So they took the bull he gave them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning till noon.  “Baal, answer us!”  But there was no sound, no one answered. Then they danced, hobbling around the altar they had made.
At noon Elijah mocked them. He said, “Shout loudly for he is a god! Maybe he’s thinking it over; maybe he has wandered away; or maybe he’s on the road. Perhaps he’s sleeping and will wake up!” They shouted loudly and cut themselves with knives and spears, according to their custom, until blood gushed over them. All afternoon they kept on raving until the offering of the evening sacrifice, but there was no sound; no one answered, no one paid attention.
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near me.” So, all the people approached him. Then he repaired the LORD’s altar that had been torn down.  Elijah took 12 stones-according tot he number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying  “Israel will be your name”-and he built an altar with the stones in the name of Yahweh. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold about four gallons.  Next, he arranged the wood, cut up the bull and placed it on the wood. He said, “Fill four water pots with water and pour it on the offering to be burned and on the wood.”
Then he said, “A second time!” and  they did it a second time.  And then he said, “A third time!” and they did it a third time. The water ran all around the altar, he even filled the trench with water.
At the time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet stepped approached the altar and said, “Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am your servant and that at your word I have done all these things
Answer me, Lord! Answer me so that this people will know that You, Yahweh are God, and that You have turned their hearts back.”                                                                                                                                              Then Yahweh’s fire fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.
1 Kings 18:26-38  HCSB

I condensed this awesome story as much as I could but I encourage you to read the entire scripture passage on this story which begins in verse 16 and goes to verse 48.  In this story, Elijah is the only prophet of God left and he is up against all these false prophets or prophets of Baal (a false god).  He boldly issues a challenge to the people to prove that his God is the one true God and that their Baal has no power.  He tells them that they will each prepare a bull for sacrifice.  He allowed them to go first and challenged them to call upon Baal to send fire down to burn up the sacrifice.  They called out to Baal even slashed themselves, no results.

Elijah douses his altar with water three times and even has water in the trench around the altar.  Then he calls out to God and God sends fire down and burns the offering, the wood, the dirt and licks up the water out of the trench.  What an awesome story.  What faith Elijah had.  I mean seriously.  He even went so far as to taunt the people telling them that perhaps their god was deep in thought, traveling, or sleeping.  He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that His God was going to come through.

Elijah had not always been so fearless.  He was threatened by Jezebel and ran and hid.  Now I have dealt with a few Jezebels in my day and I can’t blame him there, but that’s a whole other blog.  We know that God is stronger that any Jezebel, but they are truly scary creatures.  Anyway, Elijah makes up for any lack of faith he ever had here in this scripture passage.  He boldly declares that his God is the one true God and he shows it to the people.  Once they see this miracle, they too acknowledge that the Lord is God.  Verse 39 tells us that when the people saw this, “they fell prostrate and cried,  “The Lord-He is God! The Lord-He is God!”

So I ask you today, my friend.  How bold is your faith.  Are you praying to God for something really big, but not really believing He will come through?  If so, then that is wasted prayers.

In Matthew 17:20 Jesus disciples had been unable to drive a demon out of a boy and were asking Jesus why.  He told them because they had so little faith.  He then went on to say,  “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain ‘move from here to there’ and it will move, nothing will be impossible for you.

I think we sometimes forget the power of faith.  I think we often question why God is not answering our prayers when sometimes we need to question ourselves about why we don’t have enough faith to believe that He will do it.  We serve a mighty powerful God.  We should never forget that.  We should also note where Elijah says that he is acting at God’s command.  He didn’t just step out on his own.  He prayed to God and acted according to God’s will.

If you are in God’s will and you have faith remember-“nothing will be impossible for you”.

Have a great day!