We have been talking about methods of receiving healing from God. In today’s post we’ll examine the fourth method which is to anoint the sick with oil.
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.
James 5:14-15
James asks his readers if there are any sick among you. Can you imagine writing any group of Christians today and asking a similar question?
If there are any sick among us they are instructed to call for the elders to pray over them and to anoint them with oil. James tells us that if the prayer of faith is offered, the sick person will be raised up.
I’ve seen a lot of people prayed for who did not receive their healing. God did not withhold it. Healing was provided more than two thousand years ago through the broken body of our Lord and Savior Jesus. If the prayer does not produce results than either it was not the prayer of faith or the sick person did not receive.
It is Biblical to anoint the sick with oil. James told his readers the the elders were to “anoint them with oil” referring to the sick person who called them. Let’s spend some time what James told his readers.
Verses 14-15 show us how to make God’s Word work for us. People tend to gravitate to one method or another without taking the time to listen for direction. The end result is usually discouragement because they followed a method instead of the Spirit.
We are examining methods to receive healing. Anointing with oil is just one. Each provides us an equally valid means of receiving healing. Which one is appropriate for our situation can only be discerned by the Holy Spirit’s direction.
I have heard people talk about “trying” faith. They cite their failures as reasons for why faith does not work. Could it be possible that the fault was in how they pursued healing and not with faith?
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.
James 5:14-15
“Is any sick among you?”
“Let him (the sick one) call for the elders of the church.”
Notice that it is the sick person who call for the elders of the church. If somebody is sick and a family member calls for the elders they are not following the instructions given by James. The sick person must be in agreement to the elders being called. This is not usually the case when a family member calls in their place.
The sick person must have faith. I have visited hospitals in the past and noticed every room seemed to have at least one television on if there were two patients. In my experience it has been rare to find a patient meditating on the Word of God. Faith does not come by watching television and faith does not come be being anointed by oil.
One exception is if the person is too sick to call for themselves. If this is the case then a loved one might call in their place. I’ve seen spouses call for their loved one in a coma and seen miracles.
One way to view James’ instruction is by wording it as “let the sick person give their consent”. In other words, the sick person must agree with the elders being called to anoint them with oil.
“Let the sick one give their consent to the elders coming over to pray for them.”
We will pick up here in the next post. Thank you for stopping by today. If this has been a blessing please share our blog with your friends and family.
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