Working out God's Plan

Elijah 18:1 says " 1 After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: "Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land."

Elijah obeyed God and went to meet Ahab. Here's an interesting thing happening in Elijah's life
".....Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.
43 "Go and look toward the sea," he told his servant. And he went up and looked. "There is nothing there," he said. Seven times Elijah said, "Go back."
44 The seventh time the servant reported, "A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea." So Elijah said, "Go and tell Ahab, 'Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.' "
45 Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. 46 The power of the LORD came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel." (1 Kings 18:42-45)

There are 2 things I noticed here, God promised Elijah about the rain. Elijah had to pray seven times and see that small hand of a cloud rise up in the horizon and then the rain poured.

1. Knowing what God has promised God is able to do-When God has promised something it sure will happen. We see this in the way Elijah persisted in prayer. Elijah had known from God that it would rain and that gave Elijah the base to build on to pray even more than ever. Has God given us a promise that He said He will bring to pass, take heart, trust the Word of God more than any thing. No matter what happens, or what the situation looks like right now, God will come through and His Promises will come true. Elijah knew that he knew that he knew, that what God has promised is true and will come to pass. If it has not, then maybe we're not hoping enough for it. Another thing of note is that, if we were to count all the verses in the bible and find the center verse, you know it would be Psalm 118:8 and it says "It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man."
2. Who's report will you believe??- While Elijah prayed he asked his servant to keep bringing him back the status of the rain situation. The servant kept bringing a negative report, yet Elijah did not give up because he wasn't looking for the report from the servant but the result of the Word from God. Who's report do we readily believe. The moment we start praying for God's plan in our life, we are sure to get all sorts of reports in our lives, but above all we've got to stick onto what God says about our situation. If we've been praying for a loved one to meet our Saviour Lord Jesus and to be saved, we will find the appearance of the situation in our life and theirs going in a totally different direction, yet do not give up, God's foremost purpose and promise is that He came that all may know our Lord Jesus and be saved. We MUST (P)ray (U)ntil (S)omething (H)appens. So PUSH. Like Elijah did to bring God's Word to pass.
3. Pray in accordance to God's Word and His plan-Does praying mean praying anything we want? No. Elijah shows us that He had a mandate from God which had to happen and he prayed accordingly, without giving up hope, without being slack. Praying is a very very powerful means of bringing God's plan to come to pass on this earth. Even Jesus, when He taught us to pray "..let Your will be done on this earth as it is in heaven" Who can bring God's will to pass on this earth. Believers who pray God's will. Prayer is not ONLY for meeting our needs and blabbering our needs to God, it is bringing God's will to happen in our lives and in this earth.

Conclusion: Praying is an amazing tool, God blessed us with. Before knowing our Lord Jesus we did not know to pray. God opened the way for us to enter when Jesus died on the cross for our sins and the curtain tore in the temple and the Holy Place the Holy dwelling of God was accessible to us, because of our Saviour Lord Jesus. Hebrews 4:16 "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Elijah prayed in confidence on God's Word regarding the rain, and it did rain and that small hand of a cloud rained so heavily and so quickly became rain cloud I am sure, no one could have imagined. Why doesn't our prayers work that way? The Bible says in James 4:3 "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." Dear brothers and sisters, lets get with our Father's business. Its been a long time since we prayed for God's will to be done in our individual lives and on this earth. Pray Until Something Happens, the Something that God has planned and promised will happen, if we pray according to His plan. Its ok if right now you don't know what to pray. The Holy Spirit will help and guide us and help us pray expectantly, like a pregnant mother, knowing for sure that in 9 months she will see her baby.