Sermon Central
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God Wants You Well
Contributed by Marilyn Murphree on Sep 9, 2018 (message contributor)
Summary: God wants to heal everyone in spite of doubts
God Wants You Well
By Dr. Marilyn S. Murphree
Chapter 1 The Prayer of Faith
Chapter 2 Binding, Rebuking, and Loosing
Chapter 3 Speak to the Mountain
Chapter 4 The Laying on of Hands and Anointing with Oil
Chapter 5 Why Try to Get it When You Have Already Got It
Chapter 6 Who Cares?
7. In the Name of Jesus
Chapter 8 God Wants you Well
Chapter 1
The Prayer of Faith
James 5:15, “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.”
The prayer for healing is a specific kind of prayer. It is not a begging type of prayer or and if it be Thy will kind of prayer. The verse in James clearly states that the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. It is a clear statement of confidence that the Lord will indeed do something about the problem. Not maybe in His good old time, but He will raise the sick person up. We know of people who say they are praying for you. What does it mean when someone says, “I am praying for you every day, but nothing happens?” You don’t get better and nothing happens? There might be a lot of things taking place, and the healing is blocked for some reason. Maybe it is a prayer just containing empty words or filled with doubt and unbelief. Maybe the person praying doesn’t really believe in healing for today. Is the prayer an effective one or just words?
Another clue is, “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:15). The prayer has to be more than a few words on a piece of paper. There has to be some life in the words. The word fervent is contained here. It is a prayer that means business and expects something to happen.
After the prayer for a sick man, the pastor asks, “Bill, what are you going to do tomorrow?” to which he replied, “Why pastor, I’m going to be right here sick in bed.”
An effectual fervent prayer has a different expectation than that. After the Amen one would hope that a person would see a change taking place. An expectation should be there once the prayer of faith is spoken. Perhaps the person has been prayed for many times in the past and did not see results. It is true this may have happened and disappointment occurred. Scripture says, “Cast not therefore away your confidence which has great recompense of reward.” That is saying, “Hold on to your confidence that the answer is on the way.” Can you hang on a little bit longer when the answer doesn’t come immediately? The prayer of faith is different from a dry lifeless prayer of maybe it will happen. Not the prayer if I wonder if it will happen or maybe it won’t happen today or maybe God won’t do it for me. That is not the prayer of faith. What is faith anyway? Scripture says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). A further explanation is that faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen (Hebrews 11:1 NIV). Or faith is the assurance of things hoped for (English Standard Version).
The prayer of faith will save the sick and God will raise him up. God will indeed do it. God is not a man that he should lie. Another scripture says, “Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17). The devil puts a lot of pressure on us to just give up after it has not happened in a reasonable amount of time. There is not a certain time limit put on the promises of God. The length of time might vary from person to person or problem to problem. Do we have to have a specific time limit put on answers? The main thing is to get the problem resolved and the answer to come. ‘Thy Word oh Lord is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89 KJV).
I Peter 1:25 says, “But the Word of the Lord endures forever.”
The prayer of faith is a prayer of total confidence nd assurance that the answer is on the way. Scripture says, “Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you” ( ). It does not say maybe some day. It says, “Ask and ye shall receive.” Are you asking for something that is within your right to ask for are you asking amiss. Some prayers may need to be reframed. Find some scriptures to stand on that clearly states that it is within God’s will for you. Is healing a promise for you?