[4] Good News, vol. 17, no. 11, November 1926.

How to Appropriate your Healing when prayed for.

PORTION OF SERMON PREACHED BY EVANG. FRED B. VAN EYK AT KORUMBURRA, MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 1926.

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"Is any sick among you, 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, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up."— Jas. 5: 14.

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Many dear people who are suffering and seeking Divine healing fail to grasp the fact that God is responsible for this manner of healing, and that it is not "faith" healing, "spiritual" healing, or "Christian Science" (so-called), but as we have it more literally-translated in the Dutch version (Godelike Genezing), which would convey the sense that it is a healing that flows from. God.

There are in the above-quoted passage of Scripture several very significant facts to be observed, and which require your earnest and prayerful consideration before you should ask for prayer for healing, and before you can readily appropriate the covenant redemptive blessing of Divine healing. First note the suggestion of possible connection between sickness and sin (verse 15), and the twofold work of redemption wrought out on Calvary's Cross through the vicarious death of our Lord, namely, "The Lord shall raise you up, and if you have committed any sin, it 'shall' be forgiven you." Again, in Psalm 103: 3, we read: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name"; and then follows the positive injunction to "forget not all His benefits." What are these benefits, David? "Who forgiveth ALL our iniquities, and healeth ALL our diseases." Note, not some, but ALL, bless God!

The first half of our text denotes "united" action; the second half, "individual" action. This I want to draw special attention to. The Word of God commands you, dear sufferer, to send for the elders of the Church, not the doctor, and let them (the elders) pray over you. I want you to see that the responsibility of your healing rests entirely on yourself until you have obeyed God's Word, by sending for the elder of the Church. The moment you do that, you throw the responsibility of your healing on the elder of the Church. He (the elder) retains that responsibility until he, in turn, obeys God's Word (verse 14), prays the prayer of faith, and anoints you with oil in the Name of the Lord. When this is done, God immediately assumes the responsibility of your healing, and the Lord shall raise you up, and, if you have committed any sin it will be forgiven you. 

The promise is emphatic, and just helps me impress upon you what the Holy Spirit brings out so forcibly and beautifully in Hebrew 6: 17. "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:"

So, dear sufferer, you are an "heir of the promise." What promise? Heb. 6: 13. The promise made to Abraham. How is it reckoned? Rom. 4: 10. "That he (Abraham) is the father of all that believed." Gal. 3:1 "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's sons and heirs according to the promise"; giving us a right-of-way through a positive inheritance into all the covenant bless wrought out in the vicarious death of Jesus Christ.

" Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath” involving His own reputation and eternal destiny; having no greater one to swear by, He sware by Himself. It is, therefore, abundantly clear that this covenant, being thus confirmed by the oath of the Immutable covenant-keeping God, we may enter into His fulness and appropriate the blessing of Divine healing, to its entire beneficence through faith in His Name; and thus, in the redemptive plan, wrought out on Calvary’s Cross, Jesus revealed Himself under several covenant names, and for whatever a covenant name stood, such was the scope of human need that it covered.

The covenant name which we will deal with here is "Jehovah-Rophi," which means "The Lord that healeth thee." God then backs up the certainty of this covenant blessing by showing us the practical inherent, qualities of His nature, in the which He cannot lie, and openly declares the immutability of the counsel of the covenant-keeping God, by staking His own integrity of character as security for the infallibility of this promise, and thus it brings us directly to our text—"the Lord shall raise him up."

The second part, as I have said, is "individual" in its application. "Confess your faults one to another, that ye may be healed"— clearly implying that sin, hatred, envy, jealousy, a critical disposition, hard-hearted-ness and an unforgiving spirit are hindrances to the Spirit's operation in your body, for your healing.

Dear sufferer, your health is worth more to you than that animosity or other sin. Why should sin reign in your heart, and keep you under the baneful influence of Satan, afflicted,

[5] Good News, vol. 17, no. 11, November 1926.

sick and sad?

“Confess your faults one to another." If there is anything in your life, clear it up; make it right, and confess your shortcomings, that you may be healed, and your healing is as sure as that God reigns on His Throne. 

Our passage of Scripture here has a pointed reference to the power of individual, fervent prayer. Verse 17: "Elias was a man, subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months, and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." If a man of like nature to ourselves by prayer controlled the heavens, then it is no great marvel if, in answer to our fervent prayer, your healing takes place, and your whole system is brought back into harmony, order and health; surely it is a small thing with God, Who is your Creator.

Further, this incident is, no doubt, referred here to encourage us in times of corporate failure such as we are now living in. Elias in the midst of all but universal apostasy, a hunted fugitive; yet the faithfulness and devotedness of this one individual prevailed with God, and corporate order ruled heaven and earth.

So now our faithfulness and devotedness and testimony must be "individual," because of all but universal departure from faith in God, and if corporate order is unavailable to an unbelieving world, how blessed it is to know that the God Who answered to corporate older is still available to faith, for He is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever (Heb. 13: 8) and refuses, in His grace, to be fastened down to narrow limitations to suit the whims, dogmas, traditions and reasoning of the puny minds of so-called professors of theology. The change is in the mass, the Church, the individual—not in God. Let us openly confess our impotence, and come out from behind the discreditable subterfuge that healing was only for apostolic times, and not for our day, and the God of Heaven will honor His Word.

Therefore, dear sufferer, have the faith of God (Mark 11: 22), which holds good beyond the jurisdiction of natural limitations, and brings your healing within the limit of possibility, and ushers you into the very realm of God's Omnipotence.

Read this carefully; pray over it; ask God in His mercy to stamp this truth indelibly on your heart, mind and soul. Then, when you come to be prayed for, come with a receptive, expectant heart, knowing that God giveth liberally, and upbraideth no man, and that in Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, and your healing is inevitable and sure,

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© Southern Cross College, 2004