By Evangelist John "BJ" Hall
Luke 1:17 (NASB) "And it is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous; so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
Who was this one who went before Christ in the spirit and power of Elijah? John the Baptist was that one.
Malachi prophesied that the Messiah would be preceded by Elijah. Then 400 years later Gabriel said that John, whose birth he announced, would come in the spirit and power of Elijah.
There is a marvelous similarity between these two men that I want us to see this morning. It goes beyond the rough garb they wore and the fact each of them dwelled in Gilead.
- Both made their bodies submissive to the Holy Spirit.
- Both were confronted by a hostile world. Ahab and Jezebel and the entire idolatrous religious system they supported. Herod and Herodias and the whole Jewish religious system that was in Israel.
- But most of all they were both filled with the Holy Spirit.
- Both were fiery brands preaching stark truths to a wicked world.
- Both were fearful of God and fearlessness of man.
That same Spirit and power was in others too.
- Peter had that Spirit and power as he preached on the day of Pentecost. He showed it when he withstood the Sanhedrin after they told him not to preach Jesus. He said, “Who should we obey, Men or God?”
- Stephen had that Spirit and power as he proclaimed fearlessly the Gospel and bowed to none but Christ in his death by stoning.
- Paul had that Spirit and power as he went about his missionary journeys in hostile places and even returning to those places to preach again.
- Martin Luther had that same Spirit and power when he nailed the 95 Thesis to the door of All Saints Church, Wittenberg, Germany.
- John Knox, D.L Moody, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, the list goes on.
What is the difference between these men and us? Has God limited us? Has the Holy Spirit not filled us?
I tell you today, the only thing limiting us today from the spirit and power of Elijah and John the Baptist is ourselves. That same Spirit dwells within us. But WE LIMIT HIM!
- We limit Him by not surrendering every portion of our lives to His control.
- We limit Him by failing to stay in His Word
- We limit Him by laziness in our prayer lives.
- We limit Him by our timidity to confront evil and call sin what it is.
- We limit Him by staying in our Ivory Palaces and not getting out where the lost are.
- We limit Him by not training up those who will also follow him and train others to do the same.
- We limit Him by failing to SHOUT the Truth from the housetops.
I plead with you today,
STOP LIMITING THE HOLY SPIRIT
THAT DWELLS WITHIN YOU!
Then you too will have the spirit and power of Elijah!