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.▪