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.
What hearest thou, Elijah?
59-0609 §17
But Elijah was weary, and he was feeling blue. And then Jezebel put this threat that almost throwed him into a nervous breakdown. You see, some people think that God's prophets ought to continually be bombarding away all the time. But God wants them to come aside. You know, there's some of us eat, and eat, and never exercise; and others are over-exercised, and don't get a chance to eat. We sit in these conventions, and eat the Word of God and the goodness of God, and then go out sassy and fat, and never say nothing...
What hearest thou, Elijah?
59-0412E §26
I just wonder that if we haven't listened too much to rushing mighty winds, and fire, and blood, and everything else, and have failed to hear that still small voice. Wonder if we've looked so much to gifts that we can't see the Giver. You know, America is prone for noise. That's the reason rock-and-roll is so popular, and all these other lots of noises. Now we've had rushing mighty winds, we've had great shakings, but where has God been in all of it? Elijah said He was not in it. What did we do with rushing winds?...
Elijah and the meal-offering
60-0310 §36
Now, it's a very strange thing that God would send His prophet to a widow woman's house. What a place! But she must've been a real virtuous woman or He'd've never sent His prophet there. Oh, if a person was worthy ... would have to be a worthy person to entertain a man like Elijah. You remember, it was Zechariah, in his house, that he had been loyal and true, waiting for God to give them a child, and the angel Gabriel come to the house. It was virgin Mary who had lived clean and pure, and waiting for a promise of G...
God's Provided Way
53-0613 §53
There was a man one day by the name of Elijah. The Lord told him, "Now, I'm going to make a way of escape. I'm going to send you up yonder on the mountain. I want you to stay up there, because it ain't going to rain for three years and six months." And that old preacher stomped right up there before that king and said, "The dew is not even going to fall from Heaven till I call for it." How did he do that? He knowed what God said was the truth. Walks up there on the hill and I can hear him say, "King Ahab," said, "l...
What hearest thou, Elijah?
59-0609 §22
It never struck Elijah. Elijah was one of God's eagles. He was sitting back in the cave listening to all those things go by. And yet, God was doing it, but he wanted something better. Elijah was His eagle. I always like that song: They that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as an eagle. And there's a certain verse in there that says something like this: Teach me, Lord, to wait when hearts are aflame, Let me humble my pride and call on Thy name; Teach me not to rely on wh...