THE REASON MANY PRAYERS ARE NOT ANSWERED IS BECAUSE THOSE WHO ARE PRAYING ARE NOT DETERMINED.

THERE IS A DETERMINATION THAT A MAN WHO HASN’T GOT PLAN B PRAYS WITH, THAT IS THE PRAYER THAT GOD ANSWERS.

IF YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING FOR GOD AND SOME PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE ARE CRITICIZING YOU, IGNORE THEM. DON’T WASTE TIME REPLYING THOSE WHO ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE.

THERE ARE OCCASIONS WHERE THREE CAN BE A CROWD. WHEN IT COMES TO DISCUSSING SOME SERIOUS ISSUES WITH GOD YOU NEED TO BE ABSOLUTELY ALONE WITH HIM.

• Pastor E.A. Adeboye on ‘GOING HIGHER PART 39’ at RCCG Special Sunday Service

Let us pray

Ancient of days we worship you, our Saviour, our Redeemer, our Protector, our all in all. We worship you, may your name forever be glorified. Father today as your children listen to your word glorify your name, let the power in your word do something in their lives that will cause them to glorify your name in Jesus mighty name we pray have prayed. Praise the Lord.

We will continue in our series on Going Higher as we move to Part 39. Very reluctantly we have to move on to 1 Kings 18:42. We spent quite a lot of time in verse 41, we don’t know how long we will be in verse 42.

1 Kings 18:42

The first thing you find in this verse must be quite a surprise to you as it was to me when I started digging deep on this verse – Ahab went up to eat and drink. I don’t have any interest in Ahab, I mean look at a man who has spent a whole day in the presence of the supernatural. Church Gist. Here is a king who has seen the raw manifestation of the power of God. Who had seen a man of God praying for about two minutes and fire fell and the next thing he wants to do is eat and drink. He couldn’t even say “you said there is going to be a sound of abundance of rain, I think I will wait for the rain”. He went to eat and to drink.

The first time I saw a man of God performing miracles, I mean raw manifestation of the power of God, I wasn’t hungry for food. I was hungry for anointing. The first time I saw Billy Graham preach, I was in London and he preached a very simple sermon. The kind that any of my Sunday School teachers could preach and then he gave an altar call and I saw the crowd surging forward, I wasn’t hungry for food. I was hungry for his anointing. Church Gist. The first time I visited Yonngi Cho of blessed memory and I saw a man telling the congregation “those of you who have come to church this Sunday please don’t come next Sunday so that those who could not come in this Sunday can come in next Sunday” in an auditorium that could sit more than fifty thousand people, holding multiple services on Sunday. I was not hungry for food, I was hungry for anointing. The elders have a saying that it is what you are hungry for that will be in your treasury. I don’t think I want to spend much time with this man.

Why? Take this as my advice – don’t spend time with those who are not going anywhere because in Amos 3:3 it says birds of the same feather flock together. They say show me your friend and I will tell you who you are. In Proverbs 13:20 says walk with the wise and you will be wise but if you are a companion of fools you are going to be destroyed. If you are going somewhere doing something for your God and some people who are not going anywhere are criticizing you, ignore them. Don’t waste time with those who are not going anywhere.

Another big lesson to learn is that this man quickly went to eat and to drink. The easy way is always downhill. You want to go uphill, there must be self discipline. Jesus said in Matthew 7:14-15 that broad is the way that leads to destruction, many are they that find it and narrow is the way that goes to eternal life, few will find it. If you want to go higher, get ready for self discipline. Apostle Paul said I press on. Pressing on means you are overcoming resistance. Climbing takes effort. Well I don’t want to spend too much time with Ahab, let me go to my friend Elijah.

The Bible says that he went up to the top of Mount Carmel, he was a mountain climber. Why did he go up? Because God can hear you anywhere. Do you have to climb the mountain to pray? The Bible says in Psalms 139:7-12 that God is everywhere. He can hear you from anywhere. In Genesis 18:1-14, Abraham was sitting in front of his tent and God spoke to him there. In 1 Kings 17:2-6, the Bible says God spoke to Elijah in the palace. Church Gist. In 1 Kings 17:8-17, God spoke to Elijah by the Brook side. God can speak to you in His house, In 1 Samuel 3:1-14 Samuel was on his bed in the house of God when God called Him, so you don’t have to go to the mountain before God can hear you. However, mountain top surely has some advantages, no doubt about it.

In Exodus 17:8-13, when the Amalekites came to attack the children of Israel Moses went to the mountain top. There he raised up his hands while Joshua was fighting the Amalekites in the valley below. When Moses lifted his hand, the Israelites were winning but when he brought his hand down, the Amalekites began to win. That tells you something that the mountain top is closer to the anointing. When you want to put up a telephone mast, you look for a hill to place it there. If you raise your antenna on a mountaintop you are likely to make contact faster than the fellow who is in the valley below. Church Gist. In 1 King 19:4-18 you also discover that when you are on a mountain top it is easier to hear the small still voice of God because over there it is quiet. Elijah had to travel 40 days and 40 nights to get to Horeb the Mount of the Lord because they were going to discuss some very sensitive issues there. In Psalms 46:10, the Bible says be still and know that I am God. Not everyone can climb to the mountaintop so there is plenty of stillness up there.

What I found very interesting here is that Elijah was already on Mount Carmel and yet he climbed higher because he wanted to be at the very top.

• My prayer for everyone listening to me is that you will not just go high, you will go very high.

Why did he climb to the very top? I think it because he wanted to be absolutely alone with God. There are occasions where three can be a crowd. When it comes to be discussing some serious issues with God you need to be absolutely alone with Him. Jesus also went alone to the mountain to be with the Father. Best time I enjoy in any day is when I am alone with God praying. I long for those days where there were very few people in the camp ground and I could go very deep into the jungle, alone with God so we can discuss.

When your destiny is about to be changed permanently, you need to be alone with God. In Genesis 32:24-28, the Bible says Jacob was left alone when the angel came to wrestle with him. Wives? Gone, children? all gone including the favourite wife. When he was alone and he started praying with a visitor, the only visitor allowed when you want to be alone with God. He got his name changed and his destiny altered, a man became a nation. When the Almighty God wants to discuss the destiny of a nation, whoever will be the man that God will use has to be alone. In Exodus 3:1-15, when God wanted to discuss the deliverance of Egypt. Moses was alone not just in the desert, at the back side of the desert. Church Gist. Away from everybody else. When your eyes are about to see what none has seen before you need to be alone with God. Exodus 33:18-23, Moses had prayed “Lord show me your glory” and God took him from where he was and went to hide him in the cleft of a rock so it will be you alone seeing what you are about to see. There are some men of God who have seen visions that they won’t tell anybody. They won’t tell even their closest friend.
• I pray God will open your eyes too and show you glorious things.

When God wants to confirm to you beyond any doubt that you are special to Him, He will take you to the mountain top. If you find anybody else with you at that time, it was be that they are in the same club with you. Very, very special like in Matthew 17:1-9 Jesus Christ took aside Peter, James and John to the mountain and transfigured before them. Church Gist. There they saw Elijah, they saw Moses and they recognized them. Jesus told them not to tell anyone until he resurrect. There are things only very few people can see, there are things only very few people can hear. I am sure you know that the boardroom in your factory is a small room. Very few people get there yet tremendous decisions are taken there. There is the need to be alone with God. I hope you begin to practice that from now on – TIME ALONE WITH GOD.

Elijah did something very spectacular – 1. He threw himself down on earth. 2. He put his face in between his legs. Any lesson to learn from this? Probably when he threw himself on the bare floor he was saying to God “you are the most High”. (Psalms 91:9, Ecclesiastes 5:8, Isaiah 66:1). Here I am at your footstool, I am throwing myself down at your footstool after all I am an ordinary dust. In Yoruba land at least, when you want to greet a king you throw yourself down. You lie prostrate and here Elijah was lying prostrate before the original majesty. I always feel uncomfortable when I see some people praising God or praying to God with one hand in their pocket. As if they are dealing with their equal whereas you are dealing with the one who can terminate your life at the snap of His finger. Church Gist. Or maybe when he threw himself to the dust, he was saying Almighty God, my times are in your hands, over to you now (Psalms 31:15). I surrender completely to you, I am on the floor now. From now on, you are in absolute command. In his throwing himself down in the presence of God a big lesson in humility. The higher you go, the more humble you must become. This is a man who has just called down fire from heaven, this is a man who should be walking with his swagger as a big man of God, great anointing but he was there on the floor.

1 Peter 5:6, James 4:6

He said Lord I am down on the floor, I need to go high and it must be you who can lift me high.

Another fellow who I saw and like so much is Apostle Paul, he is a man that shows that the higher we go, the more humble we should be. This is for those of us who are going to be going higher. You know there was a time that Paul said “I was among the chiefest Apostles” (2 Corinthians 11:5). Later on as he began to come to his senses, he said “I am the least of all the apostles” (1 Corinthains 15:9) but later on he said “I am less than the least of saints” (Ephesians 3:8). I am not just an apostle, I am less than the one who has just been born again. By the time he got to writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:15, he said “I am the chief of sinners”. He went down steadily so that God can raise him up steadily.

He put his face between his feet, I think that one shows clearly “I don’t want any distraction please”. I am not going to be distracted. I am here for serious business I want to focus on God. The Bible says in Psalm 112:11 when your heart is fixed on the Lord, then you will not be afraid of evil tidings. Church Gist. He is a man with rugged determination like in Genesis 32:24-26 when Jacob was wrestling with that angel. He said I am not going to let you go until you bless me, I think Elijah was saying I am not going to even look to the sky until you send rain. The reason many prayers are not answered is because those who are praying are not determined. When a man hasn’t got plan B, he prays with determination.

My prayer for you who is reading this is that you too will just dig in and say ” God this is the last Sunday of November, I am not moving until you answer my prayers”.

Conclusion
Psalm 24:3-6 says not everybody can climb the mountain of God, the person who climb to that mountain where you are going to make contact with God, you must have clean hands, pure heart. Church Gist. If you want to climb to the top of the mountain of God, be holy. God made provision for anyone who wants to climb to the mountain of Jesus Christ in the blood of Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:7

If you have not been washed in that blood, run to Jesus right now. Fall down at the foot of the cross and say Lord wash me, I want to be clean. I want to climb to the mountain top to make contact with the Most High. Cry to Him to save your Soul.

Father I want to give you all honour for your world, I want to thank you for the opportunity we have to go to the mountain possible so we can be very close to God. I am committing all those who coming to you today for salvation. Please Lord save their soul, wipe them clean and give them that opportunity to climb the very mountain of the Most High God and come in contact with You. As many of us that are going to humble ourselves as many of us that are going to say Lord today must be the day, we are not moving until you bless us. Father please, bless us all in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.

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