Learning Prayer: Partnership with God

Hey guys, today will be the first installment of a new series called Learning Prayer. I am super excited to show you what I have learned. We are going to start this series off by going over a passage in 1 Kings. The Lord taught me some amazing things in this passage and I hope you learn a lot from this passage too.

Setting the Stage

Before we jump straight into scripture I want to set the stage by providing some context to the passage we will be studying. This story starts out with the Land of Israel, that is the 10 northern tribes. The land had actually been in famine so long that it was even hard to find grass for the animals to eat. Now as this famine was happening, Elijah called a meeting at Mount Carmel. This meeting was to determine to who Israel should serve, The Lord or Baal. To help you understand more, Baal was the new god that the King of Israel had started to serve, thus putting all of Israel into idolatry.

God came through

After everyone had gathered at Mount Carmel, Elijah proposed a test. They would set up two altars where either God could show out, or Baal. The prophets of Baal setup their altar and cried out to their god to call out to fire. Obviously, this didn’t work. Then Elijah setup his altar and even soaked the altar in water. Then Elijah called upon God and fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice.

Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that You, O Lord, are God, and that You have turned their heart back again.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.”

1 Kings 18:37‭-‬39 NASB1995

Elijah partnering with God in prayer

After this Elijah spoke to the King, and told him to race home as there was a heavy rain to come. But I want to show you the verse so that you can see that there is a hidden truth in it.

Now Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower.” So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees.

1 Kings 18:41‭-‬42 NASB1995

The secret here that the Holy Spirit showed me was that Elijah had heard the rain before it actually came. We see this because later Elijah has to pray the rain into Israel.

Laboring in Prayer

He said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go back” seven times. It came about at the seventh time, that he said, “Behold, a cloud as small as a man’s hand is coming up from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, so that the heavy shower does not stop you.’ ”

1 Kings 18:43‭-‬44 NASB1995

Here we see Elijah getting on his knees and sending out his servant to see if his prayers get answered. After multiple times of going back and forth to see the cloud, the prayer finally gets answered. Now what the Lord taught me through this was that if you want to see crazy miracles in prayer, you need to hear it in the Spirit first. You see, before that prayer was answered, Elijah heard the answer spiritually before seeing it physically. Sometimes prayer isn’t asking things from God, but rather asking things for God. That means God already wants to do it, He is just waiting for you to ask Him. You need to partner with God in prayer to bring things to pass though prayer. Find out what He wants for your life or situation and then pray it through.

I hope you guys were blessed with this lesson and you have learned something valuable about prayer. Next time you come before God, ask Him what He would like you to pray about. Thanks for reading!

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