The Secret To Unleashing God’s Power

A missionary woman was seated in her second-story apartment when she was handed a letter from home. As she opened the letter, she was surprised to see a crisp, new ten-dollar bill fall out of the letter. However, she could not help but notice a shabbily dressed man outside her window on the street below. Realizing that he was in worse financial condition than she was, she took the ten-dollar bill, placed it in an envelope, and quickly penned the encouraging words on the outside: “Don’t despair.” She pitched the envelope outside the window with a prayer that somehow God would use that gift. The stranger on the street below picked up the envelope, read it, looked up, and smiled as he tipped his hat and left. The next day, she heard a knock at her door and was surprised to find that same shabbily dressed man standing there, grinning from ear to ear. He handed the woman a large wad of bills, and when she asked what they were for, he replied, “That’s the 60 bucks you got comin’, lady. Don’t Despair paid five to one in yesterday’s race!”

If we are honest, we would have to admit that we rarely experience that kind of dramatic answer to our prayers. Have you ever wondered why that is? Why do so many of our prayers seem to go unanswered by God? On the other hand, what is it about some of our prayers that causes them to find their way immediately into the throne room of God, to be answered quickly and dramatically?

In James 5:16-18, James closes his epistle with a discussion about prayer. For James, the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, was known not only for his position in the church, but for his position on the ground, with bended knee in constant prayer. In fact, so fervent was the prayer life of James that he earned the nickname “Camel Knees”—a reference to the sagging skin around his knees caused by his constant intercession. But such intensity in praying should not be limited to pastors or staff members. James closes by reminding us that one more sign of genuine, authentic faith is a fervent prayer life.

As an example of effective prayer, James turns our attention to a story with which his Jewish audience was very familiar—the story of Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, recorded in 1 Kings 17-18.  

Elijah’s story, recorded in the book of 1 Kings, opens and closes with death—the deaths of David and Ahab. In between these two funerals is about 150 years of history that tells the story of a nation that rejected God and fell headlong into national ruin.

It all began with Solomon, David’s son and heir. “King Solomon loved many foreign women” (1 Kings 11:1). Because of Solomon’s voracious sexual appetite—he had 700 wives and 300 concubines—he violated God’s command against marrying foreign women (Deut. 7:1-3).  The Lord knew that the king’s disobedience would cause the people to “turn their heart away after foreign gods” (1 Kings 11:2). Nevertheless, Solomon ignored God’s commands and “held fast to his wives and concubines in love” (v. 2). He set up pagan places of worship for his many wives (vv. 4-8), which began a series of destructive events that culminated in civil war and the division of the nation.

The northern kingdom, which retained the name Israel, slid into ruin as it fell deeper and deeper into idolatry.  Jeroboam, the northern kingdom’s first ruler, instituted bull worship, much like the worship of the golden calf in the wilderness (12:25-33). Building on Jeroboam’s wickedness, each successive king persisted in pursuing idols and sexual perversion.

But nothing could have prepared the Israelites for the reign of King Ahab (c. 874-852 BC).  Ahab’s father, Omri, was a skillful king, moving Israel’s capital from Tirzah to Samaria (1 Kings 16:21-28). However, the writer of 1 Kings focuses not on Omri’s political achievements but on his idolatry. “Omri did evil in the sign of the Lord and acted more wickedly than all who were before him” (v. 25), so he was cut off and “Ahab his son became king of Israel in his place” (v. 28).

If you were one of Ahab’s political insiders or a citizen more concerned about your pocketbook than about your prayer book, then the days under Ahab did not look so bad. In fact, Ahab’s reign of 22 years appeared stable compared to the previous 60 years that had been filled with bloodshed and assassinations.

Unlike his father’s administration, Ahab’s reign was marked by peace and prosperity. Ahab and the nation benefited from a trade deal his father had negotiated with Phoenicia, and shipping boomed—along with the royal treasuries of Phoenicia and Israel. Under Ahab, it could be truthfully said, “There was a chicken in every pot and a chariot in every garage.”

However, God is not impressed by a nation’s GDP (gross domestic product) but by its GBP (godly behavior product)—and by that standard, Ahab and Israel were running a serious deficit!

Ahab was uniquely evil, doing “more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him” (v. 33). Translation: Ahab ticked God off more than any other monarch in Israel’s history. What made Ahab Israel’s MDP (most despicable player) in God’s eyes? He married a woman named Jezebel.

The marriage of Ahab and Jezebel was a political pact between Omri and Ethbaal that accounted for Israel’s financial prosperity. But in spiritual terms, the marriage catapulted Israel into its darkest days. Like Solomon before him, Ahab’s marriage to an idol-worshipping wife turned his heart away from the Lord.

Jezebel made a sport of hunting down and killing God’s prophets (18:4). And at the top of her hit list—for reasons we will soon discover—was an ordinary man named Elijah.

The fact that Ahab—a man with the backbone of a chocolate éclair when it came to Jezebel—allowed his wife to entice him into Baal worship is the reason that the writer of 1 Kings recorded that it was “a trivial thing” for Ahab “to walk in the sins of Jeroboam” (16:31). In other words, the sins of Jeroboam were child’s play compared to the heinous sin of Baal worship introduced by Ahab and his wife Jezebel.

Baal was the sun, rain, and fertility god of the Canaanites—their chief god. His name means “lord” or “owner.” Jezebel was the one who introduced Baal worship in Israel. Jezebel’s father was the king of the Sidonians—a people at the center of Baal worship. And when she married Ahab, Baal worship was part of her dowry.

What made Baal worship so odious was the belief that Baal was greater than God, the Creator of heaven and earth. According to Baal worshipers, Baal controlled the environment and brought about climate change. Baal worship was accompanied by horrific sexual perversion, self-mutilation, and child sacrifice.

Idols of Baal were often made of hollowed-out sheet metal. Fires were placed either underneath the idol or within its belly, and children were placed either inside the belly of the idol, where they slowly roasted to death, or in the outstretched arms of the idol, where they slowly burned to death. Baal worshipers sacrificed their children to the god who promised to bring the warmth and rain needed for prosperity in an agricultural society.

This was the god Ahab and Jezebel worshiped, and enticed the Israelites to serve as well. In fact, Ahab was so sold out to this pagan deity that he built a temple to Baal in the capital city of Samaria and erected a wooden likeness of Baal’s female consort, Asherah (1 Kings 16:32-33). Ahab and Jezebel were such devout followers of Baal and Asherah that they regularly entertained up to 450 priests of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah in their ivory palace (18:19; 22:39).

This was the world of ancient Israel—a depraved and dangerous place to live, especially if you worshiped the one true God. However, the darker the night, the brighter the light! It was against this dark background of immorality and idolatry that God would place His diamond of hope—an ordinary man named Elijah.

Elijah burst onto the scene when it appeared that God was in retreat. From a human perspective, God had been dethroned, and Baal—along with his puppet king, Ahab—now reigned over Israel. Evil ran rampant throughout the nation, unchecked and unchallenged.

But Elijah refused to sink into despair. He knew God would never be defeated. Though it seemed that things could hardly have been worse in Israel, God was not caught off guard or surprised by Ahab’s wickedness. At just the right time—at Israel’s zero hour—God raised up the right person.

Elijah was not afraid to stand toe-to-toe with the king of Israel. Don’t misunderstand: Elijah was no spiritual superman. The New Testament writer James describes Elijah as “a man with a nature like ours” (James 5:17). That means Elijah was an ordinary person who struggled with the same issues that you and I battle. He experienced fatigue, got depressed, wrestled with temptation, and at times doubted the goodness and even he existence of God. Yet Elijah made an extraordinary impact on his world, becoming one of Israel’s most famous heroes, because of the attributes that characterized his life.

The Secrets to an Effective Prayer

What is it about Elijah’s prayer that caused God to answer so dramatically and decisively? Obviously, it was not the length of the prayer—it only contained 63 words. And it certainly was not the frequency of the prayer, for the prophet offered it only once. The secret lies in the content of the prayer. James refers to this prayer as an effective prayer. Why was it effective? The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

• Prayer Based on the Faithfulness of God

First, notice that the prayer was based on the faithfulness of God. Elijah begins, “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel…” (1 Kings 18:36).

The mention of these ancestors was not simply a review of Old Testament 101 for the Israelites.  What Elijah was saying was “In the same way you have been faithful to these men, be faithful to me.”

But Elijah’s belief in the faithfulness of God did not come just from some ancient historical record. Elijah had experienced the faithfulness of God himself. From the miraculous experiences at Cherith and Zarephath, the prophet had a first-hand account in God’s miraculous ability to meet his needs.

When you pray, are you able to point to specific instances in your past experience when the hand of the Lord moved powerfully? God wants you to be able to. He delights in the praise and thanksgiving of His children. That is one element that made Elijah’s prayer effective—it was based on the past faithfulness of God.

In the same way, God wants us to be able to look back at specific instances in our lives in which He has supernaturally intervened. And He delights in our remembering His past faithfulness to us when we pray. That is the first ingredient of an “effective prayer.”

• Prayer Based on the Glory of God

Elijah had dedicated his life to proving to the world that Yahweh was God. He had one purpose in life—demonstrating the glory of God. You see that in the content of his prayer.

To show emphasis. In the English language we will use exclamation points, bold type, or underlining. But the way the Hebrews would emphasize a point would be by repetition. Thus, the repetition of the word “holy” is a way of emphasizing this most important attribute of God. The Lord is never referred to as “Love, Love, Love” “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” or “Justice, Justice, Justice” in Scripture. The only attribute of God that is emphasized this way is His holiness.

What does “holy” mean. It comes from the Hebrew word quodesh which means “separate ” or “cut.” A good translation would be “a cut above anything else.” God is a cut above everyone and everything else—He alone is worthy of our praise and worship.

And that is what Elijah’s prayer was based on—the separateness, the holiness of God: “… today let it be known that Thou art God in Israel …answer me that this people may know that Thou, O Lord, art God, and that Thou hast turned their heart back again.” (1 Kings 18:36-37).

Elijah’s petition was simply that God would use him to demonstrate His holiness to the people. And that request was in keeping with God’s one great eternal purpose throughout history– the proclamation of His holiness and separateness so that people will worship Him. And God is looking for men and women who, like Elijah, will dedicate their lives to declaring that holiness to others.

• Prayer Based on the Will of God

Elijah’s prayer was based on the revealed will of God. Apparently, God had given Elijah the command to engage in the contest. Thus, Elijah was simply asking God to fulfill what He had already promised.

Now you may think to yourself, “Oh, if only God would be that specific in revealing His will to me, then I could pray like Elijah and experience dramatic answers to my prayers.” God has been that specific in revealing His will to us.

When we pray that God will remove sickness from our lives are make us materially prosperous, we may or may not be praying according to His will. But, when we pray that God would give us power in sharing the gospel with a friend, or that God would help us remove impurity from our lives, or that God would help us restore a broken relationship with another Christian, we can know that we are praying according to His will.

And there is nothing more dramatic about God burning up a dead animal on a wet altar than there is about God turning a cold, disinterested heart of an unbeliever toward Himself.

A prayer based on the faithfulness of God, the holiness of God, and the will of God is what James calls an “effective prayer”—one worthy of our imitation.

Full Passage: James 5:16-18