"The Prayer of Faith" or "Do We Really Believe The Bible?"

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
Is anyone among you sick? 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.
And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

James 5:13-18

Let’s be over-simplistic and take apart a few verses of Scripture that I’m convinced the evangelical Church has placed liquid paper over in their Bibles

Do our modern day church practices resemble this: The sick calling for the elders of the church, and they pray over them and they do get healed? No, and we justify it with theological explanations for why we are allowed to stop obeying certain things in the Bible “that were just for back then, not now.”

There’s one thing I really love about this passage regardless and it’s touched on a lot of times elsewhere in Scripture: The forgiveness of sins being one in the same vein (pun intended) with healing of ailments and diseases. This contradicts most of our thinking. “And if he has committed sins he will be forgiven.” Both were paid for on the cross.

I was out for lunch with a leader in my life one time, and I was making a point about the change in someone’s life I saw while in North Carolina, and this man cut me off to correct me on something he thought I was mistaken about. In sharing what I did, I made mention in passing of how this roommate of mine used to have herpes but God mercifully healed him.

This minister felt there’s no way the Lord would heal someone of an STD because “man reaps what he sows” even if it’s related to actions before we were saved--and should pay the consequence of his sins. I listened to him, but felt sorry that his misguided views would hinder him from seeing the goodness of God. The roommate I was telling him of was in the navy and slept around a lot, and then many students from FIRE befriended him and witnessed to him, leading him to salvation not longer afterwards. Months into being saved, he received repeated prayer for healing, and finally his doctor told him he no longer had the symptoms. Over two years have passed and he claims to have had no returning signs of it. Praise God.

We can be so religious and preoccupied with correct doctrine that we lack mercy and grace. If we can't be good enough to be saved, we can't be 'good enough to deserve' healing either.

Forgiveness of sins is intertwined with healing of illnesses. I couldn’t think of a more appropriate real life example that I know of personally to use than that one. Why is it so hard for the Church to believe God could heal them that used to be the rankest of sinners? We think it’s awesome when He gets them saved, but somehow He shouldn’t go further? Come on! As if we’re any MORE compassionate than God is, who gave His son! Have you ever given yours out of grace? Didn't think so.

When the paralytic was lowered through the roof, Jesus forgave the man’s sins before healing his body. The scribes were sitting there grumbling under their breath that Jesus would forgive a man’s sins—but recall Jesus’ response: “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk'?” (Mark 2:9)

Friends, which is easier for Him to do—heal your body or forgive your sins?

The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. The Greek word used here for ‘save’ is ‘sozo’. It is used commonly throughout Mark’s gospel interchangeably to say “healed” and other times to say “saved.” It’s the same word in the Greek, and has a few different meanings in English. Examples of it being translated as ‘saved’ include Luke 8:12, John 10:9, Ephesians 2:8-9, and 1 Timothy 2:15

Examples of it being translated as ‘healed’ include Mark 5:23, Mark 5:28, Mark 6:56

(Click here for one of my first blog entries that goes into more detail about healing in the atonement of Christ)

It’s no coincidence that the next verse in James 5 tells us to confess our SINS to one another so that you may be healed. This can be both physical and spiritual at the same time, since that’s what the word used here means.

Have you ever noticed that it’s so much easier to believe in faith for other peoples’ healings, but you can struggle for your own? It’s because we know everything wrong with ourselves. I don’t believe sin itself keeps us from being healed, but I think it keeps us from having confidence that God will heal us, making us hesitant to go for it. Therefore, what we should do is precisely what this verse says; pray for one another that you (us all) may be healed. We know nothing about other people and think they’re alright and not struggling with anything, therefore it’s all the more easier to have faith for other people than for ourselves. I think James knew this when he wrote that.

I don’t have time in this entry to go into all the reminders we need that as children of God we are made righteous, but we need this encouragement that comes from praying for one another, because we can sometimes lose confidence of our righteousness before God. Don’t misquote me now, but sin doesn’t keep you from being able to experience God’s forgiving grace (healing your sick body is just as much of an act of His mercy as saving your sinful soul is). Besides, how clean do you have to be before you’re ready for a bath? Holiness isn’t necessary for getting healed, but it’s necessary for BEING a Christian.

And lastly I want to look at what James says about Elijah, because what is written in the Bible is true, and this portion of the Bible says this:

“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”

You know, I like to get my understanding of Scripture from reading it backwards. If Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, then that means we are people with a nature like Elijah’s. Anyone want read 1 Kings and 2 Kings and see what he was like?!

Do we really believe our prayers get answered? Do we really believe it’s worth the bother to pray? If we did, we’d do it more. And we’d see things like he did—or would we? There’s a word in those lines that describes his praying: fervent. Is that a way you and I pray?

If you’re like me, then it’s not usually. Let’s be people known for fervent praying—seeing things done, not just the “well let’s ask God once and if it doesn’t look like he answered then we’ll conclude it was His will not to answer” prayers, and crap like that that we normally do--cuz Lord knows we can’t pray more than once about something in evangelical and charismatic circles. If that’s the case, then we would have no John G. Lake ministering in the healing rooms he started—where they prayed every day all month for ‘patients’ until they were healed. There were students in his ‘Divine Healing Technician’ school, who couldn’t ‘pass’ until they healed the person they were assigned to--so you better believe they prayed more than once in order to obtain results! I’ve heard of discipleship programs where the students involved had to lead 8 people to Jesus in 6 months or they don’t pass. Man, that’s what the body of Christ needs—doing it, not just getting head knowledge.

I don’t believe Elijah prayed just some quick little “please God don’t let it rain” prayer. What do you think it woulda looked like if the man of God Elijah prayed fervently?

The thing Christians should do when we get to Scriptures like this that sound like they’re talking about men who just got out of outer space, is instead of explaining them away so that they match our lives, we should correct our lives so they match the Scriptures. Don’t mangle the Bible so we don’t have to change—be changed so the Scriptures are lived out in our lives.

In closing for now, as Bob Gladstone--one of my professors at FIRE would say--“the best form of exegesis is obedience.”

More on obedience next entry.