Focus: Spiritual Gravity (Pt.2)

Text: 1Kgs.17:1

"And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, BEFORE WHOM I STAND, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but ACCORDING TO MY WORD."

A person of spiritual gravity is Christ-centered and represents the interests of God on earth. He gains spiritual weight through spiritual exercise and practice. He thinks the thoughts of God and knows the mind of Christ. He lives and stands for Christ.

Elijah was an ordinary man who lived an extraordinary life. James writes, "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and HE PRAYED EARNESTLY that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he PRAYED AGAIN, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit" (Jam.5:17,18). He was like all of us - frail and feeble, but he lived for the glory of God. With the key of prayer he was able to lock up heaven, and with the same key he unlocked it. From his place on earth he was moving things in heaven. That is spiritual gravity. He gained spiritual weight and attained spiritual heights on his knees as a man of prayer.

In front of his royal majesty, Ahab, Elijah declared there would be no rain in the land for a space of three years and a half, and he said, "According to my word." That is spiritual energy and divine impetus generated from the place of God's presence. His audacity was born out of spiritual sight and insight. He says, "As the LORD God of Israel liveth BEFORE WHOM I STAND…" Mark the name, "LORD God." The name 'Elijah' has two names of God in one - EL and Jah. EL is God, and Jah is LORD. So Elijah by name was a representation of God Himself in the land of Israel. He stood for the LORD God in the land. EL means 'the strong or the powerful one.' JAH is, for Israel, the unmentionable name of God, which is the YHVH, translated as Lord in capital letters. The mission of Elijah was to let Israel know the reality of the presence and power of their God. His name spoke of his destiny. He was God's representative on Israel's soil. He served as God's enforcement agent in the land of Israel - enforcing God's will and advancing His purpose.

God is real. God lives. God is more than the God of history; He is our contemporary. Elijah existed for the purpose of making God known to Israel.

Don't you think you exist for that same reason, of letting others feel the reality of God and the impact of His presence and power? Elijah did not just say things; he changed things by earnest prayer. And he didn't just pray; he earnestly prayed. He was a man of spiritual gravity.

It is time for you to put on the weight of Christ, and to put on Christ's weight, you need to shed the weight of sin. The writer of Hebrews talked about shedding "every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us…" Christ grows thin in a heart where sin and self are allowed to fester.

Peter has a word for every believer in Christ that wants to gain the weight of God's glory. He says, "And beside this, giving all diligence, ADD to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity," he goes on to say that "if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2Pet.1:5-8). Developing spiritual muscles requires that you get involved in spiritual arithmetic. For your faith to add up, you need to add to your faith. Faith cannot function alone. Faith is a spiritual magnet that draws virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, and the rest of it. Get loaded with the graces of Christ. Let charisma and character come together in your life. Be a person of spiritual gravity in the sight of God. Make heaven move from your place of prayer. Live for God's glory.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter