“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. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” (James 5:17-18)
I did four messages on YouTube under “Dale Garris” about the Secret of Answered Prayer. I need to do another one on the effect of sin on prayer and on the power of praise in prayer. The importance of these things in getting answers to prayer is not always well understood in many churches.
But I also need to do one on passion. Passion is the element in prayer that really gets a hold of God and moves Him. I’m talking about a “Garden of Gethsemane” type of passion, a “how-bad-do-you-want-it” kind of passion.
I’m mentioning this because I just received a phone call from Pastor William Iddi who has gone on a 30-day fast with just water for God to send me to his church in Tanzania. Now that’s passion!
He did this once before and God moved for him.
He heard me preach in Nairobi about ten years ago, and started asking me to come to his little village in Tanzania. My standard answer has always been to these requests is, “Don’t ask me. Go ask God. He makes all my appointments.”
So he did.
For seven days, he laid up on top of a mountain, sleeping on the rocks, no food or water, praying for God to send Brother Dale to his village. Seven days! But he did not get an answer.
So he went back up to the top of the mountain for another seven days. Still no answer.
So he went up a third time, and this time, the Lord spoke to him and said, “Stop your crying. He’s coming.”
Down he runs from the mountain to find that his cell phone is jammed with messages from me asking where he was. God had stopped me dead in my tracks and told me to go minister to prayer warrior and his church. It would not have mattered if he had been on an outpost in Antarctica. When the Lord says go, you go, asking no questions and doubting nothing.
I don’t have that kind of passion. I mean, geez! Three seven-day fasts! That’s a substantive confidence that God will answer you and a holy boldness to hammer away until He does. And that is true faith – not that you believe God will answer you, but that you will stay there and contend before the Throne of Grace until He does!
Remember the Unjust Judge.
Not everyone is able to muster up that kind of passion like Pastor Iddi. That is why prayer warriors – true prayer warriors – are so precious. They know they can move God because they have done it before. Their passion grows with each victory, and the power that they wield in battle grows as they tear down strongholds, rip open new pathways, and triumph in the battleground of prayer.
May we all find that same passion in prayer, like Elijah and like Pastor Iddi, to call down the fire of God and send the latter rain of the greatest revival of all time.
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