Lesson 22: What Others said about Prayer (Part 1)

Lesson 22: What Others Said about Prayer (Part 1 ) Can A Believer With Sin In His Or Her Life Be Healed: James instructed those who were sick to call for the elders to pray for them and anoint them with oil. "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 5:15). James wasn't saying that everyone is ill because of having committed sins; he was saying the reason some are sick is because they have sinned: "If he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." There is forgiveness and healing for us. Many people think because they have failed God they must continue to be sick because they must "pay" for their sins. However, this scripture doesn't say, "if he have committed sins, he has to go on being sick to pray for them." It says, "if he have committed sins, They Shall Be Forgiven Him." James went on to say, "confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed" (v. 16). This is all tied together. We can't take this verse out of its setting and apply it incorrectly. James wasn't suggesting that we come to church to have a confession meeting. He was saying that when the elders come to pray for the sick man or woman, if he or she has send, they should confess their sin. He isn't going to get healed with on confess sin in their life ! What Is a "Righteous Man ?: James followed his admonishment with the words, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man available much." Then in the next two verses he gives us an example of a righteous man. (James 5:17--18) "Elias [Elijah] was a subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." You might think, as I once did, But Elijah was a prophet. He was a great man of God. I can't possibly do what he did. However, James didn't say, "Elijah was a prophet, and he prayed." He said Elijah was a man "subject to like passions as we are." He had the same faults and failings we do, and he made the same mistakes--- yet his prayers worked. God doesn't hear a prophet more quickly than He hears any other believer. James didn't say it was the "effectual fervent prayer of a prophet" that got the job done. He said, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man. . ." Well, if I were righteous I could do it," you might say. But you are righteous if you are saved, because you are the "righteousness of God in him [Christ Jesus] (2 Corinthians 5:21). God made you and me righteous; you can't make yourself righteous. As a pastor for nearly 12 years, I often saw people in my congregation who didn't live have as consecrated lives as others did, yet they could pray twice as effectively as the others. They could pray the prayer of faith more quickly for themselves and their families. I was puzzled about this until the Lord finally showed me through his word that we don't get our prayer was answered on the basis of how good or how bad we have been; it is on the basis of our right standing in Him. We are made righteous in Christ Jesus. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Righteousness means right standing with God. Jesus is our righteousness. Everyone of us who is a born-again believer has the same right standing or righteousness Jesus has. We are invited to come boldly to the throne of grace by way of the blood of Jesus.