THE MOTIVATING INFLUENCE OF PRAYER’S UNLIMITED POTENTIAL
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on October 16, 2024 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: October 16, 2024 from James 5:13-18
Theme: We become greatly motivated to pray when we understand biblically what effective prayer can do.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
James’ letter is a wonderfully ‘pastoral’ letter. It’s filled with wise and practical spiritual counsel to God’s people. In it, Pastor James wrote about many different areas of Christian living. But the one that he addressed in the passage before us is strategic. It affects all the other areas of Christian living because it concerns the most powerful resource—aside from Himself—that God has made available to His church. It’s a resource that can be applied to any trial or circumstance that Christians can ever encounter—and even before they encounter them. It’s a resource that has the power to transform the one who uses it from the inside out, and to empower him or her to do whatever it is that God commands to be done. It’s the resource that gives earth-bound, time-bound, frail human beings like us the potential of bringing about eternal results in the heavens. It’s the resource that constitutes a greater force for good than any other force on earth; because it actually allows human beings to move the hand of the Almighty God to sovereignly work His will through their circumstances, to supply their every need, to lift and sustain their spirits, and to even transform the hearts of other people who are otherwise closed to God. It’s the one great resource that unlocks the effectiveness of all the other resources that God has ever given to us—and upon which our successful use of those other resources absolutely depends.
This resource is prayer—the greatest and most powerful resource God has ever entrusted to humankind. In James 5:14-18, Pastor James wrote;
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit (James 5:14-18).
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Many of us who are followers of Jesus learned those words very early in our faith: “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Our confidence in the truth of those words has often compelled us to pray to God in some of our most desperate times of need … confident that God heard and would answer. And that is a confidence based on good biblical precedent. Consider for a moment just a few of the remarkable things that the Bible tells us have been done by effective, fervent prayer:
– When a consolidation of Amorite kings sought to attack Joshua, and when he was promised by God that those kings would be given into his hand, he prayed in the heat of the conflict that the sun would stand still in the sky until he had completely won the battle. And what happened?
So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel (Joshua 10:13-14).
– When Elijah was being helped by a widow of the town of Zerephath, and her son suddenly became sick and died, the prophet prayed. He prayed with great effort of body and agony of heart to God for restoration of the boy’s life. And what happened?
Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives!” Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth” (1 Kings 17:22-24).
– When the city of Jerusalem was being surrounded by the dreaded armies of Assyria, godly King Hezekiah laid their threats before the Lord—in the house of God—through prayer. He prayed earnestly that God would hear their threats, save His people, and honor His name. God testified to the king through the prophet Isaiah that He heard his prayers. And what happened?
Then the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead (Isaiah 37:36).
– When the apostle Peter was informed that a much-loved Christian woman named Tabitha, in the city of Lydda, had suddenly died, he went up to the place where her body was laid; and he prayed for her—carefully following the example that he saw in the Lord Jesus in another such instance (see Luke 8:54). And what happened?
And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord (Acts 9:40-42).
Our use of prayer—this most marvelous and powerful of all resources—was endorsed to us by the Lord Jesus Himself in the strongest terms. In Matthew 7:7-11, He said,
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7-11).
In John 15:7, He told His disciples,
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7).
And in verse 16, He said,
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you” (v. 16).
And so, as a good pastor, James exhorted those under his care to avail themselves fully of this resource and to put it to use in everyday life. His words teach us a principle: We become greatly motivated to pray when we understand biblically what effective prayer can do.
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Now; our look at this passage is going to involve a portion of what we looked at in our last lesson. When we considered verses 13-16, we saw the broad pattern of what our Christian faith would look like in action if we truly believe that our mighty God is present with us in the various details of life. In this lesson, we’ll focus on that same basic idea—but with a specific view of prayer. How would our prayer life look in action if we understood what prayer can actually do?
We see this laid out to us in three ways: (1) through an example of its practice, (2) an expression of its potential, and (3) an illustration of its power. First, then, look at …
1. AN EXAMPLE OF PRAYER’S PRACTICE.
The example that Pastor James gave is that of prayer for the healing of sickness. In verses 14-15, he wrote; “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”
Note carefully that it’s God’s people who are called to pray; but that it’s the Lord Himself who “will raise” the sick person. The power does not lie in the prayer itself, but in the One to whom the prayer of faith is made. As Peter once declared, when a lame man was healed,
“Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus … And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all” (Acts 3:11-16).
Our confidence is not in our prayers—nor in the pattern and form and frequency of our prayers—but strictly in the God who hears our prayers. And it’s our confidence in God that should motivate us to pray. It wasn’t that a special formula for effective healing was being given in this passage. Rather, the things that were described—calling for the elders, anointing with oil, soul-searching confession of sin—were intended to underscore the vital element of sincere faith in prayer; and of the need to pray with holiness from sin, reverence toward Christ, and submission to God-appointed authority. It’s the prayer of obedient, submissive faith that moves God’s hand … not the observance of a particular ceremony or ritual.
So; that’s an example of effective, fervent prayer. And then, notice how James gave his readers …
2. AN EXPRESSION OF PRAYER’S POTENTIAL.
Because prayer is powerful—as he showed his readers in verses 14-15—James then exhorts them to make use of it in the practical matters of daily life. In verse 16, he wrote, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Note that this is in the form of a command: “Confess to one another and pray for one another …” It’s a command based on the assumption of prayer’s potential. It’s as if he was saying, “Since all that the Bible tells us about the remarkable potential of prayer is true—since our mighty God truly does hear our prayers and moves His hand in response—then confess … and pray … that you may be healed!”
And this potential is naturally, therefore, expressed in a promise. The promise is that “the effective, fervent prayer” (or “petition”) “of a righteous man avails much.” Literally, James wrote, “A petition of a righteous man is strong, being made effective.” As our Lord taught us;
“Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:22b-24).
And finally, notice that James gave his readers …
3. AN ILLUSTRATION OF PRAYER’S POWER (vv. 17-18).
To give further testimony of the power of prayer, James pointed to the Old Testament model of a mere human—like us—through whom God did super-human work by his prayers. He writes, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours …” (v. 17). This may seem obvious; but it was vital to James’ argument to stress it. That great prophet of old, Elijah, was a man, literally “of like feeling to us” or “of like infirmities to us”. In the Bible stories about him, he seemed like the closest thing to an Old Testament ‘superhero’. But in actual ‘flesh and blood terms’, he didn’t have any superpowers. He wasn’t in any way a different human being from us. He was exactly as frail as we are. There was nothing about him, in any natural sense, that set him above any one of us. The one great difference—if a difference is to be noted at all—is stated in verse 18; “… and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit”.
In the dark days of the Kings of Israel, during the ungodly reign of King Ahab, Elijah declared—as he was instructed by God to do—
“As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1).
And so, “it did not rain on the land”. But we’re told that after three and a half years (see Luke 4:25), God commanded him, “go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth” (1 Kings 18:1). We’re told that after that meeting—and after the great event of the confrontation of the worshipers of Baal on Mount Carmel (18:20-40)—
“… Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees” (v. 42).
This was an obvious posture of prayer. Soon, the skies became black with clouds and wind; and “there was a heavy rain” (v. 45).
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Now; there’s always an important condition to remember in prayer. In order for it to be effective, it must be in accord with God’s will. As the apostle John wrote;
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him (1 John 5:14-15).
This of course would mean that, in order for our prayers to truly be effective, we must diligently search out—from God’s own word—what He has declared to be His will in the various matters of life. But once we obtain a clear understanding of that will, we should pray earnestly and fervently for it to be accomplished. That has always been the secret to truly powerful prayer.
Do we truly believe what James has told us?—that “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much”? Do we believe the Biblical examples we have been given of its great potential? Is our faith ultimately in the God to whom we pray—whose power is without limit, and whose love for us in Christ is beyond measure?
Then let’s let a truly biblical grasp of the unlimited potential of effective prayer motivate us to pray more often together!
AE
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