<p>5:17<i> Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months</i>-<i>&nbsp; </i>Elijah's prayer exemplifies how intensely we should pray for the spiritual benefit of others, and how that in itself helped him spiritually. In view of the exalted status of Elijah in Jewish theology, James stresses how he was of &quot;like passions&quot; to us (cp. Acts 14:15)- i.e. he too, because of his inherent human nature, did not find intense prayer easy. Elijah's fervent prayer was that it might not rain, and in the context of James his prayer was for the spiritual good of Ahab and apostate Israel. In the same way as apostles like Paul and Peter could pray for physical sickness to come upon men to lead them to repentance, so Elijah prayed for the famine to come upon Israel to make them realize their sin. James is saying that if the sick brethren and indeed the whole ecclesia prayed for forgiveness with the same intensity that the apostles and Elijah had prayed for such physical problems to come upon the spiritually weak, then those problems could be lifted. But it was only those who were sensitive to the true spirit of the word, in this case in the Elijah record, who would have grasped this. The intensity of Elijah's prayer needs some thought to appreciate, as superficially it appears that it is hardly recorded that he prayed for the drought. However, it must have been as a result of his prayer that he could say &quot;there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word&quot;. This is because of a principle outlined by Eliphaz in Job 22:27,28; he said that one of the blessings of living in good conscience with God was that one's prayers were powerful, and therefore &quot;You shall make your prayer unto (God), and He shall hear you... you shall also decree a thing (i.e. in prayer), and it shall be established unto you&quot;. Thus the power of prayer is such that effectively requests became decrees, so sure can we be of their being answered. So many of the great prayers of Scripture are not littered with &quot;If it be your will&quot;- instead, because those who prayed were saturated with knowledge of God's will through their familiarity with the word which contains God's will (Jn. 1:13 cp. 1 Pet. 1:23), they could pray whatever<i> they </i>willed, and could be confident of being heard because the word was in them. And our Lord had said that nothing less was possible for His people now- Jn. 15:7. Therefore if a man of our passions like Elijah could pray so powerfully for the weak in his ecclesia, the same was possible for that of the first century.</p><p>One way of realising the seriousness of our sin is to recognise that each sin we commit, we could have avoided. We must hang our heads, time and again. In the very end, we can blame neither our circumstances nor our natures, even though these are factors in the committal of each sin. We must each bear total personal responsibility for every sin, both of commission and omission. We must hang our heads. James, as he often does, foresees how in practice we may reason that fervent prayer isn&rsquo;t possible, because&hellip;we are angry, low, tired, don&rsquo;t feel like it. So we tell ourselves. But James cuts across all this: &ldquo;Elijah was a man subject to like passions RVmg &ldquo;nature&rdquo; as we&rdquo;- and yet <i>he</i> prayed earnestly (James 5:17). We can&rsquo;t excuse our lack of prayer by blaming it on the &ldquo;passions&rdquo; of our natures. Men like Elijah had the same nature as we do, prone to the same depression and mediocrity, and yet they prayed fervently.</p><p>We are intended to connect Elijah's 3.5 year ministry (James 5:17) with the 1260 days/42 months (i.e. 3.5 years) of the tribulation of God's people spoken of in Daniel and Revelation. The description of the whore of Babylon in Revelation is based upon Jezebel as a prototype. As she ruled over Israel through her puppet Ahab during Elijah's ministry, so latter day Babylon (through a puppet Israeli leader?) will dominate Israel during Elijah's future ministry.&nbsp;Whilst it is quite possible that Israel's holocaust will last for a literal 3.5 years, during which time 'Elijah' will be among them, it may be that the similarity of the time periods is just to indicate that the work of the latter-day Elijah will coincide with the holocaust period.</p><p>Prayer is perhaps the area where it is easiest to have only a surface level of spirituality, without getting down to real faith, real perseverance in prayer, real wrestling with God. Elijah &quot;prayed in his prayer&quot; (James 5:17 AVmg.) reflects the Spirit's recognition that there is prayer, and real prayer. &ldquo;Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer&rdquo; (Ps. 64:1) seems to say the same: there is our true, pleading voice: and the outward form of prayer. The form of words we use, the outward form, conceals the <i>real</i> thing; the real groaning of spirit which is counted by God as the real prayer.</p>