Pray for the Sick

James 5:13-15

13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.(KJV)

Have you ever met anyone who was sick that decided they could not ask God to heal them just cause they figured He was probably punishing them? I have met a few like that. Or they think that God wanted them sick for learning some lesson. I have met a few like that too. More of the latter than the former. But I ask you, why did Jesus go about healing the sick? Now we know He did not always heal everyone, but He did heal all who wanted to be healed and believed He could do it. In some instances it was every one in the particular crowd around Him. In other instances only a few got healed, such as in Nazareth one time we know of. We also know that the beggar in front of Beautiful Gate had not been healed when Jesus went in and out of the temple because Peter later did that. We also know that at that pool of Bethesda that only that lame man got healed.

I honestly don’t believe God wants us sick, but He will allow us to experience consequences of sin if we insist on doing our own thing and going our own way. When we don’t take proper care of ourselves, we are sinning both against God and our bodies, and there are consequences. God did set into this world consequences to occur when we do the wrong thing, regardless of how much we actually know of what is wrong or not. One obvious example is gravity. You don’t have to know anything about it to be affected by it. The same in the spiritual realm. Not that God can’t annul those consequences when He wants, but when He does, it is pretty obvious to the believer. To non believers-it is luck.

So James in verse 13 above is asking, are there any of you who are afflicted? The word afflicted in the Greek is a word that means experiencing hardship, suffering hardship. The Greek word is kakopatheo. We get our word pathogen from the Greek word pathos which means suffering. James asks the question-are you suffering some kind of hardship? If so, then pray. If things are going great and you are cheerful, then sing psalms. Then he asks, are any of you sick? Here is where he brings in the church leadership as part of the solution. He says if any of you are sick, then call the elders of your church to pray over you and annoint you with oil in the name of the Lord. Then he gives us the clincher. The results-qualified by faith being there-being raised by up to good health. And notice the next thing-if there have been any sins, they are forgiven.

Now you will notice I brought up faith as a qualifying factor in all this. Unless you honestly believe that God is going to heal you-faith that He will, you won’t receive the healing, no matter what else is going on. Why? Without faith it is impossible to please God, and

Matt 21:21-22

21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.(KJV)

On top of that, remember what James said in the beginning of the book?--

James 1:6-7

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.(KJV)

Remember the fellow that Peter healed at Beautiful Gate.

Acts 3:5

5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.(KJV) This guy believed, expected to receive. He didn’t know what it would be, but he was ready.

Another instance in Acts-

Acts 14:8-10

8 And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked:

9 The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,

10 Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.(KJV)

So if you are sick and have called the elders to come and pray for you, annointing you with oil in the name of the Lord, you better believe and expect that you will be healed. Now in the same verse, James includes forgiveness of sins. Let us look at verse 16.

James 5:16

16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.(KJV)

One more thing needed is confession. This is why the Catholic Church instituted Confession as a needed part of the Christian life. Now why it had to be limited to a priest, I don’t know, but that is how they did and do it when it was first instituted. But James is saying, confess your faults to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. Then he points out that the effectual fervent pray has power. What is an effectual fervent prayer? It means basically the effective prayer-and it comes from the righteous person. That is what is needed, James says. The person has to be righteous-someone who lives by faith and has a clean conscious, someone free of doubts about the issue -this person’s prayer is effective and things happen-the prayer gets answered.

James then points out Elijah in the next verse as an example of someone who was just ordinary and human like everyone else-

James 5:17

17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

18 And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit.(NAS)

Elijah, per James, was like all the rest of us and this fellow prayed dilligently, earnestly that it might not rain, that God’s Word would be brought about, and that is what happened. Elijah did not just pray once or twice about it. He prayed earnestly-with fervor, with energy, and dilligently.

Daniel-when he prayed to understand some things prayed 3 weeks only one particular time-praying and fasting all three weeks. On the start of his praying, God sent an angel out to give Daniel the answers but it took 3 weeks before Daniel met the angel because the angel was having to do battle with fallen angels and even had to go after help from an angel who had greater power then he did. So between the angel Michael who was brought into the situation in the heavenlies and the original one God sent, it was 3 weeks before Daniel knew anything. And it is interesting that Daniel received a vision from God on the 24th day of his fast, and finally 3 days later, the angel shows up. Wouldn’t you say Daniel prayed fervently and earnestly?

So folks, not only is the prayer of faith necessary, but no doubts, and also fervent prayer. How much time has to be spent in fervent prayer, I don’t know. I believe it must depend on the particular thing prayed for and its importance in God’s scheme of things.

Let me ask all of you. Do you believe God still heals today? I do because God’s word is unchanging and what applied then in New Testament times applies now also. I also personally have experienced physical healing, and know of others who have too. Do you believe God wants you healthy? Why? I do because He wants salvation to be a total thing, not just a partial thing. Don’t forget one of these days even our bodies will be redeemed. We will have perfect bodies that are just like Jesus’ current body. If you don’t believe that, read

Phil 3:21

21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.(KJV)

I Jn 3:2

2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.(KJV)

That should settle the doubts as to what we will be like. And it doesn’t matter that the old body decays into dust-God will one day bring back all the components for our bodies together to make the immortal one we will have.

Brothers and sisters, if you aren’t following scripture when it comes to illnesses, you are leaving out the most effective means of getting well-going to God and His leadership first. The doctors should be your second resort. God will let you know how He wants to do it. He has nothing against doctors, but put more faith in God than you do doctors. Then if He wants to use them, it will be effective. If He wants to do it Himself, you will be spared a lot of expense and trouble.

God bless you as you think about what I have shared this morning. The Good News Lady