How Healing Comes – Avenue #2

I’ll continue to the second avenue by which God heals today. This is by anointing with oil by believing elders of the church. James 5:14-16 says:

14 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. 15 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. 16 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.

This is the second avenue by which God heals. I’m glad the scripture uses the phrase “the church”, and not “your church”. Can you guess why? Well, if my church had no believing elders, I’d be in a pickle, wouldn’t I? Sadly, this is very common these days, with many churches preaching an end to healing and miracles.

More ominously, there’s the new “if it be thy will” healing gospel, which is really no gospel at all. We would never say to a person seeking salvation, “let’s pray and perhaps the Lord will save you if it is His will”. That would be silly, wouldn’t it? We already know His will, because we know John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Similarly, we know 1 Peter 2:24, which says:

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

So we know His will, right? Too many elders and non-elders push His declared will back into the realm of mystery, as a cover for unbelief. My advice? Find a believing elder if you are sick, take your own oil if necessary and be anointed with oil for your healing. Has anyone reading this received healing this way? Let us know…