Man-Made
Climate Change
The theories of Man-Made Global
Warming and Man-Made Climate Change have been in the forefront of news
cycles for some time now thanks to worshipers of the environment and
faux science. The so-called 'data' climate scientists have cited as
proof of Global Warming and mankind as its cause have been shown by way
of objective analysis to be entirely bogus. Since the Creation (and
some would say the Flood), earth's climate has undergone cycles of
warming and cooling. But there is no science that establishes causality
between climate change and the activity of mankind.
There is, however, at least one
biblical example of climate change that scripture attributes directly
to a man. That man is the prophet Elijah. Our text is James 5:16b-18:
“The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much. 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 reveals how one righteous
man's prayer life effected a drastic change in climate, so that the
heavens 'on demand' withheld rain for three-and-one-half years and
resumed giving rain 'upon request' by the same praying man. Our text is
a sword that cuts two ways. First, it provides an INCITEMENT for us to
follow the example of Elijah to obtain similar results. Secondly, it
levels an INDICTMENT against us for the failure of our prayer lives to
effect ANYTHING that approximates change of that magnitude...or ANY
change for that matter.
The book of Acts reveals a church
vibrant with prayer and Holy Ghost
power. The preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost resulted in 3,000
conversions, wherein those under conviction for their sin of crucifying
the Lord of glory cried out for a solution. Stephen and Philip, both
preachin' deacons, were likewise filled with faith and the Holy Ghost,
exhibiting soul-winning prowess both with crowds and individual
encounters. A prayer meeting for an imprisoned Peter dispatched
heavenly resources and unlocked prison doors.
The typical church today
bears scant resemblance to the early
church. Deacons (elders, board members) do not win lost men to Christ.
In many cases, neither do their pastors. Wednesday nights are no more
than 'token' prayer meetings that involve no praying for an invasion of
God's presence. Year after year they conduct business as usual. They
are powerless to effect change of ANY kind, spiritual or otherwise.
Nevertheless there remains a flashing marquee in James 5 to remind the
church the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man can still effect
supernatural change upon its spiritual environment. A powerless church
need not remain powerless!
In our text, scripture uses two
different Greek words to describe
“prayer” that avails much. The first is δέησις (deēsis), “a
petition
born of need (indigence); a supplication.” In the context, the needs
are (1) physically sick church members that need healing due to
sin-related illnesses, and (2) a spiritually sick Israel, for whom
three-and-a-half years of drought was brought to bear through prayer,
to accentuate the need for an awakening. It's the second of these needs
that provides the basis for this study in man-made climate
change.
The verb form of the noun δέησις (prayer) is
the verb δέομαι
(to pray),
whose root is δέω
(to bind). The third person singular of δέω is δεῖ,
signifying a necessity, a MUST (in the nature of the case). Therefore a
spiritually dead man MUST [δεῖ]
be born again (John 3:7), the Son of
man MUST [δεῖ]
be lifted up (3:14) and men MUST [δεῖ]
worship God in
spirit and in truth (4:24). Understanding the relatedness of these
roots is critical to our understanding of prayer. You see,
δέησις
praying is MUST praying.
If you're in the market for a house
and employ the services of a
Realtor, he or she is going to sit down with you and ask for three
lists: (1) a MUST-have list, (2) a NICE-to-have list, and (3) a BONUS
list. Items missing from list #1 are deal-breakers. Items missing from
lists #2 and #3 are not deal-breakers. If and when a believer enters
into δέησις
praying, he's saying; “Lord, I MUST have this for which I'm
praying!” For the average church today, abundance of Spirit power and
the salvation of sinners are list #3 items. For some, they might even
make it to list #2. But with the early church, they were on list #1. In
Acts 4:31, we read: “And
when they had prayed [δέομαι], the place was
shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.”
In
the face of fierce opposition, boldness to speak the Word was what the
apostles knew they MUST have in order to operate effectively. In
response, the Lord granted boldness and shook the building in
the process. It is perfectly fine to put the shaking of the building on
list #3.
The phrase effectual fervent
as a modifier of prayer is the predicate
nominative form of ἐνεργέω
(energeō), “to put forth energy, power, to
be operative, at work.” It is present tense. The phrase availeth much
is πολύς
(polys), an adjective signifying “numerous, abundant,
plenteous.” Expanded translation: “A 'must-have' kind of prayer that's
continually operative and expending energy (as a pattern of life)
yields tangible results and an abundance of them!” As our text reveals,
the prophet Elijah is set forth as an example of a righteous man whose
praying got things done, including a change in climate that impacted
the planet. No matter what passions (human frailties) the
believer in
this age might experience, Elijah was subject to the same. He had no
innate spiritual ability that made him unique as a prayer warrior or
better equipped to pray than we are.
The second word used for prayer is προσεύχομαι
(proseuchomai), “prayer
directed toward God.” The words he
prayed earnestly employ a redundancy
for effect. The Greek is προσευχῇ
προσηύξατο.
Literally, scripture
says: “with prayer, he prayed.” Elijah was PRAYING while he was
praying! In his MUST-have prayer, he petitioned God first for
an absence (withholding) of rain. The OT background narrative (1
Kings 17-18)
makes clear to me what Elijah had in mind. In the Baal-infested
government of Ahab and wife Jezebel, he was convinced Israel MUST have
and desperately NEEDED a divine intervention to expose the
INFERIORITY of Baal and the SUPERIORITY, yea, the SINGULARITY, of
the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When God appeared to Solomon by night after
he had filled the Temple with his manifested glory (2 Chronicles 7),
the first discipline he listed for a backslidden Israel was: “If I SHUT
UP HEAVEN that there be NO RAIN” (7:13). It was now about 150 years
later. Elijah knew Israel had incurred enough liability for God to shut
up the heavens. So he petitioned God earnestly for what he knew God was
already inclined to do. Elijah prayed, and God stopped the rain!
Man-made climate change became the order of the day...for the next
three-and-a-half years!
Let's think for a moment about
'needs' by considering Revelation 3:17
and these words of Jesus to the church at Laodicea: “Because thou
sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have NEED of nothing;
and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and
blind, and naked.” Is it possible for a church to be more
obtuse? The
church at Loadicea was wallowing in spiritual ignorance, spiritual
poverty, spiritual blindness and spiritual nakedness. The word wretched
speaks of a callused, insensitive condition. The Lord Jesus is wisdom
for our ignorance, riches for our poverty, light for our blindness,
righteous clothing for our nakedness. The church at Laodicea had NONE
of these things. Jesus, the possessor of these things, was at the door
of the church knocking, seeking an entrance and offering these things
to his church. Yet in their impoverished state, there was NO FELT NEED
for Jesus. It's therefore clear there was no MUST-have prayer taking
place in their midst.
We will conclude our study of
man-made climate change by making two
observations from the background text of 1 Kings 17-18. The first
involves the 'barrels' mentioned with regard to both the widow woman
(17:12,14,16) and those used to saturate the bullock and altar with
water (18:33). The Hebrew word for barrel
is the same used for the
widow's “handful of meal in a barrel” (17:12) and the Baal prophets'
“four barrels” of water (18:33) used to douse Elijah's sacrifice, which
they did three times with four barrels for a total of twelve barrels
(18:34). The message in the barrels is one of resources—scarce
resources. The drought conditions would have made meal and water rare
commodities. In the case of the widow, God sustained her meal as a
result of obedience. In the case of the prophets of Baal, they were
willing to go “all in” for Baal in expending twelve barrels of precious
water just to prove the inability of Elijah's God to answer by fire.
They were disappointed. The widow was rewarded. God can turn scarce
resources into sufficient and often abundant resources when in obedient
hands.
The second is the widow's son. James
chose to cite Elijah's praying for
the stoppage of rain and its resumption three-and-a-half years later as
an example of effectual fervent prayer offered up by a righteous man.
He could have just as easily cited an event that took place within
those bookends. The widow's son fell sick and stopped breathing
(18:17). All indications are he died. So Elijah took his body up into a
loft where his bed was (18:19), and began to pour out his heart to God.
In 18:21-22, we read:
“And he stretched himself upon the
child three times, and cried unto
the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul
come into him again. And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the
soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.”
Was this not effectual fervent
prayer? The same righteous man whose
prayers stopped and opened the heavens brought revival—the dead raised
back to life—to the widow's son. The relevant question we must all
ask ourselves is: “What lifeless entity in our lives needs reviving?”
Are we willing, as Elijah was, to STRETCH OURSELVES over that lifeless
thing as long as it takes for God to revive it? It might be a family
member, a marriage, a church member or perhaps a pastor, whose lifeless
sermonizing is killing your church. The average church in America
today
is in no better condition (in spiritual terms) that the lifeless
body of
the widow's son...or the Loadicean church for that matter. Make no
mistake! If your church seldom if ever sees a sinner believe and find
life in Christ, you belong to a Laodicean church. The key to revival
remains
the same. It's going to require righteous men and women willing to
stretch themselves out in prayer over their church until God breathes
life into it.
The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much. It made
the prophet Elijah the poster child for man-made climate change. It
challenges each of us to identify the spiritual climate we would like
to see God change where we live. The church in America needs an
abundance of spiritual rain and an infusion of spiritual life. To
reaffirm an earlier point, these NEEDS should be on our MUST-have list.
And only the effectual fervent prayers of righteous men can bring them
to pass! Will you be among them?
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