The Prayer that Saves Souls (Part 1)
Posted by: biblenotes <biblenotes@...>
From: Martin Overfield
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001
The Prayer that Saves Souls (Part 1)
"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. Confess
your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. ... he which
converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death,
and shall hide a multitude of sins." (James 5:15,16, & 20; good to read
verses 13-20)
John Wesley and others have said that God does nothing but in answer
to prayer. To a great extent this is probably true as it relates to mankind
since the Fall. Another has said that the greatest thing we can do for God
and man is to pray.
Here are three basic thoughts that should motivate the Christian to pray
for souls in spiritual need:
1. Heaven and Hell are very real.
2. Souls are never dying, meaning they shall exist forever in one place or
the other.
3. Prayer can truly make the difference for the eternal destiny of a soul.
The above passage from the book of James is rather interesting as it
relates to the subjects of prayer, healing, and salvation.
SIN AND SICKNESS
Sickness came into the world as a result of sin. While we cannot, nor
should we, always associate a particular instance of sickness with sin on
the part of the sufferer, it is safe to say that there would be no sickness
if there were no sin in the world.
Sickness in the physical body is illustrative of sin in the soul. In
other
words, as sickness tends to the death of the body (separation of soul and
body), or at least the lesser quality of life, even so sin is the cause of
death
to the soul (present and eternal separation from God, the source of life).
FORGIVENESS AND HEALING
With these things in mind it is a little easier to understand the words
"the prayer of faith shall save the sick ... and if he have sins they shall
be forgiven him." This does not necessarily mean that anyone who is healed
is automatically forgiven, but it does show us that restoration to physical
health and to spiritual health are both possible in answer to the prayers of
God's people for the one in need. God DOES heal people of sickness when
saints pray in faith.
I would caution Christians not to jump to the conclusion that it is
always God's will to heal. If that were the case, then logically it would
never be God's will for us to die. To teach such things would almost lead
us to believe that every Christian should have the full privileges of Heaven
here upon earth. This would indeed be terrible error!
As God heals the body (our temporal tabernacle) in answer to prayer,
should we not much more believe that God also heals the everlasting soul in
answer to prayer? Is this not what forgiveness is about? God forgives the
sinner, the blood of Christ cleanses him from the pollution of his sin, and
the Spirit of God breaths new life into his soul. He is born again! His
soul is healed of the sickness of sinfulness!
PRAYER AND A SOUL'S SALVATION
To take this a little further, James wrote in this context that if we
see our brother - "Brethren, if any of you" -- turn away from the truth by
falling into sin (This is implied by calling him a sinner in the next verse:
James 5:19, 20), there is something that we can do to convert "the sinner
from the error of his way" and thereby "save a soul from death". That
something, at least in great part, is to PRAY for him in faith for his
salvation.
This is true both for those who may have backslidden and for those who
have never been born again, because I John 2:2 says that Christ "is the
propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of
the whole world." His atonement avails for all sinners who will repent and
put their trust in Him! However, saints are needed who will intercede for
sinners and believe God to answer prayer to save souls from the death of
eternal damnation (the lake of fire "which is the second death", Revelation
21:8).
I don't know how it all works out, but I do know that God saves souls in
answer to prayer. Let us NOT then wait for God to "sovereignly send
revival". Rather let us pray for the salvation of souls and do our best to
cooperate with what we already know IS HIS WILL: "Who will have all
men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."
(1 Timothy 2:4). He is "...not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9).
Though not all will be saved, yet many more could be saved if the saints
would catch the vision and truly get under the burden in prayer.
Yours In Christ,
Martin Overfield
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