Operational Prayer and Its Results

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

James 5:16 (KJV)

Two key expressions in the second part of this verse characterise the prayers that yield results: "effectual fervent," which translates a single Greek word, energeō, and "availeth," ischuō. The first means to show oneself to be working, to exert energy on a task, to be operational; the word implies an expenditure of energy in doing work. The second refers to the exercise of force, ability or might. The first expression speaks of work being done in order to produce something, and the second of the product of that work. Prayer that produces the might and ability of the Spirit requires energy and work; more than that, the one praying must show that he is working.

In physical training there is a measure used to determine how effectively a person is working to build muscle or burn fat. It is called the rate of perceived exertion, and it is used alongside the optimum range of heart rate, in beats per minute, for yielding results. Say you are twenty-five: there is a range of heart rate, perhaps 135 to 167 beats per minute, within which your heart must be for your body to count you as working. So during any workout, provided you are doing everything else correctly, if you work within that range you will see results; but if you work below it, you will fail, and your body will not produce the ability to build or to burn.

The same can be said of this dimension of prayer. It requires energy, and requires that a person show himself to be operational. That means that how you pray matters: the posture you take, the intensity you give, the force of your words, the desire in your heart and the singleness of your mind. All these things are necessary to produce and exercise might, the ability of the Spirit, in bringing about change in your life, or in whatever the subject of the prayer may be. Look at Jesus. He expended so much energy in His prayer in the garden that His sweat fell like great drops of blood. This is what effectual prayer means: praying until your voice grows hoarse or your belly aches. The Scripture calls this kind of prayer, especially in the Spirit, effectual. Elijah put his face between his knees, taking the posture of a woman in labour, and prayed fervently, and he got results.

Beloved, the silent, composed kind of prayer is not regarded as effectual, because little or no energy is released. It is like a person who goes to the gym expecting to lose weight by walking slowly on the treadmill; he is wasting his time, and not showing himself to be operational. Become operational in your prayer life. Expend some energy, do some prayer work, and you will function with the supernatural forces and abilities of the Spirit.