"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." - James 5:16It is my belief that great prayers achieve the desired results. They don't have to be long and drawn out. They don't have to be elaborate or fancy, they just need to get results. Never be discouraged when you pray and don't see immediate results. They key to having "effectual" prayer is to be fervent and righteous. If we are cooking meat in the oven and it is still raw after a while, we check the temperature and turn up the heat right? Why not do the same with prayer? If you aren't getting results when we pray, then TURN UP THE HEAT! Get fervent in prayer! Don't be afraid to cry out to God. Make some noise and make sure your cause is heard. Jesus prayed in Gethsemane until sweat poured from his face. Jacob wrestled with and angel at Peniel until he was blessed. Abraham refused to let the Lord go towards Sodom until he agreed to his bargain. We have to keep praying until weget what we need!
My pastor always told me, "the best ability is stick ability." If we want to make great prayers, then we have to learn how stick with prayer until we get results. Having righteousness means that we are continuing to live for God the right way because we believe that he is going to reward us. Don't ever give up on God because you feel that your prayers are not being answered. A few years ago, I was in the hospital dying from Ulcerative Colitis. I was bleeding everyday for more than 30 days and the doctors had no idea what was wrong or how to stop it. They gave me every kind of medication, every kind of test and nothing seemed to help. I was in and out of ICU, being transfused with blood (more than 27 bags) and the doctors told my family that I was probably not going to make it. At times I felt like giving up, but I remembered how God heard king Hezekiah's prayers on his deathbed and healed him. (2 Kings 20:1) Even though I was sick, I prayed with everything I had for God to heal and save me. Most days that meant just turning on my side reading a Psalm or two and believing in God to heal me. Although I was discouraged at times, I never gave up on God and just kept praying.
Then, something strange happened. The nurses and patients were watching. They saw who saw everyone coming to pray with me and watching me pray and read my bible and some soon began to asking me to pray with them. I thought, "Lord, I'm sick and dying and they want me to pray with them?" Some asked for healing themselves, but what really touched me was that some of the nurses told me that they felt the presence of God when they came into my room and wanted to feel more of it. I realized what happening.
"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." -2 Corinthians 12:9
God used my sickness to touch and bless others. Because I never gave up believing that God would save my life and heal me other people were being touched and blessed in the process...and they wanted more! Throughout it all, I was being strengthened not just by my prayers, but from the effectual and fervent prayer of ministers and saints from all around the world. The annointing of those prayers was spilling over from life into the lives of others. Eventually, I had a total of four surgeries since then and two of those times, my life was in serious jeopardy, but the Lord stepped in and healed me each time. To this day, many people still cannot believe that I am alive. I let them know, that it was and still is the power of God through prayer that has kept, strengthened and healed not just me, but many others. Your prayer will be great and effectual if you just keep praying and believe that God will answer it one day.
God Bless and keep praying!
