Now, turn to James chapter five and we begin now where we left off last Sunday night in verse sixteen. James chapter five and verse sixteen: “Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
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. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” I’m speaking today on this subject, How To Pray For Friends And Influence People.
There is no way possible that I could overstate the importance of prayer. And I pray God that you will never underestimate the importance of prayer. Andrew Murray said, in relation to his people God works only in answer to their prayers. Notice the word only. Only in answer to their prayers. And then he said, it is in pray that we change our natural strength, for the supernatural strength of God.
Dr. R. A. Torrey, the great noted Bible preacher said, nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer except that which lies beyond the will of God. Dr. A. C. Dickson, a fine expositor of the word of God said, when we depend upon organization, we get what organization can do. And that is something, when we depend upon education, we get what education can be, and that is something. When we depend upon money, we get what money can do and that is something. When we depend upon singing and preaching, we get what singing and preaching can do, and that is something, but then he said, when we depend upon prayer, we get what God can do.
And oh, what this world needs is what God can do. What our city needs is what God can do. What your home needs is what God can do. What our church needs is what God can do. You don’t have a prayer, a failure in your life but what somehow it’s a prayer failure. You don’t have a need in your life but what earnest persistent believing prayer could supply that need in your life. There’s not a sin in your life but what prayer, the right kind of prayer, prayer in the Savior’s name, effectual, fervent prayer would have prevented that sin.
And so, James has several recurring things that comes that come to us again and again through this epistle and one of them is the power of prevailing prayer. And now, he’s talking about the prayers of intercession, not just getting the things that we need as he talked about in chapter four but helping our friends to have their needs met. So he says, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.”
There are four things that I want us to pitch our mental tents around this morning as we study this passage of scripture. Number one, THE CONFESSION WE MUST MAKE—the confession we must make. Look in verse sixteen. James says, “confess your faults one to another.”
Now, I’ll tell something that most of us are not very good at. And that is confessing our faults. Amen? Oh, it’s all right, you can say Amen. I mean, we’re talking about you. We’re not very good about confessing our faults. Oh, we’re pretty good about criticizing our friends. Oh, and we’re very good about castigating our foes but we’re also very good about concealing our faults, right? Hmm. To err is human and to cover it up is too. We just, we just, you know, we want to cover up our faults. We don’t want anybody to know that we have any faults. But, let me tell you something friend, if you will study the history of revival you will find out that great revivals are not necessarily marked with great singing or great preaching but they are marked with great confession of sin, not only to God, but to one another. Where God’s people are broken, God seems to move. Where James says confess your faults one to another, think of the things that take place when we confess our faults.
First of all, there is restoration. James says confess your faults one to another that you may be healed. And this word healing here does not merely refer to the healing of the body. It’s a larger word. And it may refer to the healing of the soul or the healing of the spirit. And whether there be physical brokenness, whether there be emotional brokenness, whether there be spiritual brokenness and restoration is needed. When we begin to confess our sins, God begins to move in and work. For the Bible says a broken and a contrite spirit, thou wilt not despise, oh, God.
But not only is there restoration. there’s reconciliation. Do you remember when the Lord Jesus Christ was talking about worship and the Lord Jesus Christ said when you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother hath aught against thee. Leave your gift at the altar and go and first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and make your gift.
Oh, when we go to our brother and say, I have sinned against God and I’ve sinned against you and I want to confess my faults to you. Oh, don’t you know dear friend, don’t you know that heaven begins to rejoice? Don’t you know that the angels begin to sing because there is fellowship and there is reconciliation? There can be no reconciliation when a wrong is done until there is confession.
Sometimes we just want to skip over that. And so, when there is restoration and reconciliation, friend, there is revival, revival. That’s what happens when we confess our faults. You study the history of revival. Dr. Culpepper, who’s here teaching in our seminary and Miss Bertha Smith, one of our premiere missionaries to China, tell us about the great Shantung revival and they tell us that that revival began when the missionaries begin to confess their sins one to another. Where they begin to ask forgiveness, and to make reconciliation and God began to restore and a great mighty revival, one the mightiest revivals the world has ever known began there. The Shantung revival when there was the confession of faults one to another.
Up here in Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, one day in chapel, the Spirit of God moved upon some students who began to confess their faults one to another and to pray one for another and there was, such a spirit of brokenness and such a spirit of weeping and God moved in like a tornado and there was a mighty overflowing of the Spirit of God when the saints of God began to confess their faults one to another. I tell you it will be a great day in the churches of America when confession replaces criticism. And when compassion replaces condemnation. James says, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed.
Now, you need to be careful because the devil will use anything to his advantage, even confession. James doesn’t say broadcast your faults, display your faults, no, he doesn’t say that. Jesus warned about casting your pearls before swine. And you see, the circle of confession needs to follow the circle of sin. What I mean by that is this.
Private sin, private confession between you and the Lord or with a trusted prayer warrior who can pray for you if you need victory. Personal sin, personal con, confession. If you’ve sinned against me or I’ve sinned against you, we need to go and confess one to the other. Not talk about it to other people, personal sin, personal confession.
Public sin, public confession. If you have publicly dishonored the Lord, you need to publicly repent and publicly get right with God. Because even though you’ve changed in your heart, your brothers and your sisters may not know it. And so, there is what James is saying, confess your sins one to another, your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed.
And so, number one, there is the confession we must make, verse sixteen. Also in verse sixteen, there is THE COMMAND THAT WE SHOULD MIND. What command of God should we mind that’s found in verse sixteen? Well, look at it. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another. This is a command and we had better mind that command. God says pray. Luke eighteen, one, and he spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray. The Bible says in First Thessalonians, pray without ceasing. God forbid the Bible says, that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. And it’s so wonderful that God hears our prays.
A little girl heard the choir singing that. song, God is still on the throne. She didn’t understand it quite correctly and told someone they were singing God is still on the phone. Well, he is, he is, thank God there’s a heavenly hotline and thank God, God is still on the phone. He answers our prayers and did you know dear friend, that prayer is the greatest Christian privilege that you and I can talk with God. I mean, think about it. The one who scooped out the seas and heaped up the mountains, and flung out the stars, the omnipotent God has invited us to talk with him. It’s the greatest Christian privilege, it’s the greatest Christian power. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. And oh, it is the greatest Christian failure. We have not because we ask not. May God forgive us.
There’s a command that we’re to mind and it is we are to pray one for another. Prayer, dear friend, is not just getting ready for Christian service. Prayer is Christian service. And you’re serving God when you pray. I serve God more when I pray than when I preach. Dr. Lane serves God more when he prays than when he sings. You serve God more when you pray, than when you win souls. One is not meant to be a substitute for the other.
But, you listen to me, you can do more than pray after you pray but you can do no more than pray until you pray. That is to be effective for Almighty God. This is what God is saying. Here is the command we must mind, James says, pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The sick need more than our pity, they need our prayers. Those with faults need more than our condemnation, they need our intercession, confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that you may be healed. The Bible says ye which are spiritual restores such a one in the spirit of meekness.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes when a new convert comes down the aisle and especially if he’s been a notorious sinner, he gives his heart to Christ, he gets saved, everybody watches him like a hawk, and then the first thing you know, he slips, perhaps he goes back into the old world, perhaps he he’s been a drunkard and he takes another drink. Perhaps he’s been, a, a, a fornicator, and he slips again, or perhaps he’s used abusive language and he curses again. So many times the Christians say just as I thought, look at him, look how he failed. And rather than helping him it seems as though they put their heel on his head and push him down further into the mud. The Bible says, oh, ye, which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted. Somebody has said the Christian army is the only army in the world that shoots it’s wounded. God forgive us. We are not to criticize, we’re to help, we’re to lift, we’re to boost, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed. This is the command that we should mind. We are to pray one for another.
Now, the third thing I want you to notice in this passage of Scripture is the conditions we should meet, THE CONDITIONS WE SHOULD MEET. Because not all prayer is answered, not all prayer gets to God. And James has been telling us in the book of James about the various conditions of prayer.
For example, in the first chapter he told us to ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea. Again, he told us to ask for the right things because we ask and receive not because we ask amiss. And there various times that James has told us how to pray, but here James adds two more conditions to answered prayer, the conditions we should meet. And the first condition is the intensity of the asking and the second condition is the integrity of the asker.
I want you to look at it. He says the effectual, look at it in verse sixteen, as he talks about the conditions we should meet. He says, the effectual and fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The effectual, fervent prayer. Now, this these words, the effectual, fervent prayer are a translation of one Greek word. And we, we have two words in English but one word in the Greek. And it literally means stretched out, stretched out. That’s what effectual fervent means. Stretched out. The idea, get a picture of a horse who is jumping over a barricade and that horse is just stretched out there as it leaps over or get the idea of an athlete whose running for the gold and he, he burst for the tape and he just stretches himself out for the goal.
James says that’s the way we are to prayer. We are to be striving for the goal. We’re to be eager, earnest, fervent, impassioned in our prayers. God forgive our cold, lukewarm, good/evil, milk toast, take-it- or-leave-it type of prayers. Our prayers are to be effectual, they’re to be fervent. They’re to be on fire, they’re to be stretched out and by stretched out I don’t mean stretched out on your bed half asleep. That’s not what James is talking about, not at all. He’s talking about prayer that is intense, intense.
I remember one time in Florida I received a telephone call from a man who was very distraught. This man was a drunkard. And he had just received a message that his wife had a malignancy. And he was very, very distraught because he loved his wife. His mother had been praying for him to be saved and she was one of the most saintly women that I ever knew and she was praying for her son, Bob. Well, Bob called me and he said, “Preacher, would you come over? We’ve got this bad news, come over and pray.” Well, I went over to pray and we were in the kitchen there. Here was the, here was the old saintly mother. Here was the profligate drunkard son and here I was, the young preacher. And so, I said well, let’s pray. And we got down around that kitchen table and I started to pray. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of praying but right in the middle of my prayer, he said, Pray, preacher, you ain’t praying.”
Well, I turned it up a little bit. I don’t know that the prayer was anymore effective but I got louder and a little faster. And after a while he had just enough liquor in him then to loosen his tongue and he said, “Pray preacher, you ain’t praying.” Well, I just stopped altogether then because I was somewhat frustrated and I looked around and that little mother was gone. I didn’t know where she was.
So, I got up and started to walk through the house and in another room I found her, stretched out there on the floor. She had her hands out like this, her face in the rug, and I just stopped with a holy curiosity and I listened to her prayer. I listened to her as she ascended the ladder to heaven. I listened to her as she pushed back the gates of pearl.
I listened to her as she walked down the golden street. I listened to her as she went through the, the holy of holies, the curtain into the holy of holies. I listened to her as she applied the blood there on the altar of God and as she plead with God, as a she got hold of God. I listened to her as she groaned and agonized and prayed to God. I saw her stretched out there on the floor, then I knew what that boy meant when he said, “Pray preacher, you ain’t praying.” He had heard his mama pray.
And I think of that kind of prayer, stretched out prayer, there she was stretched out physically, but, that’s, that’s only an illustration of what James is talking about. Oh, sometimes, ladies and gentlemen, we give without sacrifice. We pray without fasting. We witness without tears. Is it any wonder that we sow without results. James says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. How God has convicted my heart again as I’ve studied the book of James. And how I’ve had to bow my head and confess my sin and say, “Oh, God, forgive my cold, lukewarm, indifferent prayers. Oh, God, may I learn. how to pray effectually, may I learn how to pray fervently, may I pray as James taught us to pray, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Oh, what is James talking about when he talks about the conditions that we should meet? He’s talking about the intensity of the asking.
Sometimes people get in arguments about the posture that we ought to have when we pray.
“The proper way for a man to pray,”
Said Deacon Lemuel Keyes,
“And the only proper attitude
Is down upon his knees.”
“No, I should say the way to pray,”
Said Reverend Doctor Wise,
“Is standing straight without stretched arms
And rapt and upturned eyes.”
“Oh, no, no, no,” Said Elder Slow,
“Such posture is to proud.
A man should pray with eyes fast closed
And head contritely bowed.”
“It seems to me his hands should be
Austerely clasped in front
With both thumbs pointing to the ground,”
Said Reverend Doctor Blunt.
“Last year I fell in Hidgekin’s well
Head first,” said Cyrus Brown.
“With both my heels a-stickin’ up
And my head a-pointing down.
“And I made a prayer right then and there,
The prayingest prayer ever said,
A-standing on my head.”
I think that’s what James is talking about. It’s not so much the position of your body. It’s the intensity of your desire. Half hearted, lukewarm, indifferent prayers don’t get through.
Now, look what James says, first of all there’s the confession we ought to make. And then James speaks of the command that we ought to mind. And then James speaks of the conditions that we ought to meet.
And then finally James speaks of THE CHARACTER THAT WE OUGHT TO MANIFEST, the character that we ought to manifest. Look if you will please in James chapter five again and I’m reading now verses seventeen through eighteen. And James says, “And Elias,” and that literally means Elijah, “was a man of 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. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit.”
And now, the Bible mentions a character, a biblical character, and James is saying that we can be like him. We can manifest the same character that Elijah had because he was a man of like passions as we are. And we should manifest the character of Elijah, the character that we should manifest is what he’s talking about here.
Now, what is the prayer that James is referring to? Any good sermon has good illustrations in it. And James certainly used a good one here. He’s talking about effectual, fervent prayer and his illustration of effectual, fervent prayer is an episode that took place in the Old Testament. In First Kings chapter eighteen, so turn to it. First Kings chapter eighteen and we begin reading in verse forty two, and there you will find the episode, the character that we should mimic and manifest is found right here.
Now, what has happened is this. That because of the judgment of God upon a sinful nation for three and one half years there was no rain. And this transpired because of the prayers of a man named Elijah. He had prayed and the heavens became as brass and the fields are withered in the, and the cattle died, and there was a curse of God upon the land. And then there was that mountain top revival where the fire of the Lord fail and then it was time for it to rain again. And the same prophet of God who through his prayers had turned the water off was now ready to turn it back on again. And he’s going back to God in prayer. And that is the circumstance, remember that old King Ahab, the wicked king was upon the throne of Israel. And we begin reading here in First Kings chapter eighteen and verse forty two.
“So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees and said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, there is nothing. And he said go again seven times. And it came to pass on the seventh time that he said, behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea like a man’s hand. And he said, go up and say to Ahab, prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, the rain, that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind and there was a great rain.”
This is the episode that Elijah, excuse me, that James has chosen to use as an illustration of the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man. Let’s, let’s notice the man. We talked about the intensity, the intensity of the asking, talk about the integrity of the asker, the integrity of the asker.
And you see, Elijah was God’s man. He had integrity. He was a man who was a righteous man. Do you want your prayers answered? Then you must be a righteous man. You must be like a Elijah, who was God’s man. Please pay attention to me and listen to me. I can give you in a simple word why most of our sins are not, most of our prayers are not answered. Sin. I’ll be Reverend Doctor Blunt. Sin, just plain sin. You don’t need a theologian even to tell you.
James says it is the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man that availeth much. I want you to put these scriptures down in your notebook. Proverbs chapter fifteen, verse twenty-nine. The Lord is far from the wicked but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. Psalms sixty six, verse eighteen. Listen to it. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Listen to Isaiah chapter fifty-nine, verses one and two. Behold, the Lord’s arm is not shortened that he cannot save a neither is his ear heavy that he cannot hear but your sins have separated between you and your God, and your iniquities have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
Now, Elijah was a righteous man. And that’s the reason that God heard his prayer. You see, James says there are two, there are two conditions. Number one, there is the intensity of the asker. Number two, or the asking, and number two, the integrity of the asker. The man who has integrity. Say, have you been saved? Is Jesus Christ your personal Savior? There’s no possible way in this dispensation that you can be righteous apart from Jesus Christ. He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification. Have you received him?
But, not only is James talking about positional righteousness, he’s talking about practical righteousness. Are you living day by day obeying the commandments as well as quoting the promises? Are you? Are you righteous? Are you living a pure life, a clean life? If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me. How foolish we are not to relinquish our sins.
Do you know how they catch monkeys in the South Sea Islands? They take a coconut and tie that coconut to a tree and they make a hole in the top of the coconut, just about so big around and put a hand full of rice in that coconut. Monkey’s are very curious, they’ll come and look into the coconut, see the handful of rice, reach their paw in there, take a handful of rice, and then their fist is bigger than the hole and they can’t withdraw it. Now, when the captor comes that monkey will scream and plead and be frightened to death but he’ll never let go of that rice. And that’s the way they capture the poor monkey.
You say, stupid monkey. Stupid person, who will not relinquish that sin that he might have the blessings of God upon his life. Foolish person who is taken captive of Satan who will not have power with God because of some handful of rice that he holds to. Some sin, some habit, some grudge. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Now, look at this prayer. You’re still in First Kings chapter eighteen. Look at this prayer of Elijah and I want us to notice several things about it. And then, we’ll be finished. First of all I want you to notice the person of the prayer. It was Elijah in verse forty-two, First Kings chapter eighteen and verse forty-two. Elijah, Elijah, he was a man of like passions as we are. You know, sometimes folks listen, we get the idea that those people who lived way back yonder, they were different than we were. We think that they lived in a different world, that they breathed different air, but they were made of the same stuff we are.
And the, what, what, James is saying is that the same God who answers Elijah’s prayer will answer your prayer. Do you believe that? You know, we say, where is the Lord God of Elijah? The question is where are the Elijahs of God. Where are the people who are just willing to believe God like Elijah did? Elijah wasn’t perfect. He was a prophet, but he wasn’t perfect. He made his mistakes. You read the next chapter here and you’ll find this man who stood before four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, is running from one demon-inspired woman. You find him in a little while with his head between his knees moaning and groaning and wishing he could die. He knew what it was to get depressed. He knew what it was to fail. Do you know somehow his failures can be an inspiration to us. Do you know, I mean, that, that he was an ordinary man. Look folks, the same God that answered Elijah’s prayers will answer yours. The person of the prayer, Elijah.
The second thing I want you to notice, look, the place of the prayer, look in verse forty-two again. First Kings eighteen, verse forty two. And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. What does that mean? It means that he got off by himself. Jesus said, when you pray, into your closet and pray and your father which seeth thee in secret shall reward thee openly. He sought out a place where he could be alone with God. Old Ahab went off to eat and drink – that drunken sot. But Elijah, the man of God, went to a secret place and got down on his knees. And let me tell you something mister, the secret of your success in your Sunday School class is not how well you teach in public, but how well you prevail in private. The secret of Dr. Tommy Lane’s music is not his musical ear and his great ability and his rhythm and his commanding performance here on this platform but the difference as to whether the choir music and his ministry will bless your heart or not is in direct proportion to the time he spends in prayer. The choir may entertain, the choir may amaze, it may amuse, but it will never bless until that music is soaked in prayer.
I want to tell you dear friend, that the effect of my preaching is not measured by how my sermons are outlined or illustrated but is there the power of Almighty God upon my life because I’ve been alone with God in prayer. Here was Elijah who knew what it was to go alone with God in prayer. Do you know what it is? You see, there was the person of the prayer, man of like passions. There was the place of the prayer, he went up to Mount Carmel.
I want you to notice the posture of the prayer. Look in verse forty two again. Look at it. The Bible says here, he cast himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees. Here is a man bent over. Here is a man who is broken. Here is a man stretched out before God with his face between his knees. Do you know why Elijah was such a bold man when he stood before Ahab, that wicked king who had such power and here’s a little preacher who stands right in the face of a wicked? What gave Elijah that boldness? I’ll tell you what. No man needs fear any earthly king when he’s just had an audience with the King of kings. Amen?
Listen, the man who can kneel before God can stand before any other man if he can kneel before God. Oh, here was a humble man. The Bible says humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. I want you to notice also the passion of the prayer. Look at it in verse forty-two. And the Bible says, and he cast himself down upon the earth. He’s not spreading out a little kneeling rail there. He’s not putting his handkerchief out so his knees won't get dirty. Here’s a man who just in great intensity, he comes to God, he throws himself into it as he prays. He prays a passionate prayer and therefore a powerful prayer. Jesus said prayer is seeking, prayer is asking, prayer is knocking and men ought to pray with fervency. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
I read in the book of Hebrews how my Savior prayed and I read in Hebrews chapter five, verse seven these words. And he offered up prayers and supplication with strong cryings and tears. How that rebukes me. With strong cryings and tears. When’s the last time you shed a tear over some soul that was mortgaged to the devil? When’s the last time that you as Jacob said, “Oh God I won’t let you go, except you bless me.” When’s the last time you labored with God in prayer as the Bible says? Prayer is hard work, friends. Intercession and prayer, I’d rather preach than pray for the energy that it takes. I’d rather study than pray for the energy it takes. It takes work to pray. And here’s a man who was praying passionately. He cast himself upon the ground. The passion of the prayer.
Then I want you to notice the persistence of the prayer. Look if you will in verse forty-three. “And he said to his servant, go up now and look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and he said there’s nothing. And he said, go again seven times.”
Now, notice, Elijah is praying for rain. He prays for rain. He says to his servant, go see if you see any rain. He says there’s nothing, clear blue sky. Elijah prays again, he says go look and there’s nothing. And he prays again and he says go look and there’s nothing and he prays again and he says go look and there’s nothing and again, and again, and again, and again, seven times, until the man says I see a cloud about the size of a man’s hand. It’s like ole Elijah himself had pressed his hand against heaven And said oh, God, I want an answer and there’s sort of a, of a holy audacity.
There’s the persistence of the prayer where Jesus said knock and it shall be open to you. It literally says keep on knocking. Where he says seek, it says keep on seeking. Where it says ask, the Greek language says keep on asking.
The Bible says in Luke eighteen one that men ought always to pray and not to faint. The Bible says be not weary and well doing for in due season, ye shall reap if you faint not. The Bible says that we are to continue in prayer, in Colossians chapter four, verse two. And the Bible says in Isaiah chapter thirty, and verse eighteen, therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you. Sometimes God doesn’t answer right away. Sometimes because God has a gracious purpose, God delays. But learn this about prayer.
Are you willing to learn a lesson this morning about prayer? God’s delays are not God’s denials. Here was a man of God who knew that. And so he passionately and persistently prayed, seven times the same prayer, but he found the answer and I thank God for that. Oh, the persistence of the prayer. May God enable me, may God enable you to find a purpose, a holy purpose and continue with God in prayer until that purpose is answered.
George Mueller was a great man of faith but he prayed for one man of his life and that man was not saved until the day of Mueller’s funeral but Mueller never stopped asking, never stopped asking, never stopped asking then, there’s the power of his prayer. Look at, look at it if you will please in verse forty-five. Look at it. “And it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.” That’s what James meant when he says Elijah was a man of like passions as we are and he prayed and the heavens sent rain. That’s the illustration. There was a great rain.
Oh, the power of the prayer.
Nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer except that that lies outside the will of God.
Oh, there shall be showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need
Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead.
I tell you what I want for Bellevue Church. I want something for this church that cannot be explained except that God has done it. That’s what I want. I want something that cannot be written off by someone’s personality, someone’s propaganda, someone’s program. I want something that will have the unmistakable stamp of God upon it and this is none other than the work of God. I don’t mean that it has to be sensational or noisy. A sunrise doesn’t make much noise but it’s got the stamp of God on it. I want the stamp of God on it. And that comes through prayer.
I want our fellowship, not frozen together by formalism, not wired together by organization, not rusted together by tradition, I want us melted together by prayer – where we pray one to another. That’s what I want. I want your home blessed by prayer. I want your estranged children brought back by prayer. I want your weak will made strong by prayer. I want your needs met by prayer. I want you to have victory over the world, the flesh, the devil by prayer.
And James says that we have not because we ask not. Your friends need your prayers. Pray one for another. I need your prayers. You need my prayers. Oh, God grant that we might pray with fervency and frequency and fruitfulness. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Bow your heads in prayer for a moment.
