THE TRUE INTERCESSOR

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are" (James 5:16,17).

We sometimes see the characters in the Bible as exceptional cases and think that what we see in them is not to be expected of us. The aim of God in Scripture is the very opposite. He gives us these men for our instruction and encouragement, as a specimen of what His grace can do. They are living examples of what His will and our nature at once demand and make possible.

To give confidence to all of us who aim at a life of effectual prayer, James wrote: "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are." There was no difference between his nature and ours, or between the grace that works in him and works in us. There is no reason why we should not, like him, pray effectually. If our prayer is to have power, we must seek to have Elijah's spirit. The desire to pray like Elijah is perfectly legitimate and very necessary. If we honestly seek for the secret of his power in prayer, we must study his life. We shall find it in his life with God, his work for God, and his trust in God.

Elijah's Prayers

Prayer is the voice of our life. As a man lives, so he prays. It is not the words or thoughts with which he is occupied at set times of prayer, but the condition of his heart as seen in his desires and actions that is regarded by God as his real prayer.

Our lives speak louder and truer than our lips. To pray well, I must live well. He who seeks to live with God will learn to know His mind and to please Him, so that he will be able to pray according to His will.

Elijah, in his first message to Ahab, spoke of "the Lord God, before whom I stand" (1 Kings 17:1). Think of his solitude at the brook Cherith, receiving his bread from God through the ravens, and then at Sarepta through the ministry of a poor widow. He walked with God; he learned to know God well. When the time came, he knew how to pray to a God whom he had proved to be faithful.

It is only out of a life of true fellowship with God that the prayer of faith can be born. Let the link between life and prayer be clear and close. As we give ourselves to walk with God, we will learn to pray.

Elijah's Power

Elijah went where God sent him. He did what God commanded him. He stood up for God and His service. He witnessed against the people and their sin. All who heard him could say: "Now I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth" (1 Kings 17:24). His prayers were all in connection with his work for God. He was equally a man of action and a man of prayer. He prayed, and the drought came, and then the rain. This was part of his prophetic work, so that the people, by judgment and mercy, might be brought back to God. When Elijah prayed down fire from heaven on the sacrifice, it was so that God might be known as the true God. All of his prayers were for the glory of God.

Believers often seek power in prayer so they will be able to get good gifts for themselves. This secret selfishness robs them of the power and the answer. It is when self is lost in the desire for God's glory and our life is devoted to work for God, that the power to pray can come. God lives to love, save, and bless men. The believer who gives himself up to God's service will find new life in prayer. Work for others proves the honesty of our prayer for them. Work for God reveals our need and our right to pray boldly. Say to God that you are completely given up to His service. This will strengthen your confidence in His hearing you.

Elijah's Trust In God

Elijah had learned to trust God for his personal needs during the famine, and he dared trust Him for greater things in answer to prayer for His people. Elijah had confidence that God would hear him when he made his appeal to the God who answers by fire. He had confidence that God would do what he would ask. He announced to Ahab that rain was coming and then, with his face to the earth, pleaded for it, while his servant, six times over, brought the message, "There is nothing" (1 Kings 18:43). Elijah's unwavering confidence in the promise and character of God, and God's personal friendship, gave him power for the effectual prayer of the righteous man.

The inner chamber is the place where this has to be learned. The morning watch is the training school where we are to exercise the grace that can equip us to pray like Elijah. The God of Elijah still lives. The spirit that was in him dwells in us. Let us cease our limited and selfish views of prayer, which only aim at grace enough to keep us standing. Let us cultivate the same awareness that Elijah had of living completely for God, and we will learn to pray like he did. Prayer will bring to us and to others the blessed experience that our prayers are effectual and of great value.

In the power of our Savior, who ever lives to intercede, let us have courage and not fear. We have given ourselves to God; we are working for Him. We are learning to know and trust Him. We can count on the life of God and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us to make us a righteous man whose effectual prayer avails much.

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