“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16)

All prayer is to be fervent. The two ingredients of powerful prayer are effectiveness (precision and accuracy) and fervency. Both of these ingredients together bring results. James 5:17-18 describe how Elijah acted upon the Word of God (effectiveness according to principle and covenant) but added to this his own earnest (heartfelt, fervent, passionate) prayer. This brought results.

The Scripture tells us Elijah was a human being with a nature such as we have [with feelings, affections, and a constitution like ours]. The intimation is that if we exercise the same principles of prayer we too can expect the same results. According to the scriptures we are ‘the righteous man (or woman)’ spoken of in these verses, through the blood of Christ.