Unfortunately the call of preachers every-where is, “Rush all your prayer requests to us immediately and we will pray for you!” People who are desperately seeking for some help would not try to find out whether this practice is Biblical or not. Keep your hearts open to see what the Bible says on this important issue.
There were two groups of people in the Old Testament, the priests and the ordinary people. This has had a paradigm shift in the New Testament. Now we don’t have two tiers; we don’t have two classes of citizens in the Church of Jesus Christ. Turn to 1 Peter 2:5, “You also as living stones are being built up,
a spiritual house, a holy Priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” In verse 9, Apostle Peter repeats this truth: “You are a chosen generation, a royal Priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” The repetition here is to emphasize this basic New Testament doctrine. According to the New Testament, there are no two groups of people in the Church called clergy and laity. No! This applies to any Church and any denomination.
All the children of God are clergy! It cannot be proved otherwise from the New Testament. This new order began on the Day of Pentecost. People were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in tongues praising God. The onlookers, unable to understand what was happening, asked the Apostles,
“What is this?” Immediately Peter answered with a prophetic revelation made by Prophet Joel: “In the last days I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:17). That word “all” means, every child of God, which was not so in the Old Testament times. Only the officers or leaders like Prophets, Priests and Kings had been anointed with oil. They were a special category. But now it is on “all flesh!” No sex distinction: “sons and daughters.” No age distinction: “Young men and old men.” No class distinction: “men servants and women servants” (vv 17,18). “Whoever” calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved and anointed! (v21). This understanding of the “priesthood of all believers” is basic to Christian life and ministry. This truth must be restored to the rank and file of our Churches. This is the Reformation truth that Martin Luther in the 16th Century stood for. If you are a Protestant, then you should protest anything that goes against the Bible. You protest anything that is unbiblical.
What is prayer? It is the children of God asking God their Father. That’s what Jesus taught: “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you” (Mt 7:7). He did not stop there. He went one step further, and said, “Because, everyone who asks receives” (v8). The emphasis is on “everyone.” “Everyone” who asks receives. And after that Jesus said, “If you then being evil, know, how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?” (v 11). If you are a child of God, God is your Father and you can directly and freely ask Him.
Jesus, before His ascension, told the disciples, “It is to your advantage that I go away ... I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter” (Jn 16:7; 14:16). Which means, “I am the First Comforter. I am the First Helper. I will send you another Comforter. The Holy Spirit is the Second Comforter. The
Holy Spirit is the Second Helper.” Where are these two Comforters? Where are these two Helpers? The First Comforter is seated in Heaven for us (Rom 8:34). And the Second Comforter is resident in our hearts for us (Rom 8:26,27). Ask yourselves, “Do I need a third Comforter? Do I need a third Helper?”
The Roman Catholics worship Mary who brought forth Jesus into the world. And Protestants hero- worship preachers who bring them to Jesus. Both these groups need to repent. The Roman Catholics as well as the Protestants must come back to the Bible. I want to serve a warning: “If God does not listen
to your prayer, nobody can recommend your case before Him!”
Apostle James in his practical Epistle gives us the right prescription on prayer while suffering. “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? let him sing Psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in
7the Name of the Lord” (Js 5:13,14). If anyone suffers, let “him” pray. The sufferer is the one who is to start praying. If he is perhaps too sick or weak to exercise faith and pray, he can call for the elders of the Church. Here again, it’s not an “elder” but “elders.” It’s in the plural. These are leaders, pastors and
elders. Whichever Church you may belong to, call them. Don’t say that your pastors or elders do not have the gift of healing. That is not what the Bible teaches here. Let your elders pray over you, anointing you with oil in the Name of the Lord. Then, the prayer of faith will save you, and the Lord will raise you
up. God honours the Church leadership.
Then comes the important step of confessing sins “to one another,” and praying for one another that you may be healed (v16). As we set right matters with one another we can experience the healing stream of God. That’s what we read in the Book of Lamentations: “I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer... You have covered Yourself with a cloud that prayer should not pass through” (Lam 3:1,2,8,44). What should we do in such a situation. “Let him sit alone and keep silent, because God has laid it on him” (v 28). This is reflection. Then “let him put his mouth in the dust
that there may yet be hope” (v29). This is repentance. “Let us search out and examine our ways and turn back to the Lord” (v 40). We try to bypass this vital step. When I become sick or go through some suffering, I must pray, I must sit, I must examine myself and I should set matters right. Then I can inform the elders of my Church. Instead of going through these steps, we are trying to take shortcuts.
A word about “anointing with oil.” The Bible does not say, “anoint the oil,” rather “anoint with oil.” It’s not anointing the oil but anointing “with” oil. The Christian ministry becomes a business when the Biblical prescriptions are violated and all kinds of commercialisation of religion creep in. God does not sanctify objects today. I can keep on praying for the oil, even with fasting. Nothing would happen to the oil. It does not get sanctified. We can use oil only as a point of contact to pray for the sick. Attaching sanctity to objects and places is outright idolatry. These are all relics of the Dark Ages. When Christians come back to the Bible, making prayer a business will end.
A mention must be made here regarding the so-called “blessed cloth” also. The Apostles never prayed over cloth pieces and sent them out to the sick. Rather, the people once took hand-kerchiefs and aprons from Paul’s body to the sick. This was not the normal practice. It was “unusual!” (Acts 19:11,12). No such regular practice or prescription.
There’s another unscriptural practice that’s in vogue. Preachers pray over a glass of water and call it “holy” water to be sprinkled around the bed of the sick, on walls and doorposts. This is just paganism. The Scripture that’s quoted to support this practice is John 5:1-9 where we read about the Pool of
Bethesda. John was actually reporting the prevailing Jewish belief concerning the waters in this Pool. Undoubtedly there was no power in that water. That water would have splashed on the sick man so often, everytime someone stepped down into the Pool, during those 38 years! Neither did Jesus help him to get into the Pool!
Every preacher has enough of problems of his own. How can any preacher pray for you, that too with tears, “every day?” Don’t be foolish enough to believe such impractical promises. God does not give more than 24 hours a day to any preacher! As a preacher myself for over 45 years, I tell you, “Beware
of Preachers!”
There were two groups of people in the Old Testament, the priests and the ordinary people. This has had a paradigm shift in the New Testament. Now we don’t have two tiers; we don’t have two classes of citizens in the Church of Jesus Christ. Turn to 1 Peter 2:5, “You also as living stones are being built up,
a spiritual house, a holy Priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” In verse 9, Apostle Peter repeats this truth: “You are a chosen generation, a royal Priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” The repetition here is to emphasize this basic New Testament doctrine. According to the New Testament, there are no two groups of people in the Church called clergy and laity. No! This applies to any Church and any denomination.
All the children of God are clergy! It cannot be proved otherwise from the New Testament. This new order began on the Day of Pentecost. People were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in tongues praising God. The onlookers, unable to understand what was happening, asked the Apostles,
“What is this?” Immediately Peter answered with a prophetic revelation made by Prophet Joel: “In the last days I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:17). That word “all” means, every child of God, which was not so in the Old Testament times. Only the officers or leaders like Prophets, Priests and Kings had been anointed with oil. They were a special category. But now it is on “all flesh!” No sex distinction: “sons and daughters.” No age distinction: “Young men and old men.” No class distinction: “men servants and women servants” (vv 17,18). “Whoever” calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved and anointed! (v21). This understanding of the “priesthood of all believers” is basic to Christian life and ministry. This truth must be restored to the rank and file of our Churches. This is the Reformation truth that Martin Luther in the 16th Century stood for. If you are a Protestant, then you should protest anything that goes against the Bible. You protest anything that is unbiblical.
What is prayer? It is the children of God asking God their Father. That’s what Jesus taught: “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you” (Mt 7:7). He did not stop there. He went one step further, and said, “Because, everyone who asks receives” (v8). The emphasis is on “everyone.” “Everyone” who asks receives. And after that Jesus said, “If you then being evil, know, how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?” (v 11). If you are a child of God, God is your Father and you can directly and freely ask Him.
Jesus, before His ascension, told the disciples, “It is to your advantage that I go away ... I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter” (Jn 16:7; 14:16). Which means, “I am the First Comforter. I am the First Helper. I will send you another Comforter. The Holy Spirit is the Second Comforter. The
Holy Spirit is the Second Helper.” Where are these two Comforters? Where are these two Helpers? The First Comforter is seated in Heaven for us (Rom 8:34). And the Second Comforter is resident in our hearts for us (Rom 8:26,27). Ask yourselves, “Do I need a third Comforter? Do I need a third Helper?”
The Roman Catholics worship Mary who brought forth Jesus into the world. And Protestants hero- worship preachers who bring them to Jesus. Both these groups need to repent. The Roman Catholics as well as the Protestants must come back to the Bible. I want to serve a warning: “If God does not listen
to your prayer, nobody can recommend your case before Him!”
Apostle James in his practical Epistle gives us the right prescription on prayer while suffering. “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? let him sing Psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in
7the Name of the Lord” (Js 5:13,14). If anyone suffers, let “him” pray. The sufferer is the one who is to start praying. If he is perhaps too sick or weak to exercise faith and pray, he can call for the elders of the Church. Here again, it’s not an “elder” but “elders.” It’s in the plural. These are leaders, pastors and
elders. Whichever Church you may belong to, call them. Don’t say that your pastors or elders do not have the gift of healing. That is not what the Bible teaches here. Let your elders pray over you, anointing you with oil in the Name of the Lord. Then, the prayer of faith will save you, and the Lord will raise you
up. God honours the Church leadership.
Then comes the important step of confessing sins “to one another,” and praying for one another that you may be healed (v16). As we set right matters with one another we can experience the healing stream of God. That’s what we read in the Book of Lamentations: “I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer... You have covered Yourself with a cloud that prayer should not pass through” (Lam 3:1,2,8,44). What should we do in such a situation. “Let him sit alone and keep silent, because God has laid it on him” (v 28). This is reflection. Then “let him put his mouth in the dust
that there may yet be hope” (v29). This is repentance. “Let us search out and examine our ways and turn back to the Lord” (v 40). We try to bypass this vital step. When I become sick or go through some suffering, I must pray, I must sit, I must examine myself and I should set matters right. Then I can inform the elders of my Church. Instead of going through these steps, we are trying to take shortcuts.
A word about “anointing with oil.” The Bible does not say, “anoint the oil,” rather “anoint with oil.” It’s not anointing the oil but anointing “with” oil. The Christian ministry becomes a business when the Biblical prescriptions are violated and all kinds of commercialisation of religion creep in. God does not sanctify objects today. I can keep on praying for the oil, even with fasting. Nothing would happen to the oil. It does not get sanctified. We can use oil only as a point of contact to pray for the sick. Attaching sanctity to objects and places is outright idolatry. These are all relics of the Dark Ages. When Christians come back to the Bible, making prayer a business will end.
A mention must be made here regarding the so-called “blessed cloth” also. The Apostles never prayed over cloth pieces and sent them out to the sick. Rather, the people once took hand-kerchiefs and aprons from Paul’s body to the sick. This was not the normal practice. It was “unusual!” (Acts 19:11,12). No such regular practice or prescription.
There’s another unscriptural practice that’s in vogue. Preachers pray over a glass of water and call it “holy” water to be sprinkled around the bed of the sick, on walls and doorposts. This is just paganism. The Scripture that’s quoted to support this practice is John 5:1-9 where we read about the Pool of
Bethesda. John was actually reporting the prevailing Jewish belief concerning the waters in this Pool. Undoubtedly there was no power in that water. That water would have splashed on the sick man so often, everytime someone stepped down into the Pool, during those 38 years! Neither did Jesus help him to get into the Pool!
Every preacher has enough of problems of his own. How can any preacher pray for you, that too with tears, “every day?” Don’t be foolish enough to believe such impractical promises. God does not give more than 24 hours a day to any preacher! As a preacher myself for over 45 years, I tell you, “Beware
of Preachers!”
No comments:
Post a Comment