“Powerful and Effective” Prayer
Elijah #3
Once it a while I need to remind myself how huge and powerful God really is,
and there’s a kids book I love,
that reminds me of God’s power better than anything else.
The book is called, Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?
It starts out---
The largest animal on earth is the blue whale. Just the flippers on its tail are bigger than most animals on earth. PICTURE
But a blue whale isn't anywhere near as big as a mountain. If you put 100 blue whales in a huge jar, you could put millions of whale-jars inside a hollowed-out Mt. Everest. PICTURE
But Mt. Everest isn't near as big as the earth. If you stacked 100 Mt. Everests on top of one another, it would be just a whisker on the face of the earth. PICTURE
And the earth isn't anywhere near as big as the sun. You could fit one million earths inside the sun. PICTURE
But the sun, which is a medium-size star, isn't anywhere near as big as the red supergiant star called Antares. Fifty million of our suns could fit inside of Antares.
But Antares isn't anywhere near as big as the Milky Way galaxy. Billions of stars, including supergiants like Antares, as well as countless comets and asteroids, make up the milky Way galaxy.
(it would take our fastest spacecraft, Voyager 1, at 38,000 mph,
1.7 Billion years just to cross the milky way.
But the Milky Way galaxy isn't anywhere near as big as the universe. There are billions of other galaxies in the universe.
PICTURE
And yet, filled with billions of galaxies, the universe is almost totally empty. The distances from one galaxy to another are beyond our imagination.
And the Creator of this universe is God, who with a Word spoke it all into being, who is present everywhere in this universe and beyond, and who holds it all together with his mighty power.
We have no idea of the awesome power of God.
It's incomprehensible.
and what's even more amazing
is that He wants to use that power to help you,
to answer your prayer.
Ephesians 1:20
I pray that you will begin to understand how incredibly great His power is to help those who believe Him...
God says “The same power that I used to create the universe,
I want to use, to help you,
and he does that through prayer.
Have you ever prayed for something really, really hard…
Asking God to change a situation,
get you a job,
heal somebody,
take this thing away,
help this relationship,
Or, God would you take away this addiction.
I can’t keep wrestling with the thing
month after month, and year after year.”
So you pray about this,
and it’s a huge deal for you,
its really important, so you’re praying really hard,
but then God apparently does nothing?
“He doesn’t take it away,
he doesn’t heal,
he doesn’t bring along that right relationship,
he doesn’t fix the bad relationship,
in fact, maybe it gets worse,
maybe it gets more hopeless,
So you start to ask,
I wonder if God even cares.
Is He really there?
Can He really hear me?
Is He listening?
He’s not answering my prayer,
I wonder if prayer really works,
because I pray, and there’s nothing.
And truthfully, if you’re not there now,
you’ve probably been there before,
where you’re praying,
but it feels like God is not moving.
VIDEO???
We’re in a series on Elijah,
and one of the good things about studying Elijah,
is that this guy understood prayer.
and he knew what to do,
when you don’t see an answer to prayer.
In fact, Elijah is used in the new testament,
as the example from the whole bible,
of how you ought to pray.
James writes in chapter 5:16
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
And then, to prove this,
he uses Elijah as his example.
Verse 17
Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
That’s the story that we’re going to be looking at today,
the story about Elijah’s prayer for rain.
But notice, it starts by saying,
Elijah was a man just like us,
Elijah wasn’t a superhero with a cool mask
and a red superhero cape.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no its Elijah…
No, He’s just a regular guy,
just like you and just like me.
He had no advantage over you and I,
when it came to praying,
If you have your Bibles, you can turn to 1 Kings 18.
and let me do a quick REVIEW
of where we are in his story…
We talked last week about how,
the nation of Israel is experiencing a 3 year drought,
no rain,
no crops harvested,
people starving to death.
This is hard for us to even imagine,
because we’ve never experienced anything like that.
We’ve had a few days, even a few weeks with no rain,
but none of us have ever gone over 3 years.
At this time in Israel,
there are 3 year old children
that have never made a mud pie.
have never played in the rain,
they’ve never even seen it rain,
they don’t even know what that is…
And in the middle of this crisis situation,
God speaks to Elijah.
1 Kings 18:1-2
Later on, in the third year of the drought, the Lord said to Elijah, "Go and present yourself to King Ahab. Tell him that I will soon send rain!"
Then skipping to verse 41…
1 Kings 18:41-46
Elijah said to Ahab, "Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain." So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. "Go and look toward the sea," he told his servant. And he went up and looked.
"There is nothing there," he said.
Seven times Elijah said, "Go back."
The seventh time the servant reported, "A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea."
So Elijah said, "Go and tell Ahab, 'Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.'"
Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on…
Now notice how this story starts…
Elijah says,
there is the sound of a heavy rain.
Was Elijah using his physical ears to hear this?
No.
The storm wasn’t even on its way yet,
there wasn’t a cloud in the sky,
there was no physical indication of rain,
nobody else was hearing this,
this was something God was letting Elijah hear,
prophetically.
This leads to our first point this morning,
if you want to effective in prayer,
you start by…
Listening for what God wants to do (but is not doing yet)
What does God want to do in your life?
How does he want to bless your life?
Have you asked him that, and then listened?
Elijah was in a drought.
Maybe you feel like
you’re going through a drought right now.
The truth is,
We all go through droughts at times,
when nothing is easy,
everything seems to be hard,
one difficulty after another,
it seems like God used to bless you,
but he’s not anymore,
things used to be easier,
now they’re harder.
And when Elijah was in this drought,
even though he knew God was behind it,
he still suffered like everyone else.
We talked a couple weeks ago about how,
his brook dried up,
he had nothing to drink,
He suffered the consequences of the drought
like everyone else.
But through it all,
he knew there was a day on God’s calendar
that a hurricane from heaven was coming
and the rain of heaven was gonna pour down,
and the drought would be over.
What was true for Elijah,
is true for you and me.
We all go through droughts,
and we all suffer at times because of them,
but we know that there is a day on God’s calendar,
that a hurricane from heaven is coming,
into your life and mine,
and the rain is gonna pour down again,
the drought will be over for you,
the blessings will come.
But the first step is to pay attention to God,
spend some time and listen to him,
and specifically listen for
what God wants to do in your life,
that he’s not doing yet.
Elijah listened, and he said,
there is a sound of a heavy rain.”
Now he didn’t see the rain coming yet.
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky,
in fact the sun was beating down,
Elijah and his servant are walking along,
and you could hear the crunch of dead grass,
dust flies up into the air with every step
because it is so dry.
3 years with no rain,
The cattle have died.
The sheep have died.
Maybe some camels survived,
but they are so skinny you can count every rib.
It is bad in a drought.
But in the middle of all of this,
Elijah says that he hears the sound of heavy rain.
You know what he is saying?
He was saying,
Right now there’s nothing.
But on the other side of nothing,
I hear something!
In faith, with my spiritual ears,
I hear something,
I hear a heavy rain.
Some of us here are in a drought right now,
and maybe your enemy is whispering to you,
You’re done, you’re finished,
I’m going to destroy you.
You’ll never get over this,
you’ll never get healed,
you’ll never get married,
your marriage will never get better,
your kids are gonna fail,
You’re gonna die in the drought.
But if you will listen to God,
and not the devil,
then something will rise up in you and say ,”
I don’t think so!
because I hear the sound of heavy rain.
It is going to rain again in my life.
The blessings are going to flow again,
in fact I can hear them flowing already,
like a mighty river,
And there’s not just a little rain coming,
there’s not just a sprinkle or a drizzle,
its not just a little shower,
there’s heavy rain coming,
And so I’m gonna be faithful,
I’m gonna keep on trusting God,
I’m gonna keep on walking with him,
and God is going to deliver me.
and this drought is going to be history.
I believe that if you will start to listen,
God will let you start to hear
what he’s doing in your life,
He’s gonna let you know that the rain is coming.
the drought will be over,
So get ready,
God’s already got that day on his calendar,
And if you’ll stay faithful,
then at the appointed time
it is going to rain on your life,
rain on your situation,
rain on your marriage,
and on your family,
and on your job.
The blessings of God will rain down
and its going to be a heavy rain!
Elijah said,
I hear the sound of a heavy rain.
What did he do next?
He started praying for
what he’d heard was coming.
Verse 42 NLT
Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel and bowed low to the ground and prayed with his face between his knees.
So he goes to a lonely place,
where its just his servant and him,
so that he can pray,
Then he bows down, and starts to pray.
Now had God already told him that the rain was coming?
Yes.
Had Elijah already heard the sound of heavy rain,
with his spiritual ears?
Yes.
Did Elijah know for sure,
that it was God’s will for it to rain?
Yes.
There was no doubt,
he knew that’s what God wanted to do.
But did Elijah still have to pray for it?
Yes.
Why did he have to pray,
if he already knew that it was God’s will,
and it was definitely going to happen,
why bother praying?
Why did he still have to pray for it?
Because that’s just how God works.
If you don’t pray,
God doesn’t do it.
Even when its God’s will to do it.
It may be God’s will to bring heavy rain into your life,
heavy blessings,
all kinds of good things,
financial blessings,
relationship blessings,
healing,
all kinds of blessings,
Maybe he’s even told you somehow
that he wants to bless you,
and you already know that it’s his will, to bless you.
But do you still need to pray for it?
Yes.
Just like Elijah did, you still need to pray.
Will God bring the blessings if you don’t pray?
Well, I don’t know, he might just do it anyway,
because he feels sorry for you…
but he didn’t do that with Elijah,
he waited till Elijah prayed,
and then the heavy rain came.
Now what’s even more interesting,
is that Elijah didn’t see the answer right away.
Elijah climbs to the top of Mount Carmel.
bowed down and starts to pray.
Finally, he’s done praying,
so he tells his servant,
“Okay, go and look toward the sea.”
The servant goes and looks,
the servant comes back and says,
“There’s nothing there.” Nothing.
So Elijah goes back to praying.
He prays for a while longer,
finally he tells the servant,
“Okay, now go look toward the sea,”
The servant goes and looks,
the servant comes back and says,
“nothing.”
So Elijah goes back to praying.
He prays for a while longer,
finally he tells the servant,
“Okay, now go look toward the sea,”
the servant goes and looks,
the servant comes back and says,
“nothing.”
And he does this time after time after time,
And every time the servant comes back,
Nothing…
Now, Elijah knew it was God’s will,
God had said it was coming,
he’s already heard the rain with his spiritual ears,
Why in the world isn’t it happening?
Why, time after time, does the servant come back,
and tell him, no, nothing?
It doesn’t tell us this,
but you better believe that
the devil was playing with Elijah’s mind…
The devil is saying,
Elijah, you’re gonna look really dumb.
You went and told King Ahab
that God was sending rain
and now nothing is happening.
its not gonna happen,
its not gonna come.
because you didn’t really hear from God.
God is ignoring you.
This drought is going to continue.
Elijah was a man just like you and me.
You know he’s got to be wondering,
What is going on,
why’s it taking so long?
But despite that,
what you don’t hear Elijah say is
“Ah, this thing, prayer, doesn’t really work.”
He doesn’t say,
“God must not be interested in my problem,
He doesn’t care.”
No, when he sees nothing,
he simply goes back to praying,
and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays,
and Elijah doesn’t allow the outward circumstances
of what’s going on
to affect his inward assurance.
His servant is saying,
come on already, Elijah,
I’ve already made this hike six times,
there’s nothing.
I’m getting really tired,
How many more times do I have to make this trip
and come back disappointed?
Elijah, you just need to accept it
there’s nothing, no rain,
its just not working,
You must not have heard from God this time, buddy.
Please don’t make me go look again.
But Elijah doesn’t allow his outward circumstances
to stop him.
When it seems like God’s not moving,
When it seems like God’s not answering,
when time after time, prayer after prayer,
he gets what? Nothing,
He doesn’t get disgusted and give up.
He doesn’t throw in the towel.
He doesn’t say,
That’s it, I’m done, this doesn’t work.”
What does he do?
He prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays.
It doesn’t seem like God’s working.
so He prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays,
And that leads to the next point,
if you want to be effective in prayer,
Don’t Stop Praying If You See Nothing.
All of us have prayed before,
and seen nothing.
How do you handle that?
You keep praying.
In fact, this story of Elijah is a great illustration
of the way our prayer teams operate
on Sunday morning.
If you come up here and ask them to pray for something,
like maybe you have a back problem,
We train our teams that
they don’t immediately jump into praying for you.
After they know what you want prayer for,
the first thing they do
is take a second to listen to the HS,
and see if the spirit tells them anything
about the situation.
This is just like Elijah,
before he starts to pray,
he hears from the HS
this sound of heavy rain.
In fact, that’s how he knows its time to go pray,
he hears the HS.
Then after listening to the HS,
our prayers teams will start to pray,
but after they pray a minute,
they’ll probably stop, and ask you,
how’s your back doing?
do you feel anything?
Is there any heat, or tingling,
does your back feel any different.
That’s just like Elijah stopping his prayer,
and sending his servant to look,
do you see anything yet?
No, nothing yet.
So Elijah goes back to praying.
And that’s what our prayer teams are trained to do.
If you don’t feel anything at first in your back,
they go back to praying.
Or maybe you feel a little better,
but its not completely healed yet,
they go back to praying.
There’s a story in the gospel of Mark
about Jesus healing a blind guy,
and the first time Jesus lays his hands on his eyes,
and then asks him,
Can you see anything.
The guy says, yeah I can see people,
but they’re really fuzzy, like trees walking around.
So Jesus does it again,
and this time the guy can see perfectly.
Let me ask you,
If Jesus needs 2 tries,
how many do we get?
The point is,
Don’t stop praying if you see nothing.
So let me ask you,
What do you typically do, when you pray,
and you see a big fat nothing?
Maybe you’d say,
Ken, I’m living the best life that I know how.
I read the bible,
I pray.
I come to church,
I give my tithe
I do some ministry work,
I’m doing all the right things,
and yet when I pray, It’s still NOTHING.
And people ask me,
Is it any better? NO!
Are you healed? NO!
Has the situation changed?
Yes, it looks like it has gotten worse.
What do you do,
when you pray
and there’s nothing?
You do what Elijah did.
You hold on in faith,
and go back to praying some more.
Time after time, for Elijah, it was…
nothing, nothing, nothing.
And this is the guy that James said,
was the ultimate example, of how to pray.
7 times Elijah said, "Go back and look again."
The first 6 times, Nope, nothing.
Would you have quit?
I think I would’ve quit.
Oh, guess God changed his mind.
I guess I didn’t hear him right.
He’s not paying attention,
there’s nothing there.
I guess the drought really isn’t over.
God failed me again.
I guess prayer doesn’t really work,
because there’s nothing there.
But, here’s the promise we have from God.
If we continue to pray and do not give up,
one of these times,
after you pray and look,
you’re not going to see nothing,
you’re going to see something.
You see, there’s a spiritual principal there…
On the other side of nothing…
THERE…IS…SOMETHING…
In fact,
I want you to remember that…
when you’re praying, and see nothing.
On the other side of nothing, is something.
That is such a brilliant insight,
I’d love to take credit for it,
but I heard somebody else say that.
when you’re praying, and see nothing.
On the other side of nothing, is something.
So many times,
you’ll pray,
and at first you’ll see… nothing
and maybe you pray again,
and you see… nothing
and you pray again,
and you see… nothing
And then you quit,
Because this obviously isn’t working,
God isn’t gonna do it,
he’s not gonna bless me,
he’s not gonna heal me,
he’s not gonna provide for me,
because I prayed 3 whole times, and nothing.
Elijah prayed 6 times, and nothing.
but he knew that
On the other side of nothing, is something.
So he prayed a 7th time.
And then his servant came back,
and said,
Well, there’s something.
Its not very big,
just a tiny little black cloud,
way off in the distance,
I can hardly see it,
but there’s something.
Elijah says,
you better get ready,
get the umbrellas,
get the boats,
get the bailers,
get the life vests,
cause this is gonna be heavy rain,
In fact,
Go tell king Ahab he better ride fast,
or that rain is gonna be so heavy,
he won’t be able to ride at all.
Now, notice, the servant did not say.
“Elijah, there is a massive, monsoon thunderstorm out there,
its gonna be huge.”
No. He says,
there’s a little cloud,
can hardly see it.
Why did Elijah react like he did?
Run tell Ahab to hurry,
or the rains gonna stop him,
because its gonna be heavy.
Why did Elijah react like that?
Its because Elijah knew that,
On the other side of nothing, is not only something,
but On the other side of nothing, is everything.
everything you need,
everything God wants to bless you with.
Elijah knew that,
after a 3 year drought,
we need more than a little shower,
we need more than some drizzle,
we need heavy rain,
that’s what he was praying for.
With his spiritual ears,
he had heard the sound of heavy rain,
not the sound of a light shower,
so he knew what was coming.
And when you pray for what you need,
It may take a lot longer to get here than you expect,
you may have to pray 7 times or 70 times for it to come,
it may look small when it finally does come,
but when it does come,
it is everything you need from God.
On the other side of nothing, is everything you need.
That’s why James said,
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
So many times,
when we’re down in the dumps
and we feel like God is not working,
we think he’s not doing anything,
because we see nothing,
That’s when we need to remember that verse:
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
You say, well ken, I’m not a very righteous person.
so that can’t be talking about me.
If you’re a follower of Christ, if you’re a believer,
then you have the righteousness of Christ,
you are righteous,
so this is talking about you.
Its saying that if you
will keep praying and not give up,
on the other side of nothing,
is everything you need from God.
There will come a day when you’ll see a cloud.
Your 7th time will come.
The clouds will gather,
you’ll see the rain.
This drought will end.
and the blessings of God will fall.
So, here’s my question for you.
What have you quit praying for
that you need to start praying for again?
Maybe it’s your marriage.
You haven’t seen much movement,
so you’ve kind of quit praying.
Maybe it’s for a job.
You’ve grown tired of looking.
Maybe it’s your finances,
or a broken relationship.
Maybe it’s for someone in your family
that doesn’t have a relationship with Christ,
and it’s been years,
and you’ve just kind of given up praying for them.
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
You see, one of Satan’s greatest tactics
is to try to wear you down.
He says if I can send them away empty handed
enough times,
eventually they’ll quit.
And unfortunately, he’s right.
I’ve heard people say before,
I am going to quit church
because when I go, I feel nothing.
I’m going to quit praying,
because I see nothing.
I’m going to quit giving my tithes
because I don’t see my finances getting blessed.
I’m going to quit this or that
because I tried it
and it doesn’t work.
You know where they are?
They are on their 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th trip
up that mountain
But if they would just hold on,
press on, pray one more time,
look for the answer one more time,
hang in there one more day or week or month,
on the other side of that big fat nothing,
is something,
and it’s not just something,
but it is everything you need from God.
Let’s pray.
there’s some of you here, that it’s been a long time since you’ve connected with God through prayer in a real intimate kind of a way. Or maybe you’ve stopped praying for someone or something you should be praying for. So I want to pray for you right now. “God, would you give us strength to pray. Would you give us the patience and perseverance we need to trust you, to believe in faith, and not to quit. And as we continue praying God, would you make us more intimate in our relationship with you, would you draw us closer to you, would you help us grow in our faith. Holy Spirit, help us to hear from you the good things that you want to do in our lives, but you haven’t done yet. Help us to hear the blessings you want to bring into our lives and families, help us to hear from you so that we’ll know how to pray.
Some of you here this morning aren’t ready to pray like this, because you’re still not sure about your relationship with God, you’re not sure you’re a part of God’s family, with the Holy Spirit living in you and giving you his strength and power to live.
If you’re not sure of that, you can be. In fact, right now the Spirit of God is drawing you, that’s why you’re here this morning.
So if that’s you, why don’t you pray with me right now, in your heart, God will hear you. Say to God… “Yes, I need You in my life, God. Jesus, I need You to be my Savior and my Lord. Would you come into my life right now, help me to change, put your Holy Spirit in me to give me power to live, make me a part of your family starting right now, and lasting forever. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
