WHO IS GOD?

1 Kings 18:21 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.

In the past, the people of God were unwilling to live the lifestyle that God called them to. Do we today? The prophet Elijah took on the prophets of Baal (the god of nature) & Asherah (the goddess of fertility) on Mount Carmel. “Carmel” translates to mean “God’s Vineyard” for its fertility, so when God stopped the rain for three years, it was a direct assault on Baal and this non-god’s worshippers to say: “Who is Baal?” and, ultimately, “Who is God?” The people had abandoned the Lord’s commands and followed the Baal. In the confrontation between God and Baal on Mt. Carmel, Elijah called upon “the Lord”; not his God, because there is no other gods. What gave Elijah power was a vertical relationship with Almighty Creator “Yahweh”. How is your vertical relationship with the Lord?
1 Kings 18:36-37 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 Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word.  Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”

Through us, people know who God is. God calls His people to the culture to do what God calls them to do, in their time and place in history, so that the people walking in darkness will know who is truly God. As it says in 1 Kings 18:39, Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!” Our living out the presence of God is not going to suddenly persuade everybody that God is real. Transformation/conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit, but we have all kinds of people having been given a gift from God, which the Lord has said, if you use that gift for me, as you use it, it will show what God is like. And that also means that if I’m going to know what God is like, I  can watch you, the child of God, who reflects the Father. For you and me, our calling is to be what God called us to be. And a godly shaping force in our culture is what God has called us all to be. Because you do it for the Lord, people who watch you will see Him.

Isaiah 45:5 “ I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me.”

Heavenly Father, it is easy for us to have allegiances to more than just you. It is easy to trust in ourselves, in our own strength, in our own power, in our own money, and in our own abilities, but you have shown us that there is only one God and that is You. I pray that we live in such a way that what we do, what we say, and how we act would make clear to people that you are God, that you are our Lord, and that You are working through us. And I pray that you would just fill us with such a measure of Your Spirit that we can feel, powerfully, Your presence in us and that we can be Elijahs in the world that we live in for you and the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God! Amen.  

In Christ, Brian