“…The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” – James 5:16
The reason it’s said that “the Devil is in the details” is because many people aren’t diligent enough to examine the specifics of things on the periphery of their immediate interests. And as a result of this negligence, they find themselves overcome by lesser forces who took the time to study the “details”.
And so you find a diminutive man like Napoleon winning battles through personally riding on horseback to study the terrain of the battlefield before engaging with the enemy…and the legendary gangster, Al Capone, getting arrested and sent to prison, for failing to pay his taxes…despite having the police force in his employ.
All through a willingness, or refusal, to study “the details”.
Now at a merely carnal level, it’s sufficient to know that it is a huge advantage to be willing to “sweat the small stuff” when it comes to preparing for battle or honing your craft.
But in the real world of the Spirit, the detail that James 5:16 reveals to us regarding Prayer is a little thing called “Temperature”.
In Genesis 8:22 the Word reveals that as long as the earth remains, alongside seed time and harvest, day and night and summer and winter…there will also be cold and heat.
In other words: Temperature.
Extremes of Temperature.
It’s hugely significant that God the Creator, who is Spirit, is taking the time to inaugurate Temperature – cold and heat – as a governing entity on the Earth.
And this is underscored by the observable fact that of all of Creation is governed by Temperature:
the degree or intensity of heat present in a substance or object, especially as expressed according to a comparative scale and shown by a thermometer or perceived by touch.
Temperature governs the convection currents, determining whether or not it will rain in an area. Temperature shakes its head at the bananas and tropical seeds that ask if they can grow in a temperate climate instead. Temperature activates enzymes, triggers homeostatic mechanisms in the body and is central to keeping a person alive.
And when it comes to physical matter, Temperature has the deciding factor over whether that glass of water you just poured will stay as a liquid, freeze into a block of ice, or transform into a gust of steam through the water reaching boiling point.
Temperature is extremely important…especially when it comes to Prayer.
James 5:16 opens up the revelation that there is a prayer that “availeth much”.
And this prayer, of a “righteous man”, is effectual and “fervent”.
The word translated ‘effectual fervent’ as in ‘fervent prayer’ in James 5:16 is the Greek word ‘energeo’ which means to be at a boiling point, or welding-heat or red hot. –
Boiling point, welding heat, fiery furnace, scorching inferno, a red hot chili pepper…this is what Prayer that gets results actually looks and feels like.
We see this reality about Prayer further illuminated from the vantage point of Revelation 8 v 22:
And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. [Emphasis added]
In this scene you’ve got the golden censer, incense, prayers of the saints, and the golden altar as the key players.
But what stands out critically in the light of Prayer being a fire is that the angel is given much incense to offer with the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar.
The incense is the substance which is to be burned to produce an aroma. The altar is the place of the burning.
And the prayers of the saints…are the fire that burns the incense.
In other words, God has given us the job of providing the fire that Heaven uses to effect Divine ordinations that affect the Earth realm:
And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. – Revelation 8:5
[Emphasis added]
Our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29)
His eyes are as a flame of fire. (Revelation 1:14)
The hills melt like wax at the Presence of the Lord. (Psalm 97:5)
He makes His ministers flames of fire. (Hebrews 1:7)
And as He is so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17)
As a Born Again Creature, you now carry God’s “DNA” within you…”Christ in you the hope of glory”.
Operating from within this nature gives you the exact same access as Jesus, because the real you is one spirit with Him.
So since you are now one with “a consuming fire”, don’t violate your nature by sending tepid, timid, passionless, lukewarm “utterances” up to Heaven.
Instead, send up fiery, boiling point, red hot chili prayers. Those are the ones that bring results.
And as you send the fire of your Prayer into the Heavenly realm, Heaven will respond with “voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.”
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