notes from terry virgo's sermon on elijah & prayer

terry virgo - elijah/prayer notes (1 Kings 18:41-46)

elijah prayed the rain would come - church history sees prayer for rain as synonomous with revival..
when James wants to use an OT example for importance of prayer he picks out Elijah - who, in James 5, he says was a man just like us, a man who prayed for rain.. scripture's encouragment is that all these bible heroes are just like us - not special, not angels, not weird, just like us - yet they got into such a relationship with God that they could release all kinds of things and arrest nations..

some of the features of Elijah's prayer
1. Elijah removed himself from the crowd.. he went up a mountain to be alone, as opposed to the celebrations that may of been going on after God vindicated Himself against Baal's prophets etc. in that sense Elijah is very much like Jesus - Jesus wouldnt get caught up in other people's agenda, the crowd's excitment - he withdrew..similarly elijah withdrew like Jesus & wouldnt let other people dictate his program.. as did the early apostles in acts - when they saw thousands save & social needs began to arise with the poor they didnt let it form their agenda - they gave themselves to prayer, they withdrew.. they followed Jesus' model - and Jesus not only modelled it, he clearly taught it..
in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6 in verse 6 he says when you pray go to your inner room, close the door & pray to your Father who is in secret. in verse 5 he compares the secret prayer in verse 6 to the Pharisees' making a show of their prayer in public for credability.. so we dont do anything for show - we do it for God.. he then says 'close the door' - its like for prayer we all need a place we go to - 'i go there to pray'.. do we have a place to pray? we need to build into our lives a place we go to pray.. closing the door physically doesnt always close the door on your mind - a big challenge of prayer.. terry takes a piece of paper and when something comes on his mind he writes it down so it doesnt distract him.. cos you want to be with your Father in secret.. do you have a place you can withdraw? find a place to get away, be with Him..

2. Elijah's prayer was based on a promise.. God has already said that He would send rain on the earth.. you may think that if God said He would do something why do I need to do anything - God's already made His will clear - so why pray? isnt prayer thus made redundant? this is the wonder of prayer - instead of God saying 'I'm going to do it', making prayer redundant, actually God's saying 'I'm going to do it' is meant to inspire us to pray & direct our praying.. so that our praying is in line with what God has said..
so prayer is built on what God has promised He will do - prayer starts in God, starts with God initiating, telling us what He's after.. its not us thinking 'well what shall i pray for?', its much more us responding to His initiatives, what He wants to do and we come and ask Him in the light of that.. so i.e. Ezekiel 36 God is saying I will do this, this & this and in verse 37 it says at the end of the list of what God has promised to do 'I will yet be inquired of the house of Israel to do these things'.. in effect its: 'these are the promises, now you ask'.. God is somehow using prayer as a magnificent means of drawing us into a living relationship with Him.. the promises inspire, motivate & keep you going & give you assurance that He will do it.. in 2 Corinthians Paul asks the church in Corinth to pray for him - despite it being the great apostle Paul.. Philip Hughes' commentary says 'prayer is stressed over & over again in the NT as a vital prerequisite for the release & experience of God's power'.. God has promised Paul, sent Paul and yet Paul says please pray for me - somehow that releaases God's power.. Andrew Murray says its as though the promises are waiting for prayer for their fulfilment - we may, and thus most confidently, expect an answer to our prayer.. the promise is there, the prayer ignites it.. take Daniel, he'd been reading Jeremiah and the prophecy of 70 years in exile, he realizes the 70 years are up, but instead of running in the streets shouting '70 years are up' it says he gave himself to prayer & fasting & history thus began to break open before him.. God found someone who would take His promises seriously & lay hold of Him..

in this context of laying hold of Him, Jesus is constantly inviting us to ask, seek, knock - which is present-continuous in the Greek - 'ask & keep on asking', 'seek & keep on seeking', 'knock & keep on knocking' - go after God.. Jesus is constantly inviting us to ask.. in John 15:16 it says 'you didn't choose me, I chose you & I appointed you to go & bring forth fruit, whatever you ask the Father in my name I will do it'..
Miss out the middle bit & it says 'I have chosen you to ask' - Terry quotes this when he prays, 'you chose me to go & bear fruit & whatever i ask'.. so we come bringing our requests because He's constantly inviting us to ask - you could say that prayer is fellowship with God.. Jesus specifically talked about prayer in the context of asking in order to get - He even said 'ask that you may recieve that your joy may be full'.. thats how he emphasized prayer - its an asking & recieving thing..

you also find Elijah prays quite specifically to God - he says 'Lord stop the rain', then 3.5 years later he says 'Lord start the rain'.. its specific, tell the Lord this is what you are asking for.. when Jesus was moving along the crowds he came to someone who was obviously ill & He asked what would you have me do for you?.. isnt it obvious from his illness? no - Jesus is looking for that kind of specific request.. in a parable He tells the man asks for 3 loaves - specific, not just 'can I have some food please'.. Yongi-Cho in his book on prayer tells the story of himself as a young man when he prays for a chair, desk & bicycle - they dont come.. he felt a small, still voice say I heard you the first day six months ago - Cho asked why hadnt he got them? God replied that there are many bicycles & which one do you want? Cho replied he'd like an American bicycle, a mahogany Phillipino desk & a chair with wheels on it like a bigshot.. within 2 weeks he was given an American bike by the son of an American missionary, a mahogany desk from the Phillipines & a chair with wheels on it.. God is saying He wants us to be specific.. when Terry was younger he was going through difficulty financially near Christmas time - He said God told him to ask the number of verses in a particular Psalm number (cant remember which one), so he asked for it & within the week he was given 3 gifts that added up to precisely that sum of money.. focus in on what you want..
Elijah knows the promise of God about rain & he prays specifically according to that promise.. Jesus said abide in me & my words will abide in you.. if we abide in Him we know what He wants & we pray along those lines..

3. Elijah prayed fervantly. James 5:17 - says there was great power in his prayer. literal greek means 'he prayed in his prayer' - a Hebraism, repeating words for effect. don carson in his book on prayer says to pray yourself into prayer. when we pray we can sometimes feel abit dull - thats not a time to back off, we begin to pray in your prayer, when we pray sometimes in your heart its like a telescope that opens up & we begin to pray for things we never knew were there.. paul says we work with all the energy he mightily inspires within us - theres a praying that grows as you do it - pray yourself into prayer.. for terry when he goes to a prayer meeting he prays early on to get into it.. when you pray yourself into prayer you suddenly find yourself praying for things you never thought of praying for - you feel an energy taking over and with it comes faith because you think this is beyond what i would of asked.. the NT calls this praying in the Spirit - praying with the Spirit is talking about tongues but in the Spirit is talking about when the Spirit of God energizes you to pray.. and with it often comes faith.. you pray fervently and with power..
Jacob wrestled with God - he said he wouldnt let the angel go unless he blessed him.. have we fought with God & prevailed? what a blessing is this? that we can lay hold of God.. Moses also did this, Exodus 32, in verse 10 God tells Moses to let Him alone - its like a man can hinder God.. what power does this man have with God? Moses answers him and says theyre your people you brought out of Egypt, what will the heathen say? Moses argues with God & God hears him & Moses prevails.. God is willing to be sought & the fervant, effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much - it accomplishes a great deal.. we can sometimes be in a sovereignty position - we can think what is the point of praying & it can undo our praying.. but then we see these Moses/Jacob examples - no: God makes promises but invites our prayer - God doesnt do anything without our praying as Philip Hughes says.. we need to be encouraged to rediscover the phenomenal power of prayer both corporately or alone.. Foresythe says: 'lose the importunity of prayer, lose the real conflict of will & will, lose the habit of wrestling & the hope of prevailing with God.. make it mere walking with God & friendly talk and precious as that is you tend to lose the reality of prayer at last.'
some of us say i just tend to talk with God as i walk down the road - i dont set aside a time, but Jesus said when you pray go to your room, shut the door & lets get down to some work.. lets release power, lets get hold of God.. we're called not just to be religious but to know God..
Carson says prayer is not like carpentry or cookery - you can read a book on these things - instead prayer is the active exercise of a personal relationship, a kind of friendship with the living God.. we can learn alot from books on marriage but in the end its an act of exercise of a personal relationship.. the books on prayer can help but prayer isnt like cookery - we need to press into that personal relationship..

4. Elijah prayed with importunity. in other words he kept on praying when he looked and the sky was still blue - he sent his servant again & again to look for clouds. he kept praying & wouldnt let go. when we dont see anything happening we take that as the final word. d.a. carson says we're like the naughty boy who rings the doorbell and runs away. we need to KEEP ON and its very challenging. Jesus told two parables about carrying on praying. one was about the unjust judge and the woman who keeps appealing to him and in the end he gives in to her. because of her importunity, cos she wont let go he says ok you win the case. the other parable is about a man who comes to a friend at night and is starving and needs something to eat, and this man has nothing to eat either so he goes to another friend and asks for three loaves. the other friend is asleep and tells him to go away but the man keeps asking, keeps knocking on his door until he is given the loaves - not just because hes a friend but because he wouldnt stop. why would Jesus tell two such parables if this principle wasn't important? its hard for us because we live in instant coffee society. andrew murray says 'what a deep heavenly mystery this is: of persevering prayer. the God who has promised, who longs, whose fixed purpose is to give blessings holds it back. he trains us in the school of answer delayed to find out how our perseverence really does prevail. what a mighty power this we can weild in heaven if we do but set ourselves to it.' yes this is a mystery but why not penetrate it? why not penetrate this mystery and and press into God? Isaiah says: 'the Lord waits to be gracious to you, He waits on high to have compassion on you, how blessed are those who wait for Him.' He's waiting to be gracious, we dont always understand why. Why is there delay - why doesnt it happen straight away? Sometimes it does ie Elijah prayed for fire to fall and it fell - it can happen immediately but it doesnt always. The Bible tells us that when it doesnt happen immediately dont give up & see it as the end. Continue to lay hold of God - it's in that continuing that our muscle grows.