James 5:16, 18; 1 Kings 18:41-46
A deacon had a parrot that said, “lets kiss, lets kiss.”
The Pastor had a parrot that said, “lets pray, lets pray.”
So the deacon asked the preacher if he could leave his parrot with the pastor to influence his parrot so that it wouldn’t say, “lets kiss . . . .”
So the pastor kept the deacons parrot and it began to recite, “lets kiss, lets kiss.”
The pastors parrot immediately began to say, “praise the Lord my prayers been answered.”
God invested His power in promises. How do we extract them?
A. C. Dixon
“When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon education we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence we get what eloquence can do . . . but when we rely upon prayer we get what God can do!”
Are all your prayer answered? We excuse the unanswered ones with clichés like, “No is an answer.” Wouldn’t it be great to have the power of Elijah? Are we supposed too?
James 5:16 “. . . The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
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.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
The example of Power: Elijah. The specific incident. When he prayed for rain.
1 Kings 18:41-46
verse 41. Elijah was so confident that God was going to answer his prayer that the storm was already rumbling in his ears! Wouldn’t that be nice? Do you have that kind of confidence in your prayers? Should we?
The Ineffectual Prayers of the Baal Priests (18:23-29)
Introduction
We were challenged to choose decidedly to follow the true God. Now we come to the test proposed to prove who the true God really is. The principle is simply once the true God has manifested Himself and is known, it is foolish, indeed it is absurd to follow the false man-made gods of idolatry.
In this chapter we have three illustrations of prayer:
1. The Prayers of the Baal Priests: But NO Answer from Heaven (vss. 26-29)
2. The Public Prayer of Elijah: FIRE from Heaven (vss. 30-40)
3. The Private Prayer of Elijah: RAIN from Heaven (vss. 41-46)
I. The Earnestness of Elijah’s Prayer, (1 Kings 18:42)
Earnestness not indicated by its language, loudness or length.
You may have heard the story about evangelist Dwight L. Moody who was quite perturbed when a brother in Christ at one of his meetings continued to pray on and on and on. The man became so lost in his own eulogy on the Almighty that people in the audience became restless. As Moody saw no end in sight, he suddenly rose and said, “While our brother is finishing his prayer, let us sing number 75.”
This seemed quite rude and brusque, and Moody was criticized for it, but few know the rest of the story. In the audience was a medical student who was so bored that he reached for his hat and was ready to leave. When Moody suddenly switched the audience from trying to follow the tedious prayer to singing a song of grace and blessing, the young man’s attention was arrested by the music, he put his hat down, and remained in the service. At the close, he was among those who came forward to receive Christ as Savior. That student convert later became the world-renowned missionary—Sir William Grenfell!”
Mat 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Mat 6:8 Be not ye therefore like unto them...” Jesus connects this with the pagan ideas about prayer and states “Do not be like them.” In contrast, Jesus gave a clear, rational, and intelligible Lord’s Prayer as a proper example to follow.
word for “use vain repetitions” = battalogeô, Gingrich defines as “babble, to speak without thinking.”
Jesus connects with the pagan ideas about prayer and states “Be not like them” then said, vs. 9 “After this manner therefore pray”.
In view of this statement of Jesus, it is improbable that God would give a gift of unintelligible prayer to men. Jesus also said not to pray “as the heathen do”
1. The Earnestness of his prayers. Verse 42. James 5:16, 17
A. Earnestness not indicated by language, loudness or length
B. The Earnestness indicated by his posture
The actual words are not recorded. There are no specific instructions on prayer posture.
▸ Standing: Nehemiah 9:5
▸ Kneeling: Ezra 9:5
▸ Sitting: 1 Chronicles 17:6
▸ Bowing: Exodus 34:8
▸ Uplifted hands: 1 Timothy 2:8
All that can be said of Elijah’s posture was that it was outward evidence of his inward earnestness.
Kneel
The proper way for a man to pray,
Says Deacon Lemuel Keys,
And the only proper attitude
Is down upon his knees.
No, I should say the way to pray,
Says Reverend Doctor Wise
Is standing straight with outstretched arms
And rapt and upturned eyes.
Oh, no, no, no said Elmer Slow.
Such posture is too 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.
Both hands pointing toward the ground,
Said Reverend Doctor Blunt.
Last year I fell in Hitchkins’ well,
Head first, said Cyrus Brown.
And both my heels were stickin’ up,
And my head was pointing down.
And I made a prayer right then and there,
The best prayer I ever said.
The prayin’est prayer I ever prayed
Was standin’ on my head.
—Sam Walter Foss
C. Earnestness indicated by his priorities. Verse 42
James 4:2 “Ye have not because you ask not”
Verse 42 gives a contrast (Elijah prays while Ahab eats). You have to make prayer your priority or it wont get done.
William Carey was once reproached for spending so much time in prayer that he neglected his business. He replied that supplication, thanksgiving, and intercession were much more important in his life than laying up treasures on earth. “Prayer is my real business!” he said. “Cobbling shoes is a sideline; it just helps me pay expenses.”
The Lord honored Carey’s vigorous faith, for he became a renowned missionary and was mightily used by God in India, Burma, and the East Indies. —Tan #4526, Prayer His Real Business
D. Earnestness indicated by his Persistence in prayer. Verse 43, 44
I. The Earnestness of Elijah’s Prayer
II. The Effectiveness of Elijah’s Prayer
A. The Principle of Prayer
How do you get your prayers answered. 1 Kings 18:1, 36, 45
Insider trading—Ivan Boetski, Hillary and Pharmaceuticals
Insider betting—Pete Rose (Stacking the Deck)
Insider praying—Elijah
Isn’t it unfair that Elijah knew what God would do? That’s what prayer is—reminding God of His promises.
Spurgeon, “Every promise of Scripture is a writing of God, which may be pleaded before Him with this reasonable request, ‘Do as thou hast said.’”
Matthew Henry, “We must turn God’s promises into prayer, and then they shall be turned into performances.”
F.B. Meyer, “though the Bible be crowded with golden promises from board to board, yet will they be inoperative until we turn them into prayer. . . . God’s promises are given, not to restrain, but to incite to prayer.”
Promises show direction in which we may ask, and the extent to which we may expect an answer.
B. The Perversion of prayer.
We think we can pray for what we want and God is obligated by our prayers
What is the source of our prayers? Our desires or Gods will? If we pray for what we want can we expect God to answer?
James 4:2 “. . . yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
We misunderstand the meaning of prayer. Prayer is not to get God to change His will. If we really believe that the will of God is perfect, then why would we want Him to change it?
Our prayers really ought to be prompted out of our deep understanding of what the will of God is.
There are a lot of folks who go to prayer, not to ascertain the will of God, but to ask Him to do what they want.
Prayer is not getting God to adjust His program to what we want, it is adjusting our lives to the revealed will of God. When we pray, it isn’t God who changes, it’s us.
1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
1 John 5:15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Robert Law wrote, “Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting man’s will done in Heaven, but for getting God’s will done on earth.” Or, as other saints have expressed it “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness.”
C. The Perplexity of prayer
Legitimate question: if God said He would do it anyway, why pray? 1 Kings 18:1.
Elijah was praying for the promised rain as though its coming depended upon his prayers and not on the promises of God. If God had already stated what He would do, why pray? It is here that we encounter those two seemingly contradictory truths that permeate the Bible—the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. While God is the sovereign planner of events and is not surprised or thwarted by human deeds or misdeeds, man is still a creature endowed with choice and responsibility. These two apparently irreconcilable truths come together in the following proposition: God has ordained the means as well as the ends. Yes, God had ordained the ends, i.e., that rain would be sent, but he also had ordained the means, that rain would be sent in response to Elijah’s prayer. How much confusion would be avoided if believers could bring themselves to accept both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man.
Prayer was not mentioned in the condition that the rain might come. Elijah might have gone away from Ahab confident that God would keep His promise. But no, Elijah goes to pray. He prayed seven times for rain. He sent his servant toward the sea to look for the promised rain, and while the servant was going, Elijah put his face between his knees, and prayed, as I imagine, “O Lord, send the rain.”
The servant comes back and tells Elijah that he sees “nothing.” Elijah says to him, “Go again seven times.’‘ And each time, while he is going, Elijah, with his face between his knees, prays, “Oh Lord, send the rain.”
What a scene it is! Elijah praying for the promised rain as though its coming depended upon his prayers and not on the promise of God! And why? Because we have here “one of the primal laws of the spiritual world.” God wills to be enquired of to fulfill His promises. Oh blessed way of bringing us into the prayer chamber of God!
The connection between Promise and Prayer is illustrated in a former scene in the life of Elijah. He boldly goes into the presence of Ahab and says,
“As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be rain nor dew these years, but according to my word (I Kings 17:1).
The people had turned away from God, and the promise was written in Deuteronomy 11:17 that God would “shut up the heaven, that there be no rain.” Elijah prayed that promise into performance.
D. The Pattern of prayer
When Daniel read that prophecy, it affected him so emotionally that he fell on his knees and began to pray.
Isn’t it true that when we really come to grips with prophecy, it ought to have that kind of effect on us?
Often, however, we get into prophetic studies and want to run around to conferences and read books to compare views with each other. We get so caught up in the exercise of understanding prophetic truth that we miss the whole point. It ought to drive us to our knees, even as it did Daniel.
Here was a man who was so intensely involved with God’s truth, that when he read what God had to say, he couldn’t stay the same. His prayer was motivated by the Word of God.
In private devotions prayer ought grow out of the Word of God.
Dan 9:2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
Dan 9:3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
Dan 9:4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God,
Jer 29:10 For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
When God gave the promise of their return, He ordained that prayer should be the means of its accomplishment. It is in connection with the promise through Jeremiah that God said:
Jer 29:12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Jer 29:14 And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
These passages teach that Promise and Prayer go together and that God has ordained prayer as a means to accomplish His purposes in the earth.
David Brainerd wrote in his Journal under the date June 30, 1744: “My soul was very solemn in reading God’s word; especially the ninth chapter of Daniel. I saw how God called out his servants to prayer, and made them wrestle with him, when he designed to bestow any great mercy on his church.” That is exactly the case of Daniel. He saw that the time of the promise was at hand, and he wrestled in prayer for its accomplishment. And God answered, not only in keeping with His faithfulness to His promise, but because of Daniel’s prayer.
Ezekiel 36
Chapter 36 is a list of promises:
Ezek 36:36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.
The chapter does not end there. A great principle of the spiritual world is now set forth.
Ezek 36:37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them. . . .”
Romans 11:26; Romans 10:1
Promise: Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Prayer: Rom 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
Paul united his prayer with the promise of God; he would pray the promise into performance.
Allenby Bridge was built to honor Allenby whom God used to miraculously make conquest of Jerusalem without the firing of a single gun. It spans the Jordan River.
Allenby told how as a little boy when he knelt to say his evening prayers he was taught to lisp after his mother the closing part of the prayer. “And, O Lord, we would not forget Thine ancient people, Israel: hasten the day when Israel shall again be Thy people and shall be restored to Thy favor and to their land.”
At a reception in London, Allenby said, “I never knew then that God would give me the privilege of helping to answer my own childhood prayers.” —Chosen People, Tan #4598
Do you ever pray for Israel?
Revelation 5:8
Rev 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
The “harp” here is the symbol of the promises of the prophetic Word, and the “bowls,” as stated, represent the “prayers of the saints.”
∙ Long ago William Cowper wrote in one of his great poems, “Sweet is the harps of prophecy.”
∙ Seiss says that the harps held by these enthroned elders represent, “the predictions of all prophets.”
∙ This scene teaches that all the promises and prophecies that are to be fulfilled in the unfolding of the Revelation are to be accomplished through the “prayers of the saints.”
∙ “The holding up of these incense prayers and prophetic harps together before the Lamb as He takes the book, is that He may now remember and fulfill what all His holy prophets have spoken and sung, as well as what all His saints have prayed.”
Many of the O.T. prophecies and promises remain unfulfilled. They are to be the subject of our prayers.
The whole Bible closes with a reiteration of this law, the connection between Promise and Prayer. Ends with a promise and a prayer.
Rev 22:20 “He which testifieth these things saith, (the promise is) Surely I come quickly. (And the prayer is) Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
William Penn, the founder of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, was well liked by the Indians. Once they told him he could have as much of their land as he could encompass on foot in a single day. So, early the next morning he started out and walked until late that night. When he finally went to claim his land, the Indians were greatly surprised, for they really didn’t think he would take them seriously. But they kept their promise and gave him a large area which today is part of the city of Philadelphia. William Penn simply believed what they said. Should we do less with God!
