Topic: Effectual and Fervent Prayer
When we look at James 5:16 there are some key words in this
Scripture that are going to be crucial in understanding how we as sons are to
have a consistent and effectual prayer life.
The reason I say consistent and effectual because you can be consistent
and not effectual especially when it comes to prayer because you can consistently
be praying for the wrong thing. This is
why prayer is only effective, not only when it is consistent but when it is
from someone who is righteous. We will
talk about the righteous man in a upcoming message. But let’s back up and deal with two of the
three words of this Scripture, fervent and effectual.
Fervent
When we look at the word fervent, it means: passionate and
intensity. So we can say that the
passionate and effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Why should we be passionate about
prayer? What is prayer? We know that prayer is communion with God in
order for God’s will to be done on earth as it already is in Heaven. If you can keep that definition in mind that
should give you a slight glimpse into the importance of prayer in the life of a
Son.
1 Thessalonians 5:17: Pray without ceasing
This means we should always be praying, we should desire and
mature to a passionate prayer life that is not ritualistic but out of
understanding the Heavenly relationship between man and God and that
relationship is Father/Son and we will discuss this later because depending
upon your perception of the relationship between you and God, it shapes your
prayer life. We want God’s continued
impact on this earth through the lives of His Sons and that requires
prayer. Considering the shape of this
world 1 Thessalonians 5:17 should be priority number one for the believer but
as we can see and many have experienced, many of our prayers have gone
unanswered and many have gotten discouraged because of God not answering their
prayers. But keep this in mind, there is
a reason, there is always a reason to why God did not answer your prayer. And that brings me to the second word: Effectual
Effectual
One who is consistent, passionate and righteous will have a
effectual prayer life. Many of their
prayers are answered consistently. Here
is a simple key to keep in mind to why and you can confirm this statement in
the many prayer of Jesus Himself.
“Their requests lined up with what was on the heart of the
Father”
To have an effectual prayer life that has to be at the heart
of your requests and this is why it is crucial to get the relationship right
because the Scriptures declare the Sons only does what he sees his Father
do. So there has to be a functioning
relationship between man and God in the reality of Father and Son for mankind
to know what is on the heart of God and when that request is made, earth is
impacted by Heaven through a prayer of the sons in the earth. So as you can see we must mature from the
asking of things for us to the things that are on the heart of God for this
very reason:
Your Heavenly Father knows that you
have need of all these things”
Before I
deal with the word righteous man, I want to go all the way back to the
beginning and lay this foundation because without a proper foundation your
prayer life will be shaky and unstable and when the storms of life (trials and
tribulations) come, what you know will be “washed away”….Let’s build a
effectual prayer life with Christ as the center, the Rock!
Peace and
Grace,
Calvin
Calhoun,Jr.
