Our secret history with God

From "The Elijah Legacy", a book by David Davis. I found this passage on the secret to Elijah's "divine authority" to be something we should all chew on:

"Every person has a secret history with God. No one really knows this secret life but God and that person. I believe that Elijah had been given such divine authority because of his secret, intimate life with God. He was a man of prayer, communion and dialogue with God. Every prophet is first of all an intercessor, otherwise he or she will be a false prophet. Our public ministry will only be as powerful as our private prayer life. The divine principle and standard has always been "purity before power". Character before commission. Many are powerless because they are prayerless.

Elijah prayed "earnestly" (James 5:7). He "pressed in" with burning, zealous prayer. He would not let go until he received the answer. This was key to his divine authority and power. "We have not because we ask not," Jesus said. We are to "earnestly desire the best gifts", and to "pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy" (1 Cor 14:1). We are to be zealots in prayer. The end-time Elijah company will be zealots for the cause of Jesus - salvation, not destruction - love, not hate.

Elijah lived in "the secret place". Jesus commanded us "But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in the secret place will reward you openly" (Matt 6:6). The authority and anointing on Elijah was being produced in the place of secret communion with his heavenly Father. It is the place of stripping and equipping, and the place of prophetic preparation.

"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" (Psalms 91:1). You can't be in someone's shadow unless you are very close to Him. Elijah accepted the divine invitation. He went and lived at the place of separation and preparation, and the Lord was faithful to His promise. Ravens brought him two meals a day for a year. His daily bread was the Word of God, as he fed on God's faithfulness and drank from the ever-flowing stream of the river of life, the Spirit of God."