My very soul was depleted, empty of all energy to talk to my Heavenly Father.

You see, I was the first to be born-again in my family. Immediately, there was constant warfare launched by my husband and four children who did not understand the change in me. All they knew was that one day I left home their wife and mother and came back a stranger talking about Jesus and behaving differently. And they did not like it!

Over time, after I had prayed all I knew to pray, I found that I did not have another prayer in me.  

I was a member of a group of women who were radically, unapologetically born-again, The Christian Women of the New Wave. One day I attended one of our small group meetings held in homes. When the group leader asked if anybody had a prayer request, I shared mine. 

Although it has been over thirty years ago, I will never forget what happened next. Each woman assumed her prayer posture. One stretched out face-down on the carpet, one knelt in front of her chair, one stood in a corner with her face to the wall, one closed her eyes and raised her hands to heaven.  As they cried out to God for me, I actually felt the refreshing, strengthening presence of the Holy Spirit, beginning in my belly and spilling out of my mouth in tongues, grateful tears rolling down my cheeks. 

James, the brother of Jesus, explains what happened through these women:

The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) can accomplish much [when put into action and made effective by God—it is dynamic and can have tremendous power]. (James 5:16b, Amplified Bible)

These righteous women prayed heartfelt, persistent prayers until I felt my help come. Glory! You might say, “Yeah, but they were not bishops, ordained, or have any special position with God. Why would He answer them?” In answer to this mindset James reminds us:

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours [with the same physical, mental, and spiritual limitations and shortcomings], and he prayed intensely for it not to rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.  Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its crops [as usual]. (James 5:17, 18)

This Is What You Should Know:

• Elijah was and the Christian Women of the New Wave are just human, not superhuman.  You are a human being just like them.
• Elijah was a biblically righteous man because of his intimate relationship with God. The Christian Women of the New Wave are biblically righteous because of their acceptance of Jesus’s work on Calvary.  “God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). If you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are righteous.
• Elijah and the Christian Women of the New Wave prayed with passion. They did not pray “merely externally, or formally, and with the lip only, but with the Spirit, and with the understanding, and with the heart engaged in it, with inwrought prayer… prayer was fervent, and it was constant, and importunate, and was continued till [they] had an answer…” (a Bible commentary). When you pray the will of God with the Spirit and with the understanding of God’s will as expressed in Scripture, God will answer. “The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all” (Psalm 34:19). 

I am forever grateful to The Christian Women of the New Wave who prayed me through when I had no prayer left in me. And I am so glad that God is still in the prayer answering business in 2021. 

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matt. 7:7-8).

Cry out to God with a sincere heart, righteous one, and He will move on your behalf.

In the comment section below, feel free to share your experience with fervent prayer and its effectiveness, whether you prayed for someone or someone prayed for you. Join the conversation.