James, the “Prayer of Faith,” Elijah, and Revival

 

There is a “theology of blame” that has hurt many. One woman stated that after her mother had died, a friend told her that if she had prayed with more faith, she wouldn’t have died. The woman was devastated!

Where did this “theology of blame” come from? James is often cited:

• Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. (James 5:14-15)

Through James, the Lord has promised to heal the sick through this “prayer offered in faith.” What happens if he is not healed? Well, God cannot be at fault. This means that the fault lies with us! The culprit is often understood as a lack of faith.

Are we interpreting James correctly? Does he give us a guarantee that, by following this this procedure, every disease will be healed? I don’t think so.

A few verses down, James issues another one of God’s promises:

• My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. (James 5:19-20)

While it is clear that we have a responsibility to correct those who “wander from the truth,” we do not have the power to save anyone “from death.” This power resides only with the Savior!

Is James mistaken? No! He clearly believes that it is God who saves us “from death”:

• He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. (James 1:18)

• Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. (James 1:21)

Does he not believe in what Jesus had accomplished for us on the Cross? Of course, he does (James 2:1)! Then how can he claim that we can save the wanderer “from death, and cover a multitude of sins?”

We need to learn to correctly interpret (2 Tim. 2:15). We should not expect that whenever a law or principle is mentioned, every exception must be mentioned along with it.

Let’s take an easy example from the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not kill!” Are there exceptions to this rule within the Hebrew Scriptures? Many! These same Scriptures also authorized capital punishment, self-defense, and even warfare.

Do these exceptions contradict the principle of not killing? No! These are merely refinements, and all laws require refinements or qualifications. Any lawyer who wants to do a thorough job will not look merely at the law as stated in the Criminal Codebook. He also must examine the many interpretations, exceptions, and applications of the law, and they are not all found in one place.

This also holds true for anyone who wants to rightly interpret Scripture (or any book). To do this, it is not enough to merely examine the one verse in question. Instead, all of the verses touching on the subject in question must be examined. It starts with the immediate context and then to the context and purpose of the book itself. However, even this doesn’t exhaust the task of interpretation. The entirety of the Bible is relevant.

When we understand this, we also understand that we cannot conclude from these two final verses in the Book of James that we have the power of salvation. Instead, James is telling us that our responsibility is one important element in salvation – proclaiming the truth - and not the entire story.

Now to apply this understanding to the “prayer of faith” for the sick (James 5:15)! While prayer alone can heal no one, prayer is one important element in the healing chain. However, there are also other agents involved in this chain. Of course, the chief Link is God, and we have to believe that He is able to heal. However, in the same context, James mentions another critical aspect of healing – the confession of sins.

• Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

The elders can pray with all the fervency in the world, but if there is a refusal to confess sins, healing might not take place. We also have to confess our sins to “each other.”

There are also other conditions that are not contained in this immediate context. According to James, the sick could not be a friend of the world. This would make them an enemy of God (James 4:4). They would also have to be humble, because the proud will be abased and not healed (James 4:6). They would have to come near to God so that God would healingly come near to them (James 4:8).

Most importantly, healing depends on the will of God, and no amount of faith, positive assertions, or faith confessions can impact this:

• Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16)

Our words and prayers have to conform to the will of God. Claiming otherwise is arrogance and self-deception. Instead, our lives carry no more authority or power than the “mist.” Therefore, we must acknowledge God’s power and authority: "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." To go beyond what God has explicitly promised is to boast, and this is evil!

Meanwhile, faith preachers teach that we have the same authority as God. In order to prove this unbiblical claim, they invoke a verse that only applies to God:

• As it is written: "I have made you [Abraham] a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed-- the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. (Romans 4:17)

God can call things into existence. However, this verse does not say that we have this ability, as the faith preacher claims. Instead, we are a mist. We can do nothing without Him (John 15:5) and to claim otherwise is nothing short of evil boasting.

Now let’s apply this to the “prayer of faith.” Do we have the authority to claim that a sick man will be healed? No! It might be the will of God to take him now (Psalm 139). Instead, James cautions us to say, “If it is the Lord’s will” instead of, “This man will be healed.”

Besides, it is even illogical to claim that a certain man will be healed. After all, we all die, and this might be our time. Why then does James claim that “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well?” If we are to understand this promise in the context of the rest of the book, we understand the promise this way: “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well if it is the Lord’s will!”

But doesn’t James also say “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective,” (James 5:16)? James then uses Elijah as an example of this:

• Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. (James 5:17) 

From this, the faith preacher teaches that God’s answer depends upon the fervency and forcefulness of our praying. If we are fervent or earnest, our prayers will be answered; if not, our prayers will not be answered.

But from where did Elijah’s fervency come? From the will of God as directly expressed to him through the Word of God:

• Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." (1 Kings 17:1) 

This boldness and confidence did not come from the will of Elijah but the will of God. God had revealed it to Elijah, who was merely communicating the Word of God.

From the account, we find that the Lord was directing Elijah throughout. According to the Lord’s will and timing, He sent Elijah back to King Ahab:

• After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: "Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land." So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. (1 Kings 18:1-2)

The Lord now had the attention of Israel. Elijah challenged the priests of Baal to call upon Baal to consume with fire an offering, if he could:

• “Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire--he is God… Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire." So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. "O Baal, answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. At noon Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened." So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. (1 Kings 18:24-29)

Yet when Elijah prayed, the bull was immediately incinerated. Why was Elijah bold? He knew that he was operating according to the will and Word of his God and not his own:

• At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. (1 Kings 18:36)

His confidence did not stem from his faith in prayer or faith in his own faith but rather a faith in the God whom he served. He knew God’s Word, and that was what he banked on. He did not accomplish the destruction of the priests of Baal through a formless “prayer of faith” but through a belief in the very words and will of God.

Consequently, when I pray that He will make me more Christ-like or that He will build His church, I pray with confidence, because this is what He promised to do. However, when I pray for a healing, I am confident that He is able, but I am not confident that He will heal in this particular circumstance.

Elijah too was only confident when he had a clear command from his God. Ironically, following this great victory, he fled in fear from Jezebel.

Please don’t think that I wish to minimize prayer. Instead, I want to restore it to its proper glory alongside the will of God. In 1976, the Christian historian, J. Edwin Orr, preached about the importance of prayer:

Dr A. T. Pierson once said, ‘There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer.’ Let me recount what God has done through concerted, united, sustained prayer.

Not many people realize that in the wake of the American Revolution there was a moral slump. Drunkenness became epidemic. Out of a population of five million, 300,000 were confirmed drunkards; they were burying fifteen thousand of them each year. Profanity was of the most shocking kind. For the first time in the history of the American settlement, women were afraid to go out at night for fear of assault. Bank robberies were a daily occurrence.

What about the churches? The Methodists were losing more members than they were gaining. The Baptists said that they had their most wintry season. The Presbyterians in general assembly deplored the nation’s ungodliness. In a typical Congregational church, the Rev. Samuel Shepherd of Lennos, Massachusetts, in sixteen years had not taken one young person into fellowship. The Lutherans were so languishing that they discussed uniting with Episcopalians who were even worse off. The Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York, Bishop Samuel Provost, quit functioning; he had confirmed no one for so long that he decided he was out of work, so he took up other employment.

The Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall, wrote to the Bishop of Virginia, James Madison, that the Church ‘was too far gone ever to be redeemed.’ Voltaire averred and Tom Paine echoed, ‘Christianity will be forgotten in thirty years.

Take the liberal arts colleges at that time. A poll taken at Harvard had discovered not one believer in the whole student body. They took a poll at Princeton, a much more evangelical place, where they discovered only two believers in the student body, and only five that did not belong to the filthy speech movement of that day. Students rioted. They held a mock communion at Williams College, and they put on antiChristian plays at Dartmouth. They burned down the Nassau Hall at Princeton. They forced the resignation of the president of Harvard. They took a Bible out of a local Presbyterian church in New Jersey, and they burnt it in a public bonfire. Christians were so few on campus in the 1790’s that they met in secret, like a communist cell, and kept their minutes in code so that no one would know.

How did the situation change? It came through a concert of prayer. 

What came? The Second Great Revival that transformed this nation! Orr concluded that these prayers were only effectual because they were consistent with the will and providence of God. Let us pray accordingly!

Thinking Rightly about God

What we think and believe are so central to our lives, affecting the way we feel, act, and how we relate to others. More than anything else, our beliefs about God are determinative. Just consider the words of God through the Prophet Jeremiah:

·         This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord. (Jer. 9:23-24).

For instance, if we do not know that God is kind to us, we might believe that every misfortune is for the delight of a sadistic god. Such a belief will transform our entire life and the way we treat others. If God is sadistic, then there is no reason why we shouldn’t be sadistic!

It is important to understand our hardships from the point view of a God who loves us so that He is working every painful circumstance for good (Rom. 8:28) to make us more like Jesus (2 Cor. 4:10-11).

Instead, we have a perverse tendency to think that God is trying to make us sin through the hardships. The Book of James tries to correct this tragic thinking:

·         When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:13-15)

For God to coerce us to sin is “evil,” according to James. He insists that God is above such a thing. There is no evil in Him! Yes, God brings hardships and hardships heighten temptations. However, God’s purposes aren’t evil, and He does not coerce us to sin. Instead, His purposes are loving and righteous. He wants us to see our sin and to humble us in the process.

God certainly allowed me to get stuck in the traffic-jam, and this tempted me to get angry. God even knew that I’d get angry and sin. However, he meant this for good to humble me and to make me more like Jesus. Nevertheless, despite God’s intentions and knowledge that I would sin, it was still I who sinned!

Moses had explained to Israel how this humbling process was necessary:

·         Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order [for you] to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.  He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deut. 8:2-3)

God had humbled Israel for their own good so that they’d cling to His every word! However, He didn’t cause them to sin. Instead, Israel had to take responsibility their sins, confess them, to repent and return to their God. God intended that Israel would be so humbled that they would no longer trust in themselves and their own judgment but instead trust in God’s Word! There could be no humbling if Israel had been convinced that it was God who caused them to sin and rebel. Instead, this belief would just cause bitterness! I too am humbled by my failures, not by a failure imposed upon me!

Likewise, James counsels us to take full responsibility for our sins rather than to say, “God made me do it.” We do this in many ways. We might say, “The devil made me do it” or “The Fall deprived me of my freewill and moral responsibility. Therefore, I am not guilty.” Others justify themselves by claiming, “God made me this way. So it must be okay!” Others stake their defense on nurture or nature:

·         “This is just the way I am,” or “I was traumatized as a child.”

Although these excuses might contain some truth, they do not relieve us of the responsibility for our behavior. James places the onus entirely on us:

·         Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. (James 1:14)

To believe otherwise usually means relying on a defective understanding of God – “God made me do it!” While blaming God for our misfortunes and failures might feel good temporarily, in the long run, it creates alienation from both God and society.

If we do not learn to accept full responsibility for our lives, we will not succeed anywhere – on the job, in the marriage, raising our children, or with God. The only way that my wife and I can be restored is through truth – the full acceptance of our responsibility for wrong-doing and confession.

This is just one illustration of how important it is to think correctly about God and also ourselves. However, this same principle can be applied to every doctrine of the Bible:

·         Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him... (2 Peter 1:2-3)

We need to pray that God will teach us to think correctly, especially about Him!

Prayer: Does it Give Us a Blank Check?

Praying to our Lord is powerful thing. James claims as much

·        The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. (James 5:16-18)

I would assume that James specifically chose the example of Elijah to demonstrate that prayer has to be according to God’s will. Praying for a drought hadn’t been Elijah’s idea of an effective means to deal with Israel’s sin. It was God’s:

·        Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." (1 Kings 17:1)

Elijah had merely spoken God’s words – God’s will. Likewise, Elijah’s prayer for rain was at God’s promptings, according to His will. He caused Elijah to hear the rain coming even before there was a cloud in the sky:

   

·        And Elijah said to Ahab, "Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain." (1 Kings 18:41)

In no way did James envision prayer as a blank check. Instead, he warned:

·        You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3)

If our prayers stem merely from our own will and desires, we should have little reason to expect that we will receive. John also had a very high estimation of the power of prayer:

·        I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:13-15)

John assures us that if we ask “according to His will,” we can bank on what we have asked for. I often ask God to make me more like Him and to teach me His ways. I know that I have what I’ve requested and thank God prematurely for them. However, if I ask that I might live to 100 or at least to have my teeth healed, I am not certain that I will receive these, because they might not be according to His will. In fact, the Lord has taught me to only desire His will. Consequently, I don’t want my ideas or my will anymore. I just pray that His will might be done, and this posture maximizes my joy and peace.

In contrast to this, the prosperity preachers insist it’s God’s will to give us everything and that we have to verbally claim our blessings. (Although God does want to give us everything, this will only take place when our will is perfectly aligned with His, and that will only happen in the next life.) Along with many other TV evangelists, Pat Robertson, claims that we can take hold of our blank check by speaking things into existence as God does:

·        “Pat Robertson states, ‘Most people ask God for a miracle but many omit a key requirement—the spoken word. God has given us authority over disease, over demons, over sickness, over storms, over finances. We are to declare that authority in Jesus’ name.’ ‘We are to command the money to come to us.’” (Michael Horton, The Agony of Deceit, 128)

We do not have the power “to command the money come to us.” We are utterly dependent on Jesus (John 15:4-5). Of course, the prosperity preachers will counter, “Of course, it’s through Christ, and we need to ask with authority.” However, it must be according to His will. Commanding money is not according to His will (James 4:1-3). In fact, we often don’t even know how to pray according to His will:

·        In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. (Romans 8:26-27)

Furthermore, the Spirit doesn’t intercede for us according to our will but according to God’s!

TV preacher, Joel Osteen, claims that:

·        “Our words are vital in bringing our dreams to pass. It’s not enough to simply see it by faith or in your imagination. You have to begin speaking words of faith over your life. Your words have enormous creative power. The moment you speak something out, you give birth to it.”  “Just look in the mirror and say ‘I am strong, I am healthy. I’m rising to new levels, I’m excited about my future.’ When you say that, it may not be true. You may not be very healthy today, or maybe you don’t have a lot of things to look forward to, but Scripture tells us in Romans we have to call the things that are not as if they already were.” (Christian Research  Journal, Hunter)

In contrast, the Scriptures are entirely about truth. We are always supposed to think, speak and walk in His light – His truth (Psalm 51:6). Many of the prosperity preachers illegitimately quote Romans 4:17 to justify claiming things that aren’t:

·        As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed--the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. (Romans 4:17)

Although God can “call things [into existence] that are not,” there is nothing in this verse that suggests that we have this power. In fact, James warns us against making this kind of faith-confession:

·        Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." (James 4:13-15)

We are just a passing “vapor.” We are in no position to make bold claims about what we will accomplish. What we say has to accord with the vaporous quality of our lives. We have to speak according to our humble condition. We don’t have the authority to call things into existence that aren’t. Instead, our claims have to be according to the One who can make promises that He will fulfill – the One who promises that “if you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:14)!

Well, what does it mean to ask in “My name?” It doesn’t merely mean to pronounce a set of letters: J-E-S-U-S. It means far more – to ask according to Him!

Many verses instruct us to “believe in the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). This cannot mean believing in a set of letters pronounced together. Salvation isn’t about having the right letters or pronunciation but about the right Person and Gospel! Therefore, when we ask in His name, we are asking according to Him and His will. No blank check here!

The prosperity preachers will counter:

   

·        The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. (Proverbs 18:21)

They claim that in their tongue resides supernatural power to call things into existence which aren’t. However, is this power supernatural or psychological? Clearly, our tongue possesses psychological power to tear people down or to build them up. Further, this context – nor any other - gives us no basis to believe that the power is supernatural.

Other prosperity preachers claim that we can only have this authority if we have established our credit in heaven first. Joyce Meyers claimed that we first need a bank account from which we can draw:

·        “Unto every man is given the measure of faith, and faith is a powerful force.” “It says in Romans 4:17 that …we have a God who gives life to the dead and He calls things that be not as though they already existed…If there’s something in your way, speak it.” “When I talked with Dr. Roberts today and we talked about this seed-faith thing, he said…when you give you get a receipt in heaven that when you have a need you can then go with your receipt and say ‘You see, God, I have got my receipt from my sowing and now I have a need and I’m cashing in my receipt.” (CRJ, Hunter)

Meyers suggests that we can have such a favorable heavenly account that God owes us. However, such an idea is foreign to Scripture. God is never in a position that He owes us anything:

·        "Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?" (Romans 11:35)

Everything we have from God comes as a gift through by grace through faith. Paul had warned the Galatian church against thinking that they received anything from God because of their good works (or heavenly bank account – Gal. 3:1-5).

Similarly, Jesus warned His disciples against thinking that they were in any way deserving of anything from God:

·        “So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable (“unworthy” NASB) servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’”  (Luke 17:10)

Even if we have performed flawlessly, we have no claim upon God! In contrast, the prosperity preachers arrogantly claim that they are “worthy.” Instead, the road to blessing is through seeking the will of God:

·        But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

Receiving “all these things” is not a matter of taking authority, claiming your blessings, or of establishing a heavenly bank account. It is a matter of seeking and trusting Him before all else.