THE BAROMETER OF THE

FAITH
By: Jorge Villavicencio

MISION CARISMATICA AL MUNDO

www.mcmcolombia.org
Cali: Colombia
 THE BAROMETER OF THE FAITH
By: Jorge Villavicencio

Introduction:

How is your faith? What temperature does it have your faith, under zero, or
above zero? It is worthy that we vivify the fire of the faith so that it reaches a
good temperature to be able to confront the tribulations of life.

Text: 1 Kings 18:41-46

For three years and six months, God had sent a great trial against the people of
Israel due to the many sins but the people repented and was consecrated to
Jehovah God again.

1 Kings 18:38-39 “And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and
they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.”

God fulfills his promise, blessing again his people with abundant rain.

1. FAITH HEARS WHAT NOBODY HEARS:

1 Kings 18:41“And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is
a sound of abundance of rain.”

Until that moment not even a small rain drop, was falling the sky continued rigid
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as brass, as iron. For three and a half years not even a delicate sprinkle, had
fallen, however contrary to the deaf hearings of the inhabitants from Israel, the
only one who listened the deafening roar of a blessing flood was Elijah.

Acab didn't listen to that rain, but the prophet, who had sharp senses, did
perceived it, because faith hears, what nobody hears.

Bartimaeus , the blind man heard the divine walker's voice who was surrounded
by a compact walking down toward Jericho.

Mark 10:47And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry
out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me”

We all know the story how even Jesus` disciples nagged him for daring to invoke
the Master and "to bother him". However Jesus doesn't nag him. Bat grants him
the requested petition, saying to him: "go, your faith has saved you ".

There were many beggars at the edge of the road, but Bartimaeus was healed
because he listened, he heard Jesus' voice.

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Do you hear the blessings that are coming with the faith hearing? Do you hear
the master’s steps walking on the edge of your necessity? Or is it that
unfortunately you are with heavy hearing as it is expressed:

Matthew 13:15 “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of
hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and
should be converted, and I should heal them.”

It is needed, then, to sharpen our spiritual hearings, to saturate ourselves us of

faith, knowing that faith is by hearing, and hearing the word of God.

No wonder why Jesus Christ admonished: “And other fell on good ground, and
sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he
cried, He that hath ears to hear let him hear. Luke 8:8

No wonder why Paul, the apostle, admonished and noticed:

Hebrews 4:2 “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but
the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it.”

2. FAITH PRAYS AND FASTS WHILE OTHERS EAT AND DRINK:

1 Kings 18:42“So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the
top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face
between his knees”

It is interesting to finding in this verse two antagonistic attitudes: Ahab, the

King, and Elijah, both needed rain. The first one was devoted to indulgence, the

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second to the Carmelo's solitude with prayer and fasting.

We find a biblical base to affirm that prayer together with fasting diminish the
incredulity gradually, making disciples faith grow progressively. In the gospel
according to Saint Mark 9, we find that the disciples could not take out a spirit
that was tormenting a young one until Jesus took control of the situation and
tossed this demon out; the disciples asked Jesus the reason why they failed. He
answered them clearly: "you could not take out this demon for lack of faith, since
this I generate it doesn't leave but with fast and sentence."

We conclude then, that fasting the fast together with prayer are intimately
related with the strengthen of faith .Mark 9:29“And he said unto them, this kind
can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.”

3. FAITH SEES WHAT NOBODY SEES:

1 Kings 18:43“And said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea. And he
went up, and looked, and said, there is nothing. And he said, go again seven
times.”

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 Elijah guides his servant to go and watch the sea. The servant observes at the
distance and he doesn’t see anything, but Elijah perceives a different vision.
Elijah observed a torrential rain, a flood of blessings, rains of abundance, but the
servant was unaware to that vision.

Elijah could see what was invisible because he was filled with the presence of
God; therefore the visions of God hit his consecrated mind and his feverous
heart.

The prophet Elisha, Elijah’s disciple had learned how to see what’s invisible, to
believe what is impossible. That is the reason why he told his servant when he
saw the enemy army attacking or threatening the men: "There are more with us
than against us" and then he prayed so that God opened his eyes and he could
see the invisible world. And indeed he could perceive after that prayer that there
were thousands and thousands of angelical cars safeguarding their lives.

4. FAITH PERSEVERES WHILE OTHERS DISMAY:

1 Kings 18:44 " And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold,
there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up,
say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee
not.”

The prophet Elijah instructs the servant to return seven times to observe the
horizon. After the seventh time, the servant saw a cloud of the size of a hand,
but Elijah knows it was not of the size of a hand. In the natural world, in the
earthly world it was of the size of a hand, but in the world of the faith, in the
world of the spiritual realm, that cloud was of the size of a transatlantic one, it is
for that reason that he alerts king Ahab that he prepares his carriage and go
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quickly to the city of Jezreel.

The Bible tells us that the faith and the patience inherit the promises. We could
paraphrase the faith and the perseverance, they inherit the promises. Seven
times had to be surrounded the city of Jerusalem so that it surrendered to the
celestial armies.

Seven times had to dive Naaman conquering the pride to give space to the faith.

More than an arithmetic demand, insisting seven times, it is a principle of

perseverance and of persistence.

“Charles Karlson developed the process of the photocopy in 1938 but he had to
persevere for 21 years before the first xerox machine was manufactured.

“Chuck Yeager, in his first flight as passenger in a small airplane had nauseas
and he vomited on the back seat. He swore he would never ascend to an airplane
again but he persevered and he became in the first man that broke the barrier of
the sound with a jet.