Prayer Opens the Heavens. Part 1

Hi Everyone,

This is part one of a 7 part series on Prayer that I felt strongly about writing.

More specifically, I feel inspired and impressed today to write about how prayer opens the heavens for us. I am reading from the book of James 5:13 – 16. ( NKJV)
13.Is anyone among you suffering? Let Him pray. Is anyone cheerful? let Him sing Psalms.
14. Is anyone among you sick? let him call for the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
16. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
17. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
18. And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

This passage of scripture in its outset deals with the subject of the Church ministering  to the sick. I however, wish to take it to a broader level and discuss on how prayer
opens the heavens.

1. FAITH – The kind of prayer that opens the heavens is the ” prayer of faith”. Hebrews 11:1 ” Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things
not seen.”  The mindset of the natural man says ” seeing is believing”, but for a believer , it is believing before seeing the answer.

I have had people tell me ” faith is good, praying is good, but do something substantial. Hebrews 11:1 says ” Faith is the substance ” There is more substance in faith and prayer than any thing in the world. I had a fellow student in Bible College who once told me ” Brother remember BIG MONEY BIG MINISTRY, LITTLE MONEY LITTLE MINISTRY, NO MONEY NO MINISTRY. Well, it is very evident that this friend of mine was trying to look for proof before believing. When I was studying in Bible College in Kothanur, Bangalore, South India, I remember us singing a chorus which said;

“FAITH MIGHTY FAITH, THE PROMISE SEES AND LOOKS TO GOD ALONE,

LAUGHS AT IMPOSSIBILITIES AND SAYS IT SHALL BE DONE, AND SAYS IT SHALL BE DONE,

LAUGHS AT IMPOSSIBILITIES AND SAYS IT SHALL BE DONE”.

Prayer must be done believing and not doubting. James says, in his book chapter 1: 6 – 86.” Let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven
and tossed by the wind.
7. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.
8. He is a duble minded man, unstable in all his ways”.

Therefore prayers that open the heavens are prayers spoken to God by faith.
I am reminded of a miracle we experienced during the first 5 years of our ministry with the Foursquare Church in Sri Lanka.  It was in August 1985 that we desperately needed a property for our headquarters.

I was led by a friend to a site which was to be given on a long lease. As soon as I saw the land and the property, I wished I had the money to buy it. The landlord quoted $ 125,000 but I entered into negotiation with him with only $ 10 in my personal bank account. The landlord finally agreed to sell the property to me for $ 67,000, which in itself was a miracle. He asked me to
enter into a sale agreement which was binding on me. I believed in God although I had only $ 10 to call my own and signed the sale agreement. He gave me exactly 30 days to pay for it.
A failure to pay had its own consequences. God amazingly and miraculously provided for the $ 67,000 right on the day I was expected to pay for it.