A long long time ago, there was a king named Ahab. Ahab, “did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him.” (1 Kings 16:30b) God sends the prophet Elijah to bring judgement in response to Ahab’s ways. Elijah declared that there would be no rain in the land until God gave him the word. No rain, not even dew. The drought that followed lasted three and a half years.

James references this event James 5:16-18, he says,“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” James reminds believers that Elijah was a man, a person, like you and me and he prayed that God stop the rain and He stopped the rain.

In January of 1970, Creedence Clearwater Revival released a song titled, ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain.’ If you have listened to any classic rock stations over the last 20 years, you have heard this song 1.6 million times and it has been stuck in your head just as often. Even as I write this, the chorus is on a loop in my head. Our prayers are powerful. Prayer is our communication to God. If Elijah had a nature just like us and God heard his prayer for the rain to stop, we can do just as much!

When we are able to learn and discern the will of God and align our will to His you will start to see incredible things happen. For that season of three and a half years, there was drought in the land. Everything dried up. Even the creek that God led Elijah to for survival dried up. When the Lord led Elijah out of that place by the brook, Elijah prayed, and God sent the rains. We may find ourselves in a dry place. It may seem that our path has hit a dead end. Be encouraged, when we come together and pray and seek the will of the Lord, He can bring life to that which seemed dead.