James 5:14-16 “Is anyone among you sick? 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. (15) And the prayer of faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (16) Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
As we saw earlier in this teaching, the Lord’s best is for His children to walk in divine health. Nevertheless for believers that are unable to walk in the light of that truth, for whatever reason, God has made provision for them to receive their healing through the laying on of hands. We can see that truth clearly revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture. This passage is dealing with the church and not the unsaved, for James makes the statement “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church”. And so clearly James is saying “is anyone among the church sick, then let him call for the elders of the church”. Although in this passage the apostle James does not mention the laying on of hands specifically, it is nevertheless implied along with anointing the individual with oil. But I want you to notice that the Holy Spirit clearly teaches us that it is the prayer of faith that heals the sick. In other words, as we have already discussed, anointing with oil and laying hands on individuals are simply points of contact used by the Lord to assist believers to release their faith to be healed, for in all instances faith is still required to release God’s power. And as we have also mentioned earlier, the faith must be displayed by both the person laying hands and the person on whom hands are laid. We also mentioned earlier that the only hindrance for the unsaved from being healed through the laying on of hands, is unbelief. That is not the case with regards to believers however, for there are in fact two primary hindrances that can prevent Christians from being healed through the laying on of hands. The first one is the same hindrance that affects the unsaved, i.e. unbelief. The second hindrance that prevents Christians from being healed through the laying on of hands is sin, for as we can see in the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit clearly links healing to the forgiveness of sin. The sin that James is referring to in this passage is sin that the believer is fully aware of and continues to practice. That sin will have to be confessed and repented of before the Lord before He will allow His healing power to flow. This second hindrance is not always present however, which is why the Holy Spirit says “if” he has committed any sin he will be forgiven.
Michael E.B. Maher
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