{"id":6964,"date":"2019-12-30T20:00:58","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T03:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=6964"},"modified":"2019-12-30T23:05:03","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T06:05:03","slug":"james5_12-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/james5_12-20\/","title":{"rendered":"The Key to Praying Powerful Prayers"},"content":{"rendered":"

James 5:12-20 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is James 5:12-20.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

James 5:12 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Above all, my brothers, do not swear–not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, or you will be condemned.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 12:\u00a0\u00a0Years before James wrote verse 12, Jesus would say something similar:<\/p>\n

Matthew 5:34-37 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n34\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;
\n35\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.
\n36\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.
\n37\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, when you are a person of integrity, you don\u2019t need to qualify your yesses and no\u2019s with \u201cI swear to God\u201d or \u201cI swear on my mother\u2019s grave\u201d, because your yes simply means yes and your no simply means no.\u00a0\u00a0The integrity of your words should not change depending on what you swear to or what you swear on.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Be trustworthy and dependable with your words, someone whose promises others can count on.<\/strong><\/p>\n

James 5:13-41 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 13-14:\u00a0\u00a0Do you want a closer, more intimate relationship with God?\u00a0\u00a0Do you want to experience more of His power working in your life?\u00a0\u00a0No matter what situation you\u2019re facing today \u2013 trouble (v13), happiness (v13), sickness (v14), sin (v15), good, bad \u2013 bring it to God in prayer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

James 5:15-16 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 15-16:\u00a0\u00a0Whenever you pray for someone who is sick, remember this promise: \u201cthe prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0But what if you prayed but the person didn\u2019t seem to get better?\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ve stopped counting how many sick people I have prayed for in my lifetime.\u00a0\u00a0In some cases, the healing we prayed for came immediately.\u00a0\u00a0In other cases, the illness or infirmity we were praying to heal remained.\u00a0\u00a0But even in those cases where the healing did not come the way we asked for, those times of prayer still always seemed to encourage the person being prayed for and lead that person closer to God.\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps that\u2019s part of what verse 15 means when it says \u201cmake the sick person well\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0In some cases, God was doing something even more important than healing that person\u2019s physical sickness; He was using the sickness as an opportunity to lead that person to Himself.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So don\u2019t stop praying for those who are sick.\u00a0\u00a0Just believe that the prayer offered in faith God will make the sick person well.\u00a0\u00a0God will use the prayers you offer in faith to do something great no matter what.<\/strong><\/p>\n

James 5:17-18 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 17-18:\u00a0\u00a0As an example of how \u201cthe prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective\u201d (v16), James cites the prophet Elijah whose prayers on multiple occasions affected the rain.\u00a0\u00a0Yet notice that James did not call Elijah anything special like a \u201cprophet\u201d or a \u201cman of God\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, he says, \u201cElijah was a man just like us\u201d (v17).\u00a0\u00a0In other words, the power of prayer is not something that only an elite few can access.\u00a0\u00a0Anyone who has trusted in Jesus\u2019 blood to save them is righteous in God\u2019s sight and has the ability to pray powerful and effective prayers.\u00a0\u00a0The key to answered prayer is to pray with faith and with a heart that is sensitive and aware of how God thinks and feels toward the situation you are praying for.<\/strong>
\n
\nJames 5:19-20 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back,
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 19-20:\u00a0\u00a0The most important thing you can do for another person is to lead them to a safe place with God.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus did that for us.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0When all of us had wandered from the truth, Jesus gave His life to bring us back to God.\u00a0\u00a0Similarly,\u00a0when you spend your life for the sake of bringing God\u2019s lost children back to Himself, it is the most powerful, wonderful, meaningful and valuable way to use the life that God has given you<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0Who is someone God wants you to lead a little closer to Himself today?<\/p>\n

This brings our look at the book of James to a closer.\u00a0\u00a0Go back and take a look at the most important lessons you learned in this book.\u00a0\u00a0How is God using this book to speak into your life?<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, You are so dependable and faithful.\u00a0\u00a0I praise You that we can count on every word You say.\u00a0\u00a0When I pray for sick people, may I pray with faith not in my own ability to heal, but in Your promise that the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well.\u00a0\u00a0May I use this life for the greatest purpose of all: to lead others to know You.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is James 5:12-20.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

James 5:12 (NIV)\u00a0
\n12\u00a0\u00a0Above all, my brothers, do not swear–not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, or you will be condemned.<\/p>\n

On verse 12:\u00a0\u00a0Years before James wrote verse 12, Jesus would say something similar:<\/p>\n

Matthew 5:34-37 (NIV)\u00a0
\n34\u00a0\u00a0But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;\u00a0
\n35\u00a0\u00a0or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.\u00a0
\n36\u00a0\u00a0And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.\u00a0
\n37\u00a0\u00a0Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6964"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6967,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6964\/revisions\/6967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}