I’d like to encourage us to look at what John says about prayer.  Understand what the effectual, fervent prayer of righteous men really is.  We’ve studied it in the past.  We’ve seen the Greek and what it implies.  It is white hot.  You know, as we think about that, how much compassion is there in our prayer?  How much fervency is there in our praying?  That effectualness that God speaks of?

1 John 5:14 says, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing (if we ask anything) according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”  James says it this way.  Chapter 5, “the prayer of faith,” verse 15, “shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up… [Now] confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another…”  Let me pause there for just a moment.  Don’t make it about you.  Pray one for another.  You’re not the only one hurting.  Pray one for another.  You’re not the only one that’s in doubt and fear.  Pray one for another; amen?  Praying always, Paul says in Ephesians, with all prayer and supplication.  So, as James goes on, he makes this final statement concerning our intercession, our praying for one another, our coming to God.  Confession is used here by James.  We know that that’s part of our coming to God and petitioning so that we come according to 1 John.  We confess our sins and He’s faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  “pray one for another, that ye may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16).

Pray that you might be healed.  Iaomai.  Spirit, soul, and body.  Pray for the whole man.  You know, so often we’re moved by somebody that’s sick, a particular need, and their suffering, so we’re praying for their body.  But you know what?  Their soul might need more help than their body at this moment.  I’ll just throw out a hypothetical.  Somebody’s sick, and we’re praying for them.  “Lord, heal their body.  Lord, heal their body.”  They’re sick because they partook of the cup unworthily.  Some are sick, and some even die.  Amen?  So, here they are, living secret lives of sin, drinking the Lord’s cup unworthily.  God is purifying them, and we’re wanting to pray for them to be healed.  Then we wonder why our prayer didn’t get answered.

You know, this is a big program going on in the kingdom of God.  That’s why we even share as a community here.  “Well, you know, I feel led to give somebody this money because I see they’re kind of hurting right now, and they’re not able to make their rent payment.”  Well, they can’t make their rent payment because they just bought a new hundred-inch flat screen TV, just got back from their third vacation that year, and took a Covid vacation of three months.  We’ve had people in similar circumstances that I just described, and this person actually came to the church for benevolence.  Not tithing, and you want us to pray for what?  We’re like, “Balak, how can I bless what God has cursed?”  Amen?  So much of our praying, we need to pray in the Spirit.  We need to also not think we know everything.  “Well, I know...”  There’s a lot of stuff you don’t know.  “Well, I know their heart.”  They don’t know their heart.  How can you know it?

So, in this statement of iaomai, this healing that comes, we pray that the whole man would be healed; amen?  We pray, believing God, this effectual, fervent prayer.  That word fervent here that’s being spoken of talks about the white hot, the effectualness of prayer that works.  It’s a prayer that’s earnest.  That word effectual means to be divinely energized.  Have we prayed then adequately in a situation like James is referencing when our prayer is not divinely energized?  How many of you know our prayers need to be supercharged by the Holy Ghost?  A divine energizing.  Fervent, white-hot, boiling over.  “Oh yeah, and Lord, heal Bob.”  Boy, that was effectual fervent praying; amen?  That thing will shake the heavens, making the devil run, man.

So, as we encourage ourselves in the Word, we see what we can do to really make our praying more effectual.  We can practice this life that Jesus had of secluding ourselves.  Taking time and designating it for God alone.  Going into our prayer closet, getting quiet, and letting God speak to me.  Then, when I sense His presence and I walk into His presence, I grasp Him and say, “I’m staying until You’ve answered, praise God.”  In testimonies of some of the great saints, we hear them make statements like this, “One of the most vivid recognitions I have as a child is hearing my mom praying in the other room as I was going to sleep.”  Is that the testimony about our house?  Prayer works.

Father, we thank You for Your mercy and grace.  The disciples said, “Teach us to pray.”  You revealed the outline of what our prayer lives should involve in the kingdom of God.  Your will being done.  Thanking You for Your great provisions for us on a daily basis.  Lord, teach us to pray.  “Well, pray like I pray.  I prayed all night.  I prayed early.  I prayed with an exclusivity, just in the Lord’s presence alone.  I’ve allowed Myself to imbibe the heart of God so that I could weep for strangers, for lost souls.  I’ve got a love for My brothers and sisters here that would cause Me to intercede, to pray with an effectualness and a fervency.”  Whatever we ask the Father in Jesus’ name, He will do it.  Whatever we ask Jesus, when we pray in faith, when we ask in Jesus’ name, He will do it so that the Father might be glorified in the Son.  Father, we thank You for that and give You the praise.  Help us to pray like You prayed, Jesus.  It’s our heart’s desire, and we ask it in Your name and for Father’s glory.  Amen.