Once upon a time in the distant past there was a man named Elijah who was a prophet of God. He lived during a time when Israel was confused about their relationship with God. They didn’t know if they wanted to trust God and follow Him or follow the god of their queen and king Ahab. One day there was a declared “competition” ,of sorts, on Mount Carmel. There, Elijah had requested that all of the people come and see which God was real and for them to choose which one they would serve.
The “competition” started early one morning and the prophets and priests of Baal set up their altar with the bull on it and began chanting and praying for Baal to accept their offering and burn it up, to show that he was the god for Israel. Nothing happened. They kept chanting and cutting their skin and dancing, begging him to accept their offering. Still…nothing happened. This went on for many hours until most of them had passed out from exerting themselves so much or because of blood loss and still no sign that Baal was going to accept their offering.
Then, Elijah took his turn. He built an altar and killed the bull, placing it on the altar. Then he does something very odd. He digs a trench around the altar and asks for water to be poured out on the wood for the fire and the offering. Then, he asks for more to be poured on it. Three times he asks for water to be poured on the altar until the whole thing was saturated and the ditch was full of water.
Then…he prayed.
36 And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. 37 Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
God showed His power in a mighty way and He left nothing, even though it was soaked with water. His fire even consumed the water from the trench! God is still on His throne and one day soon, Jesus will return for His Bride, the church. I pray that you will be in the number of people that are taken to Heaven to be with Him forever on that day. God loves each of us and has a place for us all that we need to to is make a place in our heart and our lives for Him.
The Living Message of Christ 