James 5:14

[DaveW]

James 5:14  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:

 

Now I don't fall in with the modern healing bit in any way shape or form - let's  get that straight.

But this is clear in this course of action - if someone is sick, we are to call for the elders and pray whilst anointing with oil.

How many of us do this?

I don't see any promise from God that He will heal if we do it this way, but He does tell us to do it. 

I think most of us would spend time in prayer over serious illness, and I know I have also fasted for those suffering such, but I have never done the oil bit,  neither has it been done at any church I have been at.

 

I am not looking necessarily for explanations or accusations against old church etc, rather for discussion.

[HappyChristian]

When I was expecting our son, I was very ill - in and out of the hospital. It had gotten to the point where my organs were getting damaged.

My hubs went to our then-pastor. He and two of the other pastors came to the hospital to anoint me with oil and pray. One of the men later said I looked like death warmed over - just what any woman wants to hear! LO L.

Well, in a couple of days I went home, not needing to go back in until the birth. The day I went home was Good Friday. I had my first bite of food in over 2 months the next day, and was in church on Resurrection Day for the first time in almost 2 months.

I still threw up once a day til our son was born, but I could eat and got back to other normal activities.

Some might say that I would have gotten better anyway. Maybe. I know the docs were concerned and puzzled, so maybe not. As for me, my hubs, and our church: we knew God had answered that prayer.

[John81]

The verse says the one sick is to ask (call) for the elders of the church to do this. Some expect pastors to initiate this sort of thing on their own, but that's not what the text says.

We practice this in our church, but it's relatively rare that someone asks for this. If the person is still able to attend church we typically do this at the end of the service. The sick is called forward where the pastor calls the church leaders forward, anoints them with oil, calls for all still in attendance to join in prayer (at this point most, if not all, the congregation which has remained for this come forward as a family).

In cases where the sick is home bound or hospital bound, the pastor and others go to them to do this.

Our pastor has expressed that he wishes more folks would request such, but few actually do. Most often it's someone suffering from some form of cancer which does make a request.

We've had folks we prayed over experience healing, and some which never showed any signs of improvement. As our pastor points out, physical healing isn't promised, but we are called to act according to His Word and trust God with the results of our obedience.

(LuAnne: Thank you for sharing your personal story involving this subject; such testimonies are a blessing.)

[Ukulelemike]

We do this as well. The first time it was a man in the hospital with terminal cancer. I had not dome it before and really prayed about it first, but it seemed clear, so I and our other men went, anointed him and prayed over him. The next day they released him, feeling much better. He did die from the cancer, but the Lord gave him strength to finish his business. We also did it for a little girl with a bad flu and she was healthy again within that day.

[MountainChristian]

We do it too. The elderly seem to be braver and request this the most.

[John81]

We do it too. The elderly seem to be braver and request this the most.

​The older you get the less you care what other people think!

Also it seems the older we get the more need we have for prayer over sickness.

[OLD fashioned preacher]

I've seen it 3 times in IB churches, one was the one I pastor.

My daughter-in-law (eldest son's wife) used to be plagued with severe migraines. She sought to lower stress, tried herbal routes, tried med doctors. After about 6 years of this (4-8 severe migraines per month -- the 'can't handle light and noise, forget about food' type) she asked me if we would do this.

We did, end result -- she hasn't had another one of these in the last 2 years and the church is now one family less in membership.

Edited March 31, 2015 by OLD fashioned preacher

[DaveW]

Thanks folks.

I wasn't  necessarily  looking just for "success stories", but these have been interesting.

I think we all agree that there is no promise so we can not expect God to do as we please just we obey in this, but of course He will honour those who honour Him.

 

OFP - one family less? Because they didn't  like you doing it?

 

I think one reason we don't  see it more is that aside from this one verse we see little detail or instruction on it.

For instance, I think most would use olive oil, but even that is an assumption - a very reasonable assumption, but it is not stated.

 

Thanks folks.

[Ukulelemike]

We use olive oil, because it seems biblical, but I don't know if it really matters, just says oil. Oregano oil would be fragrant, but hot.

 

[DaveW]

A friend mine suggested motor oil.......

 

By the way, his church anointed him with oil and prayed and he too was healed. 

 

I don't  mean to imply with the previous post that I don't want more examples, rather that I want discussion and not only examples.

I also would prefer it if people didn't  rain on the parade - we all must agree that God can still heal today if He so chooses to, but that He doesn't  do it through tele-evangelist charlatans.

 

[HappyChristian]

As to the oil, our then-pastor used whatever was in his cupboard - I don't know if it was olive, but I  know it wasn't oregano or motor!  

 

[MountainChristian]

Motor oil, that's a man's man.

[OLD fashioned preacher]

3-in-1 oil, just like the Trinity (That's sewing machine oil, for the benefit of you kids and ones in other countries).
No, we used olive oil.

The family who left? A family in which the wife had been saved about 2 years, 2 sons had been saved about 1 year and a lost, drunk, wife beating Dad who decided to play church.

The Dad comes forward to lay hands on her, I sought to quietly deal with the situation but he would have nothing short of making a scene. I asked him to return to his pew (I know, it's a bench -- a dead critter bloated on the side of the road is a pew [phew]) where his family was and pray there.
He snatched them all out (he had, unfortunately, been looking to get them out for about a year and a half).

Edited April 1, 2015 by OLD fashioned preacher

[DaveW]

Oh..... sorry to hear.

I have a guy currently who doesn't  understand such matters........

[Genevanpreacher]

I was in one church for multiple years, and they practiced that 'honor' often, with almost always good results. Obedience is good for learning the faithfulness of God to answer our prayers and for him to notice our will to obey. There are other churches I know who cringe at such 'nonsense', and have splits over it. One local Pastor years ago lost most of his congregation over his craziness to follow Gods way, when his daughter became diabetic.

Its funny what reactions occur when we try obeying God as if we were Pentecostal/Charismatics or something. Why should we let 'holy rollers' get the 'doctrine' of healing, when we were the original followers to begin with. I say let's claim this back. Just like the rainbow issue, Why let the sodomites get the 'promise' away from us in society by stealing a word from us? I know not all Pentecostal/Charismatics are the same, but you know what I mean. I hope.