The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]. – James 5:16 (AMP)
Elijah was an old covenant prophet. He prayed that it should not rain and then it did not rain for three years. He prayed again and it rained. Elijah was a human being just like us according to James 5 verse 17, but his prayers were full of power. James 5 verse 16 explains why Elijah’s prayers were so powerful, it says, “The prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available.” Elijah knew that he was righteous in his stance before God! Elijah was still under the old covenant, which means that he only had a certain level of righteousness. Through the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross – the Holy, righteous, Son of God – we have received a gift of righteousness completely apart from our works. We simply need to believe in the One who justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5). I can just imagine the amount of power that will be released if we, that are in Christ, can fully believe that we are the righteousness of God. 2 Cor. 5 verse 21, “For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [[a]endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].” The only reason why we are not seeing power released when we pray is because our hearts are not yet convinced of the fact that God completely justified us and made us holy (Hebrews 10:10 & 14).
Now let us look at HOW Elijah prayed.
1 Kings 17 verse 1 says: “Elijah, the Tishbite, of the temporary residents of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before Whom I stand, there shall not be dew or rain these years but according to My word.” Again in 1 Kings 18 verse 41 Elijah said: “go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” Nowhere in these chapters do you find that Elijah asked God to stop or send the rain. There was no rain unless Elijah said so and it happened according to what he said. We have a relationship with Jesus so we can still ask Him, but I also want you to see the boldness and confidence that Elijah had in God.
In John 11 we read about Jesus that raised Lazarus from the dead. But you don’t see him praying a prayer and asking God to raise Lazarus. Jesus’ only words were, “Thank you Father that you have heard me.” On His way there, he said “Lazarus is only sleeping.” If you look at all the things that Jesus said while he was on his way to Lazarus, you will see that He was speaking out of His faith and trust in His Father and it happened just as He said. Jesus said, “Thank you that you always hear me.” He did not thank God for hearing Him sometimes. No! The word he used is ALWAYS. We think that God only listens to us when we address Him, but the truth is that He always hears us. He is attentively listening to everything we say, ready to bring His word to pass.
Let us never stop growing in a revelation of our righteousness in Christ. I want to encourage you to be bold and say what He says…
Thank you Father that you always hear us…