The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: When you need something supernatural, that's not saying grace, that's not saying a quick prayer, that's going in the labor.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans says the kind of prayer that really makes a difference is extremely hard work.

Dr. Tony Evans: You say, why do I have to go through all that? Cuz you're giving birth to a miracle. You're asking God to do something out of the ordinary.

Guest (Male): This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Prayer can be a pleasure as we enjoy the closeness it gives us with God. But today, Dr. Evans talks about how to take our prayers to the next level, a level that's much more effective, but much less comfortable. Let's join him as he explains.

Dr. Tony Evans: Prayer is the one thing God has established to make contact with what he has already decreed. Where there is no prayer, there is no contact. And where there is no contact, you do not get what God has already declared for you to have, known as his will. The lesson that you and I are going to learn from Elijah today, I want you to right now put everything out of your mind you've ever thought about prayer for a few moments. And I want us to learn from Elijah this point of contact and how it works. Let me start off by reading two verses.

Chapter 17 verse 1 First Kings. Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word. So Elijah tells Ahab, it's not going to rain. Chapter 18 verse 1. And now it happened after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth. So in chapter 17 verse 1, he says, it's not going to rain.

In chapter 18 verse 1, he says, it's getting ready to rain. So before we go any further, let me explain why this rain thing is there in the first place. Ahab didn't make this up. You see, in Deuteronomy chapter 11 verses 13 to 17, this is what God said. God says, if you go worship idols, I'm going to close down heaven so it won't rain. If you choose other gods, I'm going to no longer bless your crops. I'm no longer going to bless your planting. I'm no longer going to bless your fruit bearing. And the sky is going to dry up if you go after other gods.

But he says, if you turn away from other gods, then I will open up heaven and I will let rain again fall on the earth. So the whole reason Elijah is praying is based on something God had said years early to Moses. So having prayed biblically, we now are going to see something. I do want you to turn your bibles here. Hold your finger in First Kings and turn to James chapter 5. The book of James chapter 5. In James chapter 5, let me read beginning with verse 16. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.

The effectual prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Now watch this. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. So he's taking us back to Kings. And it did not rain on the earth for 3 years and 6 months. Then he prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit. Stay with me here. God said it's not going to rain. God said it's now going to rain. There's a gap of 3 and 1/2 years between when he said no rain because of their idolatry and when it was going to rain.

So watch this. The change with the rain only came when the idolatry was addressed. As long as there was idolatry, there would be no rain. Many people want God to send rain in their lives, called blessings, without wanting God to change their lives. And he gives you the secret of prayer that produces the supernatural. James said the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. So we not only know that Elijah prayed, we now also know how Elijah prayed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And James is writing to New Testament Christians.

James is writing to you and me. But he uses an Old Testament saint to to explain to New Testament Christians how to get heaven to deliver rain. How to get heaven to open up to deliver the will of God, which is varying from person to person in its application. So that means if you and I understand effectual fervent prayer as illustrated by James in the life of Elijah, you and I can affect heaven opening, heaven closing. No rain, rain. We can affect it just like Elijah affected it. And let me tell you why, and then I'll tell you how.

You know why? Because James says that Elijah was of light nature as us. In other words, he wasn't Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, or X-Men. He wasn't some superhero. He's just a man. So he wants you to know Elijah has nothing on you. Question is what does that look like? All right. Verse 41. It says, I hear the sound of the roar of a heavy storm. That's what he says. Elijah says, I hear a thunderstorm. But wait a minute. In the verses to follow, there is no storm yet. In fact, you're going to see in a moment the sky is clear.

In fact, there's not even a cloud in the sky. In fact, nobody here this is but Elijah cuz Elijah has to tell Ahab that there is a sound of a storm cuz Ahab can't hear. So let's get something straight. Your proximity to God will determine what you hear. See, if you are not close to God, you won't hear the will of God applied to you. You'll be like Ahab. What you talking about? Cuz you don't hear anything. One of our problems is we want to hear from God while keeping our distance from God. No. Elijah could hear the will of God and he could hear the timing of God's will.

See, he already knew what the word of God said, Deuteronomy 11. But the question on the floor is, how do I know that word in Deuteronomy is applicable to me right now? That has to do with spiritual distance. What made his proximity so close? It said Elijah was a righteous man. He lived his life to please the Lord. You cannot hear the sound of God's will and live a lifestyle that makes him sad, that makes him unhappy, that is not seeking to please him. You can't hear his voice and be in a long distance relationship.

All right? So if you want to experience supernatural power in prayer, the proximity must be close. It cannot be far away so you can hear the sound of the particular application of scripture in your personal experience. Okay? So that's number one. But it gets deeper cuz verse 42 says, and Ahab went up to eat and drink, but Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees. Stay with me here. Elijah goes up to Mount Carmel. He doesn't go with Ahab. He goes up to Mount Carmel.

He separates himself and he finds a place to get alone with God. In other words, what he was getting ready to ask for was so big. What he was getting ready to call on from heaven was so deep that he needed an undistracted environment for his discussion. Okay? Do you have a place you can go? A closet, a room, some place you can go where there will be undistracted communication. It says he bent down, put his head between his knees. In Old Testament days, what the women did was crouch down, put their head down, and then somebody would say push.

In other words, it was the position of labor. Why? It was the position of labor cuz he's about to give birth to a miracle. It was the position of labor because he's getting ready to give birth to something supernatural. See, when you need God to do something not regular but super unlettered, when you need God to do something not ordinary but extraordinary, you got to get in a position of birth. But no woman gets in a position of birth unless she pregnant. The whole point of birth is that you are pregnant. See, some of us want God to give birth when we haven't even let God get us pregnant.

We don't have the pregnancy of his presence, the pregnancy of his life, but we want him to give birth to a miracle. He knew that he needed the miracle heaven to open so he got in a position and he labored. This is the biblical word travail. Travail means to be in labor. When Jesus was with Martha and Mary in John chapter 11, and when it was in Martha and Mary and Lazarus had died, and he was getting ready to raise Lazarus from the dead, that's not an ordinary thing. So what Jesus did, the scripture says, is he stirred himself up.

When you need something supernatural, that not saying grace. When you need something supernatural, that's not saying a quick prayer, that's going in the labor. You say, why do I have to go through all that? Cuz you're giving birth to a miracle. You're giving birth to something supernatural. This is not regular or ordinary. You're asking God to do something out of the ordinary. But he need a point of contact. Question is do you want to give birth to some?

Guest (Male): If you do, stick around. Dr. Evans will talk about the specific steps you need to take when he returns in just a moment. First though, what we're hearing today is from Dr. Evans sermon series entitled Elijah. There weren't many biblical characters more deeply connected with God than this powerful prophet. But that didn't stop him from struggling with discouragement and depression or facing obstacles and opposition when the deck was stacked against him. If you can identify with some of those problems, you'll benefit from the answers you'll find in this six-part sermon collection. We are offering the Elijah series on CD, USB flash drive, or instant downloads as our gift to anyone who will come alongside our ministry with a contribution.

And as a limited time bonus, we'll also include a copy of Tony's Prayers for Knowing God, a practical book designed to help you develop an ongoing communication with God, leading you to experience greater grace and peace. This package is our way of showing appreciation for your faithful support of Tony's ministry. Get all the details and make your request online at tonyevans.org or give us a call at 1-800-800-3222 before this special offer runs out. That number again, 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that information for you after part two of today's message. Right now, let's get back to Dr.

Evans.

Dr. Tony Evans: Here we got a man giving birth. Some of you, you're dealing with situations. Counselor can't help you. Money can't fix it. And people you know can't change it. You need to go in the labor. You need to find a Mount Carmel somewhere and you need to go down and push and push and push. You say, how long do I push? How long do I push? Well, let's go back to the scripture cuz it says an effective fervent prayer of a righteous man. He said to his servant in verse 43, go up now and look toward the sea.

In other words, look for the answer cuz it's a storm. So look for the answer. So the servant went up verse 43 says and looked and said there is nothing. Okay, let's stop that. He prayed and nothing happened. Anybody know that feeling? You prayed and nothing happened. He went up and said I I looked for an answer, but there's no answer to the prayer. First of all, did you pray in labor? Cuz we all know there's false labor. We all know there's false labor. You you think something coming, ain't nothing coming. But he prays. He says I don't see anything.

And he went up and looked again. There's nothing. He said go back seven times. Seven is the biblical number of completion. When something is completed in the Bible, it gives you the number seven. In other words, servant, I know what the word said, Deuteronomy 11. I know what God told me cuz I heard a sound. And we're close. So when the written word lines up with what God is telling me in my spirit and then I go in the labor and nothing happening yet, you keep going cuz the bigger the miracle you need, the more labor you going to be in cuz that baby's head is so big.

So you labor till God answers it once you can tie it to his word, tie it to your spirit, and you've labored in prayer about it, you don't quit cuz you heard nothing. You pray till you get an answer cuz an answer is coming in two seasons. The man comes back after the seven time verse 44 and says, behold the cloud as small of the man's hand is coming up from the sea. But that's all he needed to see cuz sometimes God doesn't give it to you all at once. He lets you see a little something something.

And a little something something says I I I I'm I'm I'm listening. I'm I'm hearing you. We not ready to complete it. But when you see that little cloud, he said, oh, you saw a little cloud? He went and told Ahab, go get your chariot, go to Jezreel cuz it's getting ready to thunderstorm up in here up in here. Why? Because sometimes God gives you a little down payment. He doesn't take care of everything. He just show you a little a little something so that you keep on going, keep on praying, keep on trusting because I hear you.

It says in the last verse, then the hand of the Lord was on Elijah. And he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel. In the previous verse, Ahab has got a chariot which means he has horses. So he's got a group of horses pulling his chariot from Carmel to Jezreel, which is 15 miles. So this is a 15 mile ride. Kings had runners. The job of the runner was to run in front of the king to make sure there was nothing in the road so there would be nothing to jeopardize the king. So the king had runners.

Now I don't know what happened to Ahab's runners. Maybe they got scared when Elijah killed all them prophets and quit. I don't know. But his runner was nowhere to be found. And Elijah becomes his runner. But wait a minute. Elijah says he had to girdle up his loins. That means he had to pull up his robe, tuck it under his belt, and run. There's an old boy here. Old boy is running 15 miles and he's outrunning the horses. Okay? He run Oh, it makes me think of Isaiah 40. Those who wait upon the Lord shall get new strength.

They will mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not go weary. They will walk and not faint. Somehow it's a you say, how do I know this is a supernatural track star? Because it says and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah. And so he started kicking it. He started kicking it because when God comes through for you, even though you've had to wait for it, you'll be like Caleb who said I started when I was 40. Now I'm 85, but God has given me strength at 85 that I had at 40.

And it was worth waiting on him for my change to come. God can take you and give you strength for whatever he's going to bring your way when you suck it down from up there down here through the effectual fervent prayer. A number of years ago, for those who haven't heard this story, I was doing a evangelistic crusade in Columbia, South Carolina. This crusade was at the Bryce Football Stadium, which is the football stadium for the University of South Carolina. It was Sunday night, the first night of the crusade, when somewhere between 15 or 20,000 people had gathered in the stadium for us to preach the gospel to.

Before the service, all the ministers and the planning committee went downstairs to pray. A gentleman came in and said, we just been warned that a major storm is coming and it will be here by 7:00. It's now 6:00 and the meeting is supposed to begin at 7:00. So based on the meteorological report, we were going to be drenched with a heavy thunderstorm at 7:00. So we went into prayer. And we prayed that God would hold the rain and we prayed that God would allow the service to go on. And we prayed The ministers prayed. But every minister including me prayed a safe prayer.

A safe prayer is Lord, don't let it rain if it's not your will. So we prayed that safe prayer. At the end of the prayer, a 5 ft 1 lady named Linda said, may I pray? We said well well yes yes, go ahead and pray. You know we need all the prayer we can get. Here is the summary of Linda's prayer. Linda said, Lord, we are here doing what you ask us to do. You ask us to win people to Christ. You ask us to proclaim your word. We have spent money, time, energy to put this crusade together doing what you told us to do.

So you would embarrass yourself if you let it rain because you control the weather. So therefore, Lord, here got crazy, I command you to stop the rain. All the preachers did was just look at each other and wait for lightning to strike. Cuz we got this little 5 ft 1 lady commanding God with the rain. We walk up. It's now 7:00. It's time for the service to begin. The MC comes out and he says, ladies and gentlemen, we know that rain is supposed to come. The sky is dark behind us. It's coming this way. We know it's supposed to come.

We're just going to go as long as we can go. So if you'll just remain here as long as you can, we'll do as much as we can cuz it wasn't looking good. You could hear the thunder in the background is coming this way. As we begin the service, we're 10 15 minutes into the service and now it's black. It's thundering behind us and you can begin to hear the rain. It begins to drizzle. As the rain came up to the stadium with our own eyes, the rain split. Half of it went around this way.

Half of it went around that way. And then the rain came back together at the other end of the stadium. See, the preachers were being spiritually polite. But Linda gave an effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person. She got down and put her head down and pushed and pushed and pushed. And like Jacob said, I'm not going to let you go until you do something. I'm going to give birth to a miracle. Somebody here today needs a miracle in your life, needs a miracle in your emotions, needs a miracle in your home, needs a miracle on your job.

If you commit to righteousness, if you commit to prayer, if you commit to Mount Carmel and if you get pregnant with God's life and are willing to go in the labor, what happened to Elijah, James says is available to you.

Guest (Male): If you've never experienced the miracle of being reborn into a whole new life by asking Jesus to forgive your sins, visit tonyevans.org right now and follow the link at the top of the homepage that simply says Jesus. There you'll learn all about what it means to be a Christian and discover some helpful information on how to start your brand new life. And a quick reminder, you can get the six lesson Elijah Message Collection along with Dr. Evans' popular book Prayers for Knowing God. It's a special limited time package, our way of saying thanks when you make a contribution to help support Tony Evans' ministry.

Just contact us at 1-800-800-3222 to make the arrangements. Resource team members are standing by to assist. That's 1-800-800-3222 or make your request online at tonyevans.org That's tonyevans.org There are plenty of treatments for depression. But tomorrow, Dr. Evans will introduce us to one with nothing but positive side effects. And you don't need a prescription to get it. Be sure to join us for that.