There are people who are bound by things, and unless they pray, they may not get loosed from them. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
The amplified translation says that it makes tremendous power available. But I want to talk about the word fervent.
The word fervent means heartfelt.
A prayer is fervent because the thing you are praying about is something you really care about. Effectual means effective. You need to know how to pray effectively.
It says, the effectual, heartfelt prayer. Another definition of fervent is that it has emotion in it. Well, I can understand that. I mean, I would think you might get emotional over something that you really care about.
Now, so much of the church that has been taught the Word, and have learned much of how to act, what to say, etc., that they've learned what God's will is. They know so much that they have left off of the fact that there's still within each individual an emotional side, where you pray because you really care about something, and not just because you ought to.
There's a difference between praying because you ought to and praying because you care about a particular situation.
When I went to Dr. Paul Yonggi Cho's church in Seoul, Korea, one of the things that I noticed was that they not only prayed the Word, but they also prayed with such emotion. This particular prayer meeting was at 5:00 a.m. I mean, I was there at 5 a.m., and there were thousands of people, just praying with such fervency.
James 5:16 didn't say the effectual prayer of the righteous avails much. It said the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. It's not enough for us to pray because we ought to. There also must be the element that we care so deeply about it.
And because we care, we pray fervently. It is an earnest entreaty. It is a heartfelt prayer. It is the type of prayer that makes tremendous power available for you.
Scripture Reference: James 5:16 (AMP); James 5:17-18
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