James - The Prayer of Faith - Part 5

 

 This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on November 23rd 2025, by Navaz. For the audio & video, please click here.  For the worship, please click here. 

The Prayer of Faith

James 5:13-20

INTRODUCTION

James was addressing the disconnect between words and the profession of faith – waywardness was creeping into the church, and he was addressing various contexts in which it was appearing. He was also addressing the real-life challenges of persecution and trials.

Verse 13- 14 – The troubled, happy and sick

Anyone in trouble? Anyone happy? Anyone sick? – This pretty much covers everyone! There is only one response that is the best in all three situations, and that is to PRAY and PRAISE.

V14- Role of Elders and the sick.

If anyone is sick, let him/her call the elders to pray and anoint him with oil, in the name of the Lord.

This, I think, is relatively neglected in the charismatic and evangelical circles. We do pray for each other at church, and we send WhatsApp texts requesting the church to pray. How about calling your leader and a couple of other friends to come and pray for you? It is a biblical way to respond.

One of the reasons I think we have not given this importance is partly because we are reacting to the religious Christian orders that did this as a ritual. Just because something was used badly is not a reason to stop using it. 

Notice the onus is on the sick person – It is their responsibility to call the elders to pray. This is good because it requires humility on the part of the church member, requires them to recognise the anointing and grace upon the leadership of the church, and recognises their spiritual authority over the church they claim to be part of.

It also takes the pressure off the Leaders to run to every household to pray. They are required to respond to your request. God is so wise!! This instruction is only for believers and not for non-Christians. This is a good guideline and is wisdom for these times.

Notice it says elders- plural. Again, this is a good practice as it takes the pressure off one person. Today, we have created almost an idol around faith healers. When two pray, you don’t know whose faith/anointing healed the person.

V14b - Anoint in the name of the Lord.

Anointing sick people with oil was a common ancient practice across multiple cultures—Jewish, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman—used for medical treatment, ritual blessing, and symbolic healing. James’s instruction fits into this wider world while giving the act a uniquely Christian meaning.

We see this practice referred to in the story of the good Samaritan as well. So, James is making it clear in whose name  a sick person should be anointed. The anointing could be symbolic, like a dab on the forehead – All the kings were anointed with oil. Oil was medicinal as well – it had healing properties.

What we can get from this section of scripture is that prayer and medication go together. The Samaritan bound the victim's wounds. Ps 147:3 – the Lord is close to the broken-hearted and binds up our wounds.

V15- Prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well- the Lord will raise Him up.

Is James guaranteeing healing? We need to be careful about using scripture as a formula. You will need to listen to the sermon preached on James 1 to get a fuller understanding of our response to sickness and suffering. In short, God is sovereign in all things. He knows and does what He thinks is best, even though we do not understand. Be sure of this our pain is not not meaningless. When we suffer, God allows it so that our faith and character may be refined into pure gold. There is also an eschatological view of this, in that we will one day ultimately be saved from all sorrow, sickness and pain. “Raise him up” either now or on the last day.

The “save” is therefore for the body and or the spirit.

We can fall into two errors: God does not heal (the cessationists are of this view)

God will or must heal everyone who is prayed for in faith.

God sometimes heals and sometimes does not – it is a mystery that we must leave in God’s hands. The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law. (Jer 29:29)

Paul prayed 3 times, and the only answer he got was “My grace is sufficient for you”. This should sober us and humble us. Never guarantee anyone healing or answered prayer in the way they want it. Sometimes a No is the answer to prayer.

V15b – “and if he has sinned, he will be forgiven”

Forgiveness is guaranteed if we confess our sins. What a gracious God. He throws that in for free because forgiveness of sins is a gift our Lord gave us. It is for this reason that He went to the cross – the written code was cancelled, and we were condemned. Therefore, it is a good practice to ask people before we pray for them if there is anything they need to set right before God. Some things can hinder our prayers and one of them is unconfessed sin. Peter warns husbands to treat their wives well so that their prayers will not be hindered (1Pet 3:7).

V16 Confess your sins to each other so you may be healed.

However, from the whole counsel of scripture, we do see how sin can affect a person’s life. Hezekiah was about to die – God told him to repent and put his house in order, and he lived for another 15 years.  To some, Jesus said Your sins are forgiven and they got healed. Sometimes there can be a connection between our sickness and sin. Remember, we deal with the world, the flesh and the devil. It rains on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Sometimes our lifestyle choices cause diseases in our body, where we have not honoured God’s temple. We need to take this seriously, see it as sin, and repent. Sicknesses like diabetes, blood pressure, etc., are related to lifestyle – are we overeating, overworking, worrying, being anxious, harbouring unforgiveness and bitterness? These things are known to affect our bodies.

Confess: is to acknowledge. Confess your faults to one another.

As Christians, we have given up on this practice, and again, it could be a reaction to the tradition of confessing to the priest. We see confession of sin is a Jewish practice. In Matt 3:6, John the Baptist was baptising people as they confessed their sins. But here it says, “confess to each other”. The healing we can receive is both spiritual and physical. Remember, sins thrive in secrecy, but confession brings them into the open, and now someone can check on you and ask you how you are doing. Of course, our confession needs to happen with someone we can trust; it should be discreet and with integrity.

Lesson for the hearer of the confession: This is a sacred trust and is NEVER to be used as a point of discussion, even anonymously. The heart is a holy place, and we must handle it with integrity and grace.As the listener, do not judge, do not condemn, do not ever weaponise the information you have against that person.

V16b- The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Much of our prayer is not effective because it is not fervent or powerful. As David Guzik, a Bible commentator, puts it, “True prayer is sharing the heart of God where we enter into the things that He cares about as the song goes 'break my heart for what breaks yours”.

Fervent prayer is not to twist the arm of a reluctant God, but so that we might understand his heart, mind and will for the situation.

Righteous man – Our righteousness is our standing in Christ – what he has done for us. We are clothed in His righteousness. WE don’t earn it – it is a gift. So, it is basically talking about someone who is a Christ follower. Maybe people were putting their faith in all kinds of “god men” in those days, and James is careful to qualify who prays and what type of prayer and to whom. In verse 14, we also see the care he takes to mention “in the name of the Lord”.

V17 – Elijah was a man just like us.

What this means is we see Elijah as one of the greats of the OT. But he was an ordinary man with all kinds of weaknesses, but he knew how to pray fervently.  What I get from this is that God is no respecter of persons. Anyone who prays in line with God's will sees their prayers answered.

CONCLUSION

V19- As we draw this series to a close, we see James' intent of this letter – for whom it was written. It is for people who were slowly wandering from the truth.

Nobody wanders deliberately. You are never static – some tide is constantly pulling you in a direction. If it is not the tide and pull of the Holy Spirit towards the things of God, then it’s the tide of culture, pleasure, and the world that will pull you in its direction.

The Christian faith is to be lived in community. We cannot practice it alone. That's why we need to come together in house groups and share life; we need to come together to pray and seek God.

God uses people to bring us back on track. When we do this, God gets the glory. It is not that God cannot work alone, but He has chosen to use flawed people like you and me to restore another flawed brother or sister.

V20. Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover a multitude of sins.

The great news is that God is a God of second and third chances. He is ever willing to forgive us and restore us. That is the hope we have in the cross.

So, the wandering soul is the subject of James’ letter, i.e., people who have wandered from a living faith that needs to be followed in action. We cannot profess a living faith without it being accompanied by action. We need to do the work of God and be obedient (not selectively but in everything) to demonstrate an active living faith. This is the salt and the light, even the world will experience and see, and God gets put on display.

There are several topics in James. Please read it and allow the Holy Spirit to show you where your obedience is lacking. Then confess it to a trusted Christian and friend, ask for prayer, and see the power of God surge through your life.

 Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English-speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.