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?
59-0412E §17
So what happened? He called them together and the God of heaven answered, and a supernatural sign to Israel that He was still the God that could answer by fire, and He did just what He always did: answered prayer, kept His Word. And after all of this, still it wasn't sufficient, and little old Elijah ... he didn't know what to do, so he run to the juniper tree. I'm glad that there is a juniper tree. All God's people needs to go to that juniper tree. It's a place where he was so discouraged, he didn't know what to d...
Why?
63-0626 §36
Now, we find that this fellow sent up there to get this information from the god of Ekron, Baal-zebub. But all the time, God knew he was doing it. So, He had a prophet down there by the name of Elijah. So He spoke to Elijah, and said, "Go up there to a certain road, and stand in that way. Messengers are coming up." You see, you cannot hide nothing from God, see, no matter what you're doing. How little did that fellow know that God was speaking to Elijah way down there in the wilderness somewhere, in a little mud hu...
The Prophet Elisha
54-0723 §10
Now, they went off in such a hurry, without even considering God. And when they found out the seven days was up, well, their water supply was cut off. They didn't have any water to drink. And there they was out there with their cattle, with their animals, and their water supply was cut off. And looks like that it was just about the end for them. Now, that's what we do. Sometimes we go off on a tantrum somewhere and not think about God, not pray over it, ask the Lord whether we should do it or not, and we find out t...
Jesus on the authority of the Word
54-0217 §4
Elijah the great prophet of old, Jehovah's great witness, when he went to Mount Carmel and called up Israel before Baalim to see which was God; he said, "If Baalim be god, serve him. If God be God, serve Him." When God anointed him with inspiration, gave him a vision and told him how to do things, and he went out there and called all the prophets of Baalim and let them make a sacrifice. They screamed and cut themselves: no god. But Elijah killed a bullock, laid it upon a rock, the altar, and said, "Lord, let it be...
Believest thou this?
50-0716 §79
Elijah went with her to the death chamber, and there walked up-and-down the room, not praying for the baby. Walked up-and-down the room, then took and stretched his body out over the baby. Lord God worked in Elijah. Hallelujah! Oh, Christians. You don't realize what I'm talking about I don't believe. See, looky here. God was in Elijah. And... And Elijah knew it. The woman knew it. And he laid... He knowed. That's the reason he sent that staff. He knowed that everything he touched was blessed, for God was in him. Oh...