Morning by Morning, December 1 - Days of Elijah to Hear with Humility and Speak with Authority Good morning, Lord Jesus. In the communion of prayer, I’m watching and waiting for Your leading to start my day focused on You. ... “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’” (1 Kings 17:1). Because Elijah stood before the Lord, he was able to stand before kings. Because he spent time listening for Your word, he was able to speak Your word to others. Scripture makes clear these were Your words and not merely his own. “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (James 5:17-18). He didn’t speak before he prayed. And because he prayed, he was able to speak. First prayer, then prophecy. First humility before God, then authority before man. That’s how “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16). This is not just a principle for Elijah or for super-prophetic people or for spiritual giants. He had “a nature like ours” (v. 17). And one of the ways You’ve created us with this nature is to be able to draw near to You in the humility and intimacy of prayer, so we can hear Your voice and follow Your lead: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.... I am the good shepherd.... My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:1-27). When You first spoke these words during Your time on earth as the Son of Man, those who practiced religion without relationship, those who had only a form of godliness but denied the real power thereof, couldn’t hear it, couldn’t believe it, couldn’t receive it. They “took up stones” to stone You and hardened their hearts to reject You (v. 31). You lamented over them with Your heart reaching out to them, crying out to them, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37). Let us not harden our hearts or keep distant from You in unbelief and cold religion. Draw us near. Open our hearts to hear. Give us a deeper hunger and thirst for Your Presence and a more sensitive discernment of Your voice. Then we’ll be able to speak what we hear when we’re led by Your Spirit. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). We can even speak before rulers and kings if we’re led, because we’ve spent time in the intimacy of prayer with the Ruler of All and the King of Kings. Teach us now how to pray, how to hear, how to discern, and how to obey. Prepare us now for what we may be called to live out in the challenging days to come. Just as You sought to prepare Your first disciples, You’re seeking to prepare Your disciples today: “But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues. You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them. And the Gospel must first be preached to all the nations. But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit” (Mark 13:9-11). We are Your disciples. We are the sheep of Your pasture. We are Your “ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20) as “the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27) filled with “the Spirit of Christ” in our world (Romans 8:9). And we are to be ready to be expressions of Your word because we’ve heard Your voice: “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 4:11). Elijah was a man with a nature like us. He listened and heard with humility from a place of intimacy, then he was able to pray with power and speak with authority. Your Word speaks of sending Elijah “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Malachi 4:5). And so You’re sending that same Spirit that was upon Elijah in his day, Your Holy Spirit, to be upon us in our day -- to draw us near, to fill us up, to send us forth from the place of intimacy into the place of authority (Ephesians 5:18). In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Be encouraged today! In the love of Jesus, Tommy Hays My friend, may you be drawn into a deeper place of intimacy in prayer with humility before God that He may send you forth with the authority of His words as His Holy Spirit leads, in Jesus' name. God bless you!
Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries Mailing Address: 412 S. Adams Street #148 Fredericksburg, Texas 78624 Please share this word to encourage a friend! Anyone can sign up for free at: https://messiah-ministries.org | 
