Prayer 2021 - August 12 - What James Had to Say About Prayer pt 7

Scripture For Today:

 John 18:1

“When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.”

What James Had to Say About Prayer pt 7

We have been studying what the Apostle James had to say about prayer. We have been studying the verses from James 5:13-18:

“Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any Merry? Let him sing psalms. 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. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

 Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth by the space of three years and six months! And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit.”

Yesterday, we left off the importance of making yourself available to pray for those who are incapable of praying for themselves. Be it sickness, on their death bed or perhaps addicts of some kind that request prayer. If they are able to ask, then they are able to receive. Not just receive healing but able to receive Jesus! Amen!

And that is the whole purpose of praying, interceding for others, etc. The purpose to get them to the point where they are able to say, “JESUS SAVE ME!”  Amen!

Jesus doesn’t need you here for any other reason than that. Period!

You can’t save anyone. You can’t recreate the earth. You can’t handle wars and rumors of wars. You cannot do ANYTHING for Jesus EXCEPT represent Him to others and pray for them.

That takes me to the next part of the verse, in verse 16: “Confess your faults to one another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed…”

Do not take verse 16 out of context! Many people think it is referring to public confessions sin. But you don’t go to church to have a confession meeting! You can’t find that anywhere in scripture!  I know there is religion that has made it – they made it – a religious duty of some sort. But it is UNSCRIPTURAL in nature.

What James is talking about here is if a sick person sends for the elders of the church to come and pray for him, if he has sinned, he will have to confess it TO THE LORD.

The sick person cannot just pick and choose which parts of this verse they want and what parts they don’t. He or she must obey the part about confessing their sins TO GOD!  Amen!

If a person is asking for prayer for healing, but has unconfessed sin their life, they will not receive their healing just because somebody, the elders of the church, came and anointed them with oil and prayed for them. 

When you combine this with the prior verses, you can see it, plain as day: 

“And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray on for another, that you may be healed...”

So James is saying, go ahead and call for the elders of the church to come and pray for you – but confess your sins and get rid of them, and then, when they pray for you, you WILL BE HEALED and God shall raise you up from that sick bed! Amen!

The opposite of that is also true. If you do not confess your sins to God, then He is under no obligation to answer the elder’s prayer and heal you. You will remain sick because YOU did not do what YOU were supposed to do.

Oh, praise God. I’m out of time for today… We will take it up here again tomorrow.

Let’s Pray!

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