ELIJAH – FAITH IN PRAYER

…subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly… – James 5:17

“God’s man for the hour is the man who has mastered the prayer of faith. Because of his prayers, Elijah flamed like a meteor across the midnight of Israel’s apostasy. Man of like passions with us, he was a man of unlike passion in prayer. He threw all the fancy forces of his nature into his praying (Jas. 5:17). Before ever he crashed on to the stage of Israel’s history, he had graduated in the school of prayer. He was no tyro in the art of taking hold of God. Only long intimacy with the Almighty could give birth to such audacious prayers of faith.

Who else had the serene faith to expect God to stay the beneficent course of nature at his word (Jas.5:17)? Who else had offered a prayer that rent the sky with heaven’s vindicating flame (1 Kings 18:38)? His prayers had prevailed in private before he put God to the test in public. His faith created the atmosphere in which God could work His miracles. Because he stood consciously before God, he could stand fearlessly before the king (18:15). The divine response to his prayer of faith demonstrated to the nation that God was God, and brought them on their faces in awe before Him (18:39).

Elijah’s faith had the divine promise of rain on which to rest: And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth (1 Kings 18:1). But he had no promise of fire. Yet so well did he know his God that he dared to so commit Him that He could not fail to respond without compromising His own character and existence (18:36,37). His prayers invaded a realm never before challenged – the domain of faith (1 Kings 17:21,22).

And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.

When he prayed for rain, he did not require the comforting assurance of sight (18:43). He could believe God without any evidence to the senses. This is the prayer of faith.”