"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; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven
him" (James 5:14,15). We have in this precious word a real
basis for the truth of healing. In this scripture God gives very
definite instructions to the sick. If you are sick, your part is to
call for the elders of the church; it is their part to anoint and
pray for you in faith, and then the whole situation rests with the
Lord. When you have been anointed and prayed for, you can rest
assured that the Lord will raise you up. It is the word of God.
I
believe that we all can see that the church cannot play with this
business. If any turn away from these clear instructions they are in
a place of tremendous danger. Those who refuse to obey, do so to
their unspeakable loss. James tells us in connection with this, "If
any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know,
that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his ways shall
save a soul from death." Many turn away from the Lord, as did
King Asa, who sought the physicians in his sickness and consequently
died; and I take it that this passage means
that
if one induces another to turn back to the Lord, he will save such
from death and God will forgive a multitude of sins that they have
committed. This scripture can also have a large application on the
line of salvation. If you turn away from any part of God's truth, the
enemy will certainly get an advantage over you.
Does
the Lord meet those who look to Him for healing and obey the
instructions set forth in James? Most assuredly. Let me tell you a
story to show how He will undertake for the most extreme case.
One
day I had been visiting the sick, and was with a friend of mine, an
architect, when I saw a young man from his office coming down the
road in a car, and holding in his hand a telegram. It contained a
very urgent request that we go immediately to pray for a man who was
dying. We went off in an auto as fast as possible and in about an
hour and a half reached a large house in the country where the man
who was dying resided. There were two staircases in that house, and
it was extremely convenient, for the doctors could go up and down
one, and my friend and I could go up and down the other, and so we
had no occasion to meet. I found on arrival that it was a case of
this sort. The man's body had been broken, he was ruptured, and his
bowels had been punctured in two places. The discharge from the
bowels had formed abscesses, and blood poisoning had set in. The
man's face had turned green. Two doctors were in attendance, but they
saw that the case was beyond their power. They had telegraphed to
London for a great specialist, and, when we arrived, they were at the
railway station awaiting his arrival.
The
man was very near death and could not speak. I said to his wife, "If
you desire, we will anoint and pray for him." She said, "That
is why I sent for you." I anointed him in the name of the Lord
and asked the Lord to raise him up. Apparently there was no change.
(God often hides what He does. From day to day we find that God is
doing wonderful things, and we receive reports of healings that have
taken place that we heard nothing about at the time of our meetings.
Only last night a woman came into the meeting suffering terribly. Her
whole arm was filled with poison, and her blood was so poisoned that
it was certain to bring her to her death. We rebuked the thing, and
she was here this morning and told us that she was without pain and
had slept all night, a thing she had not done for two months. To God
be all the praise. You will find He will do this kind of thing all
along).
As
soon as we anointed and prayed for this brother we went down the back
staircase and the three doctors came up the front staircase. As we
arrived downstairs, I said to my friend who had come with me, "Friend
let me have hold of your hands." We held each other's hands, and
I said to him, "Look into my face and let us agree together,
according to Matthew 18:19, that this man shall be brought out of
this death." We laid the whole matter before God, and said,
"Father, we believe." Then the conflict began. The wife
came down to us and said, "The doctors have got all their
instruments out and they are about to operate." I cried, "What?
Look here, he's your husband, and I tell you this, if those men
operate on him, he will die. Go back and tell them you cannot allow
it." She went back to the doctors and said, "Give me ten
minutes." They said, "We can't afford to, the man is dying
and it is your husband's only chance." She said, "I want
ten minutes, and you don't touch his body until I have had them."
They
went downstairs by one staircase and we went up by the other. I said
to the woman, "This man is your husband, and he cannot speak for
himself. It is now the time for you to put your whole trust in God
and prove Him wholly true. You can save him from a thousand doctors.
You must stand with God and for God in this critical hour."
After that, we came down and the doctors went up. The wife faced
those three doctors and said, "You shan't touch this man's body.
He is my husband. I am sure that if you operate on him he will die,
but he will live if you don't touch him." Suddenly the man in
bed spoke. "God has done it," he said. They rolled back the
bedclothes and the doctors examined him, and the abscesses were cut
clear away. The nurse cleaned the place where they had been. The
doctors could see the bowels still open and they said to the wife,
"We know that you have great faith, and we can see that a
miracle has taken place. But you must let us unite these broken parts
and put in silver tubes, and we know that your husband will be all
right after that, and it need not interfere with your faith at all."
She said to them, "God has done the first thing and He can do
the rest. No man shall touch him now." And God healed the whole
thing. And that man is well and strong
today.
I can give his name and address to any who want it.
Do
you ask by what power this was done? I would answer in the words of
Peter, "His name, through faith in His name, made this man
strong." The anointing was done in the name of the Lord. And it
is written, "The LORD shall raise him up." And He provides
the double cure; even if sin has been the cause of the sickness, His
Word declares, "If he have committed sins, they shall be
forgiven."
You
ask, "What is faith?" Faith is the principle of the Word of
God. The Holy Spirit, who inspired the Word, is called the Spirit of
Truth, and, as we receive with meekness the engrafted Word, faith
springs in our heart--faith in the sacrifice of Calvary; faith in the
shed blood of Jesus; faith in
the
fact that He took our weakness upon Himself, has borne our sicknesses
and carried our pains, and that He is our life today.
God
has chosen us to help one another. We dare not be independent. He
brings us to a place where we submit ourselves to one another. If we
refuse to do this, we get away from the Word of God and out of the
place of faith. I have been in this place once and I trust I shall
never be there again. I went one time to a meeting. I was very, very
sick, and I got worse and worse. I knew the perfect will of God was
for me to humble myself and ask the elders to pray for me. I put it
off and the meeting finished. I went home without being anointed and
prayed with, and everyone in the house caught the thing I was
suffering with.
My
boys did not know anything else but to trust the Lord as the family
Physician, and my youngest boy, George, cried out from the attic,
"Dadda, come." I cried, "I cannot come. The whole
thing is from me. I shall have to repent and ask the Lord to forgive
me." I made up my mind to humble myself before the whole church.
Then I rushed to the attic and laid my hands on my boy in the name of
Jesus. I placed my hands on his head and the pain left and went lower
down; he cried again, "Put your hands still lower." At
last the pain went right down to the feet and as I placed my hand on
the feet he was completely delivered. Some evil power had evidently
gotten hold and as I laid my hands on the different
parts
of the body it left. (We have to see the difference between anointing
the sick and casting out demons.") God will always be gracious
when we humble ourselves before Him and come to a place of brokenness
of spirit.
I
was at a place one time ministering to a sick woman, and she said,
"I'm very sick. I become all right for an hour, and then I have
another attack." I saw that it was an evil power that was
attacking her, and I learned something in that hour that I had never
learned before. As I moved my hand down her body in the name of the
Lord that evil power seemed to move just ahead of my hands and as I
moved them down further and further the evil power went right out of
her body and never returned.
I
was in Havre in France and the power of God was being mightily
manifested. A Greek named Felix attended the meeting and became very
zealous for God. He was very anxious to get all the Catholics he
could to the meeting in order that they should see that God was
graciously visiting France. He found a certain bed-ridden woman who
was fixed in a certain position and could not move, and he told her
about the Lord healing at the meetings and that he would get me to
come if she wished. She said, "My husband is a Catholic and he
would never allow anyone who was not a Catholic to see me."
She
asked her husband to allow me to come and told him what Felix had
told her about the power of God working in our midst. He said, "I
will have no Protestant enter my house." She said, "You
know the doctors cannot help me, and the priests cannot help, won't
you let this man of God
pray
for me?" He finally consented and I went to the house. The
simplicity of this woman and her child-like faith were beautiful to
see.
I
showed her my oil bottle and said to her, "Here is oil. It is a
symbol of the Holy Ghost. When that comes upon you, the Holy Ghost
will begin to work, and the Lord will raise you up." And God did
something the moment the oil fell upon her. I looked toward the
window and I saw Jesus. (I
have
seen Him often. There is no painting that is a bit like Him: no
artist can ever depict the beauty of my lovely Lord.) The woman felt
the power of God in her body and cried, "I'm free, my hands are
free, my shoulders are free, and oh, I see Jesus! I'm free! I'm free!
The
vision vanished and the woman sat up in bed. Her legs were still
bound, and I said to her, "I'll put my hands over your legs and
you will be free entirely." And as I put my hands on those legs
covered with bedclothes, I looked and saw the Lord again. She saw Him
too and cried, "He's there again. I'm free! I'm free!" She
rose from her bed and walked round the room praising God, and we were
all in tears as we saw His wonderful works. The Lord shall raise
them up when conditions are met.
When
I was a young man I always loved the fellowship of old men, and was
always careful to hear what they had to say. I had a friend, an old
Baptist minister who was a wonderful preacher. I spent much of my
time with him. One day he came to me and said, "My wife is
dying." I said, "Brother Clark, why don't you believe God?
God can raise her up if you will only believe Him." He asked me
to come to his house, and I looked for someone to go with me.
I
went to a certain rich man who was very zealous for God, and spent
much money in opening up rescue missions, and I asked him to go with
me. He said, "Never you mind me. You go yourself, but I don't
take to this kind of business." Then I thought of a man who
could pray by the
hour.
When he was on his knees he could go round the world three times and
come out at the same place. I asked him to go with me and said to
him, "You'll have a real chance this time. Keep at it, and quit
when you're through." (Some go on after they are through.)
Brother
Nichols, for that was his name, went with me and started praying. He
asked the Lord to comfort the husband in his great bereavement and
prayed for the orphans and a lot more on this line. I cried, "O
my God, stop this man." But there was no stopping him and he
went on praying and there was not a particle of faith in anything he
uttered. He did stop at last, and I said, "Brother Clark, it's
now your turn to pray. He started, "Lord, answer the prayer of
my brother and comfort me in this great bereavement and sorrow.
Prepare me to face this great trial." I cried out, "My God,
stop this man." The whole atmosphere was being charged with
unbelief.
I
had a glass bottle full of oil and I went up to the woman and poured
the whole lot on her in the name of Jesus. Suddenly Jesus appeared,
standing at the foot of the bed. He smiled and vanished. The woman
stood up, perfectly healed, and she is a strong woman today.
We
have a big God. We have a wonderful Jesus. We have a glorious
Comforter. God's canopy is over you and will cover you at all times,
preserving you from evil. Under His wings shalt thou trust. The Word
of God is living and powerful and in its treasures you will find
eternal life. If you dare trust this wonderful Lord, this Lord of
life, you will find in Him everything you need.
So
many are tampering with drugs, quacks, pills and plasters. Clear them
all out and believe God. It is sufficient to believe God. You will
find that if you dare trust Him, He will never fail. "The prayer
of faith shall save the sick, and the LORD shall raise him up."
Do you trust Him? He is worthy to be trusted.
I
was one time asked to go to Weston-super-mare, a seaside resort in
the West of England. I learned from a telegram that a man has lost
his reason and had become a raving maniac, and they wanted me to go
to pray for him. I arrived at the place, and the wife said to me,
"Will you sleep with my husband?" I agreed, and in the
middle of the night an evil power laid hold of him. It was awful. I
put my hand on his head and his hair was like a lot of sticks. God
gave deliverance--a temporary deliverance. At 6 o'clock the next
morning, I felt that is was necessary that I should get out of the
house for a short time.
The
man saw me going and cried out, "If you leave me, there is no
hope." But I felt that I had to go. As I went out I saw a woman
with a Salvation Army bonnet on and I knew that she was going to
their 7 o'clock prayer meeting. I said to the Captain who was in
charge of the meeting, when I saw he was about to give a hymn,
"Captain, don't sing. Let's get to prayer." He agreed, and
I prayed my heart out, and then I grabbed my hat and rushed out of
the hall. They all thought they had a madman in their prayer meeting
that morning. I saw the man I had spent the night with, rushing down
toward the sea, without a particle of clothing on, about to drown
himself. I cried, "In the name of Jesus, come out of him!"
The man fell full length on the ground and that evil power went out
of him never to return. His wife came rushing after him, and the
husband was restored to her in a perfect mental condition.
There
are evil powers, but Jesus is greater than all evil powers. There are
tremendous diseases, but Jesus is healer No. 1 There is no case too
hard for Him. The Lion of Judah shall break every chain. He came to
relieve the oppressed and to set the captive free. He came to bring
redemption, to make us as perfect as man was before the fall.
People
want to know how to be kept by the power of God. Every position of
grace into which you are led-- forgiveness, healing, deliverance of
any kind--will be contested by Satan. He will contend for your body.
When you are saved, Satan will come round and say, "See, you are
not saved." The devil is a liar. If he says you are not saved,
it is a sure sign that you are.
You
will remember the story of the man who was swept and garnished. The
evil power had been swept out of him. But the man remained in a
stationary position. If the Lord heals you, you dare not remain in a
stationary position. The evil spirit came back to that man and found
the house swept, and took seven others worse than himself, and the
last state of that man was worse than the first. Be sure to get
filled with God. Get the Occupier. Be filled with the Spirit.
God
has a million ways of undertaking for those who go to Him for help.
He has deliverance for every captive. He loves you so much that He
even says, "Before they call, I will answer." Don't turn
Him away.
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