Jas 5:14 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:
Jas 5:15 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.
Different translations of Jas.5:15
(CEV) If you have faith when you pray for sick people, they will get well. The Lord will heal them, and if they have sinned, he will forgive them.
(GW) (Prayers offered in faith will save those who are sick, and the Lord will cure them.) If you have sinned, you will be forgiven.
(MSG) Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you’ve sinned, you’ll be forgiven–healed inside and out.
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick,….
That is, the prayer of the Elders, being put up to God in faith by them, and in which the sick person joins their faith to the prayer of faith; such a prayer is a means of bringing down from God a blessing on the sick man, and of restoring him to his former health. Let say it this way; the Elder must be a person of faith and must know how to prayer the prayer of faith. The sick must add their faith to the Elders prayer of faith. When this is done the Lord promises to raise up the sick. What we have here is the prayer of agreement, which is stated in Matt.18:19-20. Jesus, our High Priest is in our midst to see that our prayer of faith is carried out.
Mat 18:19-20 KJVA Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. (20) For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
As I research the word prayer I find the definition uses the word vow to define prayer. This is very important and reveals why many times why we do not receive the results promised. Study of the bible reveals much about making vows. Once an adult makes a vow, he or she is penalized for breaking it. By using this word vow, this scripture actually says that as an elder, I promise to see you healed, whole and raised up according to scripture, no matter what I am seeing in the natural. I promise that when I pray the prayer of faith I will stay in faith until you’re raised up. Even if things get worst after we agree in prayer, I vow to stay in faith and see you whole until you are whole. I will not throw away my faith when I hear bad reports about you. I will hold fast to the promise of God and He will bring it to pass. I will not speak what I see; only what I believe and I believe that God will do exactly what He said He will do. This friend is the vow of faith. When children are involved then the Elder and the legal guardian must hold this attitude of faith over that child.
1Jn 5:14-15 KJVA And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: (15) And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Understand that God’s word and His will are identical. You don’t say one thing and will another. God’s word is His will; His will is His word; they are one and the same and they cannot be changed.
I once received a call about one of the members of the church who had a stroke while preparing for work. They ask if I could meet them at the hospital and pray. Well I started praying immediately. I took authority over death and commanded healing in the name of Jesus. We arrived at the hospital at the same time. Mrs. D looked up at me with her twisted face; the effects of the stroke, and said “Pastor I’m healed.” I looked at that twisted face and said “yes you are, from your head to your feet, in Jesus name. Based on the word of God and the principles of faith we took our stand and vowed to stay with the word of God no matter what. Members of the church would go to see Mrs. D, see the paralysis and return with a report based on what they could see in the natural. I announced to the church that if they could not see Mrs. healed then stay away from the hospital. I know that sounded harsh but Mrs. D didn’t need pity at that time. She needed people to stand in faith with her. She needed someone to vow to see her whole until the manifestation of her prayer appeared. Well things got worse but we continued to stay with our vow. Those who couldn’t stay in faith stayed away from the hospital. Well the Lord fulfilled His part of the promise. He raised her up completely healed and whole. This ordeal lasted about 3-4 week but we won the victory because we were under the principles of the Vow of Faith.
Rev 12:11 GNB They won the victory over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the truth which they proclaimed; and they were willing to give up their lives and die.
