James 4-5

What makes prayer powerful? "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. 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!" James 5:16-17. I once received this question and I believe answering today will bless us. We instinctively know that prayers that get results are prayers that are powerful. But what makes the prayer powerful when the art of prayer itself is an expression of weakness of our inability to achieve the result on our own due to our limitations and humanity? James tells us here that our humanity is not really the problem because the prophet Elijah who prayed some very powerful prayers was as human as anyone of us. When he prayed, his prayers shut out rain for years and it took him praying again for rain to restart. What made Elijah's prayer that powerful? The lesson here is to realise that the power of prayer comes from the one answering, not the one praying. That seems obvious right, but we all seem to miss this obvious point. Your prayer is powerful only when God answers not when you pray. For those who have learned this secret, they learn to put their focus on the one they are praying to and not on the powerful words used in prayer. Secondly, Elijah's prayer was a fallout of his deep relationship with God. This is apparent because when he prayed, he said he was doing so on the behalf of the one he represents. It was God who told Elijah to close the heavens, he didn't do so because he wanted to make waves. Prayer is powerful when it is praying the mind and will of God received through a deep relationship with him.