Process of Agreement
“There is Nothing”
1 Kings 18:41-43 “Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” 42 So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, 43 and said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So, he went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.”
There is nothing as oppressive as “There is nothing” repeated six times by good people.
We have just come off a series of messages about the power of agreement. We will now begin to learn the process of agreement from the Holy Spirit; agreement cannot just happen, there is a process and the Spirit of God will teach us this valuable lesson.
“There is Nothing”. Nothing: something that does not exist; the absence of all magnitude or quantity.
God spoke a word to us Thursday night – “I am the God who can do anything with “nothing.” Faith must become the foundation of agreement; it must come first in the process!
1 John 5:4 “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
We are living in a time where there are more sky-watches than there are believers – more discerners and experts than faith. Victory is for those who will not take “no” for an answer when that which you are agreeing about lines up with His Word.
“Go again!” It is the lesson of faith, faced by a lack of evidence, which refuses to allow such a report to be final. The soul will often see what the body cannot! There is no option for the victor; the victor walks by faith, not by sight.
Winston Churchill – Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
Go again; He is the God that can do a new thing with nothing! To many are accepting nothing as final.
There is nothing to my marriage; nothing to morals; nothing to my nation! God is saying to the doubter today, “go again”. Faith never fears facts; my faith can never be built on the crumbling idea that anything true can hurt it. I am a believer, not because I won’t look, but because I do look.
Thomas would not believe until he could see His hands and His side. Note the words of Jesus in John 20:29 “…Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Jesus wanted His disciple in the future to have a faith that was free from suspicion. It is a faith that believes it is there before it can see it.
Elijah’s chief of staff gave the word with no enthusiasm or optimism. It was an audit and a dull presentation. His lack of words may have given Elijah the idea that there never has been and there never will be; there is nothing.