Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 17:21

"And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto Jehovah, and said, O Jehovah my God, I pray thee, let this child`s soul come into him again." — 1 Kings 17:21 (ASV)

He stretched himself upon the child. — To suppose that this implies merely the use of some natural means of reviving the dead is simply to explain the whole description away.

The idea in this passage (as in 2 Kings 4:34; 2 Kings 13:21; and, perhaps, Acts 20:10) clearly is of a certain healing “virtue,” attaching in measure to the person of the prophets, as without measure it belonged to our Lord Himself (Luke 8:45–46).

But it should be noted that in the case of the prophet, the power to heal or raise up is made distinctly conditional on prayer: the Lord heard the voice of Elijah.