There’s Power In Prayer
Pastor Carolyn J. Blue
James 5: 13-18
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
NLT
There’s Power In Prayer
13 Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises.
14 Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.
16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
17 Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years!
18 Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.
There’s power in prayer, but do you know who’s praying for you? That’s $1 million question tonight, because if we don’t know who’s praying for us then we are open for anyone to prey on us. Do we really truly know that there’s power in prayer?
Because there’s power in our prayers, do you know if those praying are they praying for you to be better, or are they preying on your demise. Are they praying for your situation to turn around for the better, or are they preying on your downfall. They could be preying for your whole life to be turned upside down? Do you really know who’s praying for you?
There’s power in prayer!
I want to express to each of you the importance of knowing who is praying for you, because there’s power in prayer and there are benefits to prayer, but if we are unaware of the power that comes from prayer, in prayer, and through prayer, do you really know what you have?
There’s power in prayer
Have you ever asked someone to pray for you or just randomly said “remember to pray for me” to someone? Do you have any idea where those words landed? Well let’s pray that those words landed on good soil.
Or on the other hand, how many times have you heard people say “pray for me” and you actually took the time to pray for them? Did you pray for their alignment or position? Did you earnestly pray for them?
In our lesson tonight, James is teaching us the power of prayer, and he is giving us different scenarios of when we should pray for ourselves, and when we should ask others to pray for us as well. When we strategize, we can use to reap the most benefits!
Somebody needs to know that there’s power in prayer!
James tells us in Chapter five verse 13 that if there are any people among us in our fellowship, meaning anybody that’s in your sphere of influence, anyone that is in your environment that you hang out with, the church that you work with, those in the community, etc. Anywhere that you are, there are people suffering from many types of hardship(s) or going through something… James says that they should be able to pray!
He goes on to say if there are any who are happy, they should sing praise to God.
In verse 14 we see that James is asking if there are any sick that’s among us that they should call for the church leaders and ask them to come and to pray and to anoint you with oil in Jesus Name.
There’s power in prayer!
James continues in verse 15 and he says that this prayer that’s given by the leaders or the elders of the church, that it should be offered in faith and once it’s offered in faith, he decrees that faith in that prayer would heal the sick. The faith in the prayer will heal the sick and the Lord can make you well!
He says that if you’ve committed any sins or if you’ve done anything wrong to cause the sickness, God can still forgive you for those wrongs!
There’s power in prayer!
Do you agree that you need to know Who’s Praying For You?
There’s Power in prayer!
We see inverse 16 that the Bible says that we are to confess our sins with each other and to pray for each other so that you may be healed so I ask you once again, do you even know who’s praying for you? Think about it. Should we confess our sins with just anybody?
You better pray for you because there’s power in prayer!
James says that the earnest prayer of the righteous person has great power and it produces wonderful results! That says to us that when the righteous person prays and praises in earnest or fervent prayer, the prayer not only has great power, but it produces as a result of that great power!
There is power in prayer!
James uses as an example. He refers back to the Old Testament with Elijah and Old Testament profit was human just like you and I his blood was red just like he has all of that but the Bible says that he prayed earnestly.
If you recall back, it is said that the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful. And we see that Elijah prayed an earnest prayer not to rain and the Bible says that it did not rain for 3 1/2 years!
There’s something to that word Earnest and the dictionary says that Earnest means “abundantly,” “more exceedingly,” “much more frequently,” or “more super-abundant” heed.
There’s power in prayer!
Imagine if we prayed abundantly or more exceedingly or more frequently or more super-abundantly than what we do now jut how powerful our prayers would be and the results that our prayers would produce!
The Bible goes on to say that after that time when Elijah prayed for it not to rain (and it didn’t rain) that after he prayed, he prayed again. This means that he didn’t pray one time, but continued to pray. He prayed for the rain to cease (3.5 years), and he prayed for the rain to begin again. This lead to growth (literally and figuratively). When he prayed, things started to change. There was a difference!
There’s power in Prayer!!!
Are we using our power tonight?
Will we begin to use our power starting now?
What will your power look like? Will you pray and get results, or will you pray and things remain the same?
Starting tonight, let’s be intentional about our prayers! Starting tonight, let’s be intentional about asking for prayers! Starting tonight, we will know without a shadow of doubt that when we pray, we pray in faith knowing that that faith in our prayers will heal the sick and faith in our prayers will allow us to receive God’s forgiveness for those things that we may have done wrong that could have directly caused what we’re going through in the first place!
There’s power in prayer!
P ray
O ften
W aiting &
E xpecting
R esults
There is power in prayer