A faith-filled heart can pray and see things change. Abraham, Elijah, David, Hannah and others knew the power of prayer. Are you in unbelief? Ask Jesus to help you with that. World needs to know that we are alive in faith . (James 5:13-16)

Speaker: Thomas Schaller
Sermon: 12615
7:00 PM on 11/12/2023

P. Schaller –

Okay. Would you turn with me to James 5. Miles is studying at Notre Dame I think or where? Loyola or
where, Miles? I’m sorry? Notre Dame. So, he is a freshman. Graduate of GGCA, but then he’s
working in the café here and song leading. Fine young man, huh? Yes. Beautiful. All right.
James 5:14, we’re going to look at this text tonight. Before we start, I want to welcome the
folks that traveled 12.5 hours.

So, P. Gordon Colby in Turner, Maine has been ministered to people that have moved to the United States from other countries, and he’s been investing in them. He put them in a van and told them just a short trip and he’s doing a good job. Would you folks like to stand up so we can welcome you? Thank you. Great. Very happy you are here
from Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and then Republic of Congo. Okay. Three
different countries. We just are glad you are with us tonight.

So, we have prayer has been our theme for the last few sermons. And I have to be honest with
you tonight that I have – I’ll tell you a story. When we were missionaries in Finland, we learned
this from Dr. Stevens that we would have prayer meetings, healing meetings. Healing meetings.
Prayer meetings and healing meetings. Pastor said you must pray for the sick. So, when we
went there I had my doubts about it but decided to do that. So, we advertised in the newspaper
in the Helsinki…paper which is like the New York Times of. Healing meeting. American.
Evangelist. Healing meeting and so people would come, and we would pray for the sick by faith.
We would do it every six week or so.

People would come to those meetings. They wouldn’t come to other meetings, but they would
come to those meetings because people are sick, and they have faith. And they believe. And
sometimes people were healed. Sometimes they weren’t healed. Sometimes they were healed.
Sometimes they died. And I had to deal with that in my heart. I had to think about it. Most
churches do not pray for the sick. They do not have prayer meetings. Many churches do not.
Charismatic churches do. Pentecostal churches do and we do. We think about it.

We know – I read this piece. It takes me a little bit to find it. I got a lot of papers here. Give me a
minute. Coming to the end. Thank you. Thank you. This is from Samuel Chadwick. “The subject
of divine healing is always with me.” I love that. I love that. You’ve known if you’ve been with us
for a while, I think of faith like this. On one side of a coin is faith and what’s on the other side?
Doubt. Is there a time when there will be no more doubt? Yeah, in heaven. There will be a time
when there will not be any more faith. There won’t be a need.

Everything is clear. We don’t even need the sun or the moon for the light will be everywhere equally, infinitely. No shadows. I think of a shadow is a gray area. Isn’t it? A shadow. There’s light there but in different degrees
of light. I think life is like that. We have different degrees of persuasion. Different degrees of
enlightenment. Different degrees of faith. There are times when our faith is tested.

Okay. “The infirmities of the flesh have kept continually among the problems of my faith. In the
work of a pastor, there’s no escape from it. Invalids look at the statement of the Apostle James
concerning the prayer that heals the sick.” That’s where we turn to tonight.

I don’t know if they put it up yet. James 5:13. We’ll read that text in a minute. “Some are healed
by the prayer of faith and if one, why not another? If some, why not all? I have searched the
Scriptures from end to end, again and again that I might know the truth. I have not found the
subject easy of solution. There is healing through the prayer of faith. The truth of this is
confirmed by many witnesses who are both sane and saintly.

There are those to whom is given the gift of healing and they lay hands upon the sick and they
recover. I myself have been healed through the power of faith. In my ministry, I’ve been used of
God for the healing of the sick. I’ve never exercised the ministry of healing except at the urgent
request of the sick and a sure constraint of the Spirit. In other cases, I’ve been quite helpless.
There are those for whom I would have given my right hand if I could have prayed them to
health, but I’ve had to see them suffer and die. Some have suffered untold anguish of mind
because they sought for healing in vain. That has been my problem. “

“When I was a young minister, one of the workers of the church was stricken with disease. We
claimed the promises, and some of the best people I’ve ever known prayed earnestly and
believably for his recovery. We refused to believe that faith could fail. He died while we prayed.
The shock to our faith was overwhelming. A sister of my own was an invalid for many years.
Devout souls distressed her by the arguments Job’s comforters had hurled at him. Together we
searched the Scriptures, inquired of the Lord, beseeching him that she might be healed. The
Lord answered in a vision, gave her peace but not healing. I could multiply such instances on
the one side and on the other and it may be that others have been similarly perplexed.”

I like this because it’s reality and I like that. But in the reality is also our faith and what the
Scripture says to pray for the sick. It’s chapter 5:13-15. Now, this is what I want to say about it. I
believe this. I believe it. And I need to teach it to you. I know you believe it because faith grows
with the Word. We have faith. We believe.

Yesterday, I wasn’t in D.C. but the group that went told me about it, and I’m thinking about
Jewish people. And I’m thinking of the Bible and I’m thinking of faith, and I see the hand of God
in our time in history and I’m very excited about the times we are living. I also am excited about
our church. Because I know that God has sent us into this world to be people of faith, people of
prayer, people that believe God is in Israel and has a plan for the Jewish people.

We have seen the power of the Gospel. We have seen what the Gospel does in changing
somebody. We have seen deliverance from bad habits and drugs and addictions and these
kinds of things. We have seen healings. We have seen them on the mission field. We have seen them here at home. We have seen them through our lives. It’s real. And God is our Father and
God cares for us. And why he doesn’t heal one and heals another I don’t know but I know he
heals, and he heals another and he does it. But the people not healed does not deter me from
believing but knowing that God’s ways, God’s work, and that we are called to faith and to
prayer. Earnest prayer. It sees that here. Let’s read it.

James 5:15, really? Yes, he said it. Yes, he said it. There were times I remember on the mission
field there in Finland when we would do it and the room was anointed. The room was filled
with faith. There were people that came. I remember. I remember a woman who had a tumor
in her breast and had the hospital diagnosis and had to go back in. She felt the warmth go
through her body. She went to the restroom to examine herself, and she couldn’t believe it. The
lump that was there was gone. It was gone.

Those stories that are amazing and that we are believing God with earnest and fervent prayer.
We keep our focus on his love. We believe him and we just know he can do this. He wrote the
Scriptures to teach us this. Can I stop it from raining? The Lord could say to us. Yes, Lord. Elijah
did. Three and a half years and it stopped. How did it start? Elijah prayed and it started. What
am I saying to you? You’re saying to us that we can pray. That you hear us. Abraham prayed for
Sodom and Gomorrah. We know that David prayed when he went into battle. We know that
Paul taught us to pray for the saints and pray for each other and we carry each other in our
hearts, and we pray fervent prayers, and they change things.

Young people, they need help. They need encouragement. They need prayer. Older people. We
need it. We need the prayers of the saints. We need the encouragement. We need answers.
We need God to be our Father. I love that picture. Father. Father. It’s beautiful. The Father. He
is strong. What is the Father? He is strong. He is an authority. What he thinks is important. He is
kind. He is tender. He is compassionate. He is sympathetic. He is caring about his sons and his
daughters. How are you doing? How can I help you? I will tell you the truth. I will lead you. I will
guide you.

Well, God is our heavenly Father, isn’t he? And he’s telling us that he will answer our prayers.
He is. He’s saying to us, ask me. I will answer. Sometimes people are so busy talking about other
people it might be better to just be quiet and pray to God who can change a life. Pray to God
who will hear a prayer. Pray to God that will help someone find him and know him. Amen. The
prodigal needs to come home. The prodigal needs to come home.

George Mueller was a great man who had an orphanage. I have a story here about one of the
miracles that happened with his orphanage. They had no food in the morning, and maybe
you’ve heard of it. “He told me of an occasion when he was a guest of Mueller at the orphanage
one night. When all the household had retired, he asked Pearson to join him in prayer. He told
there was absolutely nothing in the house for the next morning’s breakfast. My friend tried to remonstrate with him and to remind him that all the stores were closed. Mueller knew all that.

He had prayed as he always prayed, and he never told anyone of his needs but God. They
prayed. At least Mueller did and Pearson tried. They went to bed and slept. Breakfast for 2,000
children was there in abundance at the usual breakfast hour. Neither Mueller nor Pearson had
ever knew how the answer came.

The story was told the next morning to Simon…under pledge of secrecy till the benefactor died.
The details of it are thrilling. But all that needed to be told here is that the Lord called him out
of bed in the middle of the night to send breakfast to Mueller’s orphanage. Knowing nothing of
the need or the two men at prayer, he sent provisions that would feed them for a month. That
is like the Lord God of Elijah and still more like the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Great story, isn’t it?

Amen. Praise the Lord! He answered the prayer. He did. He answered the prayer. Yes, Lord. Can
you answer our prayers? Yes, he does. So, this other story I remember reading was that Mueller
prayed for 63 years for somebody. Mueller died. At the grave, that man was standing there.
When George Mueller was put down into the grave, the man that he had been praying for, for
63 years started to cry, and said I believe in Jesus Christ now. Wow. Isn’t that beautiful?
I don’t know when God will answer our prayer. I don’t know how he will do it. I don’t know if he
will do it. I just know he told us to pray and not faint. I think we do faint. I think we get so
distracted and filled with ourselves and we get rationalizing and thinking, but last week we
talked about entering the closet and shutting the door and being in the fellowship of the Trinity
and waiting on God and for God to put it in our hearts to believe him. I have faith but I also
have doubt but the man said to Jesus remember in Mark 9 – Jesus said I will do this if you
believe, and the man I think he kind of got a little nervous. He said Lord I believe but help my
unbelief. Like please heal my son. I believe but you know I don’t believe a lot. Help my unbelief.
That was enough.

So, in this text here in chapter 5:15, I do think sometimes our sins are the cause of our sickness.
Our sins affect our nervous system. Our sins affect our minds and our hearts and our bones and
our liver. Remember. It happens in the Gospels sometimes. Sometimes, the sickness is from the
devil, Acts 10:38. Remember in Luke 13, the woman had been bent over like a hairpin for 18
years or 13? And Jesus said this is the devil that’s doing this.

I do think that sins need to be forgiven. They need to be confessed. I think sins may be the
cause of some of our problems for sure. I think that the forgiveness comes in and the healing
comes in and then the body can be healed. The soul is healed. And if you have any of that
happening in your life, then just keep coming to the local assembly and God heals us. I believe
that. Maybe nobody even knows about my real condition. But I come into the assembly, and
there in the assembly I’m submitted to God as our Father and the Spirit anointing us and the Spirit speaking to our heart. He might say get that thing settled in your heart. Bring it before me
in the closet. Bring it before me and I will heal you. And what happens in secret will be
rewarded openly. He said that in Matthew 6.

Okay. Let’s look at vs. 16 here. This is not our sins. It’s like our weaknesses. You do it wisely just
with some confidante. A person who is not gossiping or talking but wisely you confess your
fault. A fault could be something like pray for me. I do struggle sometimes with unbelief. Pray
for me. I have some, I have something in my heart that’s bothering me. I can confess my fault to
a counselor. Because healthy fellowship, healthy people, the healing of God that happens in the
soul and the body and this has to do with the truth, the Spirit ministering truth to us in our
hearts. Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water and a man of understanding will draw it
out in Proverbs 20:5.

If we were one day with Jesus Christ, if we walked with Jesus Christ for one day in the Gospels,
what do you think would happen to you? If you are walking with Jesus for one day in the
Gospels. It would be, it would be a little scary. It would be refreshing. Deeply motivating for we
have the same Spirit. It would be enlightening. It would be helpful. I want to be with him the
next day. I want to go with him the next day. I’d like to be with him because that’s what it
means that we are walking with God and the Holy Spirit is with you in your heart, in your life for
our healing, for our promotion, for our encouragement, for our understanding, for our words,
for our attitude.

We are believing that yes Jesus could heal. Yes, Jesus could help me. Yes, Jesus will – I
remember when he was in Gethsemane. He said couldn’t you pray with me one hour,
remember? Couldn’t you pray with me one hour? What does it mean? It means that he knew
what prayer could do. He knew. He wouldn’t stop. He wouldn’t turn. He wouldn’t faint. He
knew what God the Father could do in a second and he knew that. So, this is encouraging to us I
believe.

Look at vs. 16. Have you prayed for somebody that you don’t like? Have you prayed for
somebody that you have an attitude. They’re in your little black book. Turn to your neighbor
and ask your neighbor. How many names are in your little black book? Do you have a little black
book? Have you prayed for one another?

Seriously. Seriously, we know of problems maybe, but have we prayed, you know. We know of
problems maybe, but have we prayed. I pray for God to give me courage sometimes. I pray for
God to help me. I know my weaknesses. I pray sometimes for maybe a passive or sleepy
attitude or laziness in my heart of some kind. I want Jesus to come on, Lord. Make me fervent.
Make me fervent. Move me, Lord Jesus. This isn’t human. This is Jesus. You are the God of fire.
And you make your angels spirits and ministers a flame of fire. Isn’t that amazing? That we
would care about reaching the world with the Gospel and never tire of it. Never tire of it.

It’s too big and abstract, but then on the other hand, when we see it or when we go or when we
know about it, we can carry it in our heart. John Knox, give me Scotland or I die. Hudson Taylor.
I want all of China for Christ. William Carey in India with a serious, fervent heart. Passion.
Passion. For a young man to have fire and passion in his heart. Nothing will stop him cause he’s
asking Jesus to do this. He is praying. He has a prayer life. And the prayers are being answered
from heaven and the angels are part of it. The Spirit of God. The waking up. The walk of faith.
The encouragement that comes from prayer from the Spirit.

Vs. 16. It does. Say the prayer and then say, amen Lord. Amen. Have you ever said a prayer –
I’m going to finish. Have you ever said a prayer for Uncle Bob and Aunt Dorothy, and you said
the prayer and just kind of went through the names and everything and then you just stop. The
Lord says to your heart, do you actually care about Uncle Bob and Aunt Dorothy? And I go,
woe! You’re right. I don’t care about them. I just say the prayers. I just say the prayers. This is
us. This is us. This is how it goes in life.

Life is filled with many corrections. Many things that help govern. Like driving a car, you’re
always correcting yourself. You’re always – when you drive a car, you got the mirror, the
blinkers, the gauges, the meters, the instrument panel. You go the gas. You’re always checking.
It’s like life for us is that I don’t care about Uncle Bob, so I tell God that. Lord, you’re right. I
don’t care about my Uncle Bob. That’s not good cause you care about him. Thank you, Jesus.
Bless him. The Lord says, are you serious? I go, I am serious, Lord. I am now serious about it. He
needs help. Please help him in Jesus’ name. Okay. Now we’re talking. Right?

I just hope that some of these things are helpful for us because we’re in a world that needs God
and they don’t need our form, our exercises, our drills. They want to know are we alive? We are
alive. They want to know do we love? And we can say we do without hypocrisy. Not in word
only but in word and deed. That’s the joy of our fellowship. That’s why we’re here tonight cause
we found Jesus and Jesus is here with us and in us and says these things to us. These prayers
don’t underestimate their value.

One last little story about a healing. This man was a preacher. He was a preacher, and his name
was Mr. Tyndall. And his voice went. And he was president of the convention and then he got a
disease in his throat. “For more than a year, he could not speak above a whisper and even
when he did, it was painful. The specialist gave no hope of recovery. In all the meetings, he was
pathetic and silent. Prayer was offered always.”

“At the speakers’ prayer meeting on the Friday morning, there was remarkable intensity and
unity of faith. Nobody could pray for anything but the recovery of his voice. Faith gathered
courage for God impossibilities and claim the promise. The president who presided he rose up.
Everybody got up from their knees and Mr. Tyndall stayed praying.” The presiding person said,
“This is the most remarkable prayer meeting I have ever known and placing his hand on the president’s head, he declared the name of the Lord that we would hear Mr. Tyndall speak in the
tent before the convention closed.

That night, he spoke in the tent for fifteen minutes and was heard by 1,200 people, and he preached without loss of voice until the end of his life. I was present and saw and heard and there are those still alive who confirm this testimony.” I have one more story. These are good. I got this right here. “E. Stanley Jones was a missionary
in India. He had a breakdown physically, emotionally. His nervous system was broken down and
he said unless I get help from somewhere, I have to go back to America and work on a farm and
try to gain my health. It was one of my darkest hours.

I was in a meeting in Lucknow, India. While in prayer, not particularly thinking about myself, a voice seemed to say, are you yourself ready for this work to which I have called you? I replied, no Lord. I’m done. I’ve reached the end
of my rope. The voice replied, if you would turn that over to me and not worry about it, I will
take care of it. I quickly answered, Lord, I close a bargain right here. A great peace settled in my
heart and pervaded me. I knew it was done.

Life, abundant life took possession of me. For days after that, I hardly knew I had a body. I went
through the days working all day and into the night and came down to bedtime wondering why
in the world should I ever go to bed at all? For there was not the slightest trace of tiredness in
my body. I seemed possessed by life and peace and rest, by Christ himself. Nine of the most
strenuous years of my life had gone by since then and the old trouble has never returned. I’ve
never had such health. I’ve seemed to have tapped new life for my body, mind, and spirit. Life
was on a permanently higher level, and I have done nothing but take it.” Yeah. Good word. I
think you got the message tonight. Yes. Would you pray with me. (Prayer)

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