Throughout His Word, our Lord instructs us, his children, to pray to him with fervency and to “keep on praying” until our prayers are responded to. The prayers don’t always originate from our desires, though some do. But in these last days, many intercessors are also being prompted by the Holy Spirit to pray forth the purposes of Almighty God. He being the one who initiates the prayer.
We are all familiar with James 5:16b which states:
“The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
What some of us may not have realized is the example mentioned following that verse: that of Elijah’s prayer for rain. James 5:17 tells us:
“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.
Remember this! He was just like you and me! The scripture goes out of the way to tell us in the New Testement that this was so! We interpret scripture by scripture.
So why is this emphasized for you and me? Because it wasn’t something just applicable to ancient days! It IS applicable to us. I’ll go on to explain just what IS applicable (smile):
He prayed for rain to stop, and it did.
Then, after 3 ½ years he prayed for it to rain again, and it did.
Can we conclude that God heard his prayers?
Yes, Indeed! God, himself, does not want us to come to any other conclusion!
This story is mentioned in I Kings 18:41-46, and by looking at this passage, we can see how Elijah sets our example of this type of praying. It says in both our passages that Elijah prayed “earnestly”. In other words, he was putting his heart and soul into his prayer, knew the power and the authority of the One he was praying to, and believed that he would receive the answer to his prayer. The adverb earnestly is defined as “with sincere and intense conviction; seriously” and it is fervency to show great emotion or zeal regarding something.
Let’s now focus a moment on Elijah:
I Kings 18:41 lets us know that the Lord gave Elijah a prompting in his spirit to pray for the rain. It also lets us know Elijah walked in full assurance that God was going to answer his prayer, for Elijah says to Ahab, even BEFORE he went up to pray: “there is the sound of abundance of rain”. He walked in faith.
Let’s look at that verse, I Kings 18:41…
“And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.”
We know the fervency of Elijah’s prayer from verse 42, for it infers he probably went without food or drink to pray, for Ahab went up to eat and drink, and they parted ways… Elijah heading up to the top of the mountain to pray.
He went into the travail or birthing position, which is described as him kneeling and putting his face between his knees.
I will type I Kings 18:42 below so you can see how it reads in the Word:
As God’s people, please be aware, that if the Holy Spirit should come upon you and cause you to feel as if you are “doubling over” or like your stomach is “cramping down”, just allow yourself to pray in the Spirit this way. Go down on your knees if it is the position He wants you to take. Use your prayer language if impressed to do so. Realize that this is an anointing of travail that God is giving many of his faithful intercessors. Do not let fear of the unknown keep you from obeying the Spirit. As you surrender, He will greatly use you to pray forth His Purposes. I, myself, have been used to pray this way. Did I know what I was praying for? Sometimes yes, sometimes no... But the Spirit of God knew why He was moving upon me.
And he said, Go again seven times.
He did not “leave his position” in prayer, even to check for the answer, but rather, had his servant “go up” and look for the response of God. The servant went over and over in response to Elijah’s inquiries. We know not how far he had to “go up” and the time that had elapsed, but we do know that this back and forth checking went on for seven times! During this period Elijah focused completely on his praying AND HE DID EXPECT AN ANSWER!
In fact, he had determined in his heart that he was going to keep praying UNTIL God responded. This type of effectual, fervent praying of a righteous man does avail much! It also takes a lot of physical energy… it’s not just the rattling off a few pat phrases nonchalantly…but comes from the very core of your being.
Yet, verse 46 says, that after this prayer that drained so much from Elijah, the Power of the Lord came upon him, and he ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot to Jezreel (20 miles away)! Wow! God will renew your strength too, as He uses you to pray forth His purposes.
In recent years, we are also noticing a move of the Spirit in the area of praying “in tears”. In worship, or in their prayer times, intercessors are feeling suddenly grieved in their spirit and just begin to weep, cry, or even wail. What they then realize is that it is not their emotion, but rather the heart of God that they are experiencing. The Holy Spirit is using them to “pray in tears” God’s heart toward the nations and toward his people. Brothers and sisters, if you are chosen to receive these anointings, do not be afraid, but rather consider it a privilege to be used by the Almighty God to birth forth his purposes in this day and hour.
This is not the kind of praying that you can work up. It is the kind of praying that the Holy Spirit does through you, often with groanings and loud cries that may even surprise or startle you, for it is an anointing of the Holy Spirit that comes upon you and works in you. Do not stand in judgment over a man or woman in your church is praying in this way either. It may not be a style of prayer that you are used to, but please be sensitive to what God may be doing in your midst and be respectful of the Holy Spirit.
Another example of fervent and persistent prayer is found in II Kings 4:32-35, where we read of Elisha’s praying for a boy who died. He went in, shut the door on the two of them, and prayed. In response to his prayer, God must have told him to lay upon the boy, for that’s what he did and the boy grew warm. But then the scriptures tell us that he “walked back and forth in the room”, and then “once again” stretched forth over the child. Saints, a fervent, effectual prayer may fill you with so much “energy” that all you can do is to pace… praying earnestly as you pace. I’ve been in many a prayer meeting where the men and women of God would literally walk up and down aisles or around the church inside or outside, because this was the type of prayerful anointing they were under. The power of God so consumes you as you pray that you can’t sit down! Many an intercessor has worn a pathway in their carpeting by praying with this kind of fervor. And many times, as was in the case of Elisha who brought a dead boy back to life, such praying brings forth the miraculous! Be obedient to whatever God tells you to do if you are praying for a particular person or situation, as God may well give you an instruction, just as he did Elisha, as he obeyed to lay upon the boy’s body.
Hebrews 4:16 is a verse that can give us all confidence:
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
If we truly believe, when we pray, we will see the miraculous power of God released through our prayers. In particular, those prayers done under an anointing of the Holy Spirit upon us. Prayed “in the spirit” and not “in the flesh”. Prayed many times in secret before God and not necessarily before men. Men may see the result of your “secret place” praying though.
Your reward will be the joy of seeing the answering of your prayers! It brings great joy! Of course, your Father may reward you in other ways too! It says so here in the word.
Jesus himself taught us that it pleased the Father to be persistent and fervent in our prayers. The introduction of the “persistent widow” parable found in Luke 18:1-8, tells us that Jesus told this parable so that we should “always pray” and “not give up”. The widow got justice because she kept bothering the judge, kept asking over and over, and never gave up! It was he who relented, not her. We need to follow this example when we pray too.
Look at how Christ closed out that lesson in verse 8 though… this is quite sobering:
“However when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Our fervency and persistence is definitely an indication of our faith, for who will keep asking for something he never expects to get?
Let’s do a “faith check”, my friends. Are we approaching the throne of grace confident that God will grant our requests, whether they be for ourselves or others?
Jesus teaches the importance of boldness and persistence in his words of Luke 11:5-8 also. He tells of a man asking another man for bread to feed his company. The man being asked had already gone to bed, shut off his lights, etc. but because of the friend’s boldness and persistence he got up and gave him all the bread he wanted. Note, scripture reveals it was not the relationship as much as the persistence that got the friend his bread. The lesson ends with these well-known words instructing us to “Ask and it will be given unto you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened unto you.”
With such a promise and exhortation from the lips of Christ Jesus, let us begin our prayer lives afresh!
And let’s make a difference in this world we live in as we see and experience the power of God released in response to our earnest prayers.