JAMES 5:16b-18.
A RIGHTEOUS MAN'S PRAYER
[1 Kings 17:1; 18:1, 36-46.]
Those of us who pray believe in the power of prayer, but we often do not fully realize what powerful praying can accomplish. But for those who live in obedience to God and experience the working out of God's Will in their life a door has been put before them to partnership with God in changing lives. Prayer changes lives. It first changes the life of the one praying so that the person begins to seek God's will instead of their will, then it changes the lives and life situations of those prayed for.
God wants you to become a person of prayer. One who sees specific events and specific people specifically changed in answer to your specific prayers. Powerful specific praying brings powerful specific results. This praying is not for "Super Saints" but for common every day believers obediently committed to the purposes of God (CIT).
I. THE POWER OF PRAYER, 16b.
II. THE NATURE OF THE MAN, 17a.
III. THE NATURE OF HIS PRAYER, 17b.
IV. THE FRUIT OF HIS PRAYING, 18.
To encouraging both elders and Christians to intercession for those in spiritual weakness, we are reminded in the last part of verse 16 that prayer is effective. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
When a man living in God's will prays it is a very powerful working. God energies obedient prayer so that it accomplishes His will. The effective prayer brings the needed cure, the needed healing, the needed solution, the needed saving from God.
While crossing the Atlantic on a ship many years ago. Bible teacher and author F.B. Meyer was asked to speak to the passengers. An agnostic who listened to Meyer's message about ANSWERED PRAYER told a friend, ""I didn't believe a word of it."
Later that same day, the agnostic went to hear Meyer speak to another group of passengers. But before he went to the meeting, he put two oranges in his pocket. On his way, he passed an elderly woman who was fast asleep in her deck chair. Her arms were outstretched and her hands were wide open, so as a joke he put the two oranges in her palms. After the meeting, he saw the woman happily eating one of the pieces of fruit.
You seem to be enjoying that orange," he remarked with a smile. "Yes, sir," she replied, "My Father is very good to me." "What do you mean?" Pressed the agnostic. She explained, "I have been seasick for days. I was asking God somehow to send me an orange. I fell asleep while I was praying. When I awoke, I found He had sent me not only one but two oranges!" The agnostic was amazed by the unexpected confirmation of Meyer's talk on answered prayer. Later, he put his trust in Christ.
God gives us what we specifically ask for, or something better. Prayer will be fruitful when it is effective and fervent. Fervency also makes prayer an overwhelming priority and gives earnestness in petitioning and pleading with God to grant the request that we present to Him as the burden of our hearts.
R. G. Lee told of a little boy PLAYING WITH HIS TOYS in the front yard while his mother sat on the porch engaged in handwork. Occasionally, and casually, the little boy would mumble a request for something to eat without ever looking up from his preoccupation with his playthings. To these requests, the mother seemed to pay no attention. After a while, the son laid his toys aside and made his way hurriedly to the side of his mother, clutched her with both hands to get her attention, and, looking pleadingly into her eyes, cried out fervently, "Mother, I want something to eat." Of course, the mother went immediately to grant his earnest appeal.
When we are so preoccupied with our gadgets of everyday life, our prayers may become mechanical and indifferent. Pray that you may meet God's conditions for receiving what He has in store for you. Fervent effective prayer brings answers from God.
Prayer that is effective will be fruitful but to observe the answers to prayer they must be specific, or concentrated on a certain item to bring about a certain result. If we want specific answers to our prayers, we must make definite, individual, personalized requests.
[PINPOINTING PRAYER] Too many of our prayers are filled with sweeping generalizations that seek God's blessings. To see God's blessings however we should focuses on specific requests. If we pinpoint our prayers, we will have reason to praise God for particular answers.
Some years ago a young girl was VERY SICK and not expected to recover. Because of her love for Jesus, she was troubled that she had not been able to do more for Him in her short life. Her pastor suggested that she make a list of people in their little town who needed Christ and pray that they might put their faith in Him. She took his advice, made a list, and prayed often for each person.
Some time later God began to stir a revival in the town. The girl heard of the people who were coming to Christ and prayed even more. As she heard reports, she checked off the names of those who had been led to the Lord.
After the girl died, a prayer list with the names of 56 people was found under her pillow. All had put their faith in Christ–the last one on the night before her death.
Such is the power of definite, specific, fervent prayer. Do you have a prayer list?
Lord, lay some soul upon my heart and love that soul through me,
And may I nobly do my part to win that soul for Thee!
Make it a point to pinpoint your prayers!
II. THE NATURE OF THE MAN, 17a.
To illustrate the truth he has just stated in verse 16, James cites the case of Elijah (his fourth and final O.T. figure). Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.
Elijah stood tallest of all the Hebrew prophets and along with Moses, Abraham and David is the most frequently named person in the N.T. Yet the Bible reminds us that Elijah was still only human, and possessed our same limitations. We have a tendency to think of Bible heros as people who walked and worked in heights inaccessible to us. Elijah was not superman He was not half human and half divine. He was a man of like passions or nature with us.
The word like nature ( ยต ) could be translated like passions, like feelings or of similar sufferings. Elijah was prone to all the frailties of human nature that we are, as Barnabas and Paul were (Acts 14:15).
Lets look briefly at seven like natures or characteristics we share with Elijah. He was far from perfect in fact right after Elijah defeated the 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah with great victory and courage he fled in fear after Queen Jezebel retaliated by threatening his life.
1 Kings 19:3-4 says, "And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die and said, "It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!"
1. He was suddenly [gripped] with [fear] and [alarm].
Read 1 Kings 19:3 again. His fear and lack of faith forced him into self imposed exile. "And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there."
2. He was unable to bear the presence of his [servant]. Never extend yourself in service beyond what you and your church can cover in prayer.
Read 1 Kings 19:4 again.
"But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die and said, "It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!" (Ps. 42:11).
3. He was overwhelmed with [depression], [despondency] and [despair].
Look again at 1 Kings 19:4; "But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die and said, "It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!"
4. He was [presumptuous] and [unwise] in his praying.
Move on to 1 Kings 19:10, "So he said, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life.'"
5. He was filled with [self]-[pity]. He focused on who and what was against him instead of Who was with and for him.
Look again at 1 Kings 19:10 & 14, "So he said, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life.'" (14) "And he said, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life.'"
6. He had an [unbalanced] view of things he focused on the negative and not on the positive. We can focus so much on present problems till it gets all out of proportion. We need to put everything aside and just worship Jesus.
7. Elijah simply [shut down] on God temporarily. Elijah, like us, struggled with his feelings even after this comforting message from God. So God confronted Elijah's emotions and commanded action. He told Elijah what to do next and informed him that part of his loneliness was based on ignorance: 7,000 others in Israel were still faithful to God.
Even today, God often speaks through the gentle and obvious rather than the spectacular and unusual. God has work for us to do even when we feel fear and failure. And God always has more resources and people than we know about. Although we might wish to do amazing miracles for God, we should instead focus on developing a relationship with Him. The real miracle of Elijah's life was his very personal relationship with God. And that miracle is available to us also.
III. THE NATURE OF HIS PRAYER, 17b.
He was hungry (1 Kings 17:11), afraid (1 Kings 19:3), and depressed (1 Kings 19:3, 9–14). Yet when he prayed earnestly, incredible things happened. Verse 17: Elijah was a man with a nature like ours,-- and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.
Despite all his human frailties Elijah was determined and concerned in his praying. He prayed earnestly, literally he prayed with prayer. "This is a Hebraic construction used to intensify the meaning of the verb"(Vaughan, Bible Study Com. p. 121). Many people do not pray in their prayers. They just lazily say religious words that lack the devotion of their heart and the spiritual concentration of their mind.
It was in answer to this specific fervent prayer that it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. The Old Testament does not record the specific amount of time, Jesus gives it to us in Luke 4:25, but the request was specific, that it would not rain (1 Kings 17:1, 18:1).
[BE SPECIFIC!] If you've ever bought ice cream for a group of youngsters, you know they will request as many varieties as there are children. "I want raspberry!" "Make mine vanilla!" "I like mint chocolate chip!"
When we pray, we often fail to be that specific. We say, "Lord, bless my friends. Help the missionaries." In some cases, of course, it may be difficult to know the exact need, and we must rely on God's Spirit to help us pray in the Father's will (Rom. 8:26). Yet God's Word tells us to ask specifically (Mt. 7:7-11).
Eighteen-year-old Hudson Taylor wandered into his father's library and read a gospel tract. He couldn't shake off its message. Finally, falling to his knees, he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. Later, his mother, who had been away, returned home. When Hudson told her the good news, she said, "I already know. Ten days ago, the very date on which you tell me you read the tract, I spent the entire afternoon in prayer for you until the Lord assured me that my wayward son had been brought into the fold."
Such experiences may not be the norm, but when God gives a specific burden He wants us to ask for a specific answer.
Let's learn to be specific in prayer. Many prayers end up in the "dead-letter office" because they lack sufficient direction.
IV. THE FRUIT OF HIS PRAYING, 18.
Verse 18 reminds us of Elijah's persistence in prayer. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.
Elijah was not only specific in praying he was also persistent in prayer. He prayed and he prayed again. We do have record of this prayer (I Kings 18:41-45). On Mt. Carmel Elijah prayed in faith specifically according to the Word of God for God told him He would send rain ( I Kings 18:1). Prayer is not getting man's will done in heaven. It is getting God's will done on earth. Elijah prayed that God would fulfill His Word.
So Elijah knelt putting his face between his knees in a position of earnest and prayed according to God's Word or God's will and sent his disciple to see if there was any rain coming. Six times the disciple returned and said he saw nothing and Elijah persevered in prayer until the seventh time the disciple saw a cloud like a hand. Then Elijah told King Ahab he better get moving before the heavy rain stopped his chariot with mud.
Elijah was a man who believed that God would keep His Word. Too many times we stop praying and fail to lay hold of God's promises. It is true that we are not heard for our much praying (Mt. 6:7) but there is a difference between vain repetitions and believing persistence in prayer.
The Lord had explicitly told Elijah to seek out King Ahab because He was about to send rain on the earth. He did not, however, send this rain until Elijah had prayed. God does not always carry out His will alone; He waits for us to cooperate with Him by prayer. It is true that Elijah needed first to know it was God's will and that His time to act had at last come; but knowing this did not excuse him from that earnest prayer which released the rain.
It is a mistake to think that man initiates anything by prayer. The Bible shows us that it is God who first desires to do certain things, and make His wishes known. Our part is to learn what is His will and then to ask Him to perform it. This can truly be called prayer, and it is what God wants from us.
An interesting addition to our text is that after the rain the earth produced its fruit. The picture of rain pouring down on parched ground perfectly illustrates God's outpouring of spiritual blessings on the dry and parched souls of struggling believers. And He does so in response to the righteous prayers of godly people [MacArthur ]. Who knows what fruit God wants to bring about upon the earth but He cannot find earnest prayers, those in touch with God because they are being conformed to the image of Christ by their daily obedience to God. There are so many people God wants to heal in so many different ways; physically, emotionally, morally, financially, spiritually, mentally. So many people that God wants to save. So many lives and situations God wants to change. So many blessings and deliverances God wants to bestow.
What fruit is not being produced because you have never gotten serious with God in this great enterprise of prayer?
The significance and application of this critical call to intercessory prayer on the part of elders on behalf of struggling believers has occurred repeatedly through the years in my ministry with great blessing. We still make ourselves available to our congregation every Sunday morning before LifeGroups/Sunday School and every Wednesday evening, as well as at any other time to meet with the weak and wounded for strengthening prayer.
CONCLUSION
Though Elijah was of like nature as us he was a righteous man and became greatly used by God because he was a man that walked with God. It is interesting to think about the amazing miracles God accomplished through Elijah, but we would do well to focus on the relationship they shared. All that happened in Elijah's life began with the same miracle that is available to us–he responded to the miracle of being able to know God, and communion with Him in prayer.
Prayer is the greatest power in the world today. Tremendous power comes about through a good man's earnest prayer. History reveals how mankind has progressed from man power to horse power, and then to steam power, electric generators , and now to atomic power.
But greater than atomic power is prayer power. Elijah challenged the false gods and prayed for his nation and God answered his prayer and brought about national revival. His prayer in 1 Kings 18:37 was... "that this people may know that you are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again." God heard his prayer and sent the fire of heaven that ignited revival and showers of blessings came again to the land. God hears the earnest prayer of faith, and the rains come and the good earth brings forth its fruit.
God is still looking for people through whom He can pray. The question God asks to each of us is; "Will we become people through whom God can pray?"
