The Power in Praying
“Elijah was a human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.” James 5:17-18 NLT
In these verses, we continue to hear James speak of the power in praying for God’s will to be done.
We Christians know – God’s will is God’s word.
Thus, in order to have power in our prayers, we simply need to be right with God and our prayers need to line up with the word of God, ultimately asking for God’s will to be done in the situation.
James specifically shares Elijah’s example. Elijah, a man of God, whose name means “The Lord is God”—prayed for no rain to fall for three and half years? We all may ask the question “Why”? As his action, sounds cruel. If the land is dry and barren with no rain, the Israelites would not have an abundant crop to harvest and there would be a famine in the land.
What we need to realize is Elijah’s prayer was not his own will. He was not playing God, like many are today who desire their will over others in a type of spiritual dominance —as they seek to conquer people and force submission to their will and way; showing they are ruled by carnal desires and not by the Lord. This power play, unfortunately, is taking place amongst Christians with many suffering in silence and it is spiritual abuse. The person desiring to dominate spiritually, was tested spiritually and shows to be idolatrous in their alpha type desire for dominance over. The fact remains – this is not how the church unifies. This is not the way of God for ordained leadership, showing ignorance, incompetence, biblical illiteracy, and absolute disrespect and a lack of love for the person they are victimizing. The person seeking to dominate is unruly and blind in pride. It’s more of a feel good for them, serving their prideful ego, if they think they accomplished their goal of subduing you.
It’s not the way. We Christians come alongside each other in fellowship, knowing God shows no partiality, and we stir one another up to love and good works.
If you do experience this spiritual abuse, the best step to take is to tell your pastor so that he can pray for you and address it if it needs to be addressed. If it is the pastor who is doing this to you, you need to tell the elders. It is really heartbreaking the amount of spiritual abuse that is taking place today, as it is destructive to the witness of the church in an unholy world. It is abuse of power, showing many people desiring God’s power over others, while never holding His love. They desire authority minus the responsibility that comes with authority. It is absolute spiritual immaturity.
Pride is rampant in every spiritual circle, every domination, every church, amongst Christian teachers, and worship leaders etc. Blind pride, however, forgets why the church is in the world right now, what unity is and has obviously forgotten what humble leadership looks like – as it’s destructive path undermines the livelihoods of believers, making them weak and easy prey for the enemy.
God is perfect in knowledge and with that we all should rejoice. He sees all, knows all. Therefore, if you are suffering due to this spiritual abuse, rest assured that God knows and He is not ok with it.
When Elijah prayed for no rain to fall, he obeyed God. At this time in history, the Israelites were sinning against the Lord, idolizing Baal. God specifically sent Elijah to confront this idolatry and to remind the Israelites that there was only one God.
What did God require of the Israelites?
Deuteronomy 10:12 tells us, God required the Israelites to fear Him, to live in a way that pleased Him, to love Him, serve Him with their whole heart and obey His commands—as God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords and shows no partiality.
In Deuteronomy 11:16-17, the Israelites were told, “But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the LORD and serve and worship other gods. If you do, the LORD’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests. Then you will quickly die in that good land the LORD is giving you.”
Throughout Deuteronomy, God repeatedly exhorted the Israelites to not forget Him when they entered the promised land – to not have any other gods before Him.
But they failed to obey Him. Thus, we see here Elijah, who was sent by God to confront their idolatry, simply praying in line with God’s will to correct that idolatry. For this idolatry, God wanted the rains to stop in order to correct the adulterous behavior.
Therefore, James is simply emphasizing the power in knowing God’s word when you are praying.
Truly, “the power in prayer is found in God’s Word, not our voice; it’s God’s voice, not our words.” (VanderWeerd, Mountaintop Mornings, 2018)
Do any Scripture verses come to your mind right now, regarding how we are to live our life? If they do – pray those verses for yourself, family, friends, church, and the government leaders. There is so much power in praying Scripture.
Prayer: Abba, thank You for Your word. We ask for Your will to be done today in our lives, our friends lives, our church and government. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
