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Amazing Facts

The Spirit and Power of Elijah

Doug Batchelor

The Spirit and Power of Elijah, Part 1

This presentation is brought to you by the Friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry.

Coming to you from New York City at the historic Manhattan Center with your host, Doug Batchelor.

Join this exciting journey of discovery as we learn the truth about Bible prophecy, explore the timeless wisdom of God's Word, and see how it relates to our lives today.

Well, the Bible tells us that the greatest of the prophets was Elijah and Last prophecy in the Old Testament it says behold I send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." And then you turn into the New Testament, it starts talking about John the Baptist.

Now, it's interesting, both Elijah and John the Baptist had miracles at the Jordan River.

Jordan River is interesting because I remember reading in the Bible about the Jordan River before I ever went to Israel.

And in my mind, you know, I've seen the Missouri and the Mississippi and you read about the Nile, that river, this massive river, and then you go the Amazon, you know, miles across.

And then you go look at the Jordan and you can throw a rock across it.

But it's an unusual river for a number of reasons.

I think it's 156 miles long, but it's a river, 1 of the few rivers that actually supplies the water for 2 seas.

Usually it takes many rivers to supply a sea.

It's considered a sacred river to 3 major world religions.

Not only Judaism, Christianity, Islam, because of the events that take place there.

And there are several miracles that have transpired in and around the Jordan River.

1 of them being regarding Elijah, who the river, he struck the river with his robe and it parted and he crossed.

Of course, the river parted when the children of Israel crossed and entered the promised land.

By the way, everybody must cross the Jordan.

If you ever sing from a hymnal, you'll notice how many times this hymn writers talk about the Jordan River.

And then John the Baptist comes in the spirit and power of Elijah according to the angel, and he's the 1 who announces Jesus, and Jesus says that John the Baptist is the greatest of the prophets.

He doesn't bring fire down from heaven like Elijah.

Well, we're going to talk about that, but it's connected with the subject of his ministry.

Now, we're gonna go to the man on the street.

You'll be surprised to see the connection between baptism and these prophetic studies as we continue, but we thought it'd be fun to go out and find, Well, what do people on the street think about the subject of baptism?

Well, it's a practice that was started in Christianity terms by John the Baptist.

So if we're devotees of Christ, we should probably get baptized.

It's thought of as a repropriation for sin.

I think baptism is more like a spiritual commitment.

The original word meant immersion, and it's been not Americanized, but somehow they changed the word.

They made a word out of it but it originally meant immersed.

As part of the plan of salvation is that we said repent and be baptized and you'll be saved.

I was raised Catholic so it's like as I got older I was like well, you're a baby like what did you do to sin?

Why do you have to get baptized as a baby?

So like there's been questions and you know, and then you have to find your you have to find your faith And you have to find what works for you.

Like it's just a religious ceremony coming from a Catholic schoolteacher.

No, I'm being brought into the hour of faith being baptized in God's love really It's something that you want to become a Christian or something and then they put water on your head or whatever, you know, and then you're a Christian, I suppose, yeah.

You know, it's the symbolic, mythological symbol of, you know, there's the question of the full immersion or the drops, but so that's what it is, according to the definitions, far as I can tell.

Do I need to believe in Jesus to be saved?

And not enough of us do out here right now.

It's getting crazy, it's getting crazy out here, y'all.

But that's, yes, 100%, I believe in that, for sure.

People are all over the map, trying to figure this out.

You can tell there's a lot of confusion about something.

Do you know why I think this is important?

It's because, as I mentioned, the last prophecy in the Old Testament says, I'm sending you Elijah the prophet.

Then you turn the page into the New Testament and it tells about this miraculous birth.

This old couple has a boy named John who is filled with the spirit from his mother's womb and the angel says he will go forth in the spirit and the power of Elijah.

And there's many similars between John the Baptist and Elijah.

They were both bold, they lived holy lives, neither of them were married, they brought great revival, They even dressed the same, even though they're separated by about 700 years.

It says they wore a camel's garment with a leather belt.

They did a lot of work in the wilderness.

They were very bold in preaching to kings.

Elijah told Ahab, I'm telling you to go gather all Israel together, and it's your sins that have caused this famine.

And John the Baptist told Herod, you should not be marrying your brother's wife.

And the Bible says that the work of John the Baptist in some ways was greater than any work.

John the Baptist didn't give a lot of prophecies, but 1 prophecy he gave, he said, the work I'm doing is not so important.

The 1 who's coming, I baptize you with water, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

The rest of it was teaching about repentance.

He said, Repent and be baptized for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And The first words that Jesus began to speak when he started preaching was repent and be baptized for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The New Testament begins and ends with the subject of baptism.

Now Pastor Doug, I came to a prophecy seminar.

And the reason that we inject it where we do is we right now are on the threshold of some very heavy subjects.

And we will be making an appeal tonight to those of you here and those of you who are watching that you make a decision to commit your life to Jesus because if you have not committed your life to Jesus, if you are not opening your heart to His word, Christ said, the words that I speak to you, spiritual things are spiritually discerned and the wise will understand and the Holy Spirit will teach you.

If you're still rebelling in your heart against God, then you're not gonna understand.

But if you submit to the Lord, these things are gonna unfold to you and it's gonna set your life on fire in a good way.

You'll understand more as we progress with these questions.

Number 1, what New Testament prophet came in the spirit and the power of Elijah?

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