The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

James 5:16 KJV (portion)

Oh the excitement of writing about prayer…I asked the Lord what shall I say? I could write about this and that and another.. and as my mind was filling with the joy of all the treasures of prayer, I heard the small voice say “fervent”.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  To be fervent means to show great warmth or intensity of spirit.  When we begin to converse with God the warmth of the spirit and the fire of the Lord begin to stir the passions of  His desires through us.

What a wonderful gift the Lord gives to us that we could share in the passions of His heart. That our yielding to the call of prayer could change the heart of one or change the destiny of a nation or simply draw us personally into the deep chambers of the Lord to experience the intimacy of the most High.

Peter in Jail

I am reminded of the story about Peter and the results of fervent prayer. Here is Peter asleep between two guards, two more at the door watching after he was beaten and bound with chains.  It says that long and fervent prayer was being made by the assembly unto God for him (Acts 12:5).  He had people that were burning up the incense on his behalf unto the Lord and look what happens!

He was visited by an angel of the Lord who then lights up the room, cuts all of his chains, tells him to hurry and get some shoes and his garment around him and to follow him. Obviously this is all taking place amidst guards who were oblivious yet next to him guarding the doors.  They were completely unaware of everything around him.

Prayers Availed Deliverance

Peter, in disbelief,  thought he was in a vision.  Soon he realized that he was following the messenger of the Lord who was leading him through two prison wards to an iron gate.  That gate opened on its own and let him through.  Peter was released on the street.  It then says Peter came to and was himself.

Peter was so filled with the glory of the Lord that he wasn’t even aware of the trouble. Peter came to the house of Mary and he found a large gathering of people who were praying for him. It says the people were thronged together.  The expression depicts specifically a large group of people pressed together, as to do work!  This was an example of  the prayers offered up.  It created spiritual pressure causing a reaction in the realm of the spirit that ended up in a miracle in the life of Peter.  The phenomenal part is that the people praying didn’t have a clue of the effectiveness of their prayers!  Not only did they not believe it was Peter, he had to knock for quite a while before anyone let him in.

When they were told of who was at the door they thought it was Peter’s angel.  Wow.

Do we really know what our fiery prayers do? Our prayers break chains and allow people to translate through danger by petitioning the angels in heaven.  They lift up the oppressed up into joy and deliver them into safety!

What if we knew and were confident that our prayers were effective?  In Faith, knowing we are in agreement with the Father, pressed into such a fiery realm of prayer, mountains are literally moved by the communion of prayer in faith, agreeing  with what we see the Father doing.  Every time we touch and agree.

The Joy of the Lord

How often do we have the joy of the Lord consume us in that place of deep prayer. Do we pray with joy and fire in our spirits?  Are we energized with His Spirit, even if we don’t see results?

When Peter knocked on the door he was overlooked because the damsel named Rhoda who knew the voice of Peter was so filled with the joy of the Lord because of answered prayer.  She had to go tell everyone what happened before she even opened the door!

When we stay in that place of perfect peace and joy as we pray and commune with the Lord, knowing the whole time His outcome was perfect, we would continuously go deeper and deeper into the realms of Jesus heart. We would see a continuous increase in the passions that burden our Lord and be invited to participate more deeply into his purposes.  We could be drawn even more deeply and longer into those secret places, we would feel the increase of  intensity of the Lords presence in our spirits.

The overflow of that overflow alone would make one want to be like the prophetess Anna, who after her husbands death, was estimated to have spent 80 years in constant fasting and prayer in the temple. Think of what you may see in the temple with the Lord constant for 80 yrs! She was put in the book because of her devotion to Him in prayer.  I want to be continually being filled with the firery passions of the Lord all the days of my life!

Deeper in Prayer

How do we begin to draw deeper into prayer?  The Word says the prayers of a righteous man availeth much.  How do we prepare our hearts for such a call to prayer.  Righteousness meaning morally right or justifiable, acting in a morally and upright way. Do our actions really produce a deeper walk with the Lord?

Walking in virtue produce a transparency that creates a place of deeper union. We are called to be holy for He is holy. When we are transformed into the image of  the Almighty, the union we experience leaves the old man dead.  This means no more desires for a sinful nature. We are then aware of the pains of  conviction when we sin and are filled with the recognition and awareness of the freedom that comes by the blood through willful repentance and gratitude of a Savior who died so I may live and live free.

When we become honest and sincere with our heart, willing to release the sin in our lives, it looses the darkness in our hearts.  It allows the fresh rush of  His blood to cleanse and fill us to overflowing, and also bring healing and restoration us to Him.  It allows for that sweet voice of the Master to be heard again.

It allows us to jump into rivers of refreshing and experience the joys of a Father, not because we have to because we are dirty, but because we get to and we desire to know our Jesus more and more.  In a pure and translucent union, knowing that no darkness can be in the light, we are one.

When we spend time with Him we begin to look like Him, act like Him, smell like Him.  My desire is to be so like Him, that it is He who people see in me.

And it isn’t as if any of this being done primarily by my own efforts, of course, but simply a natural change caused by a union that is supernatural.  It was Jesus’ hearts cry to His Father that we may know the Father the way He does.  When Jesus prayed in the garden, the intensity of His spirit caused His natural body to bleed through His pores. His body already preparing for the blood shed for our sins as He felt the weight of the world then.  Yet, Jesus even then was communing with His Father in such a way that  consumed Him with the passions of His Father.  And it was the Father that released everything Jesus needed in that moment of a crushing burden, so that our Lord could release Himself into His Father, in complete oneness.

The King of Glory

Who is this amazing King of Glory?  Our prayers ignite a flame that only increases our desire to know Him more.  The breath of His presence that consumes us by His Spirit takes us on a road that draws us into complete oneness with the Father and His purposes.

May  the warmth of His Spirit and the intensity of the weight of His purpose capture you and rapture you into a ever increasing desire to be close to Him.  I pray that you would be so naturally bound to a supernatural Heavenly Father that the prayer realms in the Spirit would be your natural way of life.  I release the message of Ephesians 1:3-23 over your life and pray that you are over-joyed with a fresh filling of the spirit of fiery fervent prayers that warm and intensify your spirit, and that draw you deeper into the purposes of your Heavenly Father.

 Ephesians 1:3-23

Blessed is the God and Father of our Jesus Christ, who did bless us in every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, according as He did choose us in him before the foundation of the world, for our being holy and unblemished before Him, in love, having foreordained us to the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He did make us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have the redemption through his blood, the remission of the trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, in which He did abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the secret of His will, according to His good pleasure, that He purposed in Himself, in regard to the dispensation of the fullness of the times, to bring into one the whole in the Christ, both the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth — in him; in whom also we did obtain an inheritance, being foreordained according to the purpose of Him who the all things is working according to the counsel of His will, for our being to the praise of His glory, even those who did first hope in the Christ, in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth — the good news of your salvation — in whom also having believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance, to the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory.

[15] Because of this I also, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and the love to all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of the glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the recognition of him,the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, for your knowing what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His power to us who are believing, according to the working of the power of His might, which He wrought in the Christ, having raised him out of the dead, and did set him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and authority, and might, and lordship, and every name named, not only in this age, but also in the coming one; and all things He did put under his feet, and did give him — head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fullness of Him who is filling the all in all.