1 Kings 18:41-46; James 5:16-18 – Me with Powerful Prayers?
In “Total Eclipse”, author Annie Dillard writes: “The Ring Nebula, in the constellation Lyra, looks, through binoculars, like a smoke ring. It is a star in the process of exploding. Light from its explosion first reached earth in 1054; it was a supernova then, and so bright it shone in the daytime. Now it is not so bright, but it is still exploding. It expands at the rate of 70 million miles a day. It is interesting to look through binoculars at something expanding 70 million miles a day. It does not budge. Its apparent size does not increase. Photographs of the Ring Nebula taken 15 years ago seem identical to photographs of it taken yesterday.”
You know, sometimes huge happenings are not always visible to the naked eye – especially in the spiritual realm. How often is it that this Ring Nebula is like our prayers. We don’t see a change, no matter how long we pray. But that’s only what we see with these eyes. If we could see it from God’s perspective, there would be a galaxy of changes happening. We would see God bringing about earth-shattering changes – we would see God working in circumstances and in hearts. We would know all that God is doing and intending to do in our lives. And we would not lose heart. We would persevere in prayer because we would immediately see the results.
Now, we’ve been looking at the life of Elijah since early January. He was a good man, and a great man. And today we come to that section of his life, just after his victory on Mt.Carmel, when he prayed for rain. Read v41-46. Now, this was such a significant part of Elijah’s life that it became a role model for us in James 5:16. The NIV says it this way: “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” The KJV is this: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” And I really like the NLT of the verse: “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results.”
Then, the next 2 verses describes Elijah, or Elias in the KJV, and his prayer. V17-18: “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.” Now, you know what I find difficult about these verses? It’s that James says Elijah was just like us – “subject to like passions as we are.” (KJV) And then it says how he prayed. So, when it says he was like us, what it’s saying is that we can pray as he did. In the context of the verse, it’s saying we can pray like Elijah.
Perhaps this is easy for you to understand. I find it a challenge. To have the power in my prayers as Elijah did. To be able to control the weather as Elijah did. To turn people’s hearts as Elijah did. Maybe today you have felt as if your prayers have been ineffective and unproductive. Maybe you have felt that the answers to your prayers have been too long coming. Maybe you have wondered if God hears you. Today I want to look at these concerns. I’m not guaranteeing a fool-proof way to get God to hear you. And I’m not saying that these are the only things important in praying. All I’m offering you today is some insight into Elijah’s rain-giving prayer, and how it might help us in our own prayer lives.
The first thought towards praying like Elijah is that 1) we need to pray with God’s purposes. Although the passage never clearly states this idea, the principle is very clear: Elijah was praying for what god wanted to happen. The man was in tune with God’s plans. God wanted to discipline the nation for its worship of false gods, in essence, self-worship. And He wanted to discipline the nation for its double-mindedness, wanting the pleasures of idol-worship and the benefits of Jehovah-worship. And so, as a symbol of the dryness of the people’s hearts, the land became dry as well. God’s plan for the drought was to teach His people.
And when the rains came, that too was God’s plans. You see, Baal was the god of storms and rain. So, for him to be unable to fix the situation showed the people that their false god was useless. And when the prophet of the true and only God was able to bring rain, this showed that Baal was weak and powerless and Jehovah was almighty and all-powerful. When the rain stopped and when the rain fell – both times were God’s plans to show Israel that He alone was worthy of worship. He alone was in control.
So, Elijah’s prayers went along with what God wanted to do. Often, our prayers go unanswered because we are not praying what God wants. We are praying what we want, without stopping to consider if this is what God’s will is. Now, you understand, this takes time. To shut up and listen long enough to hear what God is telling us to pray for is hard work. It takes patience to listen. It takes time. It’s much easier to treat God as a drive-thru window cashier. But if we would ask Him what to pray for, and actually take the time to wait and listen, He may just speak to us more often and we may get our prayers more in line more often too.
We pray for the removal of hard times, when it’s clear that God uses trials to refine us and teach us perseverance. We pray for healing, when it’s implied thru the scriptures, in particular John 5, that God doesn’t heal every single person. In fact, while it’s implied that God does not worry if everyone is healed, it is very clear that God wants everyone to be saved – 2 Peter 3:9. So, even though God’s purposes are not always clear in this present age, they are certainly clear for eternity: know Him! Make Him known! God’s plans are for lost people to come to Him for forgiveness and leadership, and then to become like His Son Jesus. So, if a situation arises in your life, God’s plans for you are not always to make your life easier. But they are always to make you more like Him. We could pray for situations to change, or for us to be changed. What sounds more like God’s purposes?
1 John 5:14-15 says this: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.” So, we need to pray according to what he wants, and for that to happen, we need to spend enough time with Him to hear what He’s saying to us.
Now, the second thought towards praying like Elijah is that 2) we need to pray with purity. James 5:16 says: “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Righteous. Right before God. Pure. Clean. Is this possible? Well, 1 Timothy 6:11 says that we are to pursue it. Matthew 6:33 says that if we thirst and hunger for righteousness, He will fill us with it. And Philippians 3:9 says that righteousness is through faith in Christ; it comes from God and is by faith. There is still a greater righteousness to come, yes, in heaven, where we will be perfect. But our faith in the here and now is counted as righteousness. We are right with God, not by deeds, not by baptism, not by communion, but by faith. Trust.
Righteousness is not the same as perfection. If it were perfection that made us right, we’d be in hard shape. But we can still be clean. It means listening when God lays something on our hearts to do. It means obedience. It means asking for forgiveness, even if we think we deserved to do what we did. It means saying you’re sorry, not wanting to do it again, and meaning it. It means taking responsibility for your actions and your thoughts. This is all a part of trusting that that’s way is right. That’s faith. And that counts as righteousness. And the prayers of a righteous person are powerful and effective.
And the third thought towards praying like Elijah is that 3) we need to pray with persistence. Seven times Elijah sent his servant to see if the rain was coming. Six times the answer was no. The 7th time it was yes. Elijah was persistent. He kept praying until the answer came. And again I quote the James passage from the KJV: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Fervent. Passionate. Burning. Fiery. Persistent. Elijah kept praying until the answer came.
Saints of yesteryear called this praying through. Today kids call it PUSH – pray until something happens. Either way, it’s where we often fall short. We get tired. We get frustrated. We get bored. We get annoyed. We get philosophical. And we give up. Now, granted, if God plans to eventually give us something but He insists on our continued prayers, well, I don’t know why this is. I guess is that it will teach us perseverance, to hang in there, to trust Him even when the situation doesn’t change. I suppose it’s for our growth. And growth is never easy.
One day George Mueller began praying for five of his friends. After many months, one of them came to the Lord. Ten years later, two others were converted. It took 25 years before the fourth man was saved. Mueller persevered in prayer until his death for the fifth friend, and throughout those 52 years he never gave up hoping that he would accept Christ! His faith was rewarded, for soon after Mueller’s funeral the last one was saved. That’s persistence. And God rewarded Mueller for it, even if he didn’t see all the results. It’s like what Chuck Swindoll said about perseverance: “Triumph is just umph added to try.”
And we come back to the opening story of the expanding galaxy, and praying like Elijah. Answered prayers are possible when we consider the 3 principles set down by Elijah’s life: 1) We need to pray according to God’s purposes. 2) We need to pray with a pure heart. And, 3) we need to pray persistently. James Gilmour, who was a missionary to Mongolia, said this: “Oh that God would give me more practical faith in Him! Where is now the Lord God of Elijah? He is waiting for Elijah to call on Him.”
