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.
The uncertain sound
61-0429E §52
Now, notice, but God told him then, why... He brought him out of his hibernation up there. He said, "Go call Ahab, and bring him up to the top of the mountain." And then when ... Elijah was so certain that that was ... God had told him to do that, until he called four hundred priests. And they put up a bullock and prayed all day, and Elijah walked around making fun of them. He said, "Why don't you holler a little louder. Maybe he's pursuing, maybe he's asleep, or don't want to be disturbed, or something." Said, "Ca...
What hearest thou, Elijah?
59-0609 §45
I was going down the lane Sunday. And there was a preacher standing there praying on a... Down from me, there's a... They'd formed a little league, say to take the boys and give them a baseball league. And they had a preacher standing up there blessing the grounds. When I was seventeen years old, I was a pretty active little fellow. I played shortstop, and I was playing for the Methodist church on a church league. And any boy that even played Sunday baseball could not play with the churches. And now, here stands th...
Why cry? Speak!
59-1004E §22
Elijah, the prophet of the Lord, anointed. Oh yes, God anointed him to be prophet. He was pastor Elijah. I don't imagine Jezebel would have wanted to call him that. But he was her pastor just the same. God made him her pastor. So she hated him. And God told him, said, "You go up on the mountain and you sit down there. I've commanded the crows to feed you. I will water you from the brook Cherith." And he sat down there. And the king said, "Go get that fanatic and bring him down here." And the soldiers, all armed, wi...
Why?
60-1126 §27
Now, just like the king of Israel when he was the son of Ahab and Jezebel... He lived up in Samaria. He was a wicked man. He was like his papa ... or his mother. He worshipped his mother's god, Baalim. And one day while he was walking up on the porch, he fell through the lattice and hurt himself. He got sick, and then he called two of his footmen, soldiers, and sent them over to Ekron and asked to consult the prophets of Baal ... or Beelzebub, rather: "Was he going to get well or not?" But you know you can't hide a...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 9:E-44
...n the midst of the Church. As He stands there revealing Who He is in this last age, He calls Himself the "Author of the creation of God". This is ANOTHER CREATION. This has to do with the church. This is a special designation of Himself. He is the CREATOR of that church. The heavenly Bridegroom created his own bride. As the Spirit of God, He came down and created in the virgin Mary the cells from which His body was born. I want to repeat that. He created the very cells in the womb of Mary for that body. It was not...