Righteousness: The Key to Answered Prayers

James 5:16-18

^16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another [your false steps, your offenses], and pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored. The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) can accomplish much [when put into action and made effective by God—it is dynamic and can have tremendous power]. ¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours [with the same physical, mental, and spiritual limitations and shortcomings], and he prayed intensely for it not to rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its crops [as usual].” AMP

This passage is powerful in explaining the process that leads us to receiving the answer to our prayers. According to it, we must first make sure we have a clean heart. For this, we must confess our faults. We do this before the Lord, but the Scripture also says to confess our faults to others. I suggest we do this with people we trust and know they will keep our confessions between them and God so they can intercede for us.

So, before we start telling God the things we want Him to do for us, it is a great idea to ask Him to search our hearts because there are things we may not know He will find that we need to repent of (turn from). We can pray just like King David, who understood this important aspect of the prayer life of a person who wants to have and maintain a right standing with God. We see this in Psalm 139:23 when he asked the Lord, “Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart; Test me and know my anxious thoughts;” AMP

1 Chronicles 28:9 also describes how he also passed down this wisdom to the next generation that would succeed him. He said to King Solomon, ⁹ “’As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever. ’” AMP

So a prayer that is answered is that of a righteous man (or a righteous woman) that lives intentionally doing the will of the Lord no matter what he is asked to do or what challenges may come from obeying God’s will and commands for him. Thus, he concerns himself with pleasing God more than pleasing people, and does not focus on anything more than following after God’s heart to fulfill His will for him. In addition, he believes the word of the Lord and His faithfulness to fulfill it.  

The second part of verse 16 of the initial passage asserts that the heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. This can only be done when we have a steadfast intimacy with God because the power and authority necessary for us to overcome the obstacles of our calling and of reaching our destiny purposed for us can only come from our times in fellowship with the Father. In this place is also where we learn and grow to have a voice that is recognized in the spirit. When we learn to hear the voice of the Lord and obey every command that comes from His mouth for us, we will increase in our levels of maturity that helps us be recognized as the bride of Christ.

To reiterate from other posts, the bride of Christ are mature believers who know their identity in Christ and walk in meekness before Him, knowing that they have been given authority to walk in dominion in the areas they have been called to influence others for His Kingdom, but do not use that authority arbitrarily or to promote their own agendas.

Instead, they know that that authority has been given to them to use in dependence of God and at His direction to advance the Kingdom in the earth and also to help make a way for the lost and the fallen to reach salvation and restoration of their lives. For this, these mature believers have learned to forsake every idol in their lives and bow their knees only to the Lord Most High, knowing that the true blessings come from God and are not tainted with the ways of the world and its ruler. That is why Psalm 24:3-6 says,

³ 
Who may ascend onto the mountain of the Lord?
And who may stand in His holy place?
⁴ 
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to what is false,
Nor has sworn [oaths] deceitfully.
⁵ 
He shall receive a blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 

⁶
This is the generation (description) of those who diligently seek Him and require Him as their greatest need,
Who seek Your face, even [as did] Jacob. Selah.

The other part of this Psalm talks about how God is willing to intervene on behalf on His righteous people and defend them from every enemy of their purpose on earth and remove all obstacles from before them. Verses 7-10 say,

7
“Lift up your heads, O gates,
And be lifted up, ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in.
⁸ 
Who is the King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.
⁹ 
Lift up your heads, O gates,
And lift them up, ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in.
¹⁰ 
Who is [He then] this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
He is the King of glory [who rules over all creation with His heavenly armies]. Selah.” AMP

One example of such intervention recorded in the Bible on behalf of someone that was found to be righteous in God’s eyes, is seen in Job 42. First, in verse 2 Job said,

“’I’m convinced: You can do anything and everything.
    Nothing and no one can upset your plans.’” MSG

That is the reason why God intervened on behalf of Job and commanded his friends, who, in spite of their love and devotion to God, did not know that their accusations and view of Job’s trial were not His will for them or for Job. They accused him of going through the circumstances he encountered because it was his fault and also because he was not doing enough to come out of them soon (just like someone influenced by the spirit of this world would do). They rendered him a foolish person that was only daydreaming and wanting others to do what he could do for himself.

But they did not know that God was using the adversities Job went through to raise him up to higher levels of authority and power in the spirit where he could make legislations in prayer against the enemy of the advancement of God’s Kingdom in the earth (the Antichrist spirit), and its influential pride in those used to oppose him. Therefore, as Job reached this new level in the spirit, he was able to enjoy the true riches of heaven which granted him a double portion of everything he had before in every area of his life. That is why God said to Job’s friends about their false accusations in verses 7-8,

“’^7-8 After God had finished addressing Job, he turned to Eliphaz the Temanite and said, “I’ve had it with you and your two friends. I’m fed up! You haven’t been honest either with me or about me—not the way my friend Job has. So here’s what you must do. Take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my friend Job. Sacrifice a burnt offering on your own behalf. My friend Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer. He will ask me not to treat you as you deserve for talking nonsense about me, and for not being honest with me, as he has.’”

Another example of God’s intervention on behalf of one of His righteous servants and answer his prayer is found in 1 Kings 18:17-39. Here we see first, that Elijah confronted over 400 prophets of Baal. These people worshipped another god and did vile things under the command of the evil Queen Jezebel who not only turned the people of God from their worship to Him, but also persecuted and murdered many His prophets in Samaria, the capital of Israel.

For this confrontation Elijah told the prophets of Baal to choose an ox and cut it in pieces and then call on their god to ignite their altar with fire, because if he was the true god, he will send the fire to answer their prayers. But after many attempts of different kinds for several hours, verse 29 says, “²⁹ This went on until well past noon. They used every religious trick and strategy they knew to make something happen on the altar, but nothing happened—not so much as a whisper, not a flicker of response.” MSG

This happened because God found sin, rebellion and all kinds of abominations in their hearts and, therefore in their lives, including worshipping before the altars that King Ahab and Queen Jezebel had raised to false gods throughout the land and how the people of Israel were forbidden from worshipping the One True God.

But because Elijah was found righteous (obedient and without sin) in God’s eyes, after he asked his servants to prepare the altar with the ox, he was able to pray one single prayer that God immediately answered. We see this in verses 36-39 which say, “^36-37 When it was time for the sacrifice to be offered, Elijah the prophet came up and prayed, ‘O God, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, make it known right now that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I’m doing what I’m doing under your orders. Answer me, God; O answer me and reveal to this people that you are God, the true God, and that you are giving these people another chance at repentance.’

³⁸ Immediately the fire of God fell and burned up the offering, the wood, the stones, the dirt, and even the water in the trench.

³⁹ All the people saw it happen and fell on their faces in awed worship, exclaiming, “God is the true God! God is the true God!’” MSG

Elijah was able to do that because of his right standing with God. This means, as explained in the initial passage of this post in James 5:16-18 that he was not perfect, and had the limitations and proclivities that all human beings have, but he kept his heart clean and always made sure to go before God to know that the intentions of his heart were good in His eyes.

For this reason, God was able to use him to declare the destruction of the opposition of God’s worship and its perpetrators in the land of Israel because they had turned His people against Him. As the passage in James 5 also highlights, he was able to reach high levels of authority and power to decree for rain to stop for three and a half years and after that time pray that rain would come back again because he knew that God would answer his prayers as He indeed did. To review, the Scripture says in verses 17 and 18,

¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours [with the same physical, mental, and spiritual limitations and shortcomings], and he prayed intensely for it not to rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its crops [as usual].” AMP

So, let’s be like King David and ask the Lord to search our hearts and reveal to us everything that is hindering us from being effective believers and His true bride that does great exploits in the earth on behalf of His Kingdom and of those He wants to reach through us so our prayers may be answered every time.

To God alone be all the Glory.▪

The Two Cuts of the Double-Edged Sword

Hebrews 4:12

For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.

As the Scripture describes, the living and powerful Word of God is actively speaking to us and effectively working in us. And when it comes to the promises He gives us, the Word is also sharper than a two-edged sword which cuts in two directions. First, like with Jesus, God takes us by His Spirit to the wilderness of testing and trials (Matthew 4:1) because in this place He helps us know and understand His purpose for our life and develops us according to our calling.

This place is also designed to cut our carnal ways and influence of the spirit of this world in us. This is required because our spirit needs to envelop our soul and that way we become more sensitive and responsive to the promptings of the Spirit of God instead of reasoning everything and allowing doubt and unbelief to derail us from the course God wants us to take. This makes it hard on our flesh at the beginning but the more we obey God’s promptings and mandates, the more we will take on His easy yoke and light burden (Matthew 11:28-30) as we receive His grace to do the things He has called us to do.

What is more, in this place, while God is cutting away every enemy from within us, He is also working with us for the development of the anointing that will make our calling unique that will be used in partnership with Him for the second edge of the sword that will remove every enemy of our harvest from without. This second edge of the sword will also set the captives free when we reach our place of assignment. Therefore, the greater the time of preparation we go through, the greater the anointing to fulfill God’s purpose for our life. That is why understanding our great necessity of spending time in His presence is crucial during our time of preparation as well as when we reach our place and time of assignment.

Some examples of people God took through this process of being cut in the wilderness of testing with the first edge of the sword are David, Joseph, and Esther. Each of them went through periods in which God needed to remove the things that hindered them from reaching their place of destiny. David needed to learn to conquer his fears represented in his dealings with the lion. He also needed to overcome his carnal and sensual cravings represented in his dealings with the bear. 

To explain more, a sensual craving is when we use our senses to rule our emotions. This means that if it looks good, sounds good, tastes good, feels good, or smells good, then we might think it is a good thing. Our emotions, as part of the three components of our soul, along with our mind and our will, are useful to take into consideration because they can help us sense things of God and also warn us about things of the enemy. However, it is dangerous to be ruled by our emotions when God is asking us to be ruled by His Spirit as He leads us by our spirit to do something that is unusual or that does not make sense to us. We are called to not be moved by what we see or hear with our natural senses, but to discern with our spiritual senses the source of whatever it is we are encountering in our walk with Him. Isaiah 11:1-3 says,

¹Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot—
    yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.
² And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
    the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
    the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
³ He will delight in obeying the Lord.
    He will not judge by appearance
    nor make a decision based on hearsay. NLT

This is what going through the wilderness of testing does: it helps bring our soul back to life in the areas where it was cut by the hurts and sin we committed when we were influenced by the spirit of this world so that we can make our spiritual senses strong and be able to discern the things we encounter and, according to the leading of the Holy Spirit, give each situation the proper treatment. In other words, we will show the righteousness of Jesus and our Christlikeness to those we are called to influence because we have learned to be conformed to His image and likeness.

Joseph experienced his cuts from within when he was thrown in the pit by his brothers, then sold to an Egyptian slave driver, placed as an administrator in Potiphar’s house where he was wrongly accused which got him sent to prison, before he could go to the palace. Esther also needed to go through her twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for her purification. This was needed before she found favor with the king and was chosen to become the queen that would replace Queen Vashty.

As mentioned, the other edge of the sword cuts our enemies from without. When this happens, the enemy that used to taunt and harass us because it had things in common with us through the enemies we had within will find our house clean. There’s no more fear because we have learned to walk by faith and not by sight, there is no pride because we have learned to humble and submit ourselves to God and wait for the due season He has chosen to exalts us to our place of assignment, and every idol we had raised before has been toppled. Jesus said in John 14:29-31,

“’I’ve told you this ahead of time, before it happens, so that when it does happen, the confirmation will deepen your belief in me. I’ll not be talking with you much more like this because the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don’t worry—he has nothing on me, no claim on me. But so the world might know how thoroughly I love the Father, I am carrying out my Father’s instructions right down to the last detail. “Get up. Let’s go. It’s time to leave here.’” MSG

When it is time for us to see God use the second edge of the sword to remove our adversaries from without, there cannot be anything in common with the enemy left in us. In David’s case, we saw this when it was time for him to deal with Goliath the giant sorcerer. By this time, David’s spirit was strong and he was ready to push back the enemy of his advancement towards God’s promise to him to become King of Israel. So as he partnered with God, he saw the forceful use of the second edge of the sword that was used in him, but this time it was used to cut off the enemy of his destiny.

Joseph was also made strong through the trials that tested God’s promise to him and he was able to see the enemy of the prosperity of Egypt be dealt with. Egypt was the land he was given to rule as second in command to pharaoh and its enemy was a devastating famine. As Joseph triumphed over his enemies within during his time in the wilderness of testing, He was promoted to an important and strategic position that helped make Egypt at that time, the most powerful country on earth due to Joseph’s ability to destroy the famine in that land and his family was able to prosper there too. 

In addition, after Esther completed her period of cleansing and by staying true to her Jewish roots, she received favor with the king and, after hearing about Hamman’s plot against the Jews, she realized that she was not going to be saved even if she was in the palace. So after fasting three days, Esther went and presented herself unannounced before the king even though that was against the law. But instead of losing her life, she received the scepter of redemption. What followed was that Esther invited both the king and Hamman to dinner two days in a row and on the second day she uncovered his evil plot against her people to King Xerxes. This caused Hamman to be hung on the gallows he had lifted for Mordecai, Esther’s uncle who revealed the plot to her and commanded her to speak to the king in order to see the removal and termination of the enemy of their people. 

In essence, the two edges of the sword are used to cut us first, and when God has removed from within us everything that would hinder our advancement to our destiny, then He applies the second blade of the sword to remove the enemy from without that had tried to stop, derail, or cause us to forfeit our destiny. As we partner with God, we will be able to tell the giants in our land that the same God who gave us victory over the fears and sensual cravings within us, will now give us victory over the enemy of our calling and we will see it terminated and removed. 

Now, please pray with me. Heavenly Father, I give myself to you humbly and wholeheartedly and invite you to cut from within me every enemy that is harassing my soul and the fears as well as every sensual craving that could derail me from reaching my destiny purposed by you. I ask that as you have a hold on me, that you strip me bare of all those things so that the enemy of my calling will have nothing in common with me. Help me to love spending time in your sweet and precious presence where I can be renewed and be conformed to your image and likeness more and more each day. This way, as I partner with you, I can see the removal of the enemy of my destiny. I ask this with thanksgiving in advance, in the mighty name of Jesus. To God alone be all the glory.▪