What Is The “Prayer Of Faith”?

Biblegems #250

Question: What is meant by “the prayer of faith” in James 5:15?

James 5:15 reads, “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.”

Does the “prayer of faith” mean that if you believe hard enough in what you want God will give it to you? Sadly, that turns God into Santa Clause and every prayer request into Christmas morning. Prayer offered in faith, on the other hand, is our response to what God has already revealed.  Faith is “substance” and “evidence” (Heb. 11:1), not blind hope.

For example, Jesus taught his disciples that they could toss a mountain into the ocean if they believed with certainty it would happen:

         Mark 11:23 Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.

Was Jesus worried his disciples would start tossing mountains around like volleyballs simply because they believed they could? No! Biblical faith is based in knowing God and, through that intimate relationship with God, knowing what He wants to do—not what you want God to do for you.

Remember how Jesus prayed at the tomb after Lazarus had already been dead for four days?

         John 11:41-43 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Jesus did not make a practice of throwing mountains around, nor did He make a practice of raising everybody who died. Lazarus was raised, according to God’s plan, for a very specific purpose. Jesus already knew what God was going to do in raising Lazarus form the dead; but he prayed aloud so that those standing around would see Jesus’ intimate connection to God the Father. This is the “prayer of faith”: knowing God’s will before you pray, so that you can ask in confidence (1Jn 3:21-22).

When the elders of the church pray over the sick in obedience to God’s Word, God will often bring healing to both the body and the soul (Ja. 5:13-15). But during such times the Lord may also clearly reveal His intention to heal to one or more present. The person receiving that word from the Lord is to pray aloud, confident in God to do what He has promised. Then “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven” (Ja. 5:15).

In Jesus' Name

Biblegems #57

If we are to pray to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, do my prayers become null and void when I am praying to Jesus and end it with “in Jesus' name, amen”?

Jesus is the name given to us by which we know and approach God at the most intimate and personal level. Keeping our relationship to God personal is what Jesus had in mind even with regard to baptism when He taught us to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. "Jesus" is the personal name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

When you, as a follower of Jesus, pray to the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit, whether you use Jesus' name or not, God knows who you are talking to. He's not interested in correct formulas; He's interested in you! The role of the Holy Spirit is to direct us to Jesus, and Jesus always directs us to our heavenly Father. That's why we pray "in Jesus' name": "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Col. 3:17).

“God the Father” is a description, not a name. It’s accurate, but it is not personal. It’s like saying “Bob the teacher” or “Margaret the librarian”… accurate, but not personal. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is descriptive of God in His character (He is holy) and of His nature (He is Spirit). That’s like saying “the good-natured man.” It describes someone’s character (good-natured) and his nature (human, male).

Even in the Old Testament, when God revealed Himself by name to Moses at the burning bush—“Yahweh,” i.e., “I Am Who I Am”— (Ex. 3:14), He gave a name which described His relationship to Moses and the Hebrew people: “I Am the One who always exists, and who will be with you always.” This name was, and is, personal. In fact, it was so personal, so holy, that the Jewish people would not say it aloud or even spell it out completely, but only use the consonants: YHWH.

Consequently, when Jesus declared to the Jewish people of His day, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58), they understood Jesus was identifying himself with God and they attempted to stone him to death for blasphemy. In effect, Jesus was saying, ‘I am the great “I Am” in human form.’ God in flesh—the final and complete revelation of God that would provide salvation not only to the Hebrew people but to the whole world.

For:

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

Jesus—God, And Praying To God

Biblegems #50

How can Jesus be God if Jesus is “obeying the will of the Father” and praying to God?

This question gets right to the heart of one of Scripture’s greatest mysteries—the Trinity. And we have to be very careful to get this right, because many heresies have risen over the centuries based on misunderstandings of this critically important doctrine.

Scripture teaches Jesus possesses a dual nature as both God and man.

Colossians 1:15-17 declares:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

“Image” means that Jesus is the “exact likeness” of God on the one hand, and God Himself perfectly manifested in the person of Jesus on the other hand. As verse 19 goes on to explain:

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him…

And, as John 1:1 plainly states:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

These are just two of many passages that describe Jesus as being God, yet also being with God as a distinct person. Human beings are spirit, soul and body. We can speak of each of them separately, or as ‘this is who and what I am.’ God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each can be spoken of separately, or as who and what He is.

The Scripture also makes it very clear that Jesus is fully human:

For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people (Heb. 2:17).

And again:

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5),

When God took on human form He did not cease to be God. However, as a human, Jesus willingly surrendered some of His abilities as God. For instance, while God the Father is still able to be present everywhere at the same time, God in human flesh could only be in one place at a time. As it says in Philippians:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross (Phil. 2:5-8)!

As God in human flesh, Jesus placed certain limits on Himself. This necessitated that He communicate to God the Father just as any other human being needs to do. And in doing that, Jesus also demonstrated how human beings were originally designed to live in perfect harmony with the will of God through prayer and obedience.