Elijah and Effective Prayer 1

If we went into the Christian world and said with three easy steps we will show you how to pray effectively and from that point onward your prayers will always be powerful and effective I wonder how big the queue would be or how much people would be willing to pay?

James 5:13-18 (Message)
Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master.
Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven—healed inside and out. Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.
Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.

One of the greatest discoveries we can make in studying the Bible is that God used people who were just like you and me. They were not some spiritual superman or superwoman but often weak human beings. It is this revelation that can personally inspire you and me to know that God can use even us today. Despite my sins, my faults, my weaknesses and my fears, God can so deeply work in my life that I can be an instrument in His hands. He does not wait until we become perfect, but as with Elijah He works through us even though we are still imperfect.

James says Elijah was 'human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again'.

So what was it about Elijah?
Elijah was an Old Testament prophet but his name appears 28 times in the New Testament and I think that is more than any other OT prophet (Isaiah 22; Jeremiah 3; Elisha who did 'more and greater miracles" only once). It is in this passage in James that the weakness of his humanity is fully shown. The Amplified version says "Elijah was a human being with a nature such as we have [with feelings, affections, and a constitution like ours]". Elijah was a person with emotions ranging from spiritual exhilaration to suicidal depression. He demonstrated incredible levels of faith but was also prone to absolute despair.

Who is Elijah?
So who is this man Elijah who is just like me and you? Elijah was the first in a long line of prophets God sent to Israel and Judah. (By this time the nation had split in two). Israel, the northern kingdom, had no faithful kings throughout its history. Each king was wicked, actually leading the people in worshiping pagan gods. There were few priests left from the tribe of Levi (most had gone to Judah), and the priests appointed by Israel's kings were corrupt and ineffective. With no king or priests to bring God's word to the people, God called prophets to try to rescue Israel from its moral and spiritual decline. For the next 300 years these men and women would play vital roles encouraging the people and leaders to turn back to God. We know nothing about Elijah's personal background – nothing about his birth, parents, or the call to the prophetic office is recorded.
Elijah the Courageous Elijah bursts on to the scene and declares to Ahab the king that there will be no rain or dew for the next few years except at his comman>To try to help understand what is going on we need to know a little about Ahab the king. If we quickly look back into the previous chapter (1 Kings16:30) we find that Ahab did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him he also married Jezebel daughter, of a foreign king and began to serve Baal and worship him. The set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. He also made an Asherah pole. People who worshiped Baal believed he was the god who brought the rains and bountiful harvests. So when Elijah walked into the presence of this Baal-worshiping king and told him there would be no rain for several years, Ahab was shocked. This was also a very courageous statement declaring the rain would come on his command. Even our weather forecasters with all their modern equipment can not tells us when its going rain with certainly never mind being able to control the rain!

Punishements
The drought was one of the punishments God had threatened if Israel abandons God and turned after other gods

Deut 11:16-17
Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the LORD's anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you. (See also Deut 28:23; Lev 26:19).

Some how I don't think Ahab believed Elijah at first but God know that he would need to keep Elijah safe and hides him besides a small brook and told him that he had ordered the ravens to feed him twice a day with bread and water. God did not use a dove but an unclean bird to feed his anointed one. The widow and her family. Elijah is enjoying God's provision and protection and he becomes aware that even the brook is drying up. God tells Elijah to go to a town near Sidon which was in control of Jezebels" sinful father, where the famine also existed and that a widow will provide for him. I wonder what Elijah's mental image of the widow was as he went on his way. May be it was that she rich husband had died and left her with loads of money, lots of animals and property and he would be well taken care of. Let's read this faith inspiring verse; this is the widows reply for a little water and bread

1 Kings 17:12 (NIV) As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die."

God what have you done?
Why have you brought me here?
Do you want me to curl up and die also?
All were valid question for Elijah to ask but he stands strong in his faith.
Provision
The Jews were required to care for their prophets, it is ironic that God turned to ravens (unclean birds) and a widow (a foreigner from Jezebel's home territory) to care for Elijah. God has help where we least expect it. He provides for us in ways that go beyond our narrow definitions or expectations.
No matter how bitter our trials or how seemingly hopeless our situation, we should look for God's caring touch.
We may find his divine intervention in some strange places!
Again God provides for Elijah but this time Elijah has enough to give away as well. Elijah tells the widow that the jar of flour and jug of oil will not run out until the Lord gives rain on the land.
The widow could have said 'I don't know you why should I put myself out for you leave me and my son alone, let us die in peace'. But she went away and did as Elijah asked her and there was food every day for the widow, her son and Elijah. The flour and the oil did not run out. For one meal she gave Elijah, God, by miraculous increase of the little stock, afforded many more to her.

Jesus said in (Matthew 10:41-42). Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.
Elijah the Carer
Even when God has done a miracle in our lives, our troubles may not be over. The famine was a terrible experience, but the worst was yet to come. God's provision is never given in order to let us rest upon it. We need to depend on him as we face each new trial.
The woman comes and complains bitterly to Elijah 'What have I done that my son should die"
The Power of Prayer and the Power of Him who hears prayer.
Elijah took the boy and cried out to the Lord, he earnestly prayed that the boys" life would return to him.
Not once but three times he prayed for life to come back to the boy.
Elijah prayed with all of his might, this was not some little pray offered to God in hope that he might do something if it pleases him. They were not dutiful prayers of a person, whose mind was occupied with a thousand and one other issues.
No Elijah prayed with every fibre of his body, he passionately cried out to God from the very depths of his heart.
What a great verse.
1 Kings 17:22 (MSG).
God listened to Elijah's prayer and put breath back into his body—he was alive

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