By Matt Moore
In 1 Kings 18, the prophets of Baal made quite the spectacle—shouting, cutting themselves, and begging for a god who never came. Elijah watched and waited. And when they were finally finished, Elijah prayed.
He drenched the altar with water, offered the sacrifice, and called on the Lord. It was a bold request—a confident request. He asked the Lord to prove that He was the one and only God. And the Lord answered with fire. The false gods fell silent, and the enemy’s show of strength crumbled.
As the book of James reminds us, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16, emphasis added). Elijah was just a man with a nature like ours, but he prayed bold prayers. And God answered.
Isn’t that what we long for? To see the living God move in undeniable power? Yet how easily we settle for counterfeits—counterfeit prayers, counterfeit signs, counterfeit revivals. Let’s reject the imitation and return to the real. Perhaps God would respond to real prayer from His people with real awakening among His church before a watching world. Revival cannot be far when the saints pray together.
Our prayers and praises rise like fragrant incense before God through Christ our Lord. So, let’s take full advantage of that gift. Why not lift petitions that reach beyond the ordinary—prayers that stretch toward eternity? Hear what Charles Spurgeon has to say about praying boldly in this way:
Let us not degenerate into formality, or we shall be dead while we think we live. Let us not waver through unbelief, or we shall pray in vain. The Lord saith to his church, “Open thy mouth, wide, and I will fill it.” Oh, for great faith with which to offer great prayers! We have been mingling praise and prayer as a delicious compound of spices, fit to be presented upon the altar of incense through Christ our Lord; may we not, at this time, offer some special far-reaching petition?
Spurgeon, Only a Prayer Meeting, 9–10.
The one true God will not be manipulated, but He will keep His promises. And we have something Elijah didn’t have: a better altar, a better sacrifice, and a whole congregation made righteous in Christ. So why limp between two opinions (1 Kings 18:21)? Why remain double-minded and unstable (James 1:8)? What holds us back from boldly approaching the throne of grace?
Jesus declared His house (the church) to be a house of prayer (Matt 21:13). May this be true of Harvest DeSoto. And may it be unmistakable as we gather on January 3, 2026 at 5pm to pray together.
