sanctification. Sanctification. We got to have that that God can bring us out of sin and then we'll see these things to go away.
That's all I wanted to add.
Adam Dragoon (54:14.478)
I believe Jesus Christ is your Son and that He died and rose again for me. I receive Him today as my Lord and Savior. May the old things of my past pass away as you make me a new creation. Please fill me with your Holy Spirit to give me strength to live for you for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. We want to help you live for God. Please join us in person for one of our upcoming church services. We are located in the heart of Virginia Beach at 1045 Linhaven Parkway.
about one mile from the Lynn Haven Mall. Please check the show notes for links to our website and social media. You can also find a link to support this ministry with a generous donation. We would be so grateful. We look forward to sharing future messages here on the VBPH Sermon Podcast. In the meantime, we pray that God would strengthen you to serve Him with all your heart.
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Part 3: Defining the Jezebel Spirit
Originally preached May 19, 2024
1 Kings 16:29-32 NKJV - 31 And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him.
Part 2: Defining the Ahab Spirit
Originally preached May 12, 2024
1 Kings 16:29-32 NKJV - 29 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. 30 Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who [were] before him. 31 And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.
Part 1: Origins of the Ahab and Jezebel Spirit
Originally preached on April 28. 2024
Gen 3:1-7 NKJV - 1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" 2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 "but of the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.' " 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 So when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make [one] wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they [were] naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.