Pathway to Victory

Speaker 1

Hey podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory and Dr. Robert Jeffress.

We're dedicated to bringing you bold biblical teaching that transforms your life and strengthens your walk with God.

And you can study God's word alongside Dr. Jeffress in person on the 2026 Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska.

Speaker 2

Have you ever witnessed the breathtaking majesty of massive glaciers rising from crystal blue waters or stood in awe as bald eagles soar over snow-capped mountains?

I want you to experience these unforgettable moments with me on the Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska, June 13th through 20th, 2026.

Speaker 1

Join Dr. Jeffress and the Pathway to Victory family for a spectacular seven-day adventure aboard Holland America's luxurious Koningsdam.

Indulge in elegant staterooms, world-class dining, and expansive decks perfect for breathtaking views.

Visit historic ports like Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan, where wilderness and frontier history await.

Speaker 2

There's something powerful about connecting with God and fellow believers in the majesty of his untamed wilderness. I truly believe this journey will refresh you spiritually, physically and emotionally.

Speaker 1

Cabins are filling quickly, so reserve yours today. To book your spot on the 2026 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska, call 888-280-6747 or go to ptv.org now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

Hi, this is Robert Jeffress and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program.

Speaker 3

On today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

Have you ever wondered why it is that some of our prayers, many of them, seem never to make it past the roof and yet sometimes God chooses to answer our prayer requests suddenly and dramatically?

Why is that? Well, James answers that question in the passage we're going to look at as we discover the secret to unleashing God's power in your life.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. Have you ever wondered why some of your prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling while others are answered suddenly and dramatically?

Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress shares how we can tap into that same kind of supernatural power that the Old Testament prophet Elijah experienced when he prayed.

But first, let's take a minute to hear some important ministry updates.

Speaker 3

Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Just before we begin the message, let me hit Pause for a moment and remind you about the upcoming 2026 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska. It's taking place June 13th through 20th, and it's not too early to reserve your spot. I can't think of a better backdrop for worship and refreshment than the masterpiece God created in Alaska.

And knowing that you'd prefer a truly Christian vacation experience, we're bringing our own entertainment, including renowned vocalist Michael O'Brien. I can hardly wait to hear the worship and praise that's generated on the cruise ship as we give glory to God together. So download the brochure and reserve your spot today by going to ptv.org.

Have you ever reached an impasse in your life and wondered how you would ever get to the other side? Maybe it was a financial crisis. Perhaps someone violated your trust and your relationship is broken. Whatever the case, these are the moments we need to spend on our knees appealing to God for deliverance.

Well, I'm going to speak on this topic today, and it's one that I've addressed in my brand new book called *How to Know If You're Really Saved*. I'd be pleased to send you a copy of my book as a way of thanking you for your generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. It comes with a few other helpful resources, and David will describe those opportunities later, only to say this special time-limited offer ends tomorrow, and we hope to hear from you right away.

Now let's get started. We're looking at a couple of verses in James chapter 5. I titled today's message "The Secret to Unleashing God's Power."

Speaker 2

Chuck Swindoll tells a great story about an impoverished missionary woman who was sitting in her second-floor apartment, wondering how she was going to survive her poverty when she was handed an unexpected letter from home. She eagerly opened the letter, and out fell a crisp $10 bill. She was thrilled at the provision, but as she was looking at that $10 bill, she couldn't help but notice on the street below the activity of a shabbily dressed man. He was obviously in worse situations than she was in, and so she decided to do something Christian. She took that $10 bill, put it in an envelope, wrote the encouraging words "don't despair" on the outside, and threw the envelope out the window with the hope that God would use it in some miraculous way. The man picked up the envelope, saw the words, took the $10 bill out, put it in his pocket, looked up, tipped his hat at the woman, and was on his way.

The next morning, the woman was awakened to a knocking at the door. She opened the door and was surprised to see that same man standing there, grinning from ear to ear with a wad of dollar bills in his hand. She said, "What's this for?" He said, "This is the money you've got coming to you, lady. Don't despair. Paid five to one in yesterday's race." You know, rarely do we experience that kind of dramatic answers to our prayers, do we? Have you ever wondered why it is that some of our prayers, many of them, seem never to make it past the roof, and yet sometimes God chooses to answer our prayer requests suddenly and dramatically? Why is that?

Well, James answers that question in the passage we're going to look at today from James Chapter 5. If you have your Bibles, turn to James 5 as we discover the secret to unleashing God's power in your life. You know, James has been writing in this letter about how to know if you're really saved. There'll be evidence in your life in how you respond to temptation, to trials, to anger, and so many different things. But James saves the topic of prayer for last. And it's appropriate that he would close his letter with talking about the importance of prayer. Look at James 5:16. "Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."

I said it's appropriate James would talk about prayer. You know, the reason that is is not only because of his position in the Jerusalem church—he was the pastor—but more importantly, his position on the ground. He was known as a prayer warrior. In fact, he had a nickname in the early church. He was called Camel Knees. You think, "Well, that's an insulting comment." Not at all. He was on the ground so often praying before God that the skin around his knees started to sag, and they gave him the nickname Camel Knees. Wouldn't you like to be known for your prayer life that way? James believed in the power of prayer, and he says the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

To illustrate that, look at verse 17. He travels back to the Old Testament, to the story of Elijah. He said, "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit." So since James went back hundreds of years earlier to the story of Elijah, we're going to do the same thing today to discover why James chose Elijah as Exhibit A of what it means to offer an effective prayer, a prayer that God answers suddenly and dramatically.

Hold your place here and turn back to 1 Kings, chapter 16. You know, the book of 1 Kings starts with the funeral of one king, David, and ends with the funeral 150 years later of another king named Ahab. When David died, remember, his son was Solomon. Solomon started off strong, but he ended up an absolute disaster. Solomon allowed his marriage to foreign people—not in race; that wasn't the point. The point was they worshiped other gods. They were idolatrous women that he married, and they turned Solomon's heart away from God. And so God judged the nation of Israel. There was a civil war that Solomon instigated by some poor decision-making.

In 912 B.C., Israel split in two. There was the north and the south. The northern kingdom retained the name Israel and consisted of 10 of the 12 tribes. The southern kingdom, Judah, had two tribes. The northern kingdom fell first because it was even more wicked than the south. It fell in 722 B.C., and the southern kingdom, Judah, fell in 586 B.C. But 1 Kings tells us the story of the northern kingdom. The first king of the northern kingdom, Israel, was a man named Jeroboam. Jeroboam was evil. He introduced the worship of bulls, and people thought he was the worst king people had ever seen. Of course, he was just the first of a long line of ungodly and immoral kings Israel went through.

We trace the reign of Jeroboam and his successors down to a man named Omri. In chapter 16, verse 25, it says, "Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord and acted more wickedly than all who were before him." That is, until his son came on the scene named Ahab. Ahab, his son, became king of Israel in his place. Now, Ahab ruled for 22 years in Israel, and a lot of people thought he was a pretty good king. You know why? Because the economy was exploding positively under his reign. People were enjoying prosperity like they had never enjoyed before.

You know, we measure a country's productivity by the GDP. We call it Gross Domestic Product. But God has a standard that he uses. It has nothing to do with the GDP. He's interested in GBP, the Godly Behavior Product. And by that standard, Ahab was in a deficit. He was an absolute disaster because Ahab did something more wicked than any other king in Israel's history. He introduced the worship of Baal. He married a woman named Jezebel, and Jezebel brought the worship of Baal and Baal's female consort named Asherah. God hated Baal and the worship of Baal. One reason is what it did to children. They would make idols to Baal and hollow out the area where the stomach was. The Israelites would place their own children, babies, in that belly of Baal and light the fire underneath and roast them alive. God absolutely detested Baal and those who worshiped Baal.

It was against this dark backdrop of Israel's idolatry and immorality that a man named Elijah burst onto the scene. We find his story beginning in chapter 17. Now, there are two characters in the story. First of all, Elijah. Now, Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead. We only know where he came from—Gilead. We don't know anything about his past. We do know something about him from his name. You know what the name Elijah means? Literally, it means "Yahweh is God." Elijah's whole life would be dedicated to proving to the world that Yahweh, not Baal, was the one true God.

The second character was Ahab, Ahab the king. We find this summary of Ahab's reign in chapter 16, verses 30 and 32-33. "Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all those who were before him. So he actually erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria, the capital at that time. Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus, Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him." So you've got Elijah and Ahab. Ahab had all the power, the might, and the money. But you know what Elijah had? He had passion. He had a purpose in life, and he believed in the power of prayer. And that's why God used Elijah in such a powerful way.

It's not because he was some superhuman. You know, James said in his description of Elijah, "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours." You look through his story. He was far from perfect. He had moments of doubt, moments he struggled with temptation, times he got depressed and wanted to quit. But God used him anyway because he understood his purpose, depended on the power of God, and believed in the power of prayer.

So you've got Elijah and Ahab. In verse 1, Elijah comes to Ahab and says, "As the Lord, the God of Israel lives." Now he's poking at Ahab right there. He's saying, "Ahab, your God is dead. It's a piece of tin. The God I serve is alive, and he's the one who's commanded you." And to say by his authority that "surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word." In other words, "I'm cutting off the rain supply, Ahab." And Ahab knew what that meant. No rain, no crops. No crops, no cash. No cash, no food. No food, no nation. And so Elijah made that pronouncement, and then he disappears. God takes him away and hides him to protect him for the next three and a half years.

He spends six months by the brook Cherith, remember the story how God used the ravens to bring Elijah food? He subsisted like that for six months. Then he moved in with the widow of Zarephath for three years, whom God provided with an inexhaustible supply of flour and oil. He lived like that, dependent upon God for three and a half years. After the three and a half years, God said to Elijah, "Okay, it's time to go back to Ahab." And so you see in chapter 18, verses 1 and 17-18, his appearance before Ahab. When Ahab saw Elijah, you know what his first response was? He said, "Is this you, you troubler of Israel?" That word troubler literally means snake, viper. "Is this you, you snake, you troublemaker of Israel?"

But Elijah quickly puts the blame where it belongs. He said in verse 18, "I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's sons have, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and you have followed the Baals." Then Elijah called for all of the prophets of Baal and Asherah—450 of Baal, 400 of Asherah—along with the people, to gather together on Mount Carmel. Many of us have been there to Mount Carmel before, where this battle took place. He came near to all the people. Look at verse 21. He said, "How long are you going to hesitate between two opinions?" That word hesitate in Hebrew refers to a bird that is out on a tree branch walking along and comes to a fork in the tree branch.

Remember Yogi Berra's comment, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Well, a bird is climbing out on a branch and it sees two ways it can go. This word hesitate refers to a bird that hops between one part of the fork and the other, back and forth, unable to make up its mind. Elijah said, "How long are you going to bounce back and forth between two opinions? It's time to settle this in your heart. If the Lord is God, if he is Yahweh, serve him with all of your heart. But if Baal is God, follow him. It's time to make up your mind."

If Elijah were speaking to us today, he would say, "Members of First Baptist Dallas Christians, how long are you going to hesitate between whom you're serving? If work is your God, then give it your all. Don't give it just 40 hours a week or 60 hours a week. Neglect your church, neglect your family, neglect everything and pour yourself into your work. If money is your God, don't be half-hearted in your pursuit of money. Chase after it with everything you've got. Accumulate as big of a pile of it as you can. If entertainment or recreation is your God, then quit coming to church once a month just to satisfy your conscience. Forget it. Give everything you have to enjoyment, to recreation, to pleasure. But if God is really your God, serve him with all of your heart."

That's what he's saying here to us. Choose you this day whom you're going to serve. The double-minded person, James says, is unstable in all of his ways. He never enjoys God that much, and he can't enjoy his money, his sports, his pleasure that much either. It's time to make up your mind. Choose you this day. But the people were undecided. So Elijah proposed a contest. He said, "Let's let the prophets of Baal erect their own altar and place a sacrifice on it. Then I'll erect an altar and place a sacrifice on my altar." In verse 24, "Then you call on the name of your God, Baal, and I will call on the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God." And all the people said, "Hmm, that's a good idea."

That's a good idea. So you have the contest starting in verse 25. Elijah allowed the prophets of Baal to go first out of courtesy to them. Really, this should be a simple thing for them to do because their God, Baal, was the God of the sun as well as of rain and fertility. This ought to be real simple. All they need to do is ask the God of the sun to take a little sunlight and focus it and concentrate it on the altar, and they could have a fire. So they pled with Baal. Verse 26 says, "But there was no voice and nobody answered him." And they leaped about the altar which they made. This went on for about three hours, from nine till noon.

Verse 27 says, "And it came about at noon that Elijah mocked them."

Speaker 3

Respect for other people's religions.

Speaker 2

No, no. You never had respect for false gods. We respect people's right to worship the wrong God. That's what tolerance is. It's respecting people's right to be wrong. But it doesn't mean you respect their religion. Elijah didn't respect the worshipers of BAAL or their religion. He mocked them and he said, "Call out with a loud voice, for he is a God. Maybe he's occupied. Maybe he's gone aside." That Hebrew word for "gone aside" literally means "gone to the bathroom." Maybe the reason BAAL can't answer you today is he's occupado. He's occupied. He's in the bathroom. Or maybe he's away on a journey. Or perhaps, perhaps he's asleep and he needs to be awakened. Why don't you yell a little louder?

Verse 28 says, "So they cried with a loud voice, and they cut themselves according to their custom, with swords and lances until the blood gushed out of them." They started crying even louder. And verse 29 says, "When noon was past, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice. No one answered, and no one paid attention." Then it was Elijah's turn. And so he prepares the sacrifice on top of the altar. Before he calls on his God to light it with fire, he does something unusual. He calls for his servants to pour water on the altar. Why? He wants to make it extremely difficult for there to be any such thing as spontaneous combustion, that anybody could say, "Well, it was just accidental. The fire came." So he pours the water on it, and then he says, "Let's do it a second time." So they go down and get more water, come up and flood the altar with water. And then for a dramatic touch, he says, "Let's do it a third time." And so they drowned the altar in water until it was full, falling in the trenches below.

Then verse 36 says, "At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah came to the altar." And this is what he prayed: "O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Today let it be known that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things according to your word. Answer me, Lord. Oh, answer me that this people may know that you, you, O Lord, are God, and you have turned their heart back again."

And what was the result of that simple prayer? Look at verse 38. "Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench." And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, "The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God."

Now Elijah said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink, for there is the..."

Speaker 3

Sound of the roar of a heavy shower.

Speaker 2

Why are we looking at this prayer today? Because James said it is the model of an effective prayer that accomplishes much.

What made it effective? It certainly wasn't the length of the prayer. Unlike the prophets of Baal who prayed for hours, this was a simple 63-word prayer.

Speaker 3

This is what we call a cliffhanger. I promise to spend the entire program tomorrow clearly demonstrating three methods for effective prayer. Plus, I provide practical steps in my brand new book on James where I answer questions like these: Why is it that some prayers seem to never make it past the ceiling while others receive sudden, dramatic answers? James reveals the secret by telling us about Elijah's simple 63-word prayer.

Well, in my new book, we'll discover that the effective prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much. James, remember, was known as Camel Knees because he prayed so often his knees became calloused. When we pray according to God's will for purity, for power, to share the gospel, and for healing relationships, we unleash heaven's power. No family, no household should be without this wisdom from James.

And today, I'm going to send you my book about James as a thank you gift when you give a generous contribution to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. The deadline for receiving your gift and your request is tomorrow, when this teaching series concludes. When you give, you'll not only receive my book, you'll also have the satisfaction of knowing you've done your part in bringing light where there's darkness. Your generous gift goes directly toward providing this daily program so that others can be encouraged just as you have.

So thank you so much for giving generously and getting in touch today. Here's David to tell you more.

Speaker 1

When you support the ministry of Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift, we'll say thanks by sending you "How to Know if You're Really Saved." That's the brand new book by Dr. Robert Jeffress. Simply give us a call at 866-999-2965 or visit us online.

And when your gift is $75 or more, you'll also receive the complete "How to Know if You're Really Saved" teaching series on both DVD and MP3 format audio discs, plus the personal and group study guide. But time is running out to take advantage of this offer, so get in touch right away. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or go to PT.

If you'd prefer to send your letter by mail, write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. That's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, TX 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins. Join us again next time for Part Two of the message "The Secret to Unleashing God's Power," right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.

You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word.

To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.