Prayer – The Path Home – James 5:13-20 (Part 1)
Sept. 2, 2012
Let’s go home. Let me read you a quote from the book, “Prayer” by Richard Foster. This is how he begins the book:
"God has graciously allowed me to catch a glimpse into his heart, and I want to share with you what I have seen. Today the heart of God is an open wound of love. He aches over our distance and preoccupation. He mourns that we do not draw near to him. He grieves that we have forgotten him. He weeps over our obsession with muchness and manyness. He longs for our presence. And he is inviting you – and me – to come home, to come home to where we belong, to come home to that which we were created. His arms are stretched out wide to receive us. His heart is enlarged to take us in."
For too long we have been in a far country: a country of noise and hurry and crowds, a country of climb and push and shove, a country of frustration and fear and intimidation. And he welcomes us home: home to serenity and peace and joy, home to friendship and fellowship and openness, home to intimacy and acceptance and affirmation.
Do you want to go home? I know I do. I want to be with God. I want to know Him, to love Him with every fiber of my being. I want to possess Him and have Him possess me. I am tired of living a dry, fruitless life, filled with disappointment and ruled by petty desires. I am tired of playing religious games. I want God. I want to go home. Are you with me? I think many of you are. This current life is not good enough. It’s not how God meant us to live. There is so much more.
The path to this life, the invitation to our true home, is prayer.
What do you think of when you hear the word prayer? I know for me often I am filled with ambivalence. I long for prayer, yet it repels me. I am so familiar with prayer, but I know that my experience with prayer is so shallow. I know I should pray, but I don’t. And when I hear a message about prayer I feel guilt, often I’ll make promises to improve, and then nothing happens. Or I may start out praying more but after a couple of weeks I give up.
This sermon is on prayer. It’s on prayer because that’s exactly what the passage in James talks about. But I don’t want anybody going away feeling guilty after hearing this message. I want you to be filled with anticipation and excitement. Prayer is God’s invitation to us to come home. It is the means we can be with God. This morning He is holding out His hands and saying, “Come join Me and I will change you and give you the true desire of your heart.”
Let’s go home. Let’s look at the passage again (read James 5:13-20). Pray.
From this passage I want to highlight five aspects of prayer. This morning we will be looking at the first two. In a couple of weeks time, we’ll look at the final three. The first aspect or prayer is this: Pray at all times. Look at verse 13 (read verse). This verse covers the extremes of our daily emotions and circumstances. We are to pray when we are in trouble. That seems kind of obvious doesn’t it? When we are undergoing problems and trials, that’s when we automatically run to God. This verse is tied to the previous section about patiently enduring suffering. Prayer is one of the great resources that God gives us when we are suffering.
On the other end of the spectrum is when we are happy. It’s at those times that we should pray too. Of course the content of the prayer is different. When we are undergoing troubles we cry out for help, for deliverance, for strength, for wisdom. When we are happy, we lift up prayers of praise and thanksgiving. Our prayer often takes the form of a song of worship. I think an important point of this passage is that we are to pray at all times no matter our circumstances or emotions. In other words, we are to pray at all times. This is explicitly commanded in several Scriptures. 1 Thess. 5:16-18 says: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 6:18 says: “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” The command is clear. We are to pray on all occasions without ceasing.
What do you think about those verses? I know for myself I’ve struggled with those commands. How can anyone pray all the time? I remember as a young Christian I wanted to grow closer to God. I kept wondering why I wasn’t thinking about God more. It seemed like I was always preoccupied with other things and I continually forgot about God. I didn’t know how to put Him in my mind at all times. I remember sharing my struggle with an older Christian. He basically laughed it off and said that he remembered feeling exactly the same way when he was a new Christian. But he didn’t have any answer. It was as if he was saying that you’ll outgrow it. You’ll get used to living as a Christian without close, constant, communion with Christ.
But I’ve discovered that there have been Christians who have not settled but have chased God with a passion that led them into constant intimate fellowship with God. I read “The Practice of the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence. He writes in one of his letters:
"I have ceased all forms of devotion and set prayers except those to which my state requires. I make it my priority to persevere in His holy presence, wherein I maintain a simple attention and a fond regard for God, which I may call an actual presence of God. Or, to put it another way, it is a habitual, silent, and private conversation of the soul with God. This gives me much joy and contentment. In short, I am sure, beyond all doubt, that my soul has been with God above these past thirty years."
Brother Lawrence testified that he was in constant communion with God for over 30 years. If you read the whole book you can’t help being struck by the way God affected every aspect of Brother Lawrence’s life and the joy that filled even his smallest mundane tasks.
Frank Laubach was a missionary in the southern Philippines. He was famous for teaching literacy to thousands of people. He became known as “the apostle to the illiterates”. Millions of people have learned to read through Laubach’s programs. But in addition to his missionary work, Frank Laubach was also famous for his devotional books. He, like Brother Lawrence, focused on keeping God in his thoughts at all times. It is through these experiences of praying without ceasing that Laubach experienced the presence of God in powerful ways. He writes in his diary:
"This afternoon the possession of God has caught me up with such sheer joy that I thought I never had known anything like it. God was so close and so amazingly lovely that I felt like melting all over with a strange blissful contentment."
Laubach wrote a short pamphlet describing how to live in the presence of God. It’s called “The Game With Minutes”. I’ve been trying to practice it for the last week or so. Basically it is the goal of bringing our thoughts back to God, whether through a prayer, a song of praise, Scripture verse, a picture of Jesus, at least one second for every minute of the day. That may sound hard, and at first it is, but Laubach gives some helpful suggestions.
He says when you wake up you might put a picture of Christ on your bedside table beside your alarm clock so you think of Jesus when you wake up. He suggests at the dinner table have an empty seat and imagine that Jesus is sitting with you while you eat. When you see people on the street or on the subway or bus, pray for them. You might imagine Jesus walking up and down the aisle of the bus, placing His hands on each passenger and whispering in their ears, “I love you.” When you are in conversation, keep whispering silently, “Lord, put Your thoughts in my mind. Tell me what to say.” When reading a newspaper or magazine or book, read it to Jesus. Listen to His reaction to the story or article. When thinking about a problem or issue, carry on a conversation with God. Consult Him in everything and listen to His word on the issue. When we put our heads on our pillows to sleep, take one last look at the picture of Jesus and imagine Him placing His hands on us and blessing us with His benediction of peace as we close our eyes.
Do you want to join me in this experiment of living in the presence of God? I’ve printed out some copies of the pamphlet and they are available in the back. Or I could email you an electronic copy if you let me know and give me your email address.
The first aspect of prayer is this: Pray at all times. The second aspect is: Pray to heal. Look at verses 14 and 15 (read verses). Prayer has the power to heal. We know that’s true because of the record in the Scriptures. The prophets prayed for the sick and they were healed. They even prayed for the dead and they were raised to life. Healing was certainly a central part of Jesus’ ministry on earth. He was constantly surrounded by people who were sick and crippled and no matter what disease they had, Christ healed them. And we see miraculous healing in the rest of the New Testament. Peter and the apostles healed people. Peter was so famous for his ministry of healing that people put out their sick on the streets so that Peter’s shadow could fall on them as he walked past, hoping that would heal them. (Acts 5:15-16) Paul also was involved in miraculous healing. In one instance a young man fell out of a window and died after falling asleep during one of Paul’s sermons. Paul went to him and threw himself on the body and he came back to life again. (Acts 20:7-12)
Those healings were pretty amazing, but what about today? Does God still heal people through prayer? And if He does, what qualities do the people praying need to have to be used by God to heal others? And what kinds of prayers are effective in healing?
Let’s tackle those questions one at a time. Does God still heal people through prayer today? Take a look at verses 14 and 15 again. Is there any time limit or date of expiry for the prayer of healing? No I don’t see any either. These verses tell us plainly that if we are sick we should ask the elders of the church to pray for us and anoint us with oil. Some argue that miraculous healing stopped after the apostolic age because the signs and wonders reported in the Book of Acts, were only needed at the beginning of the church as it was being established. But this argument comes from human logic, not the Bible. There is no indication that the miraculous working of the Spirit is confined only to a certain period of time.
Others argue that with all of the modern medicine and doctors and hospitals, that we don’t need supernatural healing. Now I don’t want to argue about the place of modern medicine. It is a gift from God. But medicine never heals. Only God heals. He may very well use medicine, but He can also use healing prayer as well. Does God still heal people through prayer today? If you haven’t guessed my answer it’s yes. God does still work through prayer to heal.
Let’s tackle the next question. What qualities do the people praying need to have to be used by God to heal others? According the verse 14, the people called on the pray are elders. Now is it required that a person hold a church office to be involved in healing prayer? I don’t think so. If you look at the end of verse 16 it says, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” The qualification to pray effective prayers seems to be that we are righteous, that we are in the right relationship with God. Most likely, elders are referred to because James assumes that these people were righteous. If you look at the qualifications of being an elder in 1 Timothy 3 you can quickly see that an elder was called to a very high standard. If we want to be used effectively in healing prayer, then we need to make sure that we are walking closely with the Lord. There can be no rebelliousness or unrepentant behaviour in our lives. Sin is a clear block to God’s power in and through us. To be effective in prayer, we need to be righteous.
Now let’s move on to the next question. What kinds of prayer are effective in bringing healing? The answer is found at the start of verse 15. The prayer effective to heal is the prayer offered in faith. Now I don’t want to put any false guilt on anyone here. You may think to yourself, “If I only had enough faith, my prayer for my mother would have worked and she wouldn’t have died.” Nathaniel was a teenager who attended my former church. He contracted cancer when he was 14 and suffered for a couple of years. I remember visiting Nate in the hospital and in his home several times as he was undergoing treatment. I don’t know how many times I prayed for him and every time I prayed I asked that God would heal him and make his body healthy and whole. But God didn’t answer those prayers. Last Tuesday was the one year anniversary of the death of Nathaniel. What had I done wrong? I prayed with as much faith as I could muster. And it just wasn’t me. The whole church was praying for him, friends and family all over the world lifted him up in prayer. Why wasn’t he healed? I don’t know.
It’s an obvious fact that not everyone who is prayed for gets healed. In the final analysis these things are in the hands of God alone. But one thing we can’t do is throw out the idea of healing prayer because it doesn’t seem to work in a particular incidence. If you leave your house in the morning and try to start up the car and it doesn’t work, do you say, “Automobiles don’t ever work. I should have never trusted them.” And then throw out the car and you walk for the rest of your life. No of course not. You find out what’s wrong with the car, and you fix it. In the same way, if healing prayer didn’t work for you in a particular situation, that doesn’t mean that healing prayer doesn’t ever work. Instead find out what went wrong and change the way you pray.
I’m certainly not an expert on healing prayer, but let me give you a few suggestions on how to be more effective in your prayers for healing. I got these points from the book, “Prayer” by Richard Foster. First, listen. If we want to pray with faith, then we have to be sure what God wants to do in this situation. Before we give a prayer of healing, we should first ask God what he wants done in the person’s life. It may be that physical healing isn’t what God is planning. It may be that the Lord has brought this sickness into the person’s life for a specific purpose. And if that’s the case, then our prayer for healing goes directly against God’s will. We should also ask God if he wants us to take on this particular prayer concern. Healing and compassion are closely tied together. It was compassion that caused Jesus to heal so many. If we feel compassion, a deep desire for healing and wholeness for this person, grow in our hearts, then it may very well be a sign we are to take on this person in prayer. If we don’t have compassion, then it may be better to allow others to pray.
First, listen. Second, ask. Once God has revealed what He wants to do in this particular person’s life, then we need to ask directly and simply for it to happen. When we have listened and we know what God desires, then we don’t need to add any escape clause to our prayers. You know what I mean, when someone prays and asks for healing and then adds: “If God wills.” When we pray that way we show that we have not listened first. It also shows that we really don’t trust 100% God will do it. We are giving Him a way out.
First, listen. Second, ask. Third, believe. Verse 15 says that a prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. We need to believe that our God is powerful enough and loving enough to answer the prayer of healing. Let me make this clear, our assurance isn’t based on how strong we will ourselves to believe, but it is on the faithfulness of God. Our belief is rooted on the promises of Scripture, not on emotions.
First, listen. Second, ask. Third, believe. And fourth, give thanks. As we end our prayer of healing we need to thank God for all that He is doing and what we believe He will do. Gratitude is powerful indicator of our faith that what we asked for will be accomplished. It is only right that we give thanks for God working on our behalf and listening to our prayers.
This passage also mentions specifically the use of oil to anoint the sick person. In the Old Testament, anointing with oil set apart a person for God’s special service. When we anoint a sick person we are setting them apart for special attention before God. I think this practice can have a powerful healing effect for people today.
And the promise is that healing will not just be physical. Healing prayer has the power to open the way for spiritual healing as well. When we lift a person up to God for healing, we pray not just for their bodies, but also for their spirits and souls. As it says in the end of verse 15, “If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.” The fitness of our physical body is closely tied with our spiritual health.
Harold Koenig, a doctor at Duke University Medical Centre writes in an article:
"More than 850 studies have now examined the relationship between religious involvement and various aspects of mental health. Between two thirds and three quarters of these have found that people experience better mental health and adapt more successfully to stress if they are religious.
An additional 350 studies have examined religious involvement and health. The majority of these have found that religious people are physically healthier, lead healthier lifestyles, and require fewer health services."
Our total health is tied intrinsically to our spiritual state. If we are healthy spiritually, then our bodies and minds will benefit. But the opposite is true as well. If we are spiritually sick, then our bodies and minds will suffer too.
Psalm 32:1-4 says this:
"Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is not deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer."
When we are living an immoral lifestyle we will suffer. Think of the effects of sexual promiscuity, smoking, taking drugs and drinking alcohol excessively has on our health. If our spiritual lives are compromised then our bodies and minds will be weak and sick. When we lift up a person in healing prayer, we need to focus not only on their physical well being but also on their spiritual health. I think whenever we pray for healing in a person’s life, we need to spend at least as much time praying for their relationship with God and their growth spiritually.
Do you remember the story of Jesus healing the paralytic? It’s found in Mark 2:1-12 as well as in Matthew and Luke. The friends of the sick man try to reach Jesus, but the crowds are so great that they can’t get through the door. So they take him to the roof, make a hole and lower him down. Look at Mark 2:5 (read verse). What does Jesus do? Does He say, “Your faith has healed you, get up and walk”? No He doesn’t. Jesus tells him that his sins are forgiven. You see Jesus knew what that man needed the most and it wasn’t physical healing. He needed to be forgiven. Now Jesus does eventually heal him, but we get a little bit of an idea of where Jesus’ priorities were. We have to always remember, that no matter how great and awesome physical healing is, the real need of every person is spiritual healing. People need to be forgiven of their sins. The truth is that all physical healing is temporary. We will all eventually die. Our prayers of healing must look past this life and into eternity.
The first two aspects of prayer listed in these verses are: 1) Pray at all times; and 2) Pray to heal. We will be looking at the next three aspects of prayer in a couple of weeks.
This morning the Lord is inviting us to come back to Him. To Him who our hearts long for. To Him who can meet and exceed our greatest needs. To Him who loves us more than we could ever imagine. And the pathway back is prayer. Won’t you join me? Let’s go home.
