The number one type of prayer that any church prayer group will receive is about healing. Please pray for my relative who has cancer and needs a miracle might be a request heard in a thousand church small groups all at the same time. Does God still heal today and what does a prayer of faith to God look like?
And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. James 5:15-18 ESV
We Pray and God Saves
There is a two fold question here that everyone needs to understand. First is does God still heal today? Second how do we approach God to make the most effective prayer of faith?
Does God Still Heal?
The short answer is “Yes.” God is in the miracle business. If there are thousands of churches receiving the same kind of prayer for someone to be healed there are also thousands of answered prayers. Some of those answers might be No but God comforts and has his plans at work. But some of those prayers of faith are answered with a miracle and those stories encourage the body of believers that God is in control. If sometimes the prayers are Yes and sometimes, they are No what makes the difference?
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. John 9:1-3 ESV
God Glorified
Answered prayers are not to a Santa God who gives out presents. Know and understand the God to whom we pray. God is good and gracious, but he has bigger plans than our desires. Let me restate that God has better plans than our desires. Any miracle that God performs where he interjects himself into the normal laws of the universe are done so that people might give glory to Him. That answered prayer serves some purpose that God wants accomplished. Maybe it is encouragement to those who witness. What if God is not done with the person who is sick and they have work in His kingdom that is not finished? There are many reasons that God may pour out his power on the sick.
Prayer of Faith
What kind of faith do you hold? James writes that a prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. Now James is talking about two kinds of saving. He is talking about the salvation of the soul being healed by an acceptance of Jesus Christ. And he is talking about a physical healing of the body. The prayer of faith is not just saving the physical body but more importantly, a greater miracle, the confession of sin and a salvation event.
Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” Acts 3:3-6 ESV
God Saves
God’s plans are bigger than our temporary needs. He wants to set us up for eternity. Healing of our soul is of first importance. What good is it to only heal a body that will break again? Lazarus was raised out of a tomb by Jesus but Lazarus is not here today. He died a second time because this life is temporary. A prayer of faith “of a righteous person has great power as it is working” but the real direction of that prayer should not be only on the physical healing. The primary direction of that prayer should be on the eternal state of their soul.
And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Acts 3:8-10 ESV
God’s Agenda and God’s Glory
Peter and John healed the man through their faith that God would be glorified. The man got up and went to the temple “praising God.” He was known as a broken man and people in that location were amazed. God’s agenda and his Glory are furthered by a prayer of faith. The faith it builds in the one praying, the faith of the one healed both physically and spiritually, and the faith of the community that witness such an event.
