James 5:14-16

Every elder in a church must be prepared to pray the prayer of faith for the sick. If you are incapable of doing this, you cannot fulfill the command to do so in James 5. It is "the prayer of faith" offered by the elders that causes the Lord to raise up the sick person. If you cannot pray the prayer of faith, you should not be installed as an elder.

Most churches subscribe to the unscriptural practice of choosing elders based on their financial or business skills, or even their age. In Acts, even those entrusted with the distribution of food had to be full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. (YOU try being in charge where there are big responsibilities and complainers and see if you don't agree that you need the Holy Ghost and wisdom!) There are moral qualifications as well, as Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus make clear. You must be prepared to fulfill this solemn responsibility in the name of the Lord. James 5's instructions are commands for the church.


It is a tragedy that most churches ignore this command of the Lord, which is just as binding as the command to walk in love. In many churches, you would get nothing but "the prayer of unbelief" from any of the elders, or even from the pastor. It should not be that way! You would do yourself a disservice by asking such men to come and pray for you. They will talk you out of any faith that you might have. They will blame God for it all and ask God to comfort you and give you peace, instead of praying for you to be healed as they are supposed to. You would be better off finding a church that believes in healing and having its elders come.

I am not saying that some of these elders are not fine Christians in the moral sense. I am saying that they will do you more harm than good if they do not believe that the Lord will raise you up when they anoint you with oil in his name. It's nice that they believe in walking in love and morality, but you do not need someone to pray that you will walk in love and be moral -- you need someone who believes that God will heal you in answer to prayer.


If you don't know of any believing elders who can come, take consolation in this: The woman with the issue of blood, blind Bartimaeus and others had no support or encouragement and received their healing anyway with their own faith. Their faith made them whole, and your faith can make you whole. Remember how the very people who should have been encouraging Bartimaeus told him to shut up? Sometimes the very people who should be helping you will pour cold water on your faith in the same way. Even if they do, you can still get your healing. It is wiser, though, not to let unbelieving people pray for your healing. Two can't walk together unless they agree. If you're expecting healing and they're expecting "a touch from God," "a blessing," "peace," "comfort," etc., instead of healing, you are not in agreement anyway and the prayer is a waste of time and hurts you more than helps you.


If you are a church elder, do not think that you can ignore the command in James 5. If you are called for, you must go and pray the prayer of faith and expect the Lord to raise up the sick person because you have obeyed his command. Remember that in this case, even if the person has sinned in some way, the Lord will forgive him, so that cannot prevent his healing from coming.

You should also be prepared to explain how healing was provided in Christ's atonement and is available to all on a gift basis. You need to be able to speak words that will put faith into the person who needs the healing.