The Prayer of the Righteous…

Last year, on April 7th, my best friend was pronounced dead by the doctors. I couldn’t take it! It was about 2pm. Resurrection is the only thing that was on my mind. So I and his other close friends and siblings went into fervent prayer. We prayed on until midnight.

The following morning, I resumed at 6am. As I went for an exam at school, I kept interceding in the Holy Spirit, staying in tongues all the way. He was having the sendoff service at 10. I wore white that day. Why? Resurrection. Anytime, like Jesus, Sam would be flying out that coffin and making people run.

I went on till midday. I never replied to any condolence messages. I didn’t warmly welcome any pitiful messages. All I did was pray. Burial was on Friday. I was praying again from 6am, all the way to the burial place where we arrived at 1pm. I stayed prayed up because it is all I could do.

So much faith had gathered, I couldn’t believe any contradiction. There’s no way the resurrection could not have happened. Even as he was being lowered down, I was expecting a dramatic knock from inside the coffin. Concrete was finally laid on top, & we traveled back. I still expected a phone call saying “He’s risen!”

That Saturday, I was sharing with a friend. She was shivering. She’d seen the way I reacted to all this. She said she could not even bother calling me because she feared she’d have sowed unbelief. She then said, “But where did all that power go?”

I was lost. “Excuse me…?”

“Where did all that power go? The Bible says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much power” she quoted. “That is why I strongly believe, all your hours of prayer produced much power, it all should have been seen effecting…somewhere, somehow.”

I was blown away. Little did I know she was telling the truth. That Monday, I was invited by one of Sam’s sisters for a conversation. She later told me what went down with Sam’s body as she had been with him during that time.”As you prayed on Wednesday,” she narrated, “at some point, he inhaled. Then even if I had given up on Thursday, you reignited the faith…On Friday, one of the prophets had a vision in the morning, the angels were inserting like a CD—a new form of body-reviving-software into Sam to revitalize & resuscitate him. Even heaven could not withhold him from us… but Sam refused.

In the vision, he seemed to have enjoyed heaven so much in the little hours he’d been there. So much peace, so much joy. He refused to return to us (which is okay). He apologized to the one who was having the vision. He cried regretfully saying he was sorry. . .and so, the next time you pray for the dead. . .know that the prayers work. Indeed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much…”

I then connected all the dots. I saw ‘where the power went’. Tears of joy flooded my eyes. I was beyond doubt. A boldness came over me. A confident assurance.

Know that your prayer has to bring forth results. To cement this, God today was saying, “…the effectiveness of that prayer is dependent on the wisdom & understanding of a man’s true identity.”

As in?

“The verse says ‘…of a righteous man.’ It doesn’t say ‘of a sinful man.’ Therefore, the more one accepts that they are righteous by faith through Christ, that they are the very righteousness of God, that’s when their prayers blow off roofs. They can’t claim to be sinners and then expect ‘tremendous results’.”

To back God up, He says that we should seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…what makes Him holy…what makes Him who He is…His nature, and all these other things shall be added unto us. His nature was to raise the dead, and that’s what He said I’d do too. That’s why my understanding provoked such results.

If you’re the kind who doesn’t believe the dead can rise again, if you think ‘it is impossible’, if you walk by sight and not by faith’ , if you think it is God’s will for you to be sick … If you don’t know God’s word concerning righteousness, expect no results! Expect no POWER!

But if you think otherwise, boy it’s going to be a joyful ride. You’ll pray & things will happen. Things MUST happen! Men shall fear your God! But, with the degree with which you increase in the understanding of righteousness, is the degree with which the effectiveness of your prayer shall be. That’s the grand lesson from today’s narration.

A chicken got lost at home the other day. After several searches in vain, we couldn’t find it. We didn’t tell the ‘big man’ about it. I prayed knowing that power is released. I told the angels to watch the chicken and that it’ll find its way back home the following day. Guess the first bird I saw when I walked out the gate the morn after! Yes, the scrawny hen without feathers on its neck, scratching the earth for worms.

The power availed the results I expected!

Conclusively, whenever you pray, expect power to be released! For it always is! Just like one always expects to become wet when water splashes on them.

Praise God!

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James 5:16-17 Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working]. Elijah was a human being with a nature such as we have [with feelings, affections, and a constitution like ours]; and he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and no rain fell on the earth for three years and six months. [I Kings 17:1.] (AMP)

James 5:16 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. (KJV)