This third week in August we will be looking at EFFECTUAL FERVENT PRAYER. As we know this is taken from James 5v16. Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Effectual speaks of efficacy, efficiency, usefulness, having impact, targeted, strategized, also as the youths would say being ON POINT. There are however different types of Christians, all professing to be BORN AGAIN. There are those:
- Who don’t pray? Luke 18v 1 says “And He spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint.” Therefore the opposite of praying is fainting. And someone who faints is actually unconscious, in other words out of touch with his surroundings and circumstances. May you be on top of the situation in Jesus name!
- Who don’t ask? James 4v2 says “Ye lust and have not: ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain: ye fight and war yet ye have not because ye ask not. “We should make it a duty in our prayer sessions with God to ask, however ask according to the word of God.
Who pray amiss? In other words, they miss the target. They waste valued energy and time. Prayer is about strategy, why would you spend hours praying yet you are missing the target? Look for scriptures to back up your request and pray strategically. We should pray specific prayers and when we do this we get specific answers.
Pastor Yonghi Cho prayed many months for a table and bicycle for the work of the ministry, but it wasn’t until he asked God why he had not received these items and he was told he didn’t specify the type of bicycle and table that his prayers were answered.
Being a Korean Pastor he wanted to see if this was really true so he asked for an American bicycle and that’s exactly what he got. God is good. James 4v3 says “Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
Who pray selfish prayers (lustful prayers). The aim of the prayer of such Christians is wrong and it is to give them lustful pleasures.
Let’s look a little at the word FERVENT. Fervent means to be zealous, it means putting all into your prayer. It is stability in prayer- an unstable man doesn’t get anything from the LORD. There should be intensity in prayer.
We are to be zealous of good works. When we pray there must be improvement and progress in our lives. Titus 2 v 14 says we are to be zealous of good works. Galatians 4 v18 “But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. “May the LORD crown your efforts and labour in the place of prayer.
God bless you and I am looking forward to connecting with you next week.
