Read James 5:12-16
Have you ever noticed how we exaggerate what we want people to exaggerate in their minds? The truth doesn’t need exaggerated adjectives to make it more believable - it can stand alone. So, instead of trying to coerce people to believe us ,we can just say “yes” or “no” and that is enough. God will back us up with the witness of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. Our explanations sometimes water down the truth anyway. Enough about that… let’s talk about praying for people.
Verse 13 says that if someone comes to us undergoing a hardship we are to pray for him. Notice it didn’t say to meet their physical need. We take the need to God first and if he tells us to help them, then we do. We are not their God, just the conduit for Him to pass through. Ecclesiastes says that there is a time to be happy and a time to be sad. If it is the time to rejoice, then we should sing songs to the Lord. If someone in our church is sick then we are to call the mature believers to pray for the person sick and anoint them with oil. The oil is a picture of the Holy Spirit who is the healer. The faith of the people praying for him will cause him to be healed and if he has any unforgiven sins, they will be forgiven. Sometimes unconfessed sins cause us to stay sick. We need to confess those sins and get them under the blood of Jesus. When we are healed in the inside it can manifest on the outside. The faith-put-into-action prayer of a man who is right before God is very strong. We can pray great prayers but if we don’t step out and act on what we are praying it shows that our faith is small.
Lord, help us to speak only truth and stand righteously as we pray. Let our prayers be active and powerful.
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