Faith through Prayer
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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. 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. 17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. 19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
Prayer of Faith (13-15)
Prayer of Faith (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.
James begins with action tward good and bad…notice verse 13
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.
if you suffer what are you suposed to do?
PRAY!
Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
if you are blessed what are you suposed to do?
PRAISE
Singing praise is a form of prayer which we see here
The problum is it is far to often we only focus on one of theese
we pray for needs and dont praise for blessing
Healing
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:
This is a highly debated passage and we will try to make since of it this morning
The greek word we need to focus on here is
ἀσθενέω
aus-te-nel
The word has different meanings from physical sickness to weekness to simply being in need.
The question is what is the meaning here?
In the gospels it is most often used in cases of physical illness, in Pauls eppisles being in need is most common However the context here seams to point to Physical illnes. Suffering was addressed in the privious verse so here sickness is contrasted with suffering
suffering was emocinal this is physical
further proof is that James calls on the elders to go to the one who is sick, in the case of emotinal suffering the one who is sick could go to the elders.
notice verse 15
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.
So James points here to the prayer of faith will heal the one who is sick
Few additinal things
Rember the cannon had not been completed yet so spiritual giftsw were still in existince so it is posible that the church elders did have some power to heal,
James however goes byond this in versae 15 saying if the sick one prayes in faith the Lord will raise him up and any sins will be forgiven
it is not the elders forgiving his sins
This is taken to an unbiblica extream by faith healers. I have found it intresting in this pandemic that if faith healing relly worked where are they and why are they not healing everyone sick from COVID.
Why do faith healers need hospitols, by there own oadmission their faith must not be good enough
It is posible to believe God can heal you without insisting that he will THis is what we believe yes God aslways has the power to heal but there are time he choses not too.
Is that hard? yes but He is indeed God
The puropse of prayer is for God not for us it provide oppertunity for Him to teach us about himself. What he can do as well as how he wants us to trust him when our prayer is not answered how we would like.
Confess your sins (16-18)
Confess your sins (16-18)
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. 17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
James Shifts to from intersession to confession
The Roman cathloc confession is based largely on this verse but they inore the context of the passage
We see what makes prayers powerful
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
The Basic proncipal is if a richous person prays in an efective way it will be heard
Elija
James moves to an illistration in vs17-18
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
James illistrates elija he prayed fervently that God would withold rain and God did not dend rain
He prayed again and God sent rain
Powerful prayer exists for anyone of us but it neads to be ernest prayer
Turn Back to Christ (19-20)
Turn Back to Christ (19-20)
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
THis is a beutiful conclusion to the book, This is the gospel we will turn from the error of our ways and our soul will be saved from death
likewis church diciplene
Application
do you pray with faith