James
Like Passion
Elijah’s righteousness was not passive, it was passionate
Elijah is the poster child for Romans 12:11-12
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
God’s command for us is to be passionate
Love the Lord your God with all your heart & with all your soul & with all your mind & with all your strength…There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30-31
Love provokes passion
What is the center of your passion?
No doubt Elijah was zealous for the Lord
No doubt Elijah loved the Lord with “all his heart, soul, mind & strength”
Maybe it is the passion of Elijah that made his prayers “powerful and effective”
How passionate are your prayers?
How much zeal and spiritual fervor do you have?
Elijah was a man of like passions, but he focused his passions on the Lord
No wonder his prayers were powerful and effective
Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnest James 5:17
Like Passion
The New International Version (NIV) says…
Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly.
James 5:17
What does it mean, “a man just like us”?
The Amplified Version (AMP) says…
Elijah was a human being with a nature such as we have
[with feelings, affections, and a constitution like ours];
and he prayed earnestly
James 5:17
The King James Version (KJV) says…
Elias was a man subject to like passions
as we are, and he prayed earnestly.
James 5:17
As I look into the Greek word,
“passion” seems to fit very well.
When we look at the context, we see in
verse 16 of the Amplified (AMP) words like…
Earnest, heartfelt, continued
And in verse 17…
Feelings, affections, and a constitution.
In the KJV effectual fervent.
When we look at verse 16,
we need to ask the question what is…
The prayer of a righteous man
(that) is powerful and effective?
James is trying to get us to see a righteous
person is not only a good person,
someone doing good deeds…
A righteous person is “passionate”.
We all have passion, every one
of us has feelings and affections.
Our passion will tell us what we
love and what we like and dislike.
Passion is something we all have.
Sometime we suppress it and sometimes
it takes us in the wrong direction.
James gives us the example of the righteous man
whose prayer was powerful and effective…
The prophet Elijah.
Imagine living in Israel, the northern
kingdom and Judah is to the south.
All Israel’s kings were bad.
When the transfer of power
went to Ahab, things got real bad.
Ahab secured his financial power
by taking Jezebel as his wife.
1 Kings 16:30-33…
Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.
Let’s not just read over this…
Ahab … did more to provoke the LORD…
to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.
God was angry.
The nation that declared the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God
was now forced to worship Baal.
The prophets of God were being killed
to make room for the new god of Baal.
Ahab was a very weak man and His wife,
Jezebel, was a very strong woman.
We see both strength and weakness as evil.
We should always remember it is not by might
or power but by My Spirit says the Lord.
Zechariah 4:6
What kind of person would stand up to
be used by God in the face of evil?
What kind of person would take the
last meal from a mother and child?
What kind of person would take a mother’s dead
child and pray to God to give the child life again?
What kind of person would walk up to Ahab
while his wife, Jezebel, was killing the prophets?
What kind of person would call for the
prophets of Baal to a challenge of proof?
What kind of man, who felt he was the only prophet
of God left, would stand before the nation and say…
"How long will you waver between two opinions?
If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him."
1 Kings 18:21
When “the people said nothing”
1 Kings 18:22
What kind of person would call down fire from heaven?
What kind of person would heckle and mock his enemies?
What kind of person prays…
Answer me, O LORD, answer me,
so these people will know that you,
O LORD, are God, and that you are
turning their hearts back again.
1 Kings 18:37
What kind of man seizes the prophets of
Baal and kills them liberating the people.
What kind of person climbs a mountain
to pray for rain and does not give up even
though seven times he looked for the answer?
1 Kings 18:42-44
What kind of person runs faster than a chariot?
Elijah ran from the wrath of Jezebel.
As the adrenalin wears off he says…
"I have had enough, LORD," he said.
"Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors."
1 Kings 19:4-5
The Lord fed him, than Elijah said…
"I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty.
1 Kings 19:10
Elijah did all he did because he was a passionate man.
Elijah was a zealous man.
Elijah’s righteousness was not passive,
it was passionate.
Elijah is the poster child for Romans 12:11-12…
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor,
serving the Lord.
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
God’s command for us is to be passionate.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
There is no commandment greater than these."
Mark 12:30-31
Love provokes passion.
What is the center of your passion?
If you drew a ring and continued to draw
rings around each ring…
How many rings would there be until
you call that ring your passion,
your love for the Lord?
Many of us say we love God…
But we all put Him at different places in our lives.
No doubt Elijah was zealous for the Lord.
No doubt Elijah loved the Lord with…
“ALL HIS HEART, SOUL, MIND, AND STRENGTH”.
Maybe it is the passion of Elijah that
made his prayers “powerful and effective”.
How passionate are your prayers?
How passionate is your life?
How much zeal and spiritual fervor do you have?
Elijah was a man of like passions…
But he focused his passions on the Lord.
No wonder his prayers were powerful and effective.
Elijah was a man subject to like passions
as we are, and he prayed earnest.
James 5:17
What moves the stillness of your life?
What is at the center that changes everything?
Scripture Reading
James 5:16-18 KJV
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.
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
James 5:16-18 AMP
The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].
17 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. [1 Kings 17:1.]
18 And [then] he prayed again and the heavens supplied rain and the land produced its crops [as usual]. [1 Kings 18:42-45.]
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