Lookahead: As my last post indicated, immediately after I prayed for my best friend’s healing, they passed away.  And yet 5:16 – 18 speak of the indefatigable and “fail-proof” power of prayer.  One man’s fervent prayer was extremely effective, to the extent that he changed weather patterns–millennia in advance of Accuweather’s predictive algorithms.

Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.  James 5:16 – 18

As my last post indicated, immediately after I prayed for my best friend’s healing, they passed away.  And yet 5:16 – 18 speak of the indefatigable and “fail-proof” power of prayer.  One man’s fervent prayer was extremely effective, to the extent that he changed weather patterns–millennia in advance of Accuweather’s predictive algorithms.

So why was my healing prayer so ineffective?  After my friend had been taken to the Funeral Home and I was alone in their house pondering this question, their neighbor came by to talk.  My primary focus was on the purpose of the pain–what was that all about?  But rather than recount the details, I will share the “pseudo-eulogy” that the LORD gave me shortly after their visit: 

(Note:  some designations changed for reasons of anonymity.) “When my friend finally went home to be with the LORD Wednesday I was in total shock that He hadn’t healed them.  But my biggest obstacle was the pain.  Why did they have to go through all the pain?  My friend’s wonderful neighbor Leona sat me down and ministered to me with words of life.  During our beautiful conversation some pivotal things came to my remembrance.  There was not one time that my friend cried out to Jesus that He did not come immediately, wrap His arms around them, and mitigate the situation. The fear and pain would leave immediately and the peace would flood in.  But my friend was a fighter from a family of fighters.  Many times my friend would choose to grit their teeth, walk it off, fight through the pain.  However, when they came to the point where they couldn’t fight in their own strength and asked for help, Jesus saved them every time.  My friend had a fear that the pain would eventually become unbearable and untreatable.  But 24 hours before they passed, they took three Ibuprofen at 8:30 in the morning and that was it for the rest of their life.  They were pain free when they went to be with Jesus.” 

It came back to me later that day that my friend’s primary prayer had been that the pain would not become excruciatingly unbearable–not that Jesus would heal them on this side of Glory.  Of course, my friend had given every indication to me that they wanted to be healed. But I remembered their reaction in the Oncologist’s Office when they were given the Stage Four diagnosis and nine months to live:  “I’m a winner either way, if I go or if I stay.”  I began to understand a very pivotal principle about superseding prayer.  Each person has free will, and God will never go against that.  So no matter how often and fervently I prayed and believed for my friend’s healing, I could not over-rule their own (spoken or unspoken) prayers as a born-again Child of God.  My friend was still mourning the loss of their spouse, and chances were excellent that they wanted to be in heaven with them, rather than on earth.  

If superseding prayer is always going to be the case, why bother praying?  Well, the main reason would be that we will never fully know the heart condition of the subject of our prayers.  If they are not a believer, we can stand in the gap for them, and our prayers can be very effective.  If the person is incapacitated and cannot pray for themselves (unhearing/in a coma, mentally impaired, etc.), we can stand in the gap as well.  And we can never assume that a believer doesn’t want to be healed or rescued on some level.  We also can go on the basis that healing is for today and for everyone (the “children’s bread” and 1 Peter 2:24).  My approach is, “Pray first and ask questions later.” 🙂

Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. James 5:19, 20

This seems like another detached stand-alone verse couplet…but I think there may actually be a thread meandering through…James talks about (a) praying for healing, and (b) praying for weather (taking it from natural to supernatural solutions), then (c) praying for sinner’s repentance.  I believe that, in the case of (c), my “Pray first” approach is relevant here as well. We never know if the subject of our prayers has passed that apostate “point of no return” in which they are beyond repentance as in Hebrews 6.  

Hebrews 6:4-8:  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. 

In another God-coincidence, I just finished an exegetical writing for Bible College yesterday in which I broke down Hebrews 6:4-8 about the point of no return that a person might cross if he slips into irreversible apostasy. My concluding remarks are excerpted here: 

“A chilling example of Christians who may have ‘gone too far’ was one Catholic politician who recently gave a globally-reaching speech to a large, enthusiastic crowd (including many women who were attired in white). The man was wildly applauded when he spoke about the shameful injustice of overturning Roe v. Wade. The women came dressed in white to show their rock-solid support of his position on this supposedly unjust Supreme Court ruling. They leapt to their feet and gave him a standing ovation as he made these ‘how shameful!’ remarks. During an after-action YouTube highlights video, the commentator wondered aloud why the bad guys were wearing white? Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;  Not dressing in white (because we’ve lost the ability to discern good from evil) isn’t the key takeaway here. Only God knows our hearts.”

The key takeaway is actually in the verses that follow Hebrews 6:4-8.  In those verses, the author of Hebrews spoke to a (battle-weary) group whom some people would have judged as being apostate: 

Hebrews 6:10, 17, 19:  For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister…And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end…This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil…

The takeaway was that God wanted the would-be apostates to understand the fact that Jesus is our eternal Hope–and to not lose sight of the fact that they can always run to Him in the thick of any battle, with full access “behind the veil.” Now in 2024 as then, during tough times, they should run to Him. As long as they don’t lose that fellowship with Him, they never risk apostasy and/or not knowing good from evil.

In the meantime, this should be our prayer for the “at risk” ones in white—that they will themselves find that Hope.  Bottom line, it’s probably not a good use of our time to be judging the heart condition of these (“evil = good?” people).  My “Just pray, and ask questions later” recommendation still applies. 🙂

Next Post:  Wrapping Up the Book of James with a Fancy Bow — AKA Hindsight Comments About the Dozens of New Topics James Seemed to Randomly Include…