“The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16b
Hezekiah was a remarkable example of the truth this scripture conveys. He was a righteous man whose prayers availed much…meaning they produced or resulted in, great benefit and much advantage! Therefore, we can definitely learn from him. His story is found in II Kings in the Bible. I will sum up his story, but I invite you, after reading this article, to look up chapters 18-20 and read them for yourself.
Scripture tells us that Hezekiah, the King of Judah, did that which was right in the sight of the Lord; that he trusted in the Lord God of Israel; and that before and after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah. The Lord was with him, and he prospered whithersoever he went forth. The King of Assyria had taken over many nations round about him, but Hezekiah served and trusted God wholeheartedly. (II Kings 18:3,5,7)
A messenger comes to King Hezekiah with a letter, delivering this threatening message:
II Kings 19:10-11
“Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the King of Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?”
The letter went on to tell of the Assyrian armies’ victories over nations and kings and their so-called gods. In other words, it was quite threatening!! This letter, full of mocking toward Hezekiah’s god, was sent to intimidate, bring fear, and to bring about an easy surrender of Judah to Assyria.
But let’s learn from Hezekiah, and of how this godly king handled such a threat of intimidation and fear from his enemy:
King Hezekiah lays the letter before God
and appeals to Who He is.
Hezekiah went into the House of the Lord, and laid the letter down before the Lord, praying:
II Kings 19:14-19
“O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the Cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, Lord, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore, they have destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.”
He went to God. FIRST! He didn’t try to come up with any conclusion, plan, insight, or action. He first went to the House of the Lord, laid it out before God, and PRAYED!
Interesting to note, He respected God. Clearly! He didn’t blame God, yell at God, have a hissy fit, or give out a worried prayer… He approached God AS GOD… The One true God. Hezekiah approached with complete awareness that this was the Almighty God, and not a mere man, that he spoke to.
He acknowledged also his enemies’ victories, that they were because other nations worshipped other gods.
Hezekiah was processing…as he prayed… and began appealing to God’s Great Name…that He would bring forth a victory for Hezekiah and Judah, to reveal to all kingdoms of the earth that He was the Lord God, and Him Only.
In Hezekiah’s day, 7th and 8th centuries BC, Prophets were used to deliver God’s answers and words, for the Holy Spirit had not yet come. Isaiah was the Prophet in Hezekiah’s day. He sent a message to Hezekiah that began with:
II Kings 19:20
“Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.”
Isaiah speaks God’s mind against the King of Assyria, and ends in giving Hezekiah this promise of deliverance:
II Kings 19:32-34
“Therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.”
The very same night that Isaiah gave Hezekiah the answer: God’s PROMISE of deliverance…
God GAVE deliverance!!
Our God is faithful to keep His Word!
II Kings 18:35-36 tells us of this remarkable deliverance:
“And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So, Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.”
Interpreted, my friends, this means the Angel of the Lord killed 185,000 soldiers that night in the enemy’s camp, and the King of Assyria and the remainder of his army returned back from whence they came! The Deliverance was just as God had said He would do! Amazing!
The Angel of the Lord smote 185,000 Assyrians and
turned back their armies, in answer to Hezekiah’s prayer.
Hezekiah spent no days worrying, planning, or strategizing! And he didn’t have to lose one life of those within his kingdom!
He PRAYED and DELIVERANCE was! His God did it! The victory was “through prayer”!
Interesting to note: Hezekiah’s enemy, The King of Assyria, was later killed by his own two sons while worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god, and these two even escaped scot-free afterward into Armenia. (II Kings 19:37) There is no protection in the hands of a false god! Only in the hands of the one true God.
Remember how we saw God keep his word above? Well, this death too, was just as the Lord spoke through Isaiah, “I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” (II Kings 19:7b) Clearly, Hezekiah knew God. His description of Him in prayer was, “… thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth.” He went on to give him glory as Creator by declaring: “thou hast made heaven and earth.” Hezekiah was mindful of WHO he was praying TO: The Creator and Ruler of all.
God remains the same today. He is still God. He is still the SAME POWERFUL GOD. Are we approaching him with the reverence due Him?
Do we consciously realize, as we pray, that we are addressing the Almighty God? …that He is all-powerful, everywhere present, all-knowing, sovereign, transcendent?
Do we realize the magnitude of what He is able to do?
II Corinthians 2:9
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
Do we realize all things are possible with God? (Matthew 19:26)
Do we realize that nothing is too difficult for God? (Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:27)
Let’s continue to look at Hezekiah and another prayer that was answered of his, in an amazing way; enabling us also to explore the attributes of God further.
The next thing we hear of Hezekiah in scripture is that he becomes sick unto death…and Isaiah, the prophet, tells him to set his house in order, for he will die, and not live. This account is in II Kings 20:1-11.
What a horrible word to receive from God! Imagine for a moment: How would “you” respond to God giving you this message?
Hezekiah’s FIRST response, again, is TO PRAY.
When Hezekiah heard from Isaiah that he was going to die, he turned toward the wall and prayed to God.
I asked a question, to myself, as I read that Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed unto the Lord: “Why pray to the Lord, when it is The Lord telling you that you will die and not live?” “Doesn’t that mean it is settled, and that it is God’s Will?”
The conclusion that I came up with was, that because God and Hezekiah had a “relationship”, and He had prospered and received glorious answers to prayer before he became sick, he must have thought to himself: “Maybe I can change God’s mind… I must plead and reason with My God…there is a chance that He will hear my cry.”
AND GOD DID!
Hezekiah appealed to God on the grounds of his righteous living before God, and He let the tears flow freely… his weeping was part of his prayer.
“I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.” And Hezekiah wept sore.
Note, he wasn’t complaining, demanding of God, or in any bad attitude of spirit. He was pleading with God to change his mind so he could continue to live for Him. He did not want to die.
God, upon hearing Hezekiah’s prayer, had Isaiah turn around and go straight back to Hezekiah with his message of response: “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears. Behold, I will heal thee.” In fact, God told Hezekiah to go up unto the House of the Lord, on the third day, and that then fifteen years would be added to his life. God also gave Isaiah “the cure” for the boil and the life-threatening infection that was taking over Hezekiah’s body, by telling him to take a lump of figs, lay it on the boil, and he should recover.
“Following Instructions” was part of this answer, but this story is not without its tremendous supernatural aspects.
Hezekiah’s life was not only spared (he recovered), but an exact fifteen years added through God’s spoken word.
God additionally give him a miraculous sign that he was going to be healed and was to go into the house of the Lord the third day: The sundial shadow would be brought backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz.
Hezekiah chooses to have the sundial go
backward ten degrees, and God does it!
Only the one true God could make the sun go backward so that it was revealed on the sundial. This took a miracle within the heavens! This was something that only the true God of the Universe could do! Only the God who created the constellations in the first place could change their rotation!
Interestingly, Hezekiah definitely knew his God, and he was given a choice….a real stretching of his faith…would he ask God’s sign to be to move the shadow downward ten degrees, or backward ten degrees? Hezekiah considered it a “light thing” for God to move it downward so gave him a supposed “challenge” of moving it backward ten degrees. HE KNEW HIS GOD! He was having fun with Him, I think. I know from this, that HE
BELIEVED all things were possible! He wanted God to “show his stuff” to him. (smile) He gloried in His God. Truly. And he wanted to be sure he wasn’t going against God going back into his temple, so he gave him a challenging task to make sure he was aligned with God.
My friends, this is the same God we have the privilege of bringing our own prayers to! …A God who can extend life, take the life of our enemies, or remove them from our midst by his hand… even cause the sun moon and stars to obey this temporary command of rotating backward! Oh, my goodness! These acts of God are not small or trivial…but rather, amazing! breathtaking! beyond our imaginations!
It is remarkable that we, ourselves, would not pray as our FIRST response to anything we are facing that is challenging, threatening, or bad news. Let’s take to heart the example of Hezekiah in regard to prayer.
The scripture tells us that in these end times, “the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” (Daniel 11:32b)
Hezekiah is a good example of this, too, for II Kings 20:20 says:
“And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?”
These were definite “exploits” for his day. Hezekiah received favor from God to accomplish all this in his life…and peace and truth were in his days. Friends, he lived hundreds of years before Christ, and accomplished mighty acts! Imagine, if you prayed, what favor and exploits he could give you amidst the technology and knowledge of today? And if you have received the Holy Spirit, you can hear directly from Him!
Archaeologists have discovered Hezekiah’s tunnel
used to bring water into Jerusalem way back
when. The “favor of God” was upon him.
Before his fifteen additional years were up, God told him, through Isaiah, that after him, his sons and his house’s treasures would all be taken away into Babylonian captivity after he was gone. His response? “Good is the word of the Lord which has spoken. Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?”
In short, He knew His God. He knew his sons! They ended up doing evil in the sight of the Lord and undoing most of the good Hezekiah did. They were NOT like their father! Hezekiah knew it…
He, due to his obedient relationship to God and knowledge of God, realized the judgment God spoke on his future generations was a righteous judgment, and he did not even pray and try to change his mind. He just agreed,
“Good is the word of the Lord which has spoken.”
Do you know the heart of God? Toward you? Toward your future generations?
Are you trying to affect them? So they can enjoy the blessings of trusting God? or will they go into captivity of the enemy as Hezekiah’s generations and his house?
There is time, as long as there is life, to develop a relationship in prayer with Almighty God. But first, if not already done, you must be reconciled to God. He is approachable only through his son Jesus Christ, because sin separates men from God, and his hearing their prayers. John 9:31 says, “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.” and Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”
Yet there is good news!! God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. God loves you so much, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, so that if you believe in him who knew no sin, you are then made the righteousness of God in Him. The Word says you become a new creation…. old things pass away and all things become new. II Cor 5:17-21) When you believe in His Son, God clothes you in Christ’s righteousness, and this gift of righteousness now enables you to abide in Christ through obedience and faith. This is grace. God has made you accepted in his eyes, clean from your sins, for he sees you In Christ, while you are being made holy.
A glorious verse that gives understanding to this is Hebrews 10:14 “For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” The Position of being made perfect forever while you are in the process of being transformed and becoming holy, i.e., becoming like Jesus Christ, is “empowerment” my friends!! No condemnation need be if you set forth to “follow Christ” yet stumble due to ignorance of his will or immaturity in knowing what all the Word teaches. You are freed from sin in Christ so you will not keep sinning habitually. Your conscience won’t allow it, for the conviction of the Holy Spirit is a gift to you, so you can quickly repent and turn when you discover you have gone astray in some area of your life. This obedient heart is required to remain In Christ. The Word becomes your guidebook through life. It is exciting to become a Christian!
A whole new world opens up to you as you see things from God’s perspective. The best blessings? His Presence and Your Prayers Answered!
Baptism with water is then a commanded outward identification with Christ…for as you go under the water, you are buried with him by baptism into death… to sin, and you are raised up then, as in Christ’s resurrection, to walk in newness of life, freed from sin. (See Romans 6:3-14).
Next, the Holy Spirit is available to you as a child of God for the asking. Luke 11:13 says the Holy Spirit is a good gift, sent from the Father, to them that ask Him…if evil men know how to give “good gifts to their children” how much more does your new Father desire to give you a GOOD GIFT! His Spirit who comes to live within you, to empower you to be a witness! If you want to be prepared to walk through the days ahead in victory, ask for the Holy Spirit. Don’t worry about the phrases you may have heard of “baptized in the spirit”, “filled with the spirit”, or “washed in the spirit” right now, just ask FOR THE SPIRIT, Okay? (smile)
Remember how the prophet Isaiah spoke for God to Hezekiah in this story from the Old Testament? Well, although God does use his true prophets yet today, most of what the prophetic did in Old Testament times is accomplished by the Holy Spirit since Christ ascended. He is himself God, and the same Spirit that indwelt Christ without measure is now sent to live within you and I. Just think of that! The Spirit, unlike a man of flesh like a prophet is, is always near to draw upon. He can do “in us” what He did “in Christ”! The Spirit will be giving God’s messages to you directly, empowering you, giving you understanding into the will of God, helping you understand the Bible, and leading you into peace and truth. You will enjoy a “personal” relationship with Almighty God and live a new life of love toward others in obedience to his Spirit and to His Word.
You can hear directly from God’s Spirit regarding answers to prayer. You can be an example of prayer before your future generations. You can be taught how to pray by the Spirit, told when to pray, given groanings that will communicate your heart to God, and pray in tongues. 1 Corinthians 14:14-15 describes this new secret prayer language, saying “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.” and the practice of doing both kinds of praying: “I will pray with my spirit and also with my mind.” Prayer given from God through the Spirit brings forth God’s desired results, for the Spirit knows what we ought to pray, and also knows God’s perspective and desire to answer our cries according to His Will. What privilege we have of praying both ways to Almighty God.
In closing, I encourage you,
EMBRACE THE PRIVILEGE OF PRAYER TO THE ALL-POWERFUL GOD.
MAY YOU KNOW GOD…PRAY TO GOD…AND RECEIVE MIRACULOUS ANSWERS…
JUST AS HEZEKIAH DID.
Think 3 P’s – PPP – Prayer Provides Power…
The Power of Almighty God!
I’d like to share my Reigning Prayer CD with you and offer free streaming of the songs. I invite you to pray along with me, in your heart…then maybe with your voice, as you learn a song! The first song is gives divine perspective on prayer, but the others are actual prayers. Enjoy!
Here is that link:
Reigning Prayer CD – Elizabeth Ann Smith – Receive From Me
Please take the time to listen to this CD. If you haven’t the time now, download it to listen to at your convenience for it is free to download.