The point is, if you want your prayers answered, you want a righteous person praying for you or you need to be a righteous person. Right?

So who is a righteous person who prays mountain moving prayers? James says, “Elijah,” and we say, “Oh No! Elijah was a prophet, Elijah was a super hero believer. There are not many of those around! I mean, I think a lot of our Teaching Pastor and our elders, but they are no Elijah. Goodness, he called down fire from heaven!”

In actuality, James is drawing the opposite conclusion by using Elijah as an example of the righteous person. He says Elijah, the great prophet, was a man just like us, and he prayed mountain-moving prayers. The point is clear that Elijah was a righteous person because he was a believer, not because he was a prophet! Elijah believed in God and that was his righteousness. He further acted on that faith with obedience and that demonstrated his righteousness.

This is good news! The righteous persons whose fervent prayers accomplish much are plain, ordinary believers who step forward in obedient faith, prayer being one such step. In other words, the righteous person is the individual believer of v13, the elders of v14, and the “one another’s” of v16. There are plenty of believers who can accomplish much through prayer - including you, if you are in Christ!