Warning: this is a a little longer post than usual but I needed to work through some thoughts on prayer. So if you've wondered about how prayer works and how to understand the difficult passage of James 5:14-18, then read on (and leave a comment). In his epistle, James makes the following assertion:

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. 17 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. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. James 5:14-18 (NIV)

Reading this passage at face value seems to imply that prayer can heal people. Not only that, but it can also shut and open the skies. This makes many uncomfortable (and not because they don't believe in God's ability to work through prayer of in God's goodness). Rather, it makes many uncomfortable because they don't understand why, if this is indeed the case, only some prayers change the weather and the health of our loved ones. In light of this, some interpret this passage in purely spiritual terms; however, most scholars looking into the intricacies of the original language find this to stretch James' words beyond a reasonable point. Their consensus is that James believes he's talking about physical healing. For sure, the spiritual and physical are linked in this passage (and linked in reality), but to completely eliminate the possibility that James believes that prayers offered for the sick can be part of their physical healing seems inappropriate given the text. Since this is arguably the case, what are we to make of the fact that many millions of prayers fail to produce the results that James discusses? Let me offer three main thoughts as to why this might be:

1. It is not God's will that everyone should be physically healed. The fact is that sometimes affliction reveals God to both the afflicted individual and to his or her community (consider John 9:1-4 and 2 Corinthians 12:6-12) and to heal that person prematurely (if at all) could short-circuit that revelatory expression.
2. Sometimes the "righteous man" to which James refers doesn't pray a prayer that leads to physical healing. It could go without saying that Paul could be nominated as a "righteous man." It could also be said that he had prayed a healing prayer in faith and as a consequence healing did indeed occur (Acts 28:8). But there were also instances in Paul's life where his prayers for another didn't produce such results (Philippians 2:25-27 and 2 Timothy 4:20, if we assume that he prayed for them at all). Does this mean that Paul didn't pray for them? No, I believe he most certainly would have, yet, he didn't pray a prayer that led to physical healing for them. This brings me to my third thought.
3. For James, a "prayer offered in faith" is a prayer offered in response to the revealed will of God. In this passage, James is in no way saying that every time that the elders are called to the bedside that they should pray a prayer of faith for the physical healing of that person. Rather, if the elders are fulfilling their God-given role in the community that is Christ's Church, they will seek out God's will and lead the people of that faithful community with thanksgiving into that will. That is, they are to first pray for wisdom and God's will in the moment (James 1:5) and if they perceive together that God will reveal himself through a miraculous healing, then - and only then - should they pray a bold, convinced prayer of faith for healing (which will simultaneously be humble because they are praying in accord with God's will rather than their own ideas or even hopes). As Barrier and Goetz, who have challenged my thinking here, suggest, "The prayer of faith can only be prayed after God reveals his intentions." This then is what a "prayer offered in faith" means in this passage: it is a prayer in response to the will of God revealed to his saints and that is why it produces healing. It doesn't produce healing because the pray-er worked themselves up into "greater faith" or "stronger belief" or said the right words in the right way.

Does that mean that other prayers aren't prayers offered in faith? No, rather, I believe James is using "a prayer offered in faith" as a sort of technical term in this context. In reality, all prayers that are willing to submit to God's will are prayers of faith, the only difference is that sometimes we know that will and sometimes we don't and we should pray differently in those two situations. When we know the will of God it takes faith to step out in that promise and pray what has been revealed; when we don't have the wisdom to know God's specific will in a situation, then it takes faith to pray for what we desire (James 4:2, Matthew 7:7-11) and then to close with "yet, not my will, but your's, Father" (Mark 14:36). We do this because we are ready to submit to his will if it is different from what we wish. What do I do if I don't know God's will for someone who is ill?

• First, pray for wisdom and for God to reveal his will in the situation (James 1:5).
• Then, if you still don't have a sense of his specific will, which may be the vast majority of the time, pray for complete healing (in light of James 4:2) because sometimes we don't have because we don't ask. But we must be faithful in doing so, trusting in God's will, whatever it is in light of the passage in Mark quoted above.
• However, if God does reveal to you that he will be working a miracle, pray with humble boldness - humble because it is in submission to God's will and bold because in response to God's will you will be praying for a miracle.

Okay, that's my thinking so far on this passage. Let's chat. Post a comment of question by following this link.