The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16, NIV)
There is so much power in prayer! I’ll never forget what happened in the Roman Amphitheatre in Caesarea in Israel in 2016, when all the forces of the enemy were against us, trying to destroy us and stop us from having 4000 unbelieving Jews in that stadium! Having tried everything and failed, the last thing the devil threw at me, on the day, was the biggest sea and sandstorm they had ever seen on the Mediterranean. It was so strong, it made the gantry holding our sound system and cameras sway one metre each way until it was in danger of collapsing, and the police wouldn’t let the people in for fear! I jumped up on that platform and said, “O God, You’ve never ever been defeated in battle and You’re not going to be defeated now. In Jesus’ Name I command the storm to stop!” And the storm stopped! In front of 4000 unbelieving Jews! God is still demonstrating His Power today!!!
Why did I pray like that? Because I KNOW, if you have a faith that has been put through the fire and tested, that faith will never fail. If my faith had failed, and the storm had prevented the meeting, would unbelievers ever listen to me again? You must understand, faith HAS to be put to the test. Put your faith to the test. I didn’t start with big miracles, I started with the small things, and I learnt the power of prayer.
James 5 says that the prayer of faith shall save the sick. This is faith in a more powerful sense. It’s the action of praying and believing that sees the miracle. People know that I’ve been healed of cancer twice, but on both occasions, it was a far bigger miracle than you can realise. On neither occasion did I have any medication, not a tablet, no chemo, nothing. I took a step of faith and I was completely healed. But the cancer did not disappear, the Hand of God had literally cut it out and left the scar tissue! The doctors could see, someone had operated! On the second occasion, I had had all the investigations which proved I had lung cancer. But the night when the cancer came out, it came out through my mouth and afterwards they had to burn the bed, it was soaked through with the remains of the cancer! I was standing very clearly both times by a very strong element of faith.
And now we come to something that I hold on to very much, still in verse 16, where James continues, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much”! ‘Effectual fervent’ means this is very powerful prayer. The Greek word often used for powerful is ‘dunamis’. We’ve borrowed this word into English as ‘dynamo’ (to generate electricity, power, to run your home, your car); and as ‘dynamite’ (a very unusual explosive which doesn’t waste its energy on the open air, but pushes the wall down, breaks open the rock face). So when we’re talking about prayer, your prayer must not be wasted on the air, but like dynamite, it must be dynamic enough to move the mountain out of the way! To move the sickness! To move the obstacle! If your prayer is not doing this, it’s not doing its job! Dynamite is used in mining, it’s dangerous, but used correctly, it’s powerful! It achieves its objective! In the same way, the dynamic prayer of a righteous man avails – it works!