The Truth About Faith-Kneeling

Whenever I hear the subject of faith-healing being discussed, my mind races back over many different encounters I have had with this controversial subject. I think of the popular television pastor who hosts a daily healing program on the air, naming the ailments he believes are present in the viewing audience. He explains how he goes about healing, “In the morning services, the Lord tells me what healings are available. The Lord will say, ‘I’ve got three cancers available; I’ve got one bad back; I’ve got two headache healings.’ I announce that to the congregation and tell them that anyone who comes with faith can claim those healings that are available for that evening.”

Or I think about the time that I was a teenager and suffering from some type of disorder in my arm that caused me to lose all my feeling. The doctors couldn’t diagnose the problem, and so one night, while in another country, I prayed for divine intervention, and the Lord healed me. I later discovered that at the same time I was praying, someone else was praying here at home.  

Or I think about standing inside my mother’s hospital room as she was approaching death and listening to a charismatic pastor pray and anoint her with oil, “Lord, we know that this is not your will. We believe the impossible. Give us faith so that she might be healed.” A few weeks later, she was dead.

What does the Bible really teach about healing? And why does James close his very practical letter with a discourse on healing?

James has taught that genuine faith produces authentic works. The best test as to whether you are saved or not is not how you feel, but how you behave. True saving faith makes a difference in your life. It affects how you respond to tests, to temptation, to those different than yourself. Genuine faith impacts your speech, it motivates you to pursue godliness, and now James says true faith will affect your prayer life as well.

Is there a formula for healing in James 5 that, if followed precisely, will guarantee physical healing? And if your answer is “No,” how do you explain the voluminous accounts of physical healing that appear to be taking place today? To answer these questions, it is important to first look at James 5:13-14 in detail.

1. The Audience (James 5:14)

It is important to look at the context of a passage before attempting to interpret it. In this passage, the question is, “To whom is James writing?” A partial answer can be found in verse 14, “Is anyone among you sick?”

• Physical or Spiritual Sickness?

The word translated “sick” is the word asthenei, and it literally means “to be without strength.”  The word is used 34 times in the New Testament. Twenty times it refers to a physical weakness, and 14 times it refers to those who are spiritually weak.

To whom is James writing? He is addressing those Christians whose conduct is inconsistent with their faith—those who are spiritually weak. And I believe that he is connecting their misconduct with physical illness. Why do I say this? Not all illness is the result of personal sin, but some is.

• Reasons James Is Associating Sickness with Sin
  • References to sin throughout passages (James 5:15-20)
  • Reference to elders (James 5:14)

2. The “Formula” for Healing (James 5:14-16)

Unlike our modern-day faith-healers, the elders in this passage are not to go scouting out the sick or invite them to a special tent service for healing. Instead, it is the sick person who is to take the initiative. 

So many times, members of a congregation think that the pastoral staff of the church should be able to look into a crystal ball and automatically know of their problems. Yet, James 5:14  teaches that the afflicted are to be the ones to call for the spiritual leaders in the church.

And what are the elders to do? The phrase that seems to cause so much controversy is the phrase “anointing him with oil.” Yet, an examination of the Greek text will reveal that this is a participial phrase, denoting a subsidiary or less important action. The emphasis in this verse is “let them pray.” A better translation of the phrase would be. “Having anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord, let them pray over him … ” (vs. 14).

How are we to understand this phrase, “anointing with oil?”

1. Oil represents a medicinal agent
2. Oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit’s presence

• Prayer (James 5:14a)

What is it then that heals the sick? It is the prayer, the effective prayer, that is offered in the name of the Lord (vs. 15). The phrase “in the name of the Lord” assumes a prayer that is in accordance with His will.

• Promise (James 5:15-16)

Let’s get one thing straight. Nowhere does the Bible promise that God will answer our every request, including healing. Let’s stop telling people that if they have enough faith or walk obediently, God will hear them.

In the event that God chooses to heal an individual, it is to be understood that it is His power, not some mystical formula or rite appropriated through effective praying, that brings restoration.

3. Biblical Healing Versus Fake Healing

How different are the instances of biblical healing from those of today’s modern faith-healers! Author John McArthur offers some characteristics of biblical healing.  

• Biblical Healing Was Always Instantaneous

There was never the need for theatrics or a controlled environment.  Jesus and the apostles healed with a simple word or a touch.

• Biblical Healing Is Total

When Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, she was immediately healed. Luke 4:39 records that she felt so good that she began to serve them!

• Biblical Healing Includes Organic Diseases

Biblical healing included withered arms, the lame, the crippled, the totally blind, and the raising of men from the dead! There are no documented cases of faith healers today performing those types of miracles.  Limited to functional diseases.

• Biblical Healing Involved Those Chosen of God

The apostles were the first to receive the gift of healing (Luke 9:1-2). Later, the gift was extended to the seventy (Luke 10:1-9), and to a few associates of the apostles such as Philip, Stephen, the Apostle Paul, and Barnabas. What was the purpose of the gift? To authenticate their message.

There is no longer a need for miraculous signs since God has given us His word by which to authenticate the words of men.

4. God’s Purpose for Sickness

God is in control of every aspect of your life, including any illness that comes your way. No physical problem you have takes God by surprise. God has allowed that illness for a reason.

• It might be a way for God to bring you home to heaven.
• It may be for discipline in your life, to make you aware of unconfessed sin.
• Or your illness may be a way for God to demonstrate His power through your weakness. If you are a genuine disciple of Christ, you have one purpose: to glorify God, to show others God’s power and grace in your own life. Do you know how God is best glorified in our lives—not through our strengths, but through our weaknesses. 

And that is why the apostle Paul was content to live with his physical illness. He saw it as one more way for God to be glorified through his life.

Full Passage: James 5:13-16