Prayer For Healing
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“Anointing him
with oil.” When the elders have
prayed that God’s will be done,
and the sick has fully agreed, he is
ready for the anointing. The oil is
symbolic of the Holy Spirit, and the
anointing constitutes a sealing of
the heart to God, a dedication, a
consecration. Exodus 28:41; Acts
10:38. The elders pray to the Father
in the name of the Son, and the Holy
Spirit seals the compact. The Three
Powers of heaven are present.
“The prayer of
faith shall save the sick.” This
is a definite promise. “If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.
When the conditions are fulfilled,
the prayer of faith shall save the
sick. He has given himself into the
hands of God, the elders have
anointed him with oil in the name of
the Lord, and now God fulfills His
part. “The prayer of faith shall
save the sick.” This is the
first of the three results of prayer
here named. The others are: “The
Lord shall raise him up,” and
“If we have committed sins, they
shall be forgiven him.”
The first promise that
the prayer of faith shall save the
sick is the most precious and
important of the three. Whether the
sick is healed or not is of less
importance than the saving of the
soul. This is the first promise. Even
before healing is mentioned, comes
this comforting message to the sick
that he shall be saved.
This salvation is not
brought about by prayers of the
elders apart from the co-operation of
the sick. No man or group of men can
save anyone else, however much they
may pray, unless the sinner himself
turns to God and fulfills the
condition of forgiveness. God says,
“though these three men, Noah,
Daniel, and Job, were in it, they
should deliver but their own souls by
their righteousness, saith the Lord
God.” Ezekiel 14:14. In
forgiveness of sin, in salvation, the
man himself must co-operate; and as
he does so, the promise is sure: the
prayer of faith shall save the sick.
We need not emphasize that the faith
here spoken of is not faith in the prayer
they are uttering, but faith in God.
Faith in one’s own prayer is
only faith in one’s self. It is
faith in God that counts.
“The Lord shall
raise him up.” Some have taken
this to mean that if the sick is not
healed, but dies, the promise will
yet be fulfilled; for the Lord will
raise him up from the dead in the
resurrection of the great day. While
this is true, the evident meaning of
the text is that God will heal him
and raise him up from the sickbed.
This promise is as sure as the one
that the Lord will save the sick; but
like every other promise, it is
conditioned upon compliance with
God’s will and limited by
God’s appointments. We can
appreciate God’s power and
willingness to raise a man from his
sickbed and restore him to health and
strength. However, we cannot believe
that God will do this repeatedly so
the man will never die. God does not
do this because in His wisdom, He has
appointed unto men once to die, and
men must keep that appointment.
Hebrews 9:27. So, however much a man
may pray, and however much others may
pray for him, unless God does a
special miracle and translates him to
heaven without seeing death, the time
will come when prayer for healing and
health and life will avail no more.
Thus, we can
understand that good men may pray for
the healing of a good man and not be
heard. Yet in the larger sense their
prayer is heard, for, being dedicated
to God, they have added to their
prayer, “Thy will be done.”
That is how Paul could say of Christ,
“When He had offered up prayers
and supplications with strong crying
and tears unto Him that was able to
save Him from death, and was heard in
that He feared;… yet learned
obedience by the things which He
suffered.” Hebrews 5: 7,8.
Christ was not exempt
from drinking the cup though He
prayed three times to be delivered;
yet we are told that His prayer was
heard. He added, “Thy will be
done,” and having added this,
His will was the same as God’s.
We need not lose faith
because prayers does not bring life
and health to someone we love. God
knows best, and we must leave the
matter with Him. However, we are
persuaded that we are not taking
advantage of God’s promises, as
we should and that because of our
lack of faith “many are weak and
sickly among you, and many
sleep.” 1 Corinthians 11:30.
A Sobering Thought
It is a sobering
thought that there may be those among
us today who are sick for no other
reason than that “the works of
God should be made manifest,” as
was the case of the young man who had
been blind from birth. They are
waiting for someone to come with
enough faith in God so that His works
may be made manifest. John 9:3.
It is a disturbing
fact that some are sick and weakly
among us because we have not fully
appropriated the power and blessing
there are in the ordinances of the
Lord’s house. 1 Corinthians
11:23-30. It is time that god’s
people claim all the gifts that God
has set in the church, and not only
one or two. 1 Corinthians 12:28. We
are counseled to “come behind in
no gift; waiting for the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1
Corinthians 1:7. Is it not time for
the church to come up to the help of
the Lord against the mighty?
Judges 5:23. However, let all beware
of fanaticism.
“Sins …
shall be forgiven him.” This
promise is as sure as the others and
is based on the same conditions:
repentance and confession. “If
we confess our sins, He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and
to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.
That is the condition. John is not
here propounding a new doctrine. Men
may set up their confessionals and
promise forgiveness to such as come
to them. However, God does not
recognize or authorize such man-made
arrangements. His invitation is,
“Come unto Me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest.” Matthew 11:28.
Christ has not
abdicated and turned His work over to
fallible men. No man has the right to
invite men to come to him and receive
absolution. Yet, while Christ is
performing His office in the
sanctuary in heaven, an opposing
power has set up its sanctuary on
earth and is inviting men to come to
it. In addition, they come. Paul
speaks of this when he says that
before the Lord comes, there shall
come “a falling away
first,” so that the man of sin
may be revealed, “the son of
perdition; who opposeth ands exalteth
himself above all that is called God,
or that is worshiped; so that he as
God sitteth in the temple of God,
showing himself that he is God.”
2 Thessalonians 2:3,4.
“Confess your
faults one to another.” We are
to confess our sins to God, our
faults one to another. In neither
case are we commanded to confess to a
priest. We are, indeed, to confess to
man, but the man to whom we are to
confess is the man we have wronged.
If I have sinned against Brother
Jones, I am not to confess to Brother
Smith. This is self-evident.
We are to confess our
faults one to another.
If I am to confess my sins to a
priest, then he is to confess his
sins to me. If he gives me
absolution, then I am to give him the
same. Such is the absurdity of
man-made ordinances.
“Pray for one
another.” Prayer is a mutual
privilege and responsibility. I am to
pray for my brother, and he is to
pray for me. We are on equal footing
in prayer. Pray for one another
‘that ye may be healed.” It
is not that “he may be healed,
but “ye.” God recognizes,
and so are we also to recognize, that
though we may pray for another, we
ourselves need healing. This should
make us humble as we pray.
“The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.” This is an
interesting and important statement.
The two words “effectual”
and “fervent” are
translated from one Greek word, energo,
from which our word
“energy” is derived. What
does James mean when he says this
kind of prayer by a righteous man
availeth much? He does not explain
this, but cites the case of Elijah to
illustrate it.
For many years, this
illustration worried me. Elijah was a
mighty man of God, and how could the
fact that God heard him be any
encouragement to me? I was neither
righteous nor great.
I noted that God said
Elijah was a man of like passions as
we. But that I could not understand.
There must be some mistake in using
Elijah as a type.
Then I discovered that
Elijah also had weak points. After
the wonderful day on the mount where
he stood alone against all the priest
of Baal and Astarte, he basely ran
away because Jezebel threatened him.
He could stand against all the
prophets of Baal, but he could not
stand against one woman. In addition,
his running away would likely have
serious consequences for Israel. For
Israel had turned to God, and a
wonderful revival took place after
Elijah had been answered with fire
from heaven. It had been amply
demonstrated that Elijah’s God
was stronger that Jezebel’s
prophets and their gods. Now that
Elijah had fled from Jezebel, the
people could draw no other conclusion
than that, after all, Jezebel’s
gods were the greater and more
powerful, and Israel might now all
apostatize and turn from God to serve
Baal.
It was a most serious
mistake for Elijah to run away.
However, God did not cast him aside.
As he and Elisha were walking
together, “there appeared a
chariot of fire, and horses of fire,
and parted them both asunder, and
Elijah went up by a whirlwind into
heaven.” 2 Kings 2:11.
It is to be noted that
God mercifully hid from the people
the fact that Elijah ran away, so the
feared apostasy did not take place.
This makes clear why
God uses Elijah as a type. We may
have made serious mistakes, as did
Elijah. Despite this, God may bless
us as we pray. He heard Elijah; He
will hear us.
Memory Verse:
“As they were
walking along and talking together,
suddenly a chariot of fire and horses
of fire appeared and separated the
two of them, and Elijah went up to
heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw
this and cried out, “My father!
My father! The chariots and horsemen
of Israel!” And Elisha saw him
no more. Then he took hold of his
clothes and tore them apart. 2
Kings 2: 11,12.
Questions:
1. Can we
come to God with what may seem as
trivial matter? Explain.
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2. Have
you ever had an experience where the
Holy Spirit took full control and
hearts were melted? Explain.
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