Prayer Power

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James 5:13-18 “Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.”

Open with a brief recap of James
James is Jesus brother
It is written to a broad range of Christians.
It is like the NT Proverbs. A letter filled with nuggets of wisdom. It is not quite specific but yet has very specific things in it.
I like James thought process in his writing
His thought process is evolving...
He starts with a very broad life circumstance- Suffering Hardships- Unite us
His thoughts go down the road of the most universal that would unite any body of people, suffering, happy, sick.
He like his brother, takes our human into the spiritual, and shows where they intersect. Our human needs lead way into our Spiritual needs. The unfortunate thing is we often can't hear our spiritual needs because our human needs are not being met.
Talk about the street walk- No one cares about what you know until they know that you care,
Jesus teaching his disciples to pray also shares this in the gospel of Luke 11:9-13 he says,
First Song - I speak Jesus
James does such a good job painting a picture of an aspect of what healthy community looks like, "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results."
I actually love this verse, I wished it was lived out more. I don't know about you but I have experienced just the opposite, I have confessed my sin and then been penilized for it for punishment not for discipline. Punishment aims to hurt and keep the oppressed oppressed but discipline is about transformation. The idea behind confession of sin is so for forgiveness but also so that they no longer have power over you.
Talk about doing step 4, to take a searching and fearless inventory of our lives and then step 5 is to to share it with God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. We do this with a sponsor. Talk about doing this with Teresa in PEI,
The result of this was freedom and that was something to praise God for,
Sing Victory in Jesus.
James lets us know that Elijah, one of the greatest prophets of the Olt Testament, was human just like them and just like you and I. When Elijah prayed, he believed God was going to do what he said he would do.
I am not sure what miracle to talk about here. The many times God has showed up and did what He said he would do. Prayer cloth, Prayer Shawl, Annointing with Oil.
It is prayers offered in faith and even the ones that say, i am here, I believe but help my unbelief, when God Shows up.
As the Deer pants
Friends today these prayers have been offered to the throne of our Father, I believe God is going to do what he says he will do in your life, my life, our lives, in the life of our church, in the life our community, will you join me?
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