In the book of Romans we read:

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." (Romans 12:1)

The word 'service' at the end of this verse is also translated 'worship' in some versions. What this is saying is worship = service or obedience. We are God's servants as we obey him.

Another way of saying this is found in the Gospel of Mathew:

"Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." (Matthew 4:10)

Here Satan was seeking worship for himself, but Jesus' rebuke shows the relation between worship and obedience. Back in Romans we find it stated another way:

"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (Romans 6:16)

This also shows that sin makes us servants of death or Satan.

The essence of all this can be briefly summarized.

To believe God is to agree with His Word, is to obey that word, is to serve Him, and is to worship Him.
Not to believe God is to agree with Satan, is to obey Satan, is to serve and worship Satan! ("He that is not with me is against me; …." (Matthew 12:30))

So to disobey God is actually to worship Satan!

All of us find ourselves sometime doing one and then the other. Although we love and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, yet there is sin in our lives.

"For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
"But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:22-24)

What revival will do is pictured in Elijah's triumph on Mt. Carmel

"And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. …." (1 Kings 18:21)

Elijah's words to Israel in first Kings are the Lords words to us today. 'Halt' means to be lame or to stop. It is to be unable to go. Unable to go and do as the Lord desires. Unable to walk in holiness that He requires.

Elijah's answer was to call down fire in the sacrifice, let that be our answer today. Calling down fire is to intercede for revival! "The God that answereth by fire, let him be God."

The altar Elijah built is rich in symbolism. The wood represents the cross, the flesh on the wood is our flesh on the cross, the water poured all over and around the altar is our tears of repentance at the judgments of the Lord, and the twelve stones for the twelve tribes speak of the divisions within the Church. All of this is consumed by the fire that falls from heaven. This is the all consuming fire. God himself. When He comes with such awesome presence, all the other stuff will be gone. Our tears will end; the judgments will end; and strife and division in the Church will end!

So as surely as the sacrifice on Mt. Carmel is a type of revival, it is also a promise of the Lord's deliverance from the two opinions. It shows that death to the flesh can bring us all into unity. Then we will get the sin our of the camp and give no place to the devil. Then we will fully enter into the kingdom of God, and walk in the promises. Then we can proclaim only one opinion. The Lord is God! Jesus is King of Kings! Or as it says in Isaiah: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" (Isaiah 52:7)

Then we will see the harvest. Amen!

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