Ahab and Jezebel One time two kings came together.

One of them was Ahab, a bad one church carnal; and the other one was Jehoshaphat - church spiritual, church. Ahab was a borderline believer. He had prophets. They werent infidels. They werent idolaters. They were Israelite prophets, but they were all taught and fed and clothed by Ahab the king. It became like a place where they all had political backing. Jehoshaphat came in and made an alliance, which is wrong. You should never hook up with unbelievers. We should never, by no means, ever put our names on books in churches that do not believe the full Gospel. Never! You'll get in trouble. And they got in trouble. And this righteous man said, "Should we not consult the Lord first and find out whether we should go to Ramoth-Gilead?" Now, see how perfect the setup looked. "We own Ramoth-Gilead. It's our property, and the Syrians have taken it from the living God. Shall we not go up and possess this land?" And he made the speech so pretty, and so legal, and so righteous, until Jehoshaphat fell for it.

And today a man can stand in the pulpit with an intellectual sermon and his excellent speech-making, and be very highly educated, and he can speak in such a way until he can explain the power of the Holy Spirit away from the Bible; he can explain Divine healing away; he can explain speaking in tongues and interpretations; he can explain the baptism of the Holy Ghost to another day, but to a man that's elected of God, who has the election of God upon them, theyll never stumble because of some man in the pulpit because they have the Word. Jehoshaphat, the righteous king said, "Isn't there a prophet, that we could consult the Lord?" Ahab was going on without it. That's what the church carnal is doing today. Oh, they have seminaries full of preachers, great men, great professors, intellectual, smart, witty, oh, my, far beyond the wits of the church spiritual. Oh of course the carnal has them. "Certainly, we have. I've got a seminary down here, full of them." I brought four hundred. Now, these were not infidels. These were Jehovah-God worshippers and they came up and said, "Let us take a little while and we'll prophesy." And so they all got together. And they come back with the Word of the Lord, and they said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD (Israelite prophets)--THUS SAITH THE LORD. Go on up, the Lord is with you. And you'll take Ramoth-Gilead, because it really belongs to Israel." And one of the head men made him two great big horns out of iron, as representatives, and he went to pushing. He said, "With this you'll push the Syrians plumb out of Ramoth-Gilead." Yet Jehoshaphat had something in him. I hope that God gets this to your hearts. It's nothing you can educate yourself to; it's nothing you can read yourself into. It's what God, by election, does for you. "Not him that runneth or him that wills but it is God that shows mercy." Jehoshaphat said, "They are fine-dressed men." No doubt he said something like this, "They're intelligent, and the smartest men I've ever heard. They're educated to the moment. Their stand is one accord. They have a great unity among them. And they are smart, and they have a lot of truth to them." "Oh, there is a lot of truth in what they're saying, "But isn't there one more?" What do you mean Is there one more? Weve got four hundred of them here and they are the smartest, the best that there is? They're not out here in the wilderness running around half naked with sheepskin wrapped around them. They are men that I have fed; I've

educated. They're scholars, and they know many things. They stay day and night, reading the scrolls and prophecies. They know what's right. I have them ready, and they're standing here with one accord, four hundred of them, saying, 'Go on up, the Lord's with you.'" But if I could read Jehoshaphat's mind a few minutes, "There's just something that doesn't register," he'd say. "There's just something that doesn't seem right. Isn't there just one more somewhere?" "Oh," he said, "yes, there is one more, but he doesn't belong to the organization. He's a different sort of a fellow. He's just a renegade." He's like Jacob. "But we might ask him. They say he's a prophet. But I doubt it, because he's always cursing me, saying that this, that, or the other, he never prophesies good about me." How could he? So they said, "Let's go get him. He's the son of Imlah." So they went and got him. And somebody met him on the road and said, "Now, you say the same thing they say. You must agree with the association and if you do not then woe unto you." He said, "I'll say just what God puts in my mouth to say and nothing else." Then after he got up there, and they gave him a night, he said, "Go on up, but I seen Israel scattered like sheep having no shepherd." And Ahab said, "Didn't I tell you?" Now, there's four hundred against one. Four hundred trained, smart, educated, intellectual men against one little ignoramus, as we'd call him, Micaiah, one man, but yet that one man had the Word of the Lord that made the difference. Every one of them was false; it proved out false. What made Micaiah different was that he stayed with the Word. The Word of God's what he stayed with Meshach, Shadrach and Abendego Let's turn our camera now to Meshach, Shadrach and Abendego. All the time there's something going on down here, there's something going on up there at the same time. Amen. We only look to the earthly side. But let's look up there. My, I can see Him setting there in His majesty, His kingly, priestly garments hanging around Him, setting there. I can see a great Angel coming up. You believe God's got angels in heaven? They're at His command. I can see one of them came up; he's called Wormwood. He's the angel

over all the waters. I can see him rustle up, quick up beside of the throne and say, "Master, have you looked down there? Why, they're fixing to burn up three faithful believers." I can hear the Master say, "Yes, Wormwood, I've watched them all night long." He said, "I've washed the whole thing off. Let me go down this morning and I'll wash Babylon off the face of the earth." I believe he could've done it. Here comes another angel, Michael, the great Angel that stands in the Presence of God. I can see him draw His sword and say, "Master, look down there. One more step and death's right before them! Have you considered them?" "Yes." "Let me go down there; we'll see who is boss." I believe He could've done it, don't you? I can hear Him say, "Michael, you have obeyed me since the day that I created you, but I can't let you go because I'm going Myself. This is a Man-sized job." My, my! I can see Him rise up from His seat; His robes drop 'round Him; walk out there and say... Way back over there in the north, I can see a great big white thunderhead; I can hear Him say, "Come here." Amen. Everything in the heaven obeys Him, but man thinks he knows more than He does so he can't obey Him. I can see Him say, "Come here, East wind, North, South, and West. Get under this thunderhead; I'm going to drive you like horses this morning." He'd takes that big thunderhead, steps out on it like a chariot, reaches up and gets a-hold of a zigzag lightning out of the skies and cracks it across the sky. King Nebuchadnezzar could hear it down on the earth down there. And about that time He passed by the sea of life and picked off a palm. When they made their last step into the fiery furnace there was one like the Son of God, standing there fanning away all the breezes like that; talking over the future with them. I tell you; He's God today. He knows all things.