Cecil A. Fayard
Elliott Baptist Church
May 22, 2005
Praying With Power
James 5:16b-18
INTRO: Elijah was a man of prayer; his prayers were not anemic babblings; his prayers were powerful.
Can men today have effective, powerful, God reaching prayer lives? The Word of God says yes. James chapter five says yes.
First Kings chapters seventeen and eighteen tells how that Ahab and Jezebel led Israel into sin, away from God, and into Baal worship. The Lord God punishes sin, and He punished Israel’s sin by withholding rain for three and one-half years.
The Bible tells us that God’s man Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal up on Mount Carmel (I Ki 18:22-40). Whose God would answer by fire? Jehovah God or Baal. The priests of Baal cried all day to their false God. They even cut themselves with knives trying to get an answer out of Baal. But no answer came.
At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah, God’s prophet, fixed the altar and prepared the sacrifice. Then God’s man prayed 64 words (I Ki 18:36b-37) and fire came down from heaven above and consumed the sacrifice (I Ki 18:38), proving that Jehovah is God, the true God (I Ki 18:39).
Israel was still in need of a miracle; they needed rain. Again Elijah went to the top of Mount Carmel; he fell before God and prayed. Seven times Elijah sent his servant to look for evidence of rain. Seven is the number of perfection, and the seventh time that the servant went he saw a little cloud, a cloud like a man’s hand (I Ki 18:44). Soon after this, God sent a great rain. Friends, you and I need to pray for and expect the "showers of blessing."
James 5:16b-18 tells us about Elijah’s prayer life, and it tells us how our prayer life needs to be.
I. VS 16b, PRAYER NEEDS TO BE FERVENT.
A. Fervent means "much strong."
1. Fervent means, "to put heart and soul into prayer."
2. A. T. Robertson says that we are to pray as though we were fleeing with all speed.
a. As a track runner, football player, and basketball player gives it his all. This makes a winner. This is how we need to pray.
b. Prayer needs to come from a heart that is on fire for God.
1- Psalm 42:1-2.
2- A heart in touch with God is needed.
3. Fervency is prayer will produce:
a. Fervency in Spirit, the desire to serve God. Rom 12:11.
b. Fervency in love. I Pet 4:7-8.
B. The prayer of a righteous man gets results.
1. The righteous man is:
a. Godly– seeks God’s will, not his own.
b. Separated– from the world.
c. Non-compromising– doctrinally.
2. The results of prayer:
a. If you want power in the church, pray.
b. If you want power in the pulpit, pray.
c. If you want power in the nation, pray.
d. There is energao– energy– power in prayer.
e. W. A. Criswell: "We go farthest when we go on our knees."
II. VS 17, PRAYER NEEDS TO BE EARNEST.
A. Elijah was a man of like passions.
1. He was a man like us. He faced victories and defeats, ups and downs.
a. He was angry with Ahab and Jezebel.
b. He ridiculed the false prophets of Baal (I Ki 18:27).
c. In fury, he destroyed the high places of idolatry in Israel.
d. In a passion of intercessory prayer, he asked God for rain upon a thirsty earth.
e. In a passion of ecstasy, he ran before the chariot of Ahab from Carmel to Jezreel– thirty miles.
f. In despondency and melancholia, he ran from Jezebel and sat in grief and despair under a juniper tree (I Ki 19:4).
g. He was a man of passions, yet he was a man of prayer.
2. Elijah had frustration, irritations, problems, trials, and temptations just like you and I, yet he was a man of prayer.
B. Elijah prayed earnestly.
1. Elijah meant business with God.
2. Earnestly means "to weep out to God." Elijah was serious about prayer; we should be too.
3. Elijah was determined and concerned in prayer. No just words, but heart. Not vain repetitions.
C. Elijah prayed specifically.
1. Elijah prayed for it not to rain (I Ki 17:1).
a. He knew what to pray because he was in touch with God.
b. Many do not know what God is saying because their spiritual eyes are blinded by the things of the world.
c. To pray specifically, we must listen and hear from God.
2. When we mean business with God and are willing to seek His will, not our own, then God will use us as prayer warriors (Jer 33:3).
III. VS 18, PRAYER NEEDS TO BE PERSISTENT
A. Elijah was persistent in prayer.
1. Elijah prayed and prayed again (Jm 5:17-18).
2. On Mount Carmel, Elijah continued to pray for rain until his servant reported, "a cloud the size of a man’s hand."
a. Often we fail to get what God promises because we stop praying.
b. Our Lord prayed three times in the garden.
c. Men of power in prayer must be persistent in prayer. George Mueller and John Hyde made a difference through prayer.
B. Be persistent in prayer. Keep knocking; keep praying (Mt 7:7-8).
IV. PRAYER NEEDS TO EXPECT AN ANSWER.
A. Pray believing.
1. Elijah prayed in faith; God told him he would send rain.
2. Robert Law said: "Prayer is not getting man’s will done in heaven. It’s getting God’s will done on earth."
3. Do not separate the Word of God from prayer. The Word of God gives us the promises we claim when we pray.
B. God wants to answer prayer.
1. Children need to see God answer prayer.
2. God answered Elijah’s prayer of faith (I Ki 18:36-39).
C. God wants to bless us through prayer.
1. God wants to bless you and I.
2. We need the showers of blessing from God through prayer.
3. God blessed Hannah’s prayer and gave her Samuel.
4. God wants to bless us with spiritual fruit.
a. Souls saved.
b. The fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace (Gal 5:22-23).
CONCLUSION: God wants to bless you through a persistent life of prayer.
For additional copies of the sermon CD's, please contact the church office:
Elliott Baptist Church
566 Nat G. Troutt Road
Elliott, Mississippi 38901
Phone: 662-226-4425
Pastors Email: cecilafayard@msn.com