The Power of Effectual Fervent Prayer

Confession and Prayer

• Confess faults to one another and pray for one another for healing.
• The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous person has great power.
• Elijah was a man with similar passions, prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain for three and a half years.
• He prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

1 Kings 18:41

• Elijah told Ahab to eat and drink, for there was a sound of abundance of rain.
• Ahab went to eat and drink, and Elijah went to the top of Carmel.
• Elijah cast himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees.
• He told his servant to look toward the sea.
  • The servant looked and said there was nothing.
  • Elijah told him to go again seven times.
  • At the seventh time, the servant said there was a small cloud like a man’s hand rising out of the sea.
  • Elijah told the servant to tell Ahab to prepare his chariot and go down, so the rain would not stop him.
• The heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.
• Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.

Faith Under Attack

• The apostle James believed a man could pray like a lion.
• Faith is under attack in these last days.
• The devil is trying to cause people to give up their cross.
• James believed that if people got right with God and each other, they could pray prayers that would have great effect.
• Looking for God to do something that will turn things upside down.

Conditions for Effective Prayer

• Being right with God:
  • Getting righteous.
  • Turning loose from sin.
  • Letting go of the things of this world.
• Being right with one another:
  • Forgiving one another.
  • Praying for one another.
• When in line with God, prayer can accomplish work.
• Introspection through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God should move one to pray and seek God.

Effectual Fervent Prayer

• Effectual fervent prayer is for those who have sought God and one another, and are in line with both.
• They don’t have sin or trespasses, and have gotten clean with God and man.
• There is a place in prayer that becomes effectual fervent.
• The word “effectual” is one word in the original Greek, “energeo.”
  • It is used 18 times in the King James Version.
  • 12 of those times, it is translated as “work.”
• The King James translators identified the word by context.
• Need to be reminded that effectual fervent prayer is work.
• Need to pray better.
• God can strip away the blinders and show what one can’t see.
• Need to open hearts and become earnest before God, and see prayers make a difference.
• The choir needs reminded that there is more to God than what we think.
• We get complacent, pray little prayers, check off lists, and think God is satisfied.
• Until God has looked into the depths of the soul, and one becomes submissive and surrenders to the will of God and yields to the Holy Ghost, one is not praying yet.

Energeo: Energized Prayer

• The Greek word for effectual is “energeo,” from which we get the English words “energy” or “energize.”
• Engage in energized prayer, built of hard work.
• Of the 18 times “energeo” is used in the King James Version, 12 times it is translated as “work” (75%).
• Prayer is not a side deal or something to play around with.
• Prayer should change you, make you humble and weak before God, make you want to carry a heavier load, love people more, and help sinners get saved and prodigals come home.
• The basic premise behind “energeo” is hard, passionate work.
• The flesh is contrary to prayer and will never enjoy it.
• Tell the flesh it doesn’t matter and focus on getting right with God.
• Prayer should be hard, passionate work.
• If we added up the minutes spent in prayer this week, would we be impressed?
• How many have really gotten into the place where hard, passionate prayer comes from us?

Elijah: An Example of Effectual Fervent Prayer

• Elijah got to see extraordinary things within hours of each other.
• Don’t give up praying.
• Get to the hard work, passionate prayer that God is listening for.
• Consider it a worthy occupation to be a prayer warrior.
• Make sure to identify and define correctly what kind of prayer we’re trying to pray.
• Not just “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayer, but more like Peter’s prayer when he was drowning: “Lord, save me.”
• Be willing to do the hard work prayer, not just any prayer, but a prayer that reaches the portals of God.
• Hard work prayer is not very enticing to many.
• On days when you don’t feel like it, put your flesh behind you and try.
• Hard work prayer gets into the throne room of God.
• Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane understood hard work praying.
  • His sweat became great drops of blood.
  • He asked if there was any other way, but ultimately submitted to the Father’s will.
• Years ago, people would pray in barns during the day, giving up their time and flesh.
• Romans 12:1: Present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God, which is your reasonable service.
• Need hard work prayer.
• James gave liberty to pray personally.

Elijah’s Humanity and Obedience

• James said Elijah was a righteous man, but also a man subject to like passions as we are.
• Elijah went through everything we’re going through and experienced the same temptations.
• He made a choice to stand for God and do the hard work of praying and staying honest before God.
• God blessed him for it.
• God had sustained Elijah for three and a half years.
• God gave Elijah liberty, and he stepped out of hiding.
• Elijah lived in Zarephath, Jezebel’s hometown, while she had the whole army hunting for him.
• Elijah told Obadiah to tell Ahab that he wanted to talk to him.
• Ahab blamed the drought on Elijah.
• Elijah told Ahab to gather all the people of Israel, the prophets of Baal, and the prophets of the groves to Mount Carmel.
• They had a contest to see whose God would answer by fire.
• God answered Elijah’s simple prayer with fire, consuming the sacrifice, the dust, the stones, and the water in the trenches.
• God answered by fire with a simple prayer.
• Elijah was obedient to God.
• If we’re going to see the power of God through hard work prayer, we’re going to have to be obedient servants.
• We need to be willing to do what God tells us to do, when he tells us to do it, and how he tells us to do it.
• Line up when we pray and say, “God, I prayed it. Now here I am. Send me. Use me for this work.”
• When you pray hard, you’ll find out there’s work for you in it.
• It’s not all on God; we have to be obedient.
• The problems they had were Jezebel and the adulterous hearts of the people.
• They had 850 false prophets corrupting the minds of the people.
• God dealt with it, and Elijah was obedient.

Deliberate Faith and Diligence

• Elijah was deliberate.
• After one of the prophets was slain, Elijah told Ahab to get out of there because he heard the sound of abundance of rain.
• The fire had fallen, and people got right with God.
• Need some fire first to burn up the chaff and purge the dross from our souls.
• Need the power of God to come in.
• Won’t have revival until fire has come in through our soul and hard work praying has made us shine like new before God.
• The rain is the extra, what produces the fruits, but you won’t have rain until you’ve got fire.
• In Africa, they burn the old, dead grass to allow new growth to come after the rain.
• There was nothing growing through that messed up, useless grass that had no fire to it.
• Need some fire, even though it’s not comfortable.
• All 850 prophets had to be dealt with.
• Elijah went to the bottom of Carmel to be obedient to God.
• When he finished what God had assigned him, he told Ahab to leave.
• Elijah went back up the mountain because he believed.
• The same place that Elijah called fire down was where he went back to call for rain.
• There’s some consistency about where we choose to pray.
• Deliberately make a place to hard work pray.
• Hard work prayer becomes a part of our daily life.
• Elijah was tired after killing 850 people, but he went back up the mountain with faith.
• He told Ahab he heard rain, even though he didn’t physically hear it.
• He believed God because the fire had fallen.
• Elijah was diligent.
• He fell on his knees, put his face between his knees, and cried out to God.
• Between verses 42 and 43, there was some serious praying.
• The first time Elijah looked up, his servant was just standing there.
• Elijah told him to go look out over the ocean and tell him what he saw.
• The servant said he didn’t see anything.
• Been in hard work praying and not seeing anything.
• God knows when we’re frustrated, down, and the devil’s after us.
• Get serious about praying and talking with God Almighty.
• Hard work praying.
• The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
• This was the hard work part of the prayer.
• The first time he prayed, there was nothing.
• Weary of praying for certain things because you can’t see anything.
• When you think your prayer didn’t do any good, go back.
• Try again.
• Pray harder.
• Keep working at it.
• Dig in.
• Do the hard work praying.
• Believe God for it.
• If it’s as a grain of a mustard seed, if we just believe that he can do all things.
• Go back seven times.
• Each time, be doing what you’ve got to do, and that’s hard work prayer.
• Elijah put his face between his knees again and cried out to God.
• God sent the rain.
• Hard work praying is about not giving up, not giving in, and not believing the lies of the devil.
• God can do anything, and hard work prayer gets to his ears.
• It shocked the little fellow when he went that seven times.
• It wasn’t his faith that Elijah was dependent on, but that hard work praying and Elijah’s own faith in God.
• The servant came back and said he saw something about the size of a man’s hand rising up out of the sea.
• Elijah said that’s all he needed to know.
• God started to move.

Personal Testimony

• Stripped naked in prayer this morning.
• Needed a word from God.
• Justin told a story about a man who had preached and evangelized for all of his life and then got called to be a pastor.
• He packed everything into his worn-out van and headed to the new pastorate.
• The transmission went out at the top of a hill, and he coasted to a car dealership at the bottom.
• Within two hours, men had unpacked his belongings and packed them into a new van that was just like the old one, but eight years newer.
• God said, “This is my church. I’ll fix it just like a car. Don’t you doubt it.”
• Asked God to speak to me.
• Quit worrying about this.
• It ain’t your church.
• It’s mine.
• Them ain’t your children, they’re mine.
• I’ll fix it.
• Needed to hear it again.
• Elijah told the servant to tell Ahab to get off the mountain because it was fixing to rain.
• The clouds rolled in, the sky turned black, and it rained.

Commitment to Prayer

• We ain’t where we’re supposed to be prayer-wise.
• There’s another gear to prayer building.
• You’ve got to be stripped clean of the fire.
• Hard work praying will set in.
• It’ll come from your soul like a fountain.
• Your guts will pour out of you and lay at his feet.
• You’ll feel it.
• We can get closer to God with some hard praying.
• It’s going to take a commitment.
• You won’t accidentally get to this place.
• You’re going to have to really want it.
• When you get low, that’s when your heart gets nearest to it.
• It feels like ain’t nothing happening.
• It feels like it ain’t gonna happen.
• It’s the best time to pray.
• Allow God to step in and strip aside everything that’s keeping your heart from bursting open with all your care, worry, fear, and requests.
• Commit to hard work prayer.
• Effectual, fervent prayer.
• If Elijah could do it, James said, you can too.
• If Elijah seen the results of the fire and the rain, God is not a respecter of persons.
• He’ll bless you just like he blessed Elijah.
• Both fire and rain.
• Before we do anything else tonight, I want us to pray.
• If you ain’t got nobody else to pray for, please pray for me.
• Time’s running out on us.
• Our people ain’t saved.
• I want to get it right.
• I can’t do it.
• I ain’t got the power.
• I’m of little strength and little ability.
• I need God to help me.
• We need help tonight.
• We need revival.
• We need to see the fruit of rain.
• That all has to come from God.