JAMES 5:13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 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. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
How many of you are familiar with that scripture? How many of you believe it? Now, how many of you wonder why God hasn’t answered certain prayers of yours? It’s OK, I wonder why too! "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." If God isn’t answering our prayers is it because we are not righteous enough? You say "I’ve done all I can...I have confessed my sins...wept, fasted, and fervently petitioned God in true faith...yet nothing seems to happen. God seems to be silent on certain issues.
If that describes you, know that you are not some strange kind of Christian suffering chastisement from the Lord. The delayed answer to prayer is one of the most common experiences shared by even the saintliest of God’s children. Sometimes God answers our prayers and we don’t even know it! We can’t recognize it because it wasn’t answered the way we wanted it to be, or the way we asked for it.
Today there are a lot of ministers and teachers who preach faith. So do I! Thank God for teachers who stir my soul to expect miracles and answers to all my prayers. Perhaps the church has become so faithless and unbelieving, God has to explode on us with a new a fresh revelation of His powerful promises. There is much new teaching today on "making the right confession." God’s people are being urged to think positively and affirm all the promises of God. We are told to rid our lives of all hidden grudges-make all our wrongs right, even back to our childhood. It has been taught lately that most of our unanswered prayers, our lingering illnesses, our inability to move God on our own behalf is a direct result of mishandling our faith. As one faith teacher put it, "Faith is like a faucet; you can turn it off or on."
It all sounds so pretty simple. Do you need a financial miracle in your life? Then simply rid your life, we are told, of all the hindrances, grudges, and unbelief. Confess to having already received the answer by faith, and it will be yours. Do you want that reconciliation of a damaged relationship (perhaps your kids)? Confess it! Imagine it is happening. Create a mental image of a beautiful reunion-and it is all yours. Is there someone you love at death’s door? Then put God on notice you will not take no for an answer; remind Him of His promises; confess healing-and it will happen, so it is taught.
And if your prayer is not answered....if the son or daughter never comes around again....if the sick loved one dies...if the financial need turns into a crisis....then it is suggested it is all your fault. Somewhere along the line, you allowed a negative thought to block the channel. Or, you had a secret sin or un-surrendered grudge. You confession was unscriptural or insincere. One faith teacher wrote, "If you didn’t get the results I did, you aren’t doing everything I did!"
I truly believe in some of these principles. But there are Christians who are totally confused and despondent because they can’t seem to make all these prayer-and-faith formulas work. "What’s wrong with me?"......."I’ve searched my heart and have confessed every sin. I’ve bound demonic powers by the Word of God. I’ve fasted; I’ve prayed; I’ve confessed the promises: yet, I have not seen the answer. I must be spiritually blind or I’m doing it all wrong." And this is what we are going to talk about this morning.
There are thousands of confused Christians all across this nation who are condemning themselves for not being able to produce an answer to a desperate prayer. They know God’s Word is true, that not a single promise can fail, that God is faithful to all generations, that He is good, and that He wants His children to expect answers to their prayers. Yet, for them, there is that one prayer that goes unanswered....indefinitely. So they blame themselves. They listen to the tapes, watch TV, read books...(soooooo many books) of teachers and preachers who speak so powerfully and positively about all the answers they are getting as a result of their faith. And they hear the testimonies of others who have a formula all worked out and who now receive all they ask of God. Then they look at their own helplessness, and condemnation overwhelms them.
Listen, we desperately need to be reminded of the power of faith and proper thinking. It is very much scriptural, and those who resist or deny such teaching have probably don’t understand the principle fully. And that is the major problem. The faith bandwagon is rolling along full speed on wheels that are not balanced. And if it keeps rolling in the direction it is now going, without balance, it will get sidetracked, and many trusting people will get hurt. Already some are giving up because they have come under bondage to teachings on faith that suggest all unanswered prayers are a result of human error. In other words, if it didn’t work for you, you did something wrong....so keep doing it until you get it right.
You cannot feed your faith only on self-serving promises of healing, wealth, success, and prosperity any more than you can grow healthy and strong eating only deserts. Faith comes by hearing "all the Word"....not just preferred portions. There are many Bible truths that speak of suffering that teaches obedience. As Jesus did, we learn obedience by the things we suffer. How did Jesus learn obedience? The answer is in Hebrews 5:87 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, 8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
There are as many scriptures about suffering as there are about faith.Our faith should not be afraid to investigate Bible passages that deal with God’s delays, His seasons of silence, and even His sovereignty...when He acts without giving man an explanation. He is God and He doesn’t have to explain to us anything that He does. Here are some things I want to share with you...
All diseases are not caused by demons or evil spirits. Most are caused by a lack of self-control, gluttony, and bad habits. This belching, bloated generation stuffs itself on mountains of junk food, desserts, and poisoned beverages. Then, when the body is weakened and stricken with disease, we run in panic to God’s Word for a quick fix. We will do anything to be healed...except practice self-control and temperance. And even though God, in His mercy, will often overrule our self-indulgent ways and heal our bodies, we need to invest our faith in some self-control. Me included!
There are times in the Bible when God could not, or did not, answer....no matter how many times it was asked for....no matter how great the faith or how positive the confession. Paul was not delivered from the affliction that buffeted him, though he prayed diligently for an answer. 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Was Paul lacking in faith? Full of negative thoughts? Wrong confession? Why didn’t Paul preach the message we hear so much today-"You don’t have to suffer infirmities, poverty, distresses, suffering. You don’t have to put up with necessity or weakness. Claim your victory over all suffering and pain" Paul wanted more than healing, more than success, more than deliverance from prickly thorns. He wanted Christ! Paul would rather suffer than try to overrule God. That is why he could say in vs 10 " I glory in my present situation-God is at work in me through all I suffer. In and through it all, I know my present suffering cannot be compared with the glory that awaits me."
We become ungrateful, and we so often turn our deliverance into disaster. That’s what happened to Hezekiah. God sent a prophet to warn him he was to prepare to die, saying, "Thou shalt die, and not live." Hezekiah wept, repented, and begged God for an additional fifteen years. God granted his prayer. He was given a new lease on life. The very first year into his reprieve, he compromised, exposing Israel to the enemy kings. He brought disaster upon his family and his nation.
There are other times God refuses to answer our prayer request, because He has "a better way." He will answer, all right, but we will not recognize it as such. We will see it as rejection...but, through it all, God will be doing His perfect will. You find this principle at work when Israel was being led away captive to the land of the Chaldeans. In JERIMIAH 24 it talks about two baskets of figs...good figs and bad figs...JER 24:5 “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. 6 For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 7 Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.
"What a disaster," they cried. "God has rejected our prayers; we are forsaken. God has turned a deaf ear to us." Those who were left in Jerusalem became puffed up in thinking God had heard their prayer and blessed them by permitting them to stay. These "bad figs" thought that God had heard their prayers...but read on to vs 9 I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’” Those who stayed behind were totally destroyed by sword, famine, and pestilence-until they were all consumed!
Those who were taken captive were told, "You have been sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for your own good". Do you think at the time they thought it was for their own good? They never did recognize God at work, preserving a remnant, but those who were "saved through suffering" were returned to rebuild the land. Had they not been taken captive, there would have been no remnant left of Israel.
The Bible says, "Honest confession is good for the soul." I confess to you that I have not yet received answers to certain prayers I have been praying about for years. Somebody may say, "Pastor Robert, don’t do that! That is negative! That is a wrong confession. No wonder you haven’t received those two answers yet! I refuse to ignore the facts. The fact is that I have earnestly pray about these certain matters. I have laid hold of every promise in the Bible. I have confidence that God is able to do anything. I have given my blessed Lord mountain-moving faith! Yet, the years roll by, and I have not yet seen the answers. Thousands of my prayers have been answered. I see answers to my prayers every single day of my life. God does the miraculous in my behalf, at every turn in my life. But still, these particular prayers have not yet been answered.
I’ll let the experts on prayer and faith try to analyze the reasons for these unanswered prayers, but as for me, I am not one bit worried about it. I’ve been all through the self-condemning bit. I’ve had quite enough of blaming myself for not receiving the answer when I wanted it. God is bringing a balance into my faith! My positive confession is being re-channeled in the right directions. And, what joy and freedom there is when your faith in God no longer depends on just getting answers. What a release when your faith focuses only on Jesus and receiving His holy character.
I believe in Holy Ghost timing. In God’s own time, all our prayers will be answered-in one way or another. The trouble is, we are afraid to submit our prayers to Holy Ghost scrutiny. Some of our prayers need to be purged. Some of our faith is being misspent on requests that are not mature. We are so convinced that if our request is "in accordance to His will, we should get it." We simply do not know how to pray, "Thy will be done!" We don’t want His will as much as those things permitted by His will. The only test we require of our prayers is rather self-centered: "Can I find it in God’s catalog of things permitted?"
So we can search all through God’s Word and cleverly lay out all the reasons why we should be granted certain blessings and answers. We match the promises to tailor our specific requests. When we are convinced we have a good case and have garnered enough promises, we march boldly into the presence of God as if to say, "Lord, I’ve got an iron tight case-in no way can You turn me down. I’ve checked my faith. I’ve got Your Word on the matter. I’ve done everything according to plan. It’s mine! I claim it! Right now!"
Until God restructures our desires and ambitions, we are going to keep on squandering our precious faith on things created, rather than the Creator. How craven and corrupt our faith becomes when it is used simply to acquire things. What a tragedy that we should boast that our faith produced for us a new car, an airplane, a financial bonanza, a new home, etc.
Jesus Himself warned us not to give one thought to material things. How very clear Jesus is on this matter, saying, MAT 6:25"ThereforeTake no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things" and then in vs 32"Only Gentiles (heathen) seek these things."
Listen, even the wicked prosper at times...and it can’t be said that faith produced it. God rains His love and blessings on the just as well as the unjust. Show me a prospering Christian, and I’ll show you a sinner prospering even more. That runs contrary to the teaching of the lowly Nazarene who called on His followers to sell out and give to the poor. He warned against building barns and deplored the consuming hunger for worldly goods. He had no time for those who stored up treasures here on earth. He taught that His children should not become entangled with the deceitfulness of riches, but that faith should cause us to set our affection on things above.
How can it be that with all the teaching we have today about faith, Jesus should say in Luke 18:8"nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?". Could it be Jesus does not consider the modern brand of faith to be faith at all? Is our so-called faith so self-serving, it is becoming an abomination to the Lord? No matter how many scriptures are quoted to support it, self-serving faith is a perversion of truth.
Read Hebrews 11, the faith chapter sometime. It talks about the great men and women of the Bible, but look in HEB 11:36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— 38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,
They never recieved the promise! Not here on earth, anyway. Not all these prayer and faith warriors were delivered. Not all lived to see answers to their prayers. Not all were spared pain, suffering, and even death. Some were tortured; others were torn asunder, wandering about destitute, afflicted, tormented.
These were great men and women of faith who suffered cruel mockings, beatings, and imprisonment. They were not afflicted and tormented because of lack of faith or wrong confession-or because they harbored a grudge or ill will. Couldn’t men of faith produce more than goatskins for their backs? Couldn’t they have risen up in faith to claim that one great promise that no plague could come near their dwelling? The world was not worthy of these saints of faith, because they had the kind of faith that crushed every claim of the flesh. Their faith had a single eye; they considered all the blessings of God as eternal and spiritual, rather than earthly and now.
The faith chapter closes saying, "God has provided some better thing for us" (Hebrews 11:40). But how shall we define that better thing God has prepared for those who have faith today? Better health benefits? Better goatskins? Better financial arrangements? Better times of ease and prosperity? Better old-age benefits? Bigger barns, filled with all we need to retire in style?
God provided something better for us alright...in His only begotten son, Jesus! He came to earth as man to show us an even greater, single-minded faith...and that is, "to do the will of the Father." We should be spending more time getting into Jesus than trying to get something out of Him. We should not be praying that God make things happen for us, but to us. Those who are so focused in their faith for healing, for financial blessings, for solutions to problems should also learn to focus their faith on obtaining the "rest in Christ." There is a faith that rests not in answered prayer but in knowledge that our Lord will do what is right for us.
Don’t worry about whether God is saying "Yes!" or "No!" to your request. Don’t be downcast when the answer is not in sight. Quit thinking of faith formulas and methods. Just commit every prayer to Jesus and go about your business with confidence He will not be one moment early or late in answering. And if the answer we seek is not forthcoming, let us say to our hearts, "He is all I need. If I need more, He will not withhold it. He will do it in his time, in His way, and if He does not fulfill my request, He must have a perfect reason for not doing so. No matter what happens, I will always have faith in His faithfulness."
God forgives us if we are more concerned about getting prayers answered than in learning total submission to Christ Himself. We do not learn obedience by the things we obtain but by the things we suffer. Are you willing to learn obedience by suffering a little longer with what appears to be unanswered prayer? Will you rest in His love while patiently waiting for the promise, after that you have done all the will of the Father?
