<TITLE>03. Par 7-9</TITLE>L-7 You remember that young prophet by the name of Elisha, who was the successor of Elijah? And he went baldheaded when he was just a young man. Some little children run behind him, saying, "Old bald-head, old bald-head, why didn't you go up like Elijah?" And in doing so, it angered that prophet. Maybe turning around, he had bald--No, maybe a hair on his head, turned around and looked; he knew it was right, the children was calling him bald-head, but it angered him. And he put a curse on those children in the Name of the Lord. And two she bears come out of the woods and killed forty-two little innocent children. Now, anyone knows that's not the nature of the Holy Spirit, but it was an angered prophet. See? You have to be careful, examine every case.

L-8 Now, I wish just, watching the clock, so that we can be sure to get away in time. I want to read some Scripture found in the 18th chapter of I Kings. Elijah, one of the mightiest prophets of the day. The 18th chapter, and we'll begin at the 36th verse, when we find that Jehovah verses Baalim, where the true and false prophets came together. And there, the great warfare was on. And Elijah said, "Let's see who's God. Let the God that answers be fi--by fire be God." Now, listen what this--this reading of the Scripture:
 And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word.
Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the LORD God, and that Thou hast turned their hearts back again.
Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt-sacrifice, and the wood, and... stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God.

L-9 Shall we bow our heads. Dear heavenly Father, "Faith cometh by hearing, hearing the Word of God." In the reading tonight, as we're reading it, Thou art here to listen. And our minds travel back to many hundred years ago when it was a controversy between Baalim, the god of the world, or the god of that age, and the true Jehovah God. And when Elijah, Thy prophet, was so discouraged, and set up on the mountain at Thy command... And then when the time came, when You showed him a vision of what was going to happen, for truly it is written here, "I have done all this," says Elijah, "at Thy Word." He saw what was going to happen; he knew it had to happen. And we're taught in the Scriptures that Elijah was not an immortal being; he was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly.
And Father, we thank Thee tonight, for this marvelous gift of the Holy Spirit that's now in the church, moving. As it was in the days when Peter was on the housetop and saw the vision... When in John Mark's house, when he was in prison, the Angel came down and delivered him. Paul, preaching, said to the man that was crippled, "I perceive you have faith, Jesus Christ heals you, stand on your feet." The man was made whole. You see the vision that he had out there on the stormy sea that night, the Macedonian call. Agabus the prophet coming down from Jerusalem, catching Paul there where the four daughters of Philip had prophesied. And here come Agabus, a vindicated prophet, taking the girdle strings from around Paul, and bound his hands and said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD."


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