Thirsting for God: Part 1| Rodney H

This message was preached  by Rodney Haggar at Word of Grace Church on January 29th, 2017. Rodney leads the Jubilee Church in Worthing, UK. This is Part 1 of a two part message on the Prophetic. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here

2 kings 3

It’s a story about Elisha, and about Israel and Judah. I hope you are thirsty for God. There is far more than you’ve ever experienced. First a bit of History- The nation of Israel has been spit in 2 nations- 10 tribes in the north called Israel who had military control over Moab. 2 tribes in the south called Judah who had control over Edom. Moab saw Ahab’s death as a moment for breaking free. Israel joined forces with Edom and Judah to go against Moab. The kings of Israel were ungodly. Another ungodly king named Joram decides to go through the desert of Edom. They are going through this desert and run out of water. In desperation, these three kings go to the prophet Elisha. Elisha prophesied from verses 15-20. “But now bring me a musician.” And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘I will make this dry streambed full of pools.’ For thus says the Lord, ‘You shall not see wind or rain, but that streambed shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink, you, your livestock, and your animals.’ This is a light thing in the sight of the Lord. He will also give the Moabites into your hand, and you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree and stop up all springs of water and ruin every good piece of land with stones.” The next morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water came from the direction of Edom, till the country was filled with water.”

1.      An army needs water- these three kings badly miscalculated how much water they’d need. Or maybe the army became bigger than they estimated. For whatever reason, it was a big mistake. Without Elisha’s intervention, it would have been a total defeat. It’s the same for us. We are not civilians, we are an army. A soldier for Jesus. We march under the flag of the lion of the tribe of Judah. We march under his flag. We fight in a desert. India is a spiritual desert. It is dry of spiritual truth. Only 2.11% of the population is Christian. So, 1.2 billion are not Christian in the nation. This nation needs life-giving water.  But interestingly, a vast majority do believe in a God. So there is a thirst for truth, but it’s a dry place. As a church, to march in this desert, we need water. Without the power of the spirit, the church remains defeated and weak. God is calling to build a strong church in the power of the spirit. The church marches on the spirit. It’s got the life of God in her.

2.      God provides the water: v. 16-17 Here God came to the rescue of his people. Elisha speaks about a storm, before which there is a wind and rain. Says they will not see that. The sky is going to remain clear. When the rain comes, it cannot be contained. It comes down like a tidal wave. But Elisha prophesied the exact moment when the water came. But God is able to send life giving water to the most barren places. The water quenched the thirst of God’s people. The people must have been in joy and delight. It brings life.  

Also, it made their enemies flee. They saw the water and thought it was blood. Thought that they turned on themselves and broke cover. This is true in our own lives. When the Holy Spirit touches people, they find new life, a dream and destiny, new visions. In 2015, we had a very interesting time in encountering God at Jubilee Church, Worthing. The thick presence of God did not make us fall over, we went down. Everyone had amazing encounters with God that it was transformational. When you meet the holiness of God, it will change you. I once had an encounter when Jesus walked into the room with all his majesty. It was remarkable, I couldn’t move. The people who had encountered him, stayed changed. We can’t live in that moment of encounter forever, our bodies can’t handle it. But we remain changed forever.

Water needs to flow to stay fresh. In the story, the water came in the direction of Edom and the country was filled with water.   

In India, Pandita Ramabai’s story and mukti mission in Assam. When god comes in this holiness, Christians weep and confess their sins. The presence of God undoes you. At this time, Christianity increased by 70% in our country.

3.      Worship in prophetic- Elisha was angry at the king of Israel. At that moment it’s always easy to prophesy wrongly. Worship was his pathway to hearing the voice of God. One of the things we rediscovered was the role of worship in welcoming the presence of God. There is a link between worship and prophesy. It’s the environment we create to focus on heaven. In my own personal ministry, God restored my love for worship.

Heaven is noisy. Day and night they never ceased to say holy holy holy… there is this choir. Then the 24 elders cast their crowns. There is this noise. It is a place of continual worship. As we worship we’re just joining in with heaven. It’s a live feed from heaven. As we worship, it’s like breaking an alabaster jar of perfume at Jesus’ feet. It fills the room and blesses everyone. We linger in the presence of God and wait for the spirit to move. As we do that, he moves more and more remarkably.

The river beds are dry and waiting for water to flow. In every Christian, there is a riverbed waiting to receive the spirit. God never designed these river beds to be dry. There are trees growing on the banks. How dry is your riverbed today. Are your channels blocked? If the riverbed is full of rubbish, when the flood comes, it creates chaos. Are there things clogging up the flow of the spirit? The key is this- make Jesus lord of every part of your life. It’s a lifestyle that reflects that. The conviction of sin in the time of revival is too terrible for words. We don’t often see the conviction of sin in our lives. When the spirit of God pours out, it floods everywhere.

Let’s pray if your riverbed is dry, ask for God to fill it.   

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.