 I mean, you guys, so let's dive into the word. I want to just open up with prayer, but my message is called The God Who Answered by Fire. And that is the title of my message, those that will be following along with the text. I will be reading from 1st King 18, and those that will be following along so you guys can open up your Bibles, open up your notebooks, and I believe that you guys will receive with an open heart, amen. So guys, let's just pray right now and just invite Holy Spirit to this place. Holy Spirit, we invite you. We thank you that you're here. We know that your presence, your power, your fire will break down walls, limitations, whatever people are going through, you know what's happening in everyone's life, and we just pray to God that this would be a prophetic word to them. Precious Holy Spirit that you would speak through and that you would just proclaim that you were God in this place in Jesus' mighty name. And everyone said amen, amen. You guys, so 1st Kings 18, I want to bring up the story of Elijah and Baal, B-A-A-L, I hope I'm pronouncing it right, but this is a face-off with the God of Baal and the God that answers by fire. Before I go and dive into the text, I wanna give you guys a little bit of background of how this story is, the reason why I'm bringing up this story of Elijah and against this God. So it started off in Israel and Israel was going through a dark time, a famine time, a time of sin. And it's because this King Ahab was ruling and it's said in the scriptures in 1st Kings 17 that God did not see such sin and such darkness as a time of the ruling of Ahab. Ahab marries Jezebel and when they got married, then they started to worship the King of Baal and as that was happening, prophets were rising up for the idol of Baal and Jezebel was killing off all the prophets of God. And this is what she was doing, executing one by one, catching and capturing all of the men of God, the prophets of the true God. But what was happening was the prophets of Baal were rising. Now to have an understanding of what they were worshiping, the idol Baal represented strength, fertility, lust of power and sexual pleasure. That is what Israel was worshiping. That is what was dominating that city. That was causing famine, that was causing sin and everyone was affected. But God saw it all. He saw that city that was suffering. He saw the Israel people and he said, I am going to stop this. He saw it, but he pulled a person in and his name was Elijah, prophet Elijah. And God spoke to him and said, I want you to come face to face with this. I want you to come face to face and challenge this enemy, challenge what is happening because I am not okay of what is happening in Israel. I am not okay that this is happening to my people. And so what happened was in 1st King verse 18 is that God called Elijah and he said, go and present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the land. So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. And as it continues on to the story, he meets Ahab face to face and he says, Ahab, I want you to bring your 450 prophets of Baal to the top of Mount Carmel and I want to meet you there and I want to have a face off of your God and my God. We're going to build two altars. We're going to have two ox that are going to come in for sacrifice and the God who answers by fire shows who the true God is. So the prophets got ready. The prophets got excited and they say, I take your challenge. And so that's what they did. They got their altar ready. He got his altar ready. And the time came for the challenge, the face off of who the God is true. Which God is true? Is it the God of Baal or the God of Elijah? And so what happened was they prepared the altar and I just wanted to give you guys a story and then I'll jump into my points. Then on verse 24, if those that are following in the scripture says, then you call on the name of your God and I will call on the name of the Lord, the God who answers by fire, he is God. And I'm going to jump where it says, then they called the name of Baal, all the prophets, from morning till noon. O Baal answer us, they shouted, but there was no response. No one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. I'm gonna jump to verse 30, just for time purposes. Then Elijah said to all the people, come over here. So just to let you know is that Baal never answered them. They jumped, they danced, they shouted. They clapped, they did absolutely everything, but nothing came out of that God. But when Elijah came and he said, come here to me. They all came to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which was in ruins. Elijah took 12 stones, one for each of the tribes to send it from Jacob. So he builds it with the stones. He builds it with the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said, fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood. And he said, do it again, pour water over the altar three times. So this altar was drenched with water. But verse 36 says, at the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed, oh Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you were in God and Israel and that I'm your servant and have done all these things to your command. Answer me, oh Lord, answer me so that these people will know who you are. Oh Lord our God and that you're turning their hearts back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil and also looked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell and cried. The Lord he is God, the Lord he is God. He answered by fire. Now I believe that I wanna pull out, there's a lot of rich texts in here, but I wanna pull out a couple of characteristic traits of Elijah. I believe that God wants to raise up some Elijah's in here. I believe that we have such a vision for our city to be saved and I think that there are some things that God wants to impart into our spirits, impart into us as people of God and say, I do not want you to stand there and watch the enemy ruin your city. I don't want you to watch the enemy ruins your family, your life. He wants to rise up a spirit inside of you that will challenge the enemy. Turn to your number and say, challenge the enemy. Challenge the enemy. Some of you may not comprehend the depth of challenge. It's literally when the enemy doesn't come to you. You come to it. You come to the enemy and you say, I challenge you. I wanna face you right now and I wanna show you that my God will prevail. And so what happens is that you look at your situation and you say, this is not okay in my family. I'm not okay with poverty. I'm not okay with depression in my mind. I'm not okay that I'm a child of God, of the Most High God and I have suicidal thoughts. I'm not okay that someone in my family is dying out of cancer. I'm not okay of divorce. I'm not okay, you take a stand. You challenge of what's happening in your life. And I wanna bring up a story that happened in my own personal life because I wanna encourage you. This I've mentioned a couple of times but I wanna tell you this was my revelation in that moment where God says you cannot stand there and allow things to happen because if you will stand, the devil will rise. And so there was this moment last year. My mother was impacted by depression. And at first, I just thought that the situation circumstances, it was normal but it was getting worse. To the point of mental illness, I could say. And now this is my mother so I wouldn't say that just to say that. It was true definite impact on her mind. Started to hallucinate. Started to act really funny, just really different. And this was also really generational. This already affected my uncle and couple of people in my family already. And this started to evolve and started to really impact me and for me to see my mother like this. And then there was one moment where there was a weak vulnerable point with her and the spirit of fear entered her in such a way where she was watching my child. She said, I cannot watch your child anymore. I can't do it. I have such severe anxiety. I'm worried that she's gonna die in my hands like completely just lost it. Would call me at four in the morning. I wanna tell you guys the depth of the darkness that was started to go down in my eyes. Now, this is the thing that's really discouraging. I already see the trait that's happening in my family that this happened to a couple of people and it's already happening to my mom. It's not started, it's happening. Now, God rose up a spirit inside of me. I believe that it was precious Holy Spirit that just said, no, this will not be. I will not allow this to happen. You know the truth. You know that I am God, that I can do the impossible. You know the testimonies that you see in the church. Rise up against it, fight it. And so I began to pray. I began to wail. I began to just completely, my heart was drenched with compassion that I cannot explain. It was not human. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep. All I was thinking was about my mother. And so I was praying, calling her twice a day, calling her from like once in a while to calling her twice a day. I'm so concerned. My heart was drenched in this issue. And so there was that moment where I was driving to the house and I was driving and I said, God, I am ready when you're ready. I believe you're going to set her free. I believe that you are the God that answers by fire and you're going to set my mom free. And so there was that moment where I was having lunch with her. I looked her in the eyes and they were fully broken, full of tears. And she's like, I cannot live like this anymore. And I said, you don't have to get up. And so I told her to get up and I casted that demon of fear out of her. And I said, you will no longer come into this body ever again. And I'm telling you, when she rose up the next day, the next week, the next month, the next year, she's never been the same again. And that is our God. Now, the reason why I bring this up is because the continuation of the story is that Prophet Bashiri told me about the same incident. When he met me, when I went the very first time, I want to uncover the continuation of this is that he shook my hand and he said, I see your mother. And I said, yes. He said, what happened in March? Exactly the date of what he told me of what happened to her. And he said, because of the spirit in you, she's okay. It's not about the vessel, but it is the spirit that operates in the vessel. So I want to tell you is that who do you have in your vessel is Holy Spirit today. Is that the spirit inside of you, if you allow it to operate inside of you, the people around you will be affected. They will live. If you allow Holy Spirit to move through you, if you allow Holy Spirit to operate through you, your surroundings will be changed. Your surroundings, people will live, amen. It's because of the spirit that lives inside of you. The fire is the presence of God. That is what fire is symbolic in the Bible is the presence of God. Holy Spirit is the secret weapon to everything. He is the secret to why the church is operating the way it is, why there's numbers multiplying, why there's salvation, why there's healings, why you see these testimonies. It is not natural. It is not motivation. It is not self-improvement books. It is the power of the Holy Spirit. So God wants to raise something inside of us an Elijah that says challenge you. I challenge you. Do not take my family. Do not take my finances. Do not take I will no longer be in poverty. I will no longer be in this curse. I will no longer be sick in my body. Challenge the enemy. And I tell you, as prophet Elijah was a prophet, he would never be so bold, so confident to come to King Ahab and said, bring me your 450 prophets, bring the whole nation and let's have a face off. See, the thing is, is that prophet Elijah already knew what was going to happen. He knew God was going to come through. God wants to tell you for you to be confident is not just to say it because well, I need to challenge the enemy. No, say it because you know the end result. You will come out victorious. You will come drug addict free. That you will be free from every stronghold, every bondage. Believe that when the fire of God comes that he will do and he will come and show your enemy, show the things that you've been struggling with who is God. Amen. The second one is pray boldly. Is that the second thing that God wants to raise up inside of each and everyone is prayer. He wants us to learn how to pray. But I tell you is that you have to understand is that Elijah here, I mean, he prayed. They were dancing, they were shaking, they were cutting themselves. That's how they talked to their God, shouted and said, God of Baal, come through, come through. But you can see that prophet Elijah had intimacy with his God. You could tell is that he knew his God. Your prayer reflects how great you see your God. Your prayer reflects how great you see your God. And your actions reveal how deep you trust him. Prophet Elijah had depth because he had a relationship. Your life will be different. If all we do is we go deeper in understanding of who our God is, if you allow Holy Spirit to reveal to you who God can be for you. That he's not just a God that's over here in the clouds, but he's the God that's almighty, almighty counselor, that he is your source, that he's the answer to all of your fundamental needs, that he has no limitation, he has no lack. Just because our minds lack doesn't mean that God does. Just because maybe we have our situations that have happened to our lives doesn't mean we should reflect our God with them. He wants your mind shift to change. When your mind starts shifting, your prayer starts changing. And the deeper you go into God, the more powerful your prayer requests will be because you know that the person you're asking will do the impossible. I want you to ask yourself, how does my prayer life look like? Because if it's lacking those things to ask God for the impossible, for your family, for your personal life, for the things that you begin to lose hope, God wants to restore that. He wants to show the enemy who's been tormenting your mind, who's been tormenting you for so long, and tell you, no, I am the God of Elijah. I am the God who answers by fire. And when his fire comes, there will be fruit. There will be solution. There will be freedom. There's power in the fire. There's power in the presence of God, amen. Pray boldly. Your prayer reflects how you see your God. He wants you to see him, that he can do the impossible in your life because he can, amen. The enemy has been deceiving us for too long. He's been telling us, he said, I'm the king. I want to go back to the idol of Baal. You know what he was? He lusted after power. That was the idol. The enemy is lusting after the power in you so that when he does that, he wants you to worship the enemy in a sense of the fact that he said, I want to take the power away from you. I want you to know is that I'm the power. He wants you to be deceived to believe that he's the one that holds the power in you and that's not true. That is the lie of the enemy. That is a deception of the enemy. God holds the final say. God holds your life, amen. As long as we rely on him, trust on him, and when we do that, the third point is, is you'll take over. You'll dominate. God is not a God that's underneath. Not a God that's a tail. He's the head. He's number one. He's always on top. He never fails. He's always above and not beneath. So when you see yourself in a situation that your finances is something's going on, I want to tell you is that God says, I want to bless your hands. I want you to dominate. I want you to take over. So when the fire of God came, this is what happened. This is one of the points is that, this is a, I didn't read this part. Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, stones and soil and looked up the water and trench. And then the people began to proclaim that he is truly the God. Then verse 40 says, Elijah commanded, seize the prophets of Baal and slaughter them all. And you're like, dang, give them some mercy. No. Before, no, no, no. This is where we don't have mercy because these represented demonic influences. These represent your enemies, the things that you have to deal with. See, without God, Baal, or without God, Elijah wasn't able to do anything with Baal. He wasn't able to do anything with the prophets of Baal. He was actually in hiding because Jezebel was after the prophets of God. But when the fire of God shows up, he slaughters everything that you're facing today. He slaughters and kills everything that you face today is when the almighty God shows up, is when the fire of God comes. When you, this is the secret weapon is Holy Spirit. See, the thing is that Elijah couldn't do anything without, even as great of a man he is, as skillful as he was, as bold and confident as he was, he couldn't change things until the fire of God came. This is the thing what I tell people, my girls, people that I talk to, is that no matter what you're fighting or trying to overcome, even in a job, even in a job promotion, I wanna tell you guys something, is that you can work so hard, you can do all of these things, but when Holy Spirit shows up, you can beat anybody and get promoted and overcome anybody in six months. When someone is working so hard, they're using all of their energy, using all of their force, they'll get you such a point, okay? They will get far as they put in those principles, but when you do those principles and Holy Spirit shows up, you'll overpass someone in six months when someone's working so hard at a job. It's just how it works, it's because God has power, God has anointing, God gives favor, God shows off, God shows off. Do not worry when you say, I wanna prove my family that God is not a fool, I'm not a fool to serve him. Some people say, what are you doing? Why are you coming to services? Why are you so committed? Why are you doing all of these things? I wanna tell you I felt like that for such a long time, since I was 15, there was moments where I felt like my enemies were surpassing me and I was like, man, but God, come on, show off, show that you're God. I promise you, he knows how. He showed off. He said to a face off, I will show that I'm God. I will show that I'm the king of kings and the Lord of lords. Do not worry, he knows the time. You don't have to prove anything to anybody because God knows how to, amen. He knows how to show himself off and say, I am God. Amen. In our church, do not worry. People question what we're doing, but the fruits will be so impactful. The testimonies will be so strong. The healings and the presence of God will be so tangible. People cannot ignore it, amen. People were gonna come from left and right, like they already are. There's nothing to prove God, he has it. He's got it. He can do what he needs to do. Do not worry about showing that God is good. God got it. As long as you're falling under him, he will raise you up in the meantime, amen. So, do not worry. God will show off at the face off, amen. He will. In our church, in every area of your life, as long, as long as you know the secret. It's not really a secret, but nobody does it. It's commune with the relationship with the Holy Spirit. He's the key. He's the key to promotion. He's the key to the anointing. He's the key to everything. And the people neglect that. I encourage you to make a choice tonight, is that say, God, I want more of you, but it's only through Holy Spirit. If you don't desire a relationship with God, ask for it tonight. Don't live a life without the fire, because I promise you, without the fire of God, without the move of God, there's nothing to show for, amen. There's nothing to show for. We need the power of the Holy Spirit. You need the power of the Holy Spirit operating through your life in every area of your life, amen. How many of you guys believe that we, that you're calling out the fire of God in your life tonight? How many of you guys believe that? I want us to take the time to pray for the fire to fall on the enemy's camp. I want you to pray because I want to tell you that God has a great plan for you, but so does the enemy. Let's call the fire on the enemy's camp so the blueprint will be over, that the plans of the enemy will be over, that the future is in the hands of God, not of the enemy, amen. Let's pray and command for that fire to come on and challenge the enemy tonight and say, no more, devil, I win, because Jesus Christ said on the cross that it is finished. He said it is finished, so whatever you're worried, whatever you're struggling, it's already done. Now it's time to receive, amen.