Taken from The Oil That Makes Glad by A. B. Saint
In the last chapter of the book of James in verses 13 to 16 we read these words,
“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 have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
These are precious words indeed and in time of need a great blessing for those who will take them to heart. What a wonderful God we serve, He is the One who sees, the One who hears, the One who knows and the One who cares. Do not the Scriptures encourage us to “Come boldly to the Throne of Grace in time of need,” and which of us might I enquire have not at some time experienced times of difficulty and times of need during the course of our earthly pilgrimage?
Are there any reading these words, or these lines, that have never known suffering or trouble within the life and who have never known affliction in some way? I would contend that if this is the case there are but few, for indeed the Good Book clearly shows that those who are righteous will suffer many afflictions along with the eternal promise that “God will deliver them out of them all.” What a Mighty God we serve!
Oh, the grievous things which can sometimes afflict the human soul. Like the weather it is a subject often discussed. How many times have we read Christian biographies and found that many saints of God suffered from many kinds of trial along the way and even sickness of the body whilst on this earth.
Smith Wigglesworth who in his time was much used of God in the healing ministry, himself suffered much with kidney stones. Throughout the years of his life, he endured terrible bouts of pain as each stone was passed. The Lord used him to pray over countless others who were divinely healed and yet he himself was not but having made the choice that a surgeons knife would never touch his body, in this way he showed complete reliance upon God even for his own health.
Think of Charles Haddon Spurgeon the great Baptist minister who suffered for most of his life with painful gout. What of the pioneer missionary CT Studd who had given all in the cause of Christ. I never realised until recently that he had a malady which turned out to be untreated gallstones, but he never understood what it was that ailed him until the close of his life.
Francis Ridley Havergal suffered from erysipelas and Fanny Crosby of course was blind. All of these had to learn to live with what God in His wisdom chose not to change in their lives. Like the Apostle Paul who went before, they lived with the understanding that God’s Grace was also sufficient for them, but does this mean that our God never heals today?
Meditating upon this subject, the Lord brought to mind a book I once bought by Derek Prince which was called Gods Medicine Bottle. I have no idea where it is now, but I do recall it was only a small book, very easy to follow and I personally found it a very rewarding read.
For those who have not had the chance to read it, the author writes how that in the Second World War he served in the British Army as a medical orderly. For nearly a whole year he was stationed in desert places where it was very hot and all he saw was sun and sand. Because of these arid conditions and not being used to such heat, he, along with many others, developed a severe skin complaint, with him it was mainly on his hands and feet, and it was eventually at the last diagnosed as being chronic eczema.
He tells how that although he was receiving excellent treatment in hospital it was to no avail. At that time in his life, although he knew Christ as Saviour, he had little, if any understanding about our God being the Divine Healer. It was only as he was reading his bible in his hospital bed day after day, that one day light from the Scriptures suddenly dawned upon him. He found himself reading Proverbs chapter 4 verses 20-22,
“My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh,”
and those five little words ‘ health to all their flesh,’ seemed to really jump out at him, and he was led to look in the margin of his bible where the word health was replaced by the word medicine. Hence the name of the book. He really took this passage to heart and practised its precepts as it were and in the space of a few months he found he was completely healed.
Now I am aware that not everyone believes in Divine Healing in the sense that it still takes place today, whether that healing be for a physical sickness, an emotional need or some kind of spiritual problem. Also, I am aware that not all healings are the same, some are instantaneous, and others like Derek Prince make a complete recovery over a progressive period of time.
God is Sovereign and one day perhaps we will know all the answers to the why’s and wherefores of everything, but not now. Nonetheless, I firmly hold as do most to the fact that God is still the Healer even today. This does not mean that we put the medical profession to one side, rather we embrace them and thank God for them for often our healing is attributed to the corrective remedies we receive from them.
When James penned the words, “Is any sick among you,” there are contrasting opinions as to what is meant by this. Some say he is speaking of a weariness here which was the result of constant trials and tribulations brought about through persecution at that time, resulting in some kind of spiritual weakness or a spiritual weariness within the life but which also could lead in some cases to a physical frailty.
Others challenge this by saying that the Greek term Astheneo used here is quite simply referring to people who for whatever reason find themselves physically very frail, even bed-bound, hence the reason they earnestly call for the elders of the Church to pray over them that they might be healed. There are those who say it is a physical sickness which has been brought on by sin in the life, but surely our reading in James does not suggest this to be the case for everyone.
The Greek language behind these few words in James suggest people who have been long time in this physical state of frailty and need to be raised up from their sickbed and restored to perfect health. In the Book of James, men of God were to be called upon to offer up prayers in the name of the Lord Jesus for those so afflicted, and alongside this, the sick were to be anointed with oil, signifying the Presence of the Holy Spirit. Even though in ancient times it was a Jewish custom to apply oil sometimes for medicinal purposes, at the end of the day it was the Lord Himself who had the power to bring about a renewal according to His perfect will.
If you will notice the required prayer to be prayed was ‘the prayer of faith.’ Whatever the problem in life, whatever the cause, whatever the grief, the circumstance or misery, believing prayer must be offered up. An old prayer that used to be prayed when seeking the Lord for those in need was this one,
“Father we come to You in the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. You see the need Lord and we ask that You move in this dear one’s life and bring about a healing. We ask this not for our ‘much asking’ but ask in faith believing and according to Your Holy Will.”
What an outlet prayer is whether we be praying for a nation or an individual, whether it is a need for physical restoration or a spiritual restoring. The prayer of faith is absolutely vital when praying over any circumstance or any sickness, any weariness or any pain, but the complete restoration is of God alone. Even the writer today can look back through the years and Praise God for both the healing touches and deliverances He has seen fit to bring about in my own life.
James knew what prayer was, it is said of him that “he was in the habit of entering alone into the temple and was frequently found upon his knees begging forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became hard like those of a camel, in consequence of his constantly bending them in his worship of God and asking forgiveness for the people.” If anyone knew the value of prayer this man did. He was on his knees such a lot in prayer that the skin became hardened around the knees and for this he earned the unfortunate title of ‘old camel knees.’
Someone once passed on to me a quote, well two quotes really and they were both on prayer and I want to include them in our reading today. One was by the Puritan Thomas Brooks who was a Church of England minister and served for a time as a chaplain in the Navy. He lived at the time of the Great Plague of London and unlike many of the faithless clergy was one of those who dutifully stayed behind to care for the sick and dying.
Commenting one time on the necessity of praying in faith mixed with fervency, he said, “ Cold prayers are as arrows without heads, as swords without edges, as birds without wings; they pierce not, they cut not, they fly not up to heaven. Cold prayers always freeze before they reach heaven.” How right he was, and it seems clear to me that when this man prayed he prayed in faith, he prayed in the will of God and interceded with a joyous zeal.
The other quote on prayer was given by Bishop Joseph Hall who said this, “It is not the arithmetic of our prayers, how many they are; nor the rhetoric of our prayers, how eloquent they be; nor the geometry of our prayers, how long they be; nor the music of our prayers, how sweet our voice may be; nor the method of our prayers, how orderly they may be; nor even the theology of our prayers, how good the doctrine may be – which God cares for. Fervency of spirit is that which “availeth much.”
James reminds us that Elijah “prayed earnestly.” And what answers he received – the very forces of nature were changed! By contrast, indefinite praying by indifferent people brings little results. Fervent prayer if it be for God’s glory and presented in the Name of His Son, will accomplish great things for time and eternity.
“The prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up.”
In other words, they shall be restored to full health. Restoration is a lovely word and when I dwell on this word it automatically takes me back to Psalm 23 when in one of the lines David exclaimed these words, “He restoreth my soul.” I love the way Moffatt translates it when he says, “He revives life in me.” As the battery of a clock can sometimes run slowly down, so at times we ourselves need a touch from the Great Physician, whether it is a physical, emotional or a spiritual touch we need. Thank God He is still in the Restoration Business. He is Jehovah Rapha the God who heals.
It was said that Dr Will Mayo, one of the brothers who founded the world famous clinic in the United States, claimed to have seen patients who were by all standards, dead. He said, “We knew they couldn’t live, but I have seen a Minister come to the bedside and do something for them that I could not do, although I had done everything in my professional power, but something touched some immortal spark in them and in defiance of medical knowledge and materialistic common sense, that patient lived!”
As I continue writing, a question often asked in Scripture keeps coming back to mind. The question I refer to is this, “What aileth thee?” The God of the Bible, the One who still sees, still hears, still cares is also the God who still speaks. Dear friend, is He speaking to you today? Do you yourself need a touch from the Lord? Whatever your need or cause for concern, remember this that God loves you and is only a prayer away and remember also that
HIS TOUCH HAS STILL ITS ANCIENT POWER!
LIFE ON THE ALTAR 