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.
Why?
61-0413 §54
And God sent an angel down to the old Elijah, sitting down there in a little cave-door. He said, "Go up and meet them." God knows when to send, and when not to. Said, "Go up and meet them, and tell them, 'Thus saith the Lord.' " And old Elijah walked sturdily up there, and stood in the road. When he seen them come up, he said, "You're on your road over to Ekron over there, to meet Baalzebub, to meet their prophets, to consult whether Ahab is going to get well or not." Said, "Go back and tell him, why did you do tha...
Trying to do God a service without it being God's will
65-1127B §88
Now, He promised that, so that sets the Bible just exactly to this day, and the Sodom and Gomorrah. And Elijah was not... That wasn't Elijah, that was the Spirit of God on Elijah; Elijah was just a man. Now, we've had Elijahs, and Elijahs' coats, and Elijahs' mantles, and Elijahs' everything. But the Elijah of this day is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is to come according to Matthew the seventeen... Luke 17:30, says the Son of man is to reveal Himself among His people. Not a man, God! But it'll come through a prophet....
God's preparation
54-0401 §9
Prayer will even change the program of God. There was a prophet one time went to a King Hezekiah and told him to put his house in order, he was going to die---"For thus saith the Lord..."---and he turned and walked out. Went down through the courts telling everybody: "Thus saith the Lord, he's going to die." On out and told the soldiers: "Your king's going to die." Told the poor at the gate: "Your king's going to die." And then King Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and began to weep bitterly. He said, "Lord, I...
Elijah
53-1018 §11
And how that in those days, as we look back at the history, in First Kings the 9th chapter, and begin to think of what had taken place in that day, Israel... The reason that a prophet would pray that God would shut off the rains that it wouldn't rain: starve the people to death. Could you imagine that? A sainted person, now, a godly man, a prophet, major prophet, one of the greatest in the Bible, prayed that God wouldn't even let it rain to bring food on the earth. For he knew it was a great mistake for the people...
Elijah
53-1018 §39
Then the people begin to cry with one accord. Then Elijah went down there and said, "Now, Lord, look, Your people's all with one accord. There's three years and six months that there hasn't been a sprig of grass growing or nothing. Everything's dead, the people are just about to perish. All the waters are gone, and just a few mules has been saved, and so forth, of the stock. Look what a time it is, and now they've repented and they're coming back to you." Said, "O Lord God, send rain." Said, "Go up Gehazi and look....