Prayer can affect output! If you are not getting the right results, pray. The prayer of Elijah restored rain and prepared the earth to yield its increase. A critical thing to note is that Elijah did not obtain that turn-around because of any supernatural prowess. He was described as “a man with a nature like ours”. Do you feel hungry? So was Elijah. Do you get angry? So was Elijah. Have you ever been discouraged and felt like throwing in the towel? Elijah felt that way too. There was nothing Elijah had that is not available to you. Equally, nothing is waylaying you today that did not stand in the way of Elijah. The difference is the commitment which Elijah put into praying. Dr. Vernon McGee has this comment: “Elijah wasn’t a Superman; he was a “man subject to like passions as we are.” But he was a man who prayed with passion, and that is the kind of praying we need today”.
“Prayer can affect output! If you are not getting the right results, pray…After we have learned to abide by God’s will, then comes time for passionate prayer.”
To obtain results in prayer like Elijah did, we must operate in the context of God’s will. Elijah did not begin an arbitrary prayer to stop rain. He connected with the mind of God and knew it was time for judgment in order to bring Israel back from the fringe of apostasy. So he prayed in the will of God. Also, before he started to intercede for the return of rain, God had spoken to him to go and show himself to Ahab, promising that He would send rain to the land. Elijah did not use prayer to superimpose his personal preference on the will of God. He employed prayer to establish what was already in God’s will. A lot of frustration that people encounter in prayer is because they think they could thwart divine will. After we have learned to abide by God’s will, then comes time for passionate prayer. Elijah’s passion could be rated seven-star! He kept asking his servant to go seven times until the cloud of rain appeared.