Why Did Elijah Still Have to Travail So Earnestly in Prayer When God Was Going to Send the Rain Anyway? If He Did Not Pray, Would God Have Refused to?
1) Direct Answer
Elijah travailed because God tied the promised rain to the prayer of faith and a restored covenant order. The promise set the end; prayer was the God-ordained means. If Elijah had refused to pray, the rain would not have come then. God would not break His own order—He would wait for intercession or raise another to ask.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- God promised rain: “Go, show yourself to Ahab; and I will send rain” (1 Kings 18:1). Yet Elijah went up, bowed, and prayed repeatedly until the cloud appeared (1 Kings 18:42–45). James states the link plainly: “He prayed again, and the heaven gave rain” (James 5:17–18).
- The covenant required prayer when heaven was shut: “When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain… if they pray… then hear… and give rain” (1 Kings 8:35–36; see also 2 Chronicles 7:13–14). Elijah’s altar, the people’s turning, and his intercession fulfilled that order.
- God attaches promise to asking: “I will yet for this be enquired of… to do it for them” (Ezekiel 36:37). And, “You have not, because you ask not” (James 4:2).
- When there is no intercessor, judgment continues: “I sought for a man… to stand in the gap… but I found none. Therefore have I poured out my indignation” (Ezekiel 22:30–31).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- The decree set the destination (rain), but prayer was the switch that released it in time. Elijah’s travail did not change God’s will; it aligned earth with heaven.
- God doesn’t “refuse” His promise, but He refuses to bypass His Word. No prayer, no release at that moment. Delay is not denial; He honors the means He appointed.
- The sevenfold persistence shows that promises often require persevering faith against resistance until the sign appears.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice—don’t stop at the promise; pray it through. The cloud appears to the one who stays on his knees.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Elijah
53-1018 §10
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56-0722 §29
Look at Elijah, when he went out a little old prophet, the Dove was on him. So, Ahab had called all the priests out there and Elijah had cut their heads off---four hundred of them---that afternoon. Walked over and sat down on the mountain, said, "Now, I'm going to pray for rain." Three years and six months, [unclear word] rain and he put his head down between his little old, bony knees, and he prayed, said, "O God, send the rain." Said, "Gehazi, go over to the top of the hill and see if you see any clouds back over...
Why are people so tossed about?
56-0101 §101
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Witnesses
53-0405E §59
There was a fellow, one time, by the name of Elijah. God was with him. He had seen God, in great trials; he had seen God do things. So he seen sin come upon the nation, so he said, "Now just a minute." He went up there and prayed, and God give him a witness. He said, "Now you go down and tell the king that not even dew is going to fall unless you call for it." He goes down and tells the king that. Went up there, and sat down. Could you imagine? I can hear some of the people say, "That old man is cracked at his head...
Believing God
52-0224 §71
Why, the skies, it hadn't rained for three years and six months. Brass, brass speaks of divine judgment, the brazen altar, judgment upon the nation that had forgot God, brassy skies. Wish we had time to get into it. But, then, unbelief would have picked that up and throwed it at Him, "Well, if that's all You can send me!" Yeah. But what did Elijah see when he seen the very first wheel turn? Oh, my! He said, "I hear the sound of abundance of rain." No cloud no bigger than that, what would it do to water a nation? Wh...