Elijah’s Prayer: An Answered Prayer!
“And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind and there was a great rain.”
Wow! This is the most beautiful part. Elijah got his request in prayer! He prayed unto the God of heaven and the heaven responded with rain! This is nothing but the faithfulness of God! Only God could that and He did it! Beloved, God is faithful. When we do our own part correctly in prayer, God automatically fulfills His own part. He is a constant factor, there is no shadow of turning with Him.
God has nowhere in the history of man called men to seek Him in vain. No, not God! He is neither a time-waster nor a liar. He says, “Ask and ye shall receive.” “For thus says the LORD that created the heavens: God himself that formed the earth and made it, he hath established, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. I have not spoken in secrete in dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain” (Ish 45: 18,19). This is the integrity of God! God wants to answer prayer.
God is not like the sons of men who promise and fail; when He says anything, he actually stays by it to make it true! Nowhere has He said that if you call He will not answer except where iniquity is lurking in the heart and life of the one praying. God is a God that answers prayer. He watches over His word to fulfill it and also delights in the prayer of His saints; more willing and ready to answer than you are willing to ask. He will answer you because He wants to be glorified in your life and situation. God wants to put Satan to shame and ridicule his power by demonstrating Christ victory over him. But you must ask in prayer! Jesus says, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (Jhn. 14:13). Imagine the word ‘whatsoever’. It means there is nothing too menial or big that you cannot discuss with God in prayer…as long as it is in accordance with His word!
Children of God, God wants to answer our prayer. Countless number of saints in time past and in our contemporary time abounds with testimonies of answered prayer! Yours also cannot be an exception because the God who answered them is the same yesterday, today and forever! Today as before, “Thus saith the Lord, the Maker thereof, the Lord that formed it to establish it; the Lord is his name: call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jer. 33:2,3). May the Lord really help us to so call unto Him from a righteous heart and according to His will; full of expectation; with a desperate and serious attitude; without distraction of body and mind; with importunity and great faith; so that our lives can be filled with experiences and testimonies of great and mighty things which we have not known before!
Thus Elijah prayed and became a pattern unto all that will desire heaven’s quick response when they pray! “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”
Dimensions of Elijah’s Prayer
There are two very crucial dimensions to the prayer of Elijah:
“…and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not…”
That it might not… What are those things that ought not to be in your life but are present as living experiences? – Things that seem like tares in the wheat of your life. What are those things and situations that spring up sorrow and tears and have become monuments of shame in your life? By prayer you can speak to them no longer to be!
The scripture says whatsoever you decree on earth shall be established unto you. You have the awesome power in prayer to decide the time duration of their existence in your life. What are those things that ought not to be? It came to a time in the life of Jabez when he decided to put an end to what ‘Jabez’ connotes in his life. For Jacob, it was a night when he also decided to end the 20yrs old enmity between him and his vengeful brother-Esau. Hannah also was not left out in the list of those who put an end to the existence of those things that ought not to be. You too can join this train of happy throng. You have the access and the promise to do so. “Jesus answered and said unto them, verily I say unto you, if you have faith and doubt not…ye shall say unto this mountain be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matt. 21:21-22). This is the authority that permits you to walk out anything that ought not to be in your life, family, career, ministry and environment. Heaven is waiting for you.
“…and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain…
This is the second dimension of Elijah’s prayer- that there should be rain! I’m quite sure you also desire the shower of the rain of blessings upon the land of your life. Are there good things absent in your life, family, business and ministry, the lack of which has incapacitated you in one way or the other; like Elijah, you also can pray them to be! “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). Whatever good thing that ought to be in your life can be supplied by your Heavenly Father. Be it wife, husband, children, job, admission, promotion, spiritual gifts and graces- you just name it; they are all available in the inexhaustible treasure store of the Father of lights. “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him” (Matt. 7:11).
Beloved, God wants to open heaven for the rain of every good and perfect gift but only in response to the prayers of His saints. Please, note that crying or worrying about a situation is not praying. Wishing for something is not praying. Until we speak to God over our situation or our needs, we have not prayed! God wants you to pray. Likewise the purpose of this book even as you read is to this end: to motivate, inspire, encourage and help you to pray and turn your life around for good by the awesome power of prayer. If a fresh passion is not rising within you to pray after reading this book, then the purpose for which it is written is forfeited in your life. But I do pray and trust God to use this little treatise on prayer to inspire you to rise up and change your destiny for good by the provision of prayer.
Are you ready to pray? Wait for the last episode!
