You know, we've been talking about prayer, how we just pray the same thing or routine over and over and over. But James reminds us that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Shifting out of prayer autopilot coming up right now on the Beauty Today Show. Yeah. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr.
Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. Welcome again to the Clearview Today Show. We want to thank you for joining us here in the studio with our host, Dr.
Abadan Shah. If you're listening for the very first time today, we want to say welcome to the show. We're glad you're joining with us. And we're about to let you know exactly who's talking to you. Dr.
Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr. Shah, a lot of praying going on, lots of praying happening. Never a bad thing. Never a bad thing.
You cannot ever pray too much. That's right. But you can pray better. You can pray far better, if I may say that, than what you've been doing. And that's what James is going to teach us in this lesson.
We were already to get into the last part of the book of James, but I'm glad we didn't. We're going to spend some time in verse 16 and then go on to verse 17, where James is going to talk about the effectual fervor. Prayer of a righteous person avails much. This is Verse 16.
Now what is very interesting here Is there's only one word that is being used here to describe two English words. When we say effectual fervent, It's a translation of one Greek word.
Okay, so and. We have two words in English, but one word in Greek. Because those like if something is effective and if something is fervent, those both mean in English two different things, but Greek has one word for both. That's right. That's right.
And it simply means to be stretched out.
So it says right here: pray for one another that you may be healed. Great. Paulu is keyu de eses de cayu ener gumene. Ener gumene.
So it's like if I were to translate this like exactly literally, it would be. Great power The prayer of a righteous person As it is working. That's what it means.
So. Effective, fervent. prayer of a righteous man Avails much.
So, Paulu. Is K you. For all the people who are wondering why, like, translation is so necessary. Why can't we just have a literal translation of the Bible? That's why.
Because you wouldn't be able to agree, it would make sense. Yeah, that's why people say it's like, tell me the most literal one. The most literal one would be impossible to read. Right. Yeah.
You don't want a dynamic translation. You want more of a formal equivalence. Every translation has some amount of interpretation. There's not an exact literal word for word. It doesn't exist.
Unless you get like an interlinear that I'm looking at here in front of me, most of the time they're not possible.
So. Yeah, people say that always make me laugh because I'm like, I don't think you understand how language works. Right. Nobody sat down and developed all the languages simultaneously and said, okay, this word is this word and this word is this word in every language.
Well, even yeah, and even in like languages today, and I know this is not the topic of conversation, but like Dr. Shah is teaching me Hindi. We've got people who speak Spanish in the church that are helping me learn Spanish. There are definitely times where I'll talk to them and I'll say, how do you say this? And they're like, it doesn't translate into English.
Like this thought is just only works in Spanish. This thought only works in Hindi. Like you can't do it into English. You can try to get close, but it's not going to. It doesn't carry the same weight of meaning.
Yeah. So going back here To this passage, it literally has the idea of being stretched out. That's the word behind it that I'm trying to express. That's what effectual fervent means. Think about a horse who is jumping over a barricade and the horse is just stretched out.
He can see the front legs way out, the hind legs way out as he's leaping over. Or get the idea of an athlete who's running for the gold and he's bursting through that tape. I mean, he's running through and he's stretched out. Towards the goal. That's the idea.
It means there's some intensity behind it. Yeah. I think that's a helpful illustration because when you were saying stretched, I was thinking like this is a prayer under pressure. But this is really more like this is a prayer where you're giving it your all. A prayer that's all you're giving it your all.
You're pushing forward, pushing towards God. Which isn't that contrary to how we think about prayer. We talked about this on the show last week, but we regard prayer as like sort of a last-ditch effort. Like, I've done everything else. I guess I'll just pray.
All we can do now is pray. No, prayer, prayer is that push. Prayer is that striving forward. And when we think about it in these terms, I mean, we see that in the imagery of a horse, in the imagery of an athlete, those muscles stretched out, firing. I mean, that's an intense amount of energy.
Yeah, I do try to avoid generalizations, but I think it's a safe bet to assume that the majority of, or at least a good number of Christians' prayers, are pretty passive. Yeah, they are. Yeah. So last show, we talked about how when we're talking about the effectual fervent, we're not talking about like you're wrestling open the fingers of God, you know, like a father or. Or uncle who says, All right, go ahead and go ahead and try, give it your best shot.
And you're like struggling to get the pinky open, and then you go for the next one, you know, and then finally get the thumbs. That's not what we're trying to do here. God is not holding tight. His fist and challenging us to go and try to pry it open. That's what some people think.
That's why they talk louder and faster. They think, this is how I get intense. And there is some amount of loudness and fastness involved when there is intensity in prayer. But that's not the intent behind this. When we're talking about the effectual fervent, the stretched-out kind of prayer, we're talking about.
You know, it's almost like You are expressing to God How much you are completely, totally dependent upon him, and you need him to answer. He doesn't need you to convince him. He doesn't need you to, you know, finally get him to. Mm-hmm.
Sort of capitulate to your request. Right. Like, I've got to, if I can find the right sentence and say the right words, that'll unlock enough passion that he will finally buckle under pressure and say, okay, here it is. I'll give it to you. You've convinced me.
You convinced me. You, Uncle, you know, I give. I give. Say uncle. You know, it's not what you're trying to do with God.
You can't do that, anyways. But that intensity Is that Crossing the threshold where you begin to exercise faith. Where things unseen are more real than the things seen.
Okay. Say that one more time slowly, just for anybody else who wasn't. I completely forgot. I mean, that that intense you know, intention, I guess you can say, that you're exercising Is such that in that moment, the things unseen are more real than the things seen. I'm just going to give this as a note to our editor.
I want that as a post on X before this episode. That used to be up now. That's powerful. No, I like that a lot. That's really powerful, thinking about things unseen being more real than things that are seen.
You know, we are often a slave to our senses, we're a slave to our input. Anything I can see, touch, taste, feel, that's what's real to me. But through prayer, I mean, there's a whole spiritual world that's accessible that we don't. We don't even think about and it's kind of fun, but it's kind of funny because, like, among friends, among people, I feel comfortable enough to be passionate about the things that I'm passionate about and speak and ramble and let people know how much I love this. But with God, I need to, I kind of feel like I got to get it together.
Like, yeah, I need to get it together. I need to speak. Yeah, I need to speak in a very controlled and precise manner because I'm in control here. You know, I don't want to open my hands too much and let God. And I don't know why it's so backwards.
Yeah. You know what I mean? Why am I, why, why are we so afraid to beg and plead our case to God unless there's a real crisis situation and now we're we have no other choice, you know what I mean? And we don't even need to beg and plead. I don't think the intent is to beg and plead.
The intent is to, again, that the unseen world becomes seen, just like Hebrews chapter 11 talks about. And this is the faith battle. In that conversation, Because you begin to communicate as if he is real. And this is not just communication for communication's sake. This is not just a way to build a relationship.
Prayer is not just a way to build a relationship. When people do that they undercut the very thing that this passage is talking about. Prayer is not just me talking to God.
Okay. That's not what God has intended prayer to be. Let's just have a con conversation. Talk to me, please. I mean, that's not prayer is asking and receiving.
That's why he says it avails much. There's an end. Things happen. Yeah. Things happen.
Avails much is simply an old way of saying things happen. The effectual effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much, means it makes things happen.
So prayer is asking and receiving. But that effectual fervence Part of prayer means it is so intense, and it's not intense in being faster and louder, it's intense in the sense of recognizing that I am in the presence of the one. Who is the only Only real sovereign difference maker. Do you think that terminology of saying that prayer builds it's to build this relationship with God has done us some harm? Because I mean, it seems like if that's the case, it has made our prayers a little more passive.
They are. And I think they're all a way to give God a way out. We're constantly building a back door for God. It's like just in case the prayer doesn't get answered, hey, you can always step out the back door. We don't want you to get hurt, okay?
Right, yeah. I want you to be boxed in. I want you to hurt yourself, we're going to give you this out. Yeah, this is a way to just say, hey, God, you know, if you don't answer the prayer, whatever the reason may be, this is a good way you can step out and say, hey, I never promised I'll answer.
Now, consider our relationship. Isn't it better? Mm-hmm.
That's not what God is doing. Right. Dr. Shaw, something you just said really just kind of is sitting in my mind right now. We are talking to the one true God.
This is our chance to go before the creator of the universe. And so many times we structure our prayers in a way that is palatable to people who are listening, in a way that almost, you know, is.
Okay, for leading other people. And there's a sense in which, you know, if you are the one praying out loud and other people are following along, I mean, there is, you got to kind of navigate that. But. I wonder how different our prayers would be if we really prayed. Like we believed the creator of the universe was the one that was listening.
Oh, I think it would become effectual for event. Yeah. Yeah. It would become effectual fervent because if there's a relationship that is in shreds, if there's a health that is at the last stage, if there's a spiritual battle that is taking place, if there's somebody who's in chains and addictions, if someone is lost and it seems like nothing and no one can open their eyes, but this here stands a person who doesn't need to be convinced by me talking faster and louder, but he wants to talk to me as if I am there. He doesn't have to convince me, but he has to talk to me as if I am there.
What would you do if your child was at death's door and the doctor was standing in front of you? Who has the exact cure that is needed to radically change your child's health? I mean, you would earnestly speak to them. You'd be like, hey, doctor, you know, you're the one who discovered this cure, and we're so grateful for all that you do. I just want to make sure that I give you credit for that.
Credit for that and everything. You know, none of that, none of that will happen. You'll get right to the point.
Now, what makes the prayer to God different? Is that unlike the doctor who's standing right in front of me, which whom my eyes can see, and let's say I'm blind? My ears can hear. Let's say I'm blind and deaf. At least my senses somehow know that he is there.
Somebody has communicated to me through braille and saying this is the doctor said.
Somehow, through my senses, I know he is there. Unlike that, God is not seen, heard, Or can be felt in any way. But by faith, he is there. That makes that analogy, that illustration fall apart. Why would I have to do that to the doctor who's in front of me?
You're right. Good point. You do that with God who is not there. Hence you're Prayer becomes effective fervent. Because he's not there.
And in that fervency, faith is coming, is becoming sight. You see what I'm saying? It's not talking faster and louder to convince God or to. to wrestle with him. The the effectiveness and the fervency is because Faith is becoming sight.
People are listening. People are watching this show. And I would imagine there's at least some, maybe not even most, who would say prayer is a struggle for me. It is hard for me to keep my thoughts in order. It's hard for me to pray to God as if He is there.
I know, maybe in my heart, I know that He's there, but it's difficult for me. I get distracted, my mind wanders. I wonder if you're listening. Yeah, I feel like my prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling. What advice would you give them?
I would say go back to the Bible. Go right here to the book of James, because guess what? James gives us an illustration of someone who was in the exact same situation as you, as me. and had to pray. Let's look let's read it right here in verse 17.
How does it begin? Elijah was a man with a Nature like ours. Just a human being. Human being. We're bound by the same senses that we're bound by.
Okay. I hope people are understanding this. The Bible knew exactly what we would say. God knew the question you would ask. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.
Means this was a man who stood before 450 prophets of Baal. But at this point, he was running from a demon-inspired woman. Jezebel. Yeah. Yeah.
And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. Wow. Wow. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
I mean, that definitely takes some fervent and effectual prayer to make something like that happen. Absolutely. You know, in 1 Kings, it kind of gives us the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say.
Some of you may not know Paul Harvey, but back in the day, Paul Harvey had this news story. He would read it, and then here's the rest of the story.
So here's the rest of the story. Elijah said to his servant, Go up now look toward the sea.
So he went up and looked and said There is nothing. How many times have we done that in our personal lives regarding some situation where you prayed? And then he went and checked. Nothing. Yeah.
And seven times he said Go again. Then it came to pass the seventh time Now, don't count it on your fingertips. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Seven times to say there are many, many, many, many, many, many times you will go back and check and it may not be there. Yeah.
That answer hasn't come. The relationship is not fixed. The health. seems to get worse. The financial problems keep coming.
The opposition keeps rising. That person still keeps walking away from God. You'll see it seven times, which means many times. It kind of goes hand in hand with the episodes we've done recently on patience. You know, there was a woman in our congregation many years ago who, I think, Dr.
Shah, correct me if I'm wrong on this, but she prayed for her husband's salvation for 30-something years. Exactly. I'm 34 years old, by the way. Most of your life. That's most of my life.
And the patience that she must have had to do that. But then constantly checking, you know what I'm saying? Coming back, always bringing him to church. And then that one day he actually came to you, I believe. Oh, yeah.
I mean, I don't mind telling the story. I won't mention the name of the person because I didn't get permission, but I can gladly tell you the story. And so this person. Mm-hmm.
Had her husband on her prayer list and has shared with me and even told me, Don't talk to him about God, because he can get angry. And he said, He's coming with me to church, and that's a big deal. You know, we had Saturday night service and we still do. And he was there this one Saturday evening, and he was struggling with dementia at this point. And In that brief moment, something clicked, some wires reconnected.
And he turned to his wife and said, I need to go forward.
Now, keep in mind, this man did not grow up in a Bible-believing church. He did not go to church with his wife, none of those things. But in that moment, he said to his wife, I need to go forward. And he said Do you know what that means? He said, Yes.
And I need to go forward. Wow. Now. And he came forward. And he's not a forward-going kind of person.
I mean, he grew up in a very, very different. Church environment and did not even go to church. I mean, that was not even a like, oh, I grew up in church. It was not even like that. Came forward, and in that brief moment from leaving the pew to coming up to me, his unfortunately, his memory went back out again.
So he gets up there, he's like, I don't even know what the H-E-L-L I'm standing here for. And I said, It's okay, but God knows, right? That's right. He said, I guess so. I guess it's a good day today.
I was like, Yeah, it's a good day.
Well, tell you what, let me just pray for you. But I knew for him to make that journey from that pewter. That was unlike him. I mean, just like that, God gave him the vision. He understood the gospel.
He wanted it. And just like that, it went away because of. the fallen world in which we live. Yeah. But in that moment He received Christ and said, I need to get this straight now, right now.
I got to get do this. And talk about that because that effectual, fervent prayer of his is not like what we expect. We expect a really loud, really fast, just intense, like climactic movie scene of a prayer. Right. But this was just a very brief moment of, God, I need you.
I need you. And he got the gospel in that moment because it was an invitation time, and he was like, I need to go forward.
Now he had been struggling with dementia or Alzheimer's. And he got to the front, and all of a sudden it hit him again. And I said, It's okay. And his wife was in tears. I mean, she was crying away.
And I said, Everything goes. She said. He said, He just got saved. I said, I know. I said, And and the sad thing is, in his condition, now he doesn't even know it, but it did happen.
Right. And he got it. Yeah. He said, Yes, he did, 'cause he told me. And he said, I know my husband and they've been married at that time they were married for golly.
40, 50 years, and he that's not him. Yeah. Yes. Her prayer came true. That moment of clarity, that moment where God was able, where the gospel broke through, where his dementia, like it was almost like the veil lifted for a moment and he could see clearly and he understood.
It wasn't him stumbling forward in confusion. The confusion hit when he got to the front. Yeah. But there was clarity when he got out of that piece. And talking about it avails much.
I mean, your entire eternity. Yeah. Secured now. Because of that one moment, that one prayer. And she said that to me in the years following, and then he passed away and all that.
And she said, Yeah, I know when he got saved. I knew he got it. But but going back to this story with Elijah, It says in verse 44, this is those who are still following, 1 Kings 18:44. Then it came to pass the seventh time that he said, Listen to this. There's a cloud.
As small as a man's hand rising out of the sea. Tiny little cloud coming out of the water.
So when your prayers are being answered, don't expect just a mighty torrential rain immediately. Just a little hand coming out of the sea. Yeah. So he said, go up. Say to Ahab, Prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.
Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. You see, In verse 17, we read That Elijah had a nature like ours. He prayed earnestly, it wouldn't rain, didn't rain. He prayed earnestly, it would rain, it rained, blah, end of story. But here is the rest of the story.
Oh, there was more Time and again the servant had to go and inspect. Time and again he came back and said, Nothing there. Go back again. Nothing there. Go back again.
Nothing there. Seven times, which means many more. Just like Peter said, How often should I forgive my brother? Seven times seven? No.
Oh, 70 times 7? No, you just. Infinitely. Yeah, I appreciate the fact that you went into greater detail there because I think a lot of Christians do read stories in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, where it says, And Moses prayed for this thing, and thus, and verily the Lord delivered, and there it is. That's just a clean-cut, answered prayer.
But here, when you get more detail into the story, you see that there was just like, it was just like us. He had to keep checking, keep looking, and not give up faith, keep praying over and over again until it actually happened. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You know, we talk about effective, fervent prayer.
And I know there may be some. Listeners or viewers right now who are still saying, I heard everything. But I'm still struggling with that effective fervent. Is it loud, fast? Is it a relationship?
Is it wrestling it out of God's hand? What is happening? Yeah. There's an illustration that Adrian Rogers gave years and years ago that I think is still very helpful for me. He says, I remember one time in Florida, because before he went to Bellevue in Memphis, Tennessee, he was in Florida.
he received a phone call from a man who was very distraught. This man was a drunkard. and he had just received a message that his wife had malignancy. and he was very, very distraught because he really loved his wife. His mother had been praying for him to be saved, And she was one of the most saintly women that he ever knew, that Adrian Rogers ever knew.
And she was praying for her son Bob.
So Bob called Iden Rogers over and said, Preacher, would you come over? We've got this bad news. Come over and pray.
So he went over to pray and You know, went to the kitchen, sat there, and here was this old saintly mother. She was there. Here was the drunkard's son. and here he was, the young preacher, and he started to pray.
So got down around that kitchen table and I started to pray. Adrian Rogers jokes, he said, I thought I was doing a good job praying, but right in the middle of my prayer, That man said, Pray, preacher.
Okay. You ain't praying. I thought I was doing an okay job.
So Adrian Rogers said, Well, I turned it up a little bit. I don't know that the prayer was any more effective, but I got louder and a little faster. Yeah, there you go. That's what you do. And after a while, he had just enough liquor in him, says Adrian Rogers, to loosen his tongue.
He said, Pray, preacher, you ain't praying. He said, Well, I just stopped altogether. Because I was somewhat frustrated, and I looked around, and that little mother was gone. I didn't know where she was. And so he got up and started to walk to the house, In another room, he said, I found her stretched out there on the floor.
She had her hands hands out like this, her face in the rug, and I just stopped with a holy curiosity, and I listened to her prayer. I listened to her as she ascended the ladder to heaven. I listened to her as she pushed back the gates of Pearl. I listened to her as she walked down the golden street. I listened to her as she went through the Holy of Holies, the curtain into the Holy of Holies.
I listened to her as she applied there on the altar of God. The blood And as she pled with God, as she got hold of God. I listened to her as she groaned and agonized and prayed to God. I saw her stretched out there on the floor. Then I knew what that boy meant.
Pray, preacher You ain't praying. And the reason he said that is because he had seen his mother pray.
So What was she doing? Was he just talking louder and faster? No. She was Seeing God. And she was intensely talking to God and asking him.
for his intervention. In her son, in his Tara, yeah, she was reaching out, yeah, of course, truly reaching out, truly stretched out before God, and seeing with those eyes of faith. That's what we've been talking about. When you pray fervently, the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man, you that you see things in the spiritual realm as if they're more real than what's in front of you. And if you're being honest with yourself, it's been a long time probably since you really felt that.
It's been a long time since I felt it. You know, you get so caught up in the minutiae of life and the busyness of life that you reach inwards, you're reaching all around you, but you're not reaching out to God.
So, hopefully, this episode is going to help you get back to that. That's right. And let us know how we can pray for you. We believe in prayer here at the Clear View Today Show. We would love the chance to pray for you and to pray alongside you.
You can write in with your prayer request at 252-582-5028. We love hearing from our Clear View Today Show family. Big thanks to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. Make sure you tune in next time and share these episodes with your friends and family. You can find in anywhere podcasting content can be found, and you can always support us financially at AbinShop.com forward slash.
That's right. Couple of things we want to let you know before we let you go. Number one is you can pre-order the Byzantine text form that is the Robinson Pierpont 2026 edition. Link is in the description below. And we want to say a big thank you to everyone else who has already pre-ordered.
We're going to have a little bit more information about and some updates coming for you guys in the next couple of days. But definitely, definitely, definitely get your pre-order today. Production is wrapping up very soon. We also got a couple of new shows in the pipeline. One of them that is going strong right now is How to Read Biblical Hebrew with Dr.
Abadanshah. And coming this summer is going to be a companion podcast: How to Read Biblical Greek with Dr. Abadanshah. They're both video podcasts, and the whole goal is simple: to help you read the Bible in its original language. Just like we were talking about today, where there's translations, right?
There's different languages. The more you understand God's word, guess what? The more you're going to fall in love with it. That's right. We love you guys.
We'll see you tomorrow on Clear Read Today.
