Men Of Like Passions Part 1 by Pastor Philip Olubakin: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

He Was Human, Just Like Us

James 5:17 — "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months." Elijah wasn't superhuman — he grew hungry, he grew afraid, he asked God to let him die, he battled depression. The Bible deliberately tells us he was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly, heaven listened for three and a half years.

Man is God's chosen instrument on the earth — not technology, not atmosphere, not an instrument. The Lord doesn't anoint a piano; He anoints the pianist. He doesn't anoint a microphone; He anoints the preacher. That's why the same equipment, the same lighting, the same setup can be present in two different services, and only one carries the tangible presence of God — because the anointing was never in the equipment. 2 Samuel 6 — when Uzzah reached out to steady the ark and was struck down, it wasn't the oxen's stumble that killed him; it was that he touched what he had no anointing to touch. You cannot shift the responsibility that belongs to a called man onto ambience, atmosphere, or tools — those things only ever help create a setting; they never replace the anointing carried by the person God has called.

Elisha's Request: "Let Me See You Go"

2 Kings 2:9-11 — before Elijah was taken up, he told Elisha, "If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee." Elisha stayed close, watching until the chariot of fire and the whirlwind carried Elijah up — and because he saw it, the double portion he had asked for was granted. Elisha picked up the fallen mantle and struck the river, and it parted, just as it had for Elijah — but he never used that same mantle again afterward. What was given to him wasn't in the cloth — it was deposited inside him. The anointing lives in the person who receives it, not in any object connected to the moment they received it.

Recognized, Even After Everything Had Changed

When Joseph's brothers stood before him in Egypt, they didn't recognize him — he had changed so much they had no framework for who he'd become. Joseph, by contrast, recognized them instantly, because they had stayed exactly the same. 2 Corinthians 3:18 — "we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory." Genuine time spent beholding God changes a person visibly, over time, the way Joseph's years in God's presence changed him beyond his brothers' recognition.

You Have Sat Where They Sat

Ezekiel 3:15 — "then I came to them of the captivity... and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days." Only after Ezekiel had genuinely sat in the pain of the people he was called to minister to did the word of the Lord come, making him a watchman. A testimony was shared of years spent praying specifically for couples struggling with childlessness — a costly, sustained burden carried quietly, without public credit, that eventually bore fruit in multiple families. A prophetic or intercessory calling doesn't come free of weight — it comes precisely because someone was willing to sit where the pain actually was, rather than simply speaking about it from a comfortable distance.