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.
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....
A True Sign that's overlooked
61-1112 §73
But let them all break down those prejudices and get together and say, "We'll forget all these here creeds and catechisms, and everything we're reading from. Let us come back to the Word of the Lord." Watch what'll take place then. God will raise them up a prophet---He sure will---that'll bring it right down to them if they're ready to receive it. First they have to pray. God waits. Isn't it strange that God wants the people to have part into it? When Jesus looked out upon the harvest, He said, "The harvest is ripe...
Why?
61-0413 §14
Look at the prophet Jonah. As soon as he come out of the belly of the whale and went and gave his prophecy... As long as the inspiration was on him, giving his prophecy, he was fine. But when the inspiration left him, he sat on top of a mountain and prayed for God to take his life. The prophet Elijah, under a vision of the Lord, fixed and called fire out of heaven. Called rain out of heaven the same day, and killed four hundred priests himself. And then when the inspiration left him, run at the threat of a woman, a...