In the Spirit and Power of Elijah

In  the  Spirit  and  Power  of  Elijah

Martin Cecil   February 15, 1981

The spirit and power of Elijah—the spirit and power of our living—it may be well to examine the quality of our living in the light of this spirit and power. When the spirit and power of Elijah are considered we would rather naturally be reminded of what has come to be called the contest of long ago between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. It could be said that Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal: Put up or shut up. His approach was forthright, positive in nature, designed to produce a reaction of some kind.

In our living do we dare to offer a strong, right spirit which will produce a reaction of some kind? We will produce a reaction of some kind anyway, so how about allowing a true cause to be present. People and events are continually reacting to what we express in our daily living. This of course is not always recognized as being so, but surely we realize that we have responsibility in this matter. What we give forth will produce a reaction, the reaction that is produced by what we give forth. If this is seen to be so, then obviously we have responsibility immediately, and we could hardly complain about the reaction. Of course there may be those reactions we are pleased with and we don’t complain. But standing where we belong, in the spirit and power of Elijah, in a sense we challenge satan.

Elijah did not hesitate to set the stage for what was to occur, and he gave the prophets of Baal first crack at it. He knew that they were quite powerless anyway, just as we know that human nature, the devil’s dupe, is also quite powerless in the presence of the Lord. If we are there the presence of the Lord is there. We rightly do issue a challenge in our living, with the assurance that whatever it is we give forth in this challenge will come back to us in a reaction of some sort. There are those who tend to be somewhat timid and who are very, very careful about what they say and what they do, so as to make sure, as far as possible at least, that only rather gentle and innocuous things will come back to them.

We are aware that a line is being drawn in the earth, issues are coming to point, and we have something to do in this matter. Let’s get on with the job. We know where the power is; we know where the power isn’t; so where is the hesitancy? Of course most tend to feel that the devil still has some holds in the individual sense, and therefore if too strong a challenge is issued one might succumb to the devil and fail. Anyone who succumbs to the devil fails.

The spirit and power of Elijah extended a challenge in a rather specific way to the prophets of Baal. This same challenge is rightly issued by those who assume responsibility for the spirit and power of Elijah in their own living. Perhaps the scene may not be quite so dramatic as it was in the story on Mt. Carmel; nevertheless, fundamentally it is exactly the same action which must be undertaken. Presumably we’ve all had opportunity to strengthen our spiritual muscles over the months and the years. There comes a point somewhere along the line where what has been done in this regard needs to be used—right use.

From Elijah’s standpoint in that particular setting of old he knew very well what the outcome would be. Do we not also know, or do we have our doubts? Let the prophets of Baal do what they will. They usually do it with a good deal of zeal and seeming forcefulness at times. But it all turned out to be so utterly futile, and this is the same today in our own worlds. Self-centeredness of any kind is always utterly futile. We know that, or at least we claim to know it.

When this began to prove itself out before Elijah he took the opportunity to do a little mocking. He used a little sarcasm to drive home the point. That wasn’t designed, presumably, to make him popular with the prophets of Baal, but they were forced into the position of having to acknowledge their failure. Of course all this was done not so much for the sake of the prophets of Baal as for the sake of the people who were present. When Elijah reached the point where he assumed the responsibility for doing what was required he spoke first to the people: “Come near unto me.” And they did.

I think here is a rather obvious example of human beings halting between two opinions, sitting on the sidelines, wondering after the beast. Given the opportunity, after the evidence of the futility of what the prophets of Baal were suggesting, there was a turning toward Elijah. There was some hesitancy there presumably, but nevertheless they did edge closer. Recognizing that most people are unwilling to assume much responsibility for themselves he more or less forced the issue by undertaking to rebuild the altar of the Lord that was broken down, and it required at least some of the people to take their coats off, roll up their sleeves, and start manhandling rocks. In other words it required them to do something, get off their butts.

Of course this approach related to the First Sacred School, where the external factors were primary; and so they acted in a physical sense. Seeing it today we recognize that it is a spiritual matter, not merely a physical one. The building of the altar of the Lord is not just piling stones up into a cairn. It is true that human beings have tended to persist in this view of things. We remember how even Peter after the transfiguration thought it would be a good idea to build three temples, and that approach has been present with human beings presumably to this very hour. Certainly there are some magnificent structures that have been created, of stone, cathedrals and what not, altars unto the Lord presumably. Those concerned apparently never graduated out of the First Sacred School. They thought they would improve on whatever the altar of the Lord was at the time of Elijah, and it took a great deal of effort, thought, to create these structures, but it was still building an altar to the Lord of stone rather than of human flesh.

Elijah acted in a positive manner, we would say; he was quite forceful. And when the people drew close to him he said, “You, you and you get busy with those stones,” and they went to work doing what was required at that point. I am considering this in order to emphasize the quality of Elijah’s spirit, the spirit and power that was evident in that situation. It’s the same spirit and power that needs to be evident in this situation.

Back along the way it was suggested that it might be wise if those who were just beginning to move in the way of the Lord were to be careful what they said and the extent of the positive stands they took, because, clearly, whatever positive expression appears it will produce a reaction, and presumably there was a need to be rather careful that one didn’t produce a reaction which would be beyond one’s strength to handle. That may have been wise back along the way, but surely it should come to the point where we accept the responsibility of the spirit and power of Elijah because we have proven out our own ability to handle what comes back. Most of us have had plenty of time to prove this out. If we haven’t taken advantage of the time I suppose there might be a little trepidation still.

I have been under the necessity myself in a personal sense of taking a chance in this field for many, many years. Every time I stand up in the Chapel to give a service I usually say some things that are quite forthright and positive, and I am very aware of the fact that I thereby am challenging satan. And he is not likely to take it lying down, so something will come back. My concern of course was with the response that comes back. That is the right kind of reaction, but there are other kinds also, and what comes back will relate surely to something in oneself, in me in this instance, which would have to be dealt with.

When we think of a reaction coming back we have to see it as coming back to the point from which the challenge was issued. We can’t neatly step out of the way. There is what comes back, and we have then the responsibility of taking care of that. Perhaps we can see clearly enough that if satan is to be challenged we are the ones to do it. Who else is going to do it? And we do it in the spirit and in the power of Elijah.

Another word for this matter of challenge would be rebuke. This word rebuke occurs in the passage in the Book of Jude where the archangel was contending with the devil over the body of Moses. We have seen this as relating to the body of mankind or the bodies of individual human beings—not dead bodies, living bodies. The archangel challenged the devil with the words: “The Lord rebuke thee.” Rebuke. In the spirit and power of Elijah a rebuke may be offered. Here is something that relates first to oneself. Usually when the thought of rebuking the devil arises we think of the devil out there somewhere relatively far distant, but he’s not very far away, you know—no distance at all.

“The Lord rebuke thee.” There is a moment when this challenge is offered and the reaction occurs, when it seems as though there is a choice to be made: “How long halt ye between two opinions?” The choice relates to what has been referred to before as one’s own first flush of feeling. What is the nature of that? If it relates to the spirit and power of Elijah in the creative expression of love then the evidence of the right choice having already been made is clear—this is with respect to what is immediately present in one’s own experience. Something happens and there is a flush of feeling in relationship to it. If it is a right feeling, then everything is clear and one may proceed easily and effectively in the spirit and power of Elijah. If, however, there puts in an appearance in that moment a wrong first flush of feeling, something needs to be done immediately. So the rebuke relates to this first flush of feeling, the first evidence of the devil with whom the contest is: The Lord rebuke thee.

There is an immediate turning of attention away from that first flush of feeling, which is wrong and seen to be wrong, toward the Lord, so that one’s love for the Lord may be supreme. You turn to the Lord. We don’t worship Baal but the Lord. We’re not designed to be prophets of Baal. The prophets of Baal go down into the pit and they take all their adherents with them. The prophet of the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, meets the issue, because he loves the Lord and cannot be deceived by his own mind.

When this rebuke is issued in one’s own experience it is issued in that moment in the positive expression of the spirit and power of Elijah to all people. If, on the other hand, there is a point of failure, that is what is offered to all people. So remember this matter of the first flush of feeling. When you become accustomed, it becomes your habit to have a first flush of feeling which reveals the presence of the spirit and the power of Elijah. Then the coast is clear and we share consequently in that responsibility of ministry which is ours on earth. We can handle it.

When we begin to have confidence in our ability to handle what comes back to us in whatever way, then we may deliberately undertake to let the spirit and power of Elijah intensify, welcoming what comes back to us. If what comes back to us causes a wrong flush of feeling, well we may be afraid of it and so, being afraid of what comes back and our wrong feelings with respect to it, we will be hesitant about allowing this spirit and power of Elijah to produce any fallout, so to speak. But we’re here to produce it, not to hope that somehow it’s not going to be necessary, because it might make us uncomfortable.

We know very well if what proceeds from us is right then whatever comes back to us is also right, regardless of the judgments of the human mind. It’s what should come back, exactly what should come back. In the initial stages it usually is what will challenge us to find out what we’re made of, whether we are going to be true to God or whether we are going to be followers of Baal. One of the reasons why people are very often somewhat reluctant to assume definite responsibility in particular ways is the fear of what may come back if they did that. As I said, I personally have been putting myself on the spot repeatedly, in public one might say, over the years. To do that I had to act deliberately. There wasn’t a fairy godmother around to tap me on the head and say, “Now go ahead. You’re all prepared to give services in the power of the spirit of Elijah and you’ll be able to handle everything that comes back.” No, I had to do it to find out. And the same is exactly true for each person: you have to do it to find out.

But we are certainly here to let the spirit and the power of Elijah be expressed on earth collectively. On that basis we can handle what comes back to us collectively. We delight to do it, because we know it’s exactly what should come back. It always is. I suppose on occasion it might be deemed to be unexpected, but as there is increased experience in right spiritual expression nothing anymore is unexpected. There is, I suppose, a sense of adventure too: “What’s coming back this time? What is to be handled this time?” There is a welcome, because we know it’s exactly right. It came to us to be handled and we're going to do it. And we do it in the spirit and the power of Elijah.

There is always this outpouring of spirit. Sometimes that has been deemed to be protective, and in a sense it is; but the intent is not to protect oneself. The intent is to offer the rebuke, to extend the challenge. Do you think human nature is going to dissolve without that? Let us not trust very much in such hopes but trust rather in the Lord’s way by which these things are dealt with creatively, so that all things indeed do work together to perfection, because we ourselves cause them to do so. We don’t sit around hoping that things are going to work to perfection without doing anything. We have something to do in the spirit and the power of Elijah, in the positive expression of that spirit. And when we assume that responsibility what needs to be done is done, but it isn’t done except as there are those who assume the responsibility of it. What rejoicing there is in heaven as there are increasing numbers of those who cease to hide from the Lord, cease to halt between two opinions and accept the responsibility of rebuke.

© Emissaries of Divine Light