The Life of Faith – Week 1, Part 4

James 5v15-18, Deuteronomy 28v15, 23-24

15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. James 5:15-18

15 However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:

23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. 24 The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.

Did Elijah have some ‘special powers’ to create famine and cause rainfall?

So often we read passages like this and think that a story like this has nothing to do with us. However, think again!

What’s going on here?

Elijah prayed in faith and the heavens were closed for three and a half years! This brought famine. It was a powerful sign of God’s intervention! So what was going on here? Firstly remember, Elijah was a human just like us! Well, Elijah was simply believing in God’s Word. We read in Deuteronomy of blessings and curses for obedience and disobedience. In this case there was DISOBEDIENCE and sinful rebellion in the land. So Elijah knew what God had promised under the Mosaic Law. This is what he prophesied and this is what happened. The Lord made the land into powder and dust! He visited a curse on them for their disobedience. Elijah had no ‘special powers’ as such. What He did have though was an UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD!! He was also not afraid to speak it.

Essentially all that Elijah did here was take God’s Word at face value. He believed on what God said and decreed, and, then he SPOKE THIS – his confession and declaration was in line with the promise!

After three and a half years Elijah prayed and rain returned, in accordance with God’s will. The cloud appeared on the horizon eventually and rain fell!

Reflect: We often think of Elijah as a mighty prophet with ‘special powers’. However we can learn from Elijah that he took the Word of God (Deuteronomy 28:15, 23-24), believed it and declared it. A sign and a wonder was the result!

As a spiritual lesson today, how good are you at declaring and confessing what God has already decreed as part of His Word? Elijah knew the will of the Lord, because God had already revealed His will. It was in His Word. Elijah’s strength was that he believed and spoke forth the word of the Lord, and look at the result!

How diligent are we at taking God’s Word at face value rather than ‘talking ourself out of it’ and returning to countering default positions? What do you speak over your life or church or future? There is life and death in the tongue! Take some Scriptures of truth today and begin to declare (pray) them over your life, over your circumstances, over others…the truth will set free, but we need to use it! So get used to SPEAKING (confessing) God’s truth! Watch what happens!!

Elijah was a man just like us.