(1) INTRODUCTION
James 5 is telling believers to pray “Earnestly or unceasingly”. Thus, there are many theologies building on this. It sounds like so long as believers pray unceasingly, earnestly, they shall guarantee blessed in whatsoever they pray for.
Let’s consider the verses below:-
| James 5:13-17 NIV 13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a RIGHTEOUS PERSON IS POWERFUL AND EFFECTIVE. 17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed EARNESTLY that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. |
Importantly, in the preceding verse, in verse 16, Apostle James is saying “The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective”.
Furthermore, a few of the translations like RSV, NIV, and NTL are having a subtitle on verses 13-19 as “The prayer of faith or the power of faith”. Thus, Apostle James is talking about faith prayer in the context.
(2) QUESTION
The question is, should believers not get what they prayed for, does it mean that they are not “RIGHTEOUS”, or no FAITH?
Maybe the pulpits will then tell believers to pray harder, step out by faith or say God is having better blessings for them. Anyway, people like to claim that God’s role is to always bless Christians abundantly far “ABOVE THEIR EXPECTATIONS AND IMAGINATIONS”.
Some might even say “IN HIS TIME”, all the believers’ prayers shall be answered.
Before we help God with much more guessing, suggestions, or offering our conventional wisdom, let’s look at the context from the actual event in First King chapter 18. Ultimately, we don’t want to be Job’s friends, right?
Let’s examine 1 King 18:1-2
| 1 King 18:1-2 1 After some time, in the third year of the drought, the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and present yourself to King Ahab, and I WILL SEND RAIN.” 2 So Elijah started out. The famine in Samaria was at its worst, |
(3) SPOKEN PROMISE WORD
Obviously, long before Elijah prayed for the rain, God told him to present himself to King Ahab and that God the Almighty will send rain.
Concisely, the promise of the Almighty came before Elijah started praying. That means Elijah was just responding to God’s calling. He heard God. Simple as that.
The praying of the rain was a God-directed activity. Elijah wasn’t praying impromptu. Neither did Elijah able to command when the rain came or when it shall be stopped by praying unceasingly.
By means of this, should the promise of God not activate first, the rain shall not come, no matter how much Elijah prayed unceasingly. If it is not so, Christians can actively pray against climate change now.
(4) KING AHAB
The context of the story was that the Northern King Ahab sinned against the Lord more than any of his predecessors (1 King 16:29-30). He married Jezebel, the daughter of pagan King Ethbaal of Sidon. She was a worshiper of Baal, the pagan god of fertility. And she prosecuted and beheaded prophets of the Almighty God.
Under Jezebel’s condoning and malevolent influence, King Ahab provoked God’s anger by building an altar for Baal and bowed down, worshiping Baal and making an image of goddess Asherah (1 King 16:30-33). Thus, God inflicted a three-year drought as Elijah prophesied (1 King 17:1).
(5) VIOLATION
Clearly, King Ahab violated many of God’s commandments that rain be withheld. One of these was in Deuteronomy 11 read below:-
| Deuteronomy 11:16-17 GNT 16 Do not let yourselves be led away from the Lord to worship and serve other gods. 17 If you do, the Lord will become angry with you. HE WILL HOLD BACK THE RAIN, and your ground will become too dry for crops to grow. Then you will soon die there, even though it is a good land that he is giving you. |
Indeed, First King chapter 18 unfolded a beautiful and famous story of Elijah’s prayer. All in all, Elijah’s prayer demonstrated 3 crucial points.
(6) CHARACTERISTICS OF ELIJAH’S PRAYER
It is like a Three Legged Stool. Short of any component, it might not be working well. These three pointers are:-
-The paramount of the spoken promise word or call of God.
-Acting on God’s spoken word persistently is known as faith
-Back up with the life of worshiping.
With the mandate from the Lord for the promise of rain, Elijah acted with faith. He put his faith in God’s spoken promise with action. What kind of faith did Prophet Elijah demonstrate then?
- He not only presented himself to Obadiah but also to prophets beheading King Ahab.
- He dared to be boastful, mocking, and arrogant to Baal and Asherah’s prophets.
- He dared to challenge and talked back to King Ahab that he wasn’t the one who disobey but the King was (1 King 18:17-18). Bear in mind that both the King and Queen were after him to be beheaded.
- Seven times, he sent his servant to the seaside to look for the cloud. Even without clouds forming, he took faith to tell King Ahab that he heard the rain and told him to run with his chariot before being caught in the heavy downpour (1 King 18:43-44).
That reminds us of Hebrews 11:6 which says “No one can please God without faith, for whoever comes to God must have faith that God exists and rewards those who seek him (GNT).
Well, Elijah authenticated the true meaning of “FAITH and praying UNCEASINGLY”.
Faith is not a positive, optimistic mindset. Neither is what the “Word of Faith Movement” teaches in calling things into existence by “Proclamation or Declaration” with a positive Believers Authority mindset.
Faith is acting in God’s spoken or written promise. Once again, modern teaching is telling believers to focus on the written word alone. But in the story of Elijah, he received a tangible, spoken promise word from the Lord. It is not about the written code.
Similarly, most people of the hall of faith in Hebrews 11, mostly received spoken promises in vision, in dreams, or by audibly spoken word from God. Not on the written word alone. And today, the Holy Spirit is the representative of God on earth to communicate and talk with believers. God is still giving His revelations, and visions to individuals. Do not box God at one corner.
(7) RELATIONSHIPS AND DEVOTION
Hence, it is paramount for Christians to develop personal relationships and devotion to Him. Actively seeks Him. Hear Him. He is still talking, giving believers His revelation. It is not just proclaiming His word by meditation, by reciting God’s word. Some of those meditations are just stealing other promises. Those promises might be just for specific people but weren’t for all individuals.
Without personal relationships and discernment of the Lord, I don’t think Prophet Hosea reacted positively to marrying a harlot (Hosea 1:2).
No matter how modern teaching likes to paraphrase the story of the marriage of Hosea as God married a prostituting Israelite. The fact was Hosea married a harlot. Try telling your Pastor that God wants you to marry a prostitute. See what his reaction is?
Likewise Peter in killing and eating the animals. Clearly, to Apostle Peter, it was against His written word
Indeed, both Hosea and Peter encountered God against His written word. To marry a harlot is sexually immoral, whether in the New or the Old.
Should believers like to proclaim on the written word alone, they shall walk on the water like Peter did, right? No, the truth is that Peter acted on Jesus’ spoken word. That promise or calling is not for all Christians.
(8) WORSHIPING
Next, praying unceasingly is not without worshiping. In fact, Elijah set up the altar before starting to pray in 1 King 18:31-37. Verse 31-32 as below:-
| 1 King 18:31-32 GNT 31 He took twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes named for the sons of Jacob, the man to whom the Lord had given the name Israel. 32 With these stones he rebuilt the altar for the worship of the Lord. |
(9) SUMMARY
Certainly, prayers have to be persistent or earnest. But as believers, we ought to know if we are holding on to God’s promises or arm-twisting God for our own desires. Are we pursuing our own dreams, and building our own castles in the air or God’s intention? Are we, as believers can open our mouths big and ask God to pour down all His guaranteed blessings?
There again, should Elijah not take heed to God’s calling, I don’t think rain shall be pouring then. It takes two hands to clap.
Obviously, prayer is multifactorial. There are quite a few examples in the Bible of persistent prayers. These are:-
-The parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8)
-Pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
-Ask, seek knock (Matthew / Luke 11:1-13)
-Jabez’s prayer in (1 Chronicle 3:9-10),
-etc
Not all of these prayers are God-ordained spoken word. Some are from the written word to obtain it. We need to discern those. We shall be exploring those separately again.
(10) COLSING-SINS CONFESSION
In closing, James 5:16 is saying “CONFESS YOUR SINS to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed…”
The modern teaching can apply James 5:14 in anointing members with oil for the deliverance but distancing themselves in sins confession.
Isn’t it annoying?
Isn’t that partial bible quoting?
Without a doubt, healing and confession of sins, in some cases, go hand in hand. Obviously, to those theologists that believe healing is over, James 5 is not for them either. Need not follow James’ instruction in confessing their sins and pray unceasingly for those theologists as well.
Through the years, one of the theologies is saying believers need to take up Elijah’s posture in prayer. To a certain degree, I do believe in kneeling in prayer. However, if it is not God’s directive, the prayers shall not be answered no matter what posture he adopts. Of course, the directive can be from His written or spoken word.
To say that Elijah is in the Old and is no longer validated for the New is not true. The name of Jezebel is mentioned by Jesus in the New (Revelation 2:20). God might be withholding “rain” in an individual’s life because of sins under the New Covenant. That’s why James is urging believers for sins confession.
From time to time, we witness the mercy and grace of God even when we are caught in sins. For instance, King Ahab found sinning against the Lord more than any of his predecessors (1 King 16:29-30), yet God allowed him to reign for 22 years (1 King 16:29).
Again, there wasn’t any repentance in the heart of King Ahab, but out of His mercy, He still sent rain after 3 years of great drought. All but on His grace, mercy, and sovereignty. Not to be taken for granted. Amenbibe
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