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Hidden Power from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.

The prophet Elijah knew things about prayer that we could learn from. When King Ahab and his wife Jezebel were wickedly leading the nation into worshiping baal and killing off the Lord's prophets, Elijah came out of nowhere and boldly confronted them with a word from the Lord: 

(1 Kings 17:1 NKJV)  And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word."

At Elijah's word, a drought came over the land, and it didn't rain for the next three and a half years. Now Elijah was a prophet, and he heard from the Lord. Prophets hear from the Lord and declare His word to the people. Priests hear from the people and tell it to the Lord. 

Elijah was a righteous man who took a stand against the wicked. He didn't cave in when facing someone important who didn't like what he had to say. 

(Proverbs 25:26 NKJV)  A righteous man who falters before the wicked Is like a murky spring and a polluted well.

There are times to stand your ground. The Apostle Paul said, put on the full armor of God, and when you have done all, stand (Ephesians 6:13). James mentions the prayers of Elijah:

(James 5:16–18 NKJV) ...The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

There is a hidden power in speaking anointed words you have gained through prayer. Once I was buffing plumbing parts at a brass polishing plant. It was a humbling season for me. A job I had to take to pay the bills after being laid off as a supervisor. It was a dirty job that paid one-third of what I made previously. I had moved from uptown to skid row.

This all began when I was a maintenance supervisor at another plant. I was fasting and praying for the Lord to "remove anything that was holding me back from Him." Two weeks later, at the end of my fast, they called me to the office and laid me off. 

I had wanted to work in a Christian environment anyway and thought maybe the Lord would move me to a Christian bookstore or the like. Then I could talk about Jesus and the Bible and be around other Christians all day! Nope. He put me in a dark hole in the wall in the middle of a group of some of the worst sinners I had met to date. 

There was a dark cloud of hopelessness that hovered over the hundred-year-old building. People had nothing to live for except the weekend and openly did drugs at their machines. The manager came in hungover every day, and if he noticed someone smoking pot, he joined them. 

It seemed like I was the only believer there, and I did not fit in with that crowd. I was in survival mode and spoke to no one. Even though no one knew I was a Christian, they knew I was different, and the break room would suddenly go silent when I walked through. 

It was mind-numbing repetitive work as you polished thousands of faucet handles one at a time. I was fervently seeking the Lord, fasting two weeks per month, and listening to the Bible 24 hours a day. I tried to memorize blocks of scripture to pass the time and prayed in the spirit for hours every day.

It was a loud environment with roaring buffing machines and belt sanders the size of a Toyota. I wore headphones and listened to the Bible on a CD player. I would get into a groove of praying in tongues and quoting scriptures I was trying to memorize while buffing parts, and I unknowingly began to be one of the top producers in the plant. I started out polishing 500 pieces a day but was soon doing over 7,000.

One day a guy was working beside me and had brought a ghetto blaster the size of a television. He was blasting angry death metal so loud that I could feel my shirt moving, and it was 6 AM in the morning. I turned my headphone volume wide open, but I still couldn't hear my audio Bible. Something inside me snapped, and I heard myself say:

"I claim this place in the name of Jesus Christ and declare it Holy ground! satan, if you have anyone here you want to keep, you better get them out of here right now because this place is coming to Jesus!" 

I was surprised at my outburst but went back to work. The music was so loud that you couldn't have heard me anyway, but my words had a devastating effect on the environment. At the 9 AM break, the death metal guy suddenly packed up his stuff and left. I never saw him again. 

Things began to happen quickly after that. The owner fired the manager and gave me his job. A mini revival broke out, and the people who remained began to hungrily seek the Lord. We all prayed together in a circle before work, and they borrowed my Bible CDs until we decided to play them over the intercom system. When I went to church, I carried a whole row of new people with me. My workplace had become a Christian environment. 

The Lord may place you in a similar situation. It's not about our comfort but about accomplishing His will on Earth. All He needs to change the circumstances is a person willing to take a stand and declare the message He gives you at that moment. 

You can pray this with me if you like: 

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I thank You for today. Please help me get in tune with You and speak to me in a way that I understand. Make Your desires become mine. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!