Where Satan’s darkness reigns supreme, God always provides light in the form of a man, or men who put forth His light–His Holy Word.  Jesus called Himself “… the light of the world.”  Note that He also called His disciples “… the light of the world” (Jn. 9:5/ Mat. 5:14).  He and they were the same light.  Note also that He said that as long as He was in the world, He was its light, the same light that would be shed forth when He was gone by His disciples.  He used the pronouns “I” and “you” in defining God’s light.  This means that by obeying and speaking God’s Word the disciples would be exactly as He was–THE SAME LIGHT–the Word made flesh, EXACTLY AS JESUS WAS.  Which was exactly as the Father was.  He proved this when He said: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9).  To see Him was to see the same light as shed forth by God, which is the same light that His disciples would shed forth.  This statement characterizes the light that we must become in order to be His brethren and friends (Mat. 12:46-50/ Jn. 15:13,14).  We must “come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13), who was God’s light shining in the darkness of the world.  This was the light that illuminates the way to the Kingdom of God.  We must become that same light.  Only those WHO ARE THAT LIGHT will rise to meet Him in the first resurrection, enter His Father’s kingdom and, with Him, reign over the universe forever.  These will rule and judge angels.  Read God’s Very Elect: Future Caretakers of the Universe.  Use “Caretakers” as the key word.  See the Introduction to this website for instructions on how to download the series.

Satan disqualified himself from being part of the Kingdom of God.  For this reason he has as his goal to extinguish God’s light in mankind.  He has succeeded in 99.99% of the cases.  But there have always been those men who stood up to him and fought back with courage and resolve, men who would not allow the light of God’s Truth to be extinguished in them.  These are God’s unconquerable lights in the midst of intense darkness.  These are spiritual Elijahs.  These are they who periodically come on the scene as did John the Baptist who came “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Lk. 1:17).  These men, though few in number, go forth to conduct face-to-face warfare against the forces of evil.  These forces–fallen angels– who, operating under the power and direction of Satan, persuade the masses to worship and serve their master.  They work through his false prophets (pastors, evangelists, missionaries, Sunday School teachers) who spread his (Satan’s) message under the guise of preaching God’s Word.  They get away with their ruse by keeping the people ignorant of God’s Word.

While all of this is going on God’s anointed (empowered) and called out (sanctified) men are not standing idly by watching the travesty from afar.  These few God-empowered, God-directed warriors say to the church what Elijah said to his countrymen from atop Mt. Carmel during the days of king Ahab and his wife Jezebel, “How long will you falter between two opinions?  If the Lord is God, follow Him, but if Baal (is God), follow him” (1 Kings 18:21).  And as is the case today, “… the people answered him not a word.”  Anciently, God’s chosen people could not make up their minds.  Did they want the self-aggrandizing, self-satisfying, self-serving life offered by Ahab and Jezebel; or did they prefer the God-exalting, God-satisfying, God-serving life offered by Elijah?  Did they want to pay now and play later? or play now and pay later?  The choice was between light and darkness.  As is the case with professing Christendom today, the choice was theirs.  Which is what Elijah told the nation of Israel.  Elijah was God’s response to the theology of Ahab.  And Elijah, operating under the power of God’s Holy Spirit, was equal to the task.  Because of his God-given power, Elijah the Tishbite was greater than the king of Israel.  And the King knew it.

This truth was brought out in an episode that took place between the king and the prophet as recorded in 1 Kings 18:17:1: “Then it happened that when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, ‘Is that you, O troubler of Israel?'”  Note that the king admitted that the lowly prophet was affecting the entire nation of Israel, and that there was nothing he could do about it.  Elijah then poured a little heavenly salt into the king’s wounded ego by saying, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, THERE SHALL BE NEITHER DEW NOR RAIN THESE YEARS, EXCEPT BY MY WORD.”  And for the next three years THERE WAS NO RAIN IN THE NATION OF ISRAEL–NOT ONE DROP.  In verse 14 Elijah tells us that it was God Who would withhold the rain.  It is important that we realize that God often uses men to reveal His power and majesty.  God spoke to Elijah, then Elijah spoke His Words to Ahab.  God would later send rain, but He would use the prophet to reveal His (God’s) power to the king, the Israelite nation and all who would read about the episode.  Ahab feared Elijah because he knew that the prophet was God’s man.  The king was not alone in the knowledge of Elijah’s relationship with God.

In chapter 17 we find that Elijah had raised a child from the dead.  His widowed mother spoke what King Ahab knew: “And the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now by this I know that YOU ARE A MAN OF GOD, and that THE WORD OF GOD IN YOUR MOUTH IS TRUTH.'”  Another indication of Elijah’s power was revealed in chapter 18 when Elijah sent word to King Ahab, telling him where he (Elijah) was living.  They needed to come together for a conversation.  Note that the king traveled to where Elijah was staying (18:16).  Ahab and Jezebel had brought the nation of Israel to its knees before Satan.  The people were living in darkness.  Elijah was God’s light to counteract the darkness of Baal’s religion.  Just as the king and queen embarked on their quest to erase every thought and memory of God from their sin-darkened minds, God raised up a fearless light bearer who would become the example for anyone called by God to stand against personal and national apostasy.  Elijah was bold and powerful.  He spoke God’s Truth to political power.  He challenged the people’s false god.  He closed and opened the heavens.  He confronted the people about their sins and called them to repentance.  He was hated by the priests of Baal and threatened by Jezebel.  He was unyielding and uncompromising in the things of the Lord.  As a result he changed the course of the nation’s history and now serves as the model for those whom God calls into His ministry.

The above describes the type of men God is calling to stand in the face of the modern Western World as it descends into the darkness of unrestricted, glorified sin.  Ironically, that world is being led into apostasy by the Institutional Church whose parishioners openly brag that they can defy the Biblical God, reject His Words (sin) and still inherit eternal life.  Sin, they proclaim to the world, is an unavoidable part of the Christian life.  To those looking for an easy path to paradise they say that Jesus died so that they can sin and get away with it.  Just as Satan won over the only members of the Church of Eden, he has persuaded the whole of Catholicism/Protestantism to follow in Adam and Eve’s footsteps that lead to his religious sewer–the two-headed, multi-bodied religious institution known as “the church.”

Earlier, while under the leadership of King David, the nation of Israel had reached her spiritual apex.  God’s Law was the Law of the land.  With the exception of a few people, Israel and her God were a family.  But by the time Elijah came on the scene nation had changed, drastically, and for the worse.  God sent him to tell the people to return to Him, to go back to living  as they had under King David.  Because Israel under David had served God in righteousness, the Lord promises to rebuild the tabernacle of David in the next life.  This being the case, there must be Elijah-like men who, in the final days of this age, are standing as lights in the face of the purveyors of darkness who rule this present world, including the church world.  Those who have received the call to God’s ministry must walk in the footsteps of Elijah.

Be it understood that before being taken to a place of safety shortly before the arrival of the Great Tribulation, the lives of those who stand for the living God–both ministers and laity–will be changed as the forces of evil multiply exponentially.  We have living today two generations of God-defying spiritual liberals.  A third generation is now learning the ways of Satan from the church and in the public schools.  As pressure to turn away from God increases, the vast majority will kneel and submit to those who apply it.  As Jesus said in Matthew 7:13,14, few will find His strait gate, enter it and walk His narrow way to the Kingdom of God.  Those who do will be Elijah-like warriors of light standing before a world of darkness.  A choice must be made now.  We must choose whom we will serve.  We will either serve God as his light, or Satan as his darkness.   L.J.