Healing and Prayer

"Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the [congregation]; and let them pray over him... 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" (Jas. 5:14,15). This is a really powerful passage of scripture regarding the will of God on healing. There are no loopholes in this passage that could give any space to the idea that is it not ALWAYS God's will to heal anyone that would approach him for healing. James simply asked the question, "Is there any sick among you?" And he very simply give the answer, which is to be prayed for by someone credible with God, and BE HEALED! The truth really is that we can simply pray for ourselves before God if no one is available otherwise. The main thing we need to do is believe that Jesus will heal us when we ask him, as he did for everyone who came to him for healing when he was here. After all, the scripture does plainly tell us, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to day, and forever" ((Heb. 13:8). James clearly said that when we do this, "the prayer of faith SHALL save the sick, and the Lord SHALL raise him up." There's nothing hard there, just easy math. But it's the next and last part of the passage that I really want to make a point about here, because it involves the reason why many think that they may not be healed. Look again at what James said, "... and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." Many feel that because some illness or affliction has come upon them due to a sin they have committed, that they can't be healed. A lot of people have a 'judgment' mindset that because they have fallen short in some way that they are supposed to just bear up under what may be a resulting affliction and endure it. Well, the illness or affliction may very well be a judgment of God for sin, but that doesn't mean it has been determined by God to be perpetual. It would serve to reason that if we think we have been judged by God for some sin, that we would surely confess it to the Lord and turn away from it.

God has no pleasure in the affliction of his people, but rather that his people would forsake sin and be blessed. The apostle Paul told us clearly that God does judge his people sometimes with afflictions because they have sinned: "For he that eateth and drinketh [of the Spirit] unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world" (I Cor. 11:29-32). As Paul said, "If we would judge ourselves we would not be judged [by God]." Judging ourselves simply means that we identify that we have sinned, and we confess our sin and turn from it, or repent (I Jn. 1:9). The same apostle said this even more clearly in another place: "Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after" (I Tim. 5:24). Those who openly confess their sins to the Lord, and turn away from them, effectively "judge [themselves]," so their sins thereby "go before them to judgment." So the point is once again that God does not place some ongoing judgment on someone for a sin that they have "judged themselves" for, meaning they have forsaken it. And that takes us back to what James said about the prayer of faith saving the sick, and his sins being forgiven as well. That of course applies only to someone who is openly acknowledging their sin and wanting to be forgiven. In fact nothing in the text passage from James applies to anyone who is determined to stubbornly hold onto and justify a sin. If that is the case, then we're back to 1 Corinthians 11, with the Lord judging us for our sins with sickness, weakness, affliction, and even premature death as the apostle stated in the passage (I Cor. 11:32).

Yet even if we are judged with various afflictions from the hand of the Lord for our sins that have not been turned away from, it is evident in that case that God is trying to bring us to repentance so that we CAN be both healed and ultimately saved. That is exactly what that passage says. Yet there are many who are robbed of their healing by a condemning spirit that wants them to feel that they have to be 'under judgment' for some sin that they have already repented of. The evident truth is that we are NOT under judgment for sin that we have forsaken, or at least not from God. It is Satan who wants us to believe we are still being judged for a transgression that we have let go of, and he does so that he can rob us of our healing, as well as our peace. And that certainly serves to reason, considering what Jesus had to say about the matter: "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (Jn. 10:10). Sickness, oppression, and affliction of the mind and body are all elements of death. Healing is an element of life, and life is the will of God for us, ALWAYS! Sin is obviously the main element of death, so it's certain that we cannot hold onto any kind of sin and expect to reap life and peace from it (Rom. 6:23). But if we have repented of sin, and we are still in affliction of the body, it is altogether God's will for us to be healed. If we believe Satan's condemning spirit of 'judgement,' then we are apart from faith in God's promise to heal us. So the evident and good conclusion is that we believe and follow the instruction of James in our text passage, and EXPECT the results that he clearly stipulates. As Jesus told us, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (Jn. 3:17). And healed. Amen.