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
55-0301 §29
That's what's the matter with us today: When we get a message from God, instead of going straight, and doing what God tells us, we stop for a little social affair. We've got to have this, a few ice cream suppers, and all these other kind of things; bring social affairs in the church. We ought to take God's message to the dead, the dead in sin and trespasses. Amen. Notice. Now, Elisha, why did he send that staff? Did you ever stop to think? Because that Elisha knew that the clothes that he wore was blessed. He knew...
Hear ye Him
57-0322 §49
Now, Elijah represented God's justice. He was a lion of God's justice. Now, we see him when he went up on a hill with his anointing. And the king said, "There sits that old crank up there. Go up and bring him back to me." And fifty soldiers went up of the selected of the army. And old Elijah raised up and said, "If I be the man of God, let fire fall from heaven and consume you." Down come the fire and consumed them. The king said, "This is just a storm passing by, I suppose. That just happened. So, we'll send anoth...
The Unchangeable God
60-0326 §14
Isaiah had been educated and at school with the king, and so forth. He had the best that could be given mentally, I suppose, in his intellectual. But God had to make a prophet out of him, by revealing Himself to him, by giving him something tangible that he could see. It was no more so much in literature and reading and writing, but the things that he had read about God and heard about God become manifested right before him. Then he said, "I'm of unclean lips, and dealing and dwelling among unclean people," and God...
Hear ye Him
60-0712 §69
Then he said, "I will build another tabernacle. We'll build one for all those who wants to keep the law and let them go over here. And they'll have an organization over here, the law keepers. Then we'll have those who believes in a prophets." Now, what did Elijah represent? He represented God's justice. He was a mighty prophet. He went up on top of the mountain. The Lord sent him up there. Somebody got to meddling with the Lord's business, telling him where to go and what to do. And Elijah raised up and said, "If I...
Hear ye Him
58-0126 §28
Then the next, he wanted to build a tabernacle unto Elijah. And Elijah represented the sternness of God or the justice of God. Remember him up on the mountain? God, sent him up there, and the king said, "Go up and get him"---with fifty men---and Elijah raised up, and as so much to say this, "I am the anointed servant of God; don't come near me. And if you do, something will happen." "Oh," he said, "we got orders from the king, you fanatic. We will get you anyhow." And they started. And Elijah said, "If I be a man o...