Everyday Miracles: 20 Day Journey With Elijah And ElishaSample

You can hear the rain before it arrives; you can pray in faith before you see the miracle come to pass. 

Three and half years of searing drought had struck the land upon Elijah’s command. In the great Chinese famine of 1958-1961 between 15 and 43 million people died. An Indian famine at the turn of the nineteenth century killed 19 million. In more recent memory, the Ethiopian famine of 1984-1985 cost about a million lives. 

In the days of Elijah, the drought dried up riverbeds. Livestock became emaciated as they foraged for scraps of wilted vegetation. Wildfires rampaged through the brittle land. Every day, for over three years, it was the topic of all conversation – when will it rain? The predominant local deity, Baal, could do nothing though he was the god of rain and storms. Everything withered without hope until Elijah spoke. 

“There is the sound of the rushing of rain.” 

Though there was not a cloud in sight or a sprinkle in the atmosphere, Elijah heard something. He heard it not with natural ears. Elijah heard the rain in the spirit. In other words, in faith he received a revelation that, in turn, instructed his prayer life. 

Faith is not wishful thinking. Prayer is not pie in the sky fanciful longings. Powerful intercession does not come by psychologically convincing yourself that something will happen. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of the Lord (Romans 10:17). 

Once Elijah “heard” the sound of the rushing of rain (though there was no rain in sight), he began earnestly praying in a unique physical posture. “He bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees.” Scholars have noted that this was often the posture Hebrew women of antiquity assumed in childbirth. 

So, Elijah was “laboring” in prayer the way a woman travails in childbirth. As a woman’s labor proves that the unseen baby is about to manifest, Elijah’s travail in prayer wasn’t agonizing work accompanied by wishful thinking; his prayer was passionate expression of certainty that the rain was coming soon. 

God gives you His Word and then calls you to pray that Word. Listen, there is the sound of the rushing of rain. Pray it. It will be here soon. And that’s the Gospel!

Questions for Reflection: 

1) Is there a part of your life that feels like it is in “drought” right now? What’s made the season feel so dry? What would it feel like for the “drought” to end?

2) As Elijah “heard” the sound of the rushing of rain before the precipitation manifested, so God often gives us a Word of hope before the provision is manifested. Can you remember a time when God gave you a word of hope that later manifested? Journal about the experience. Write down the details. How did it build your hope?

3) Looking back on your reflections in Question 1 about any type of “drought” in your life, in what ways do you need to tune your spiritual ears for the sound of the rushing of rain? Take a few moments to ask God for spiritual ears to hear what He’s saying to you in this season. Ask Him how you are to pray. Write down what you discern from your time with the Lord:

Prayer for the Day:

Lord, give me spiritual ears to hear the sound of the rushing of rain. Tune my heart to yours. Let not the dryness of present circumstances cause me despair for you are the living water and I have abundant life in you. Sustain me by your grace and make me an instrument of your joy and peace to others in their dry and troubled times. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.