James 5:15, commentary and pictures

The prayer of faith saves the sick because the sick are to call for the elders of the church to anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord and pray over them, and the Lord Himself then raises them up and forgives their sins. The prayer of faith is simple, sincere trust of the heart in God's promises and presence, calm and earnest even when appearances point to death, not ritual or excitement. No one who prays heals anyone, for healing of body and pardon of soul come only from Christ, the compassionate and merciful Physician who is present to hear every word prayed in true faith. Prayer for healing must remain subject to God's will and the soul's good, since He alone knows whether recovery would honor Him, so failure to recover does not prove lack of faith. That prayer is joined with confession, humility, obedience and unity, and it works together with faithful care of the body, for God is not glorified in answering prayer while His laws of health are violated.

Calling Elders and Anointing

The sick person is to call for the elders of the church, who are to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord and in the name of the Lord Jesus. That anointing and prayer of faith is for recovery, for raising up, and for forgiveness of sins when sins are present. No one who prays heals anyone, and no human power saves the sick or pardons sin, for both bodily healing and forgiveness of soul come only from Christ as the merciful Physician of body and soul. When human help fails God is the helper of His people, and prayer offered in faith brings recovery because the Lord Himself raises the sick up when His name is called upon. Earnest prayer in faith that the prayer is heard brings Jesus into the sickroom to give healing and peace, relief from affliction, rest from distressing symptoms, and renewed strength and well-being.

The directions are to be followed by setting apart a special season of prayer for restoration, with believers assembling together and uniting in earnest supplication. Hearts are to be softened by the Spirit, with broken hearts, tears, confession and humiliation before God, and with faith claiming God's promises until the blessing comes. Prayers and tears are mingled as the sick are brought in the arms of faith to Christ as one ever touched with human woe who never hears the cry of the afflicted with indifference. The Lord hears such cries and graciously answers for the sake of Jesus, manifesting His presence and power, opening His ear and coming near with forgiveness, light, grace, peace, joy and assurance. Healing then reaches bodily afflictions such as confusion of brain, fever, stomach trouble, pain, soreness, cough, cramps, vomiting, inflammation and distress, so the sick will not die but live to praise God, with health of body and soul, captivity turned to joy, and consecration following.

United prayer of family and friends in faith saves the sick and raises them up even when neighbors have given them up to die and when the sick cannot get well unless God delivers him. The answer may wait through weeks of extreme suffering to try faith, and the sufferer may feel the prayers only protract pain, yet continued united prayer prevails even when those praying feel unworthy. After request for prayer the group anoints in the Lord's name and prays together in faith, and God answers by restoring, removing fever, pain and distress and quickly regaining strength to eat, walk, work and travel. Recovery and forgiveness of sins are thus entrusted to the Lord through faithful prayer.

Healing comes through the power of God resting on one who lays hands on the sick in the name of the Lord and in the name of Jesus Christ and declares wholeness through Him. Believers pray most earnestly for the sick and lay hands upon them, and the Holy Spirit heals in answer to the prayer of faith and the Lord raises them up. No human agency works the miracle, for Christ is the miracle worker who answers prayer. As the Great Physician He enters the home, rebukes disease, removes pain, sets the sufferer free, fills the heart with gratitude and peace, and restores strength at once for rising, travel and work, often in wonderful ways even from hopeless conditions and as from death, accompanied by the filling light and prostrating power of God's Spirit and leading to praise. So one healed after many prayers and weeks of severe illness believed the work was of God when pain left and travel became possible the next day, and another rose at the word to rise in the Lord's name.

Prayer for the sick by the elders should follow Jesus' example and be offered privately and apart from unbelievers in a separate room. Prayer offered amid unbelievers brings reproach on God's cause, while separation allows faith to take hold of God for the blessing. Then the Lord raises the sick person up.

Prayer in the sickroom is to be short, direct, simple and weighted with tenderest sympathy, presenting the suffering ones in faith to the Great Physician. Such brief, direct prayer with faith prepares the way for God's grace to reach the soul, encouraging the sick to trust that God hears and looks on them with compassion. Even unbelievers feel its strange and new influence and realize God can and will hear prayer, a ray of light penetrates the hopeless soul and becomes a savor of life unto life, and what is accomplished will be seen in its great victories in the future world. This double ministration is joined with practical effort to alleviate suffering, with intelligent hygienic treatment, healthful habits, and words of truth spoken in tenderness to those humbled by affliction, giving access to homes, gaining confidence, touching the heart, and tending to health of soul and body. Special prayers are to be offered both when with the sick and when away from them, with no day passing without something done for salvation of souls, not in human strength but in strong faith, assurance and confidence, without coldness or indifference, pointing souls to the Saviour as the only hope and making known truth as the remedy for healing of soul, preparing the sick to inquire about the remedy for sin and give their hearts to God. Prayer is part of ministering for relief and also asks help to overcome appetite.

The rule for prayer for the sick among the church is that those who are sick are to call for prayer. That rule belongs to the commandment-keeping community, who are not to pray for those daily trampling God's commandments except in the special case when such persons are convicted of the truth and decide to act on it.

Earnest prayer for the sick in faith breaks the power of Satan and releases the captive. The prayer of faith brings an answer from God that breaks Satan's power and heals every whit, with rebuke of Satan driving him away and fleeing. When his power is broken over one sick person he may turn to attack another, even a small child with sudden distress in the night, but the same anointing and prayer drives him back after his desperate struggle to seize them, leaving the child well though weak and those who prayed free from his power. So also one suddenly disabled by severe cramps stood and walked and praised God after the group prayed in the Lord's name and rebuked Satan's power.

Character of Prayer of Faith

The prayer of faith is simple, sincere trust of the heart in God's promises and presence, not ritual, excitement, or a means of earning merit or atonement. The divine Healer is present to hear every word prayed in simplicity of true faith, and present disciples are to pray for the sick just as the disciples of old did, with recoveries following now as then. That trust relies on the Holy Spirit with calm assurance that claims God's promises, and the promise applies now as in apostolic times. Prayer for healing is a solemn act calling for careful consideration, and faith must not be confused with presumption.

The prayer of faith is calm, fervent, and earnest, believing the naked promise even when appearances point to continued pain and death, walking out by faith and waiting for God to work in His own time. It is offered in calm faith and submission to God's will, asking for raising up if it accords with His will, glory, and what best honors Him, not demanding recovery or commanding God. God alone knows the sick person's past, future, and heart, including whether being raised up would honor Him or lead to backsliding and apostasy, so the matter is left confidently in His hands as intercession and not a command. Confidence rests in God hearing requests made according to His will and doing what best honors Him, following His word, presenting requests, and trustfully waiting for Him as Restorer to act. Sin and unbelief can hinder prayer, and God's promises are fulfilled toward those who obey Him, while faith is still exercised even when illness appears severe and recovery is credited to God's response to earnest prayer.

The answer does not depend on the holiness of the one called to pray but on true, sincere faith wherever present, even if only the sick person's own faith, which God gathers and answers while the hypocritical prayer falls downward and does nothing. A woman and a minister once prayed and she was healed immediately despite physicians' expectation that she would die, for her sincere faith was effective and the prayer that rose to Jesus was hers, while the minister's corrupt life did not make the healing a sign of his godliness and he wrongly took the glory to himself. The vile minister's prayer is misty and dark and falls downward and does nothing, while the believing sick disciple's prayer, mixed with light like diamond specks, rises upward to Jesus who sends it to His Father like sweet incense, and a beam of light is immediately sent to revive and strengthen the afflicted, even one given up to die of consumption to rise at once and work. God gathers every particle of true faith like diamonds and surely brings a return or answer, while He bears long with the hypocrite and sinner who takes the glory to himself until his folly is made manifest and brought to confusion and God separates the precious from the vile.

The sick person must desire to live and take hold of faith for recovery, with courage, hope, and persistence without murmuring, and brethren are to lift depression and encourage courage when Satan presses disease to destroy faith. The sick are to follow the directions as best they can, act faithfully, and cling to God, with healing promised if it is for the Lord's glory, and even one who had not had faith for herself can begin to take hold of God when prayer and anointing are offered with trust that God might have compassion and save to labor for Him. Receiving the promise calls for courage in the Lord without murmuring or impatience, continuing in hope, trust, and prayer, expecting to see the salvation of God with sweet refreshing seasons from His presence, and rejoicing always without letting clouds shadow the mind. Satan opposes healing by pressing disease heavily, depressing the spirits, and destroying faith and courage, driving the sick to discouragement and despair and to desire death rather than life, and it is not always God's will that the sick should cease from work and lie down in the grave. Earnest petitions offered to God by brethren in behalf of the sick can lift that depression and heavy weight from the heart, and those around the afflicted are to encourage and help them so their courage and strength do not fail while fiercely buffeted by the devil. Lack of comprehension of the deep things of God keeps faith from laying hold, for sickness is held in place by the powers of darkness and not by the Lord. A husband should go to the Saviour in his wife's behalf, ask in faith for Satan to be cast out, believe only, and lay hold of the merciful Healer for her healing, and the sick person is to go to the Lord himself and ask Him to heal the body, to save the soul, and to give blessing in order to do service for Him, taking hold of His promises firmly and drawing upon His strength continually day and night.

The prayer of faith is a great strength that prevails against Satan, turns the soul to God for help to resist temptation, and, like the prayers of Elijah, Jacob, and Daniel, brings God's revelation, protection, and deliverance. It is a sure source of strength for the Christian and will prevail, turning the soul to God for help and strength to resist Satan, so that treating it as useless leaves a person less able to withstand temptation. Fervent prayer to God brings help through Jesus, and Satan fears it because it defeats his efforts, while prayer joined with faith and self-denial brings God's help as a weapon for resisting every assault of the enemy. As with Elijah and Jacob, devoted people who plead with God in faith may see God reveal Himself and bring results through their prayers, and deliverance from the power of evil comes only through God's power granted in answer to earnest prayer of faith. Daniel's continued prayer, even when it led to the lions' den, illustrates that power, for God sent an angel to protect him and Daniel was brought out unharmed.

The prayer of faith is joined with humility, confession, unity with God and one another, and obedience, and it unlocks heaven's treasury with assurance that God hears, loves to help, and works through the believer. Wrongs such as sowing discord among church members should be confessed before God and the church, after which the sick may be presented to God earnestly and in faith, as the Spirit moves, and this prayer is connected with practicing the truth and living in unity with God and one another. The prayer of faith is the key that unlocks the treasury of heaven, and committing the soul to God carries the assurance that He holds Himself responsible to hear and answer supplication. He invites coming to Him and bestows His best and choicest gifts to supply great need, because He loves to help, and trusting His wisdom and power gives faith, peace, and comfort. Opening the heart to the Spirit of God allows the Lord to work through the believer and bless his labors, and the Lord hears and answers these prayers for restoration to health, blessing the use of remedies when His people humble themselves before Him and cleanse their lives from defilement.

Praying for the sick is too important to handle carelessly or coldly, and praying for the sick is only one part of Christian duty, not proof that those who lead in it are the only persons of faith. It means taking everything to the Lord, telling God all weaknesses and naming each perplexity, and when in sorrow or uncertain what course to pursue, two or three who are accustomed to pray should unite in asking the Lord to let His light shine and to give special grace, and He will respect their petitions and answer their prayers. When under infirmity of body it is right to trust in the Lord and pray in one's own case, and to ask others in whom there is confidence to unite in prayer to Jesus as the mighty Healer, and help will surely come if the asking is in faith, which rebukes being faithless, cold and lukewarm. The Lord will certainly hear prayer for the sick and suffering, both those diseased in body and those diseased in soul, so the call is to engage more in praying for the sick, and faith for this work strengthens only by exercise, so more faith is needed. The prayer of faith comes from the faith of Jesus, which takes in His whole life and divine character, so the work must not be made exclusive by making everything of one or two who lead out in it, counting others of little account because they are less zealous in it, or leaning on one person's feelings and judgment instead of learning duty from God for oneself, for those who lead in praying for the sick are not thereby the only people of spiritual account or influence.

Healing Promised by the Lord

The prayer of faith saves the sick because the Lord Himself raises them up when His name is called upon with anointing with oil in the name of the Lord Jesus. No person who prays heals anyone, no human power saves the sick, and no human power pardons sin or saves the sinner. Healing of the body and forgiveness of sins come only from Christ, the merciful physician of body and soul and the great miracle-worker to whom all glory belongs. Simple fervent prayer for healing belongs with treatments given to the sick, pointing sufferers to the compassionate Saviour and Advocate in the heavenly courts whose gracious providence can restore those who repent, cease to transgress God's laws, confess sin, receive pardon, and submit themselves to Him. Prayer with the sick is a privilege to be practiced much more often than it is, especially in sanitariums where more prayer would strengthen and bless many more people and heal many more acute sicknesses.

Christ remains the compassionate Healer, present to hear every word prayed in simplicity of true faith. He has empowered His church to do the same healing work He did, so present disciples are to pray for the sick just as the disciples of old did, helping them trust in the great Healer. Recoveries follow now as then, as faithful prayer for the sick is followed by recovery through reliance on the Holy Spirit and calm trust in God's promises. The compassionate Saviour still listens today as when He walked visibly among people, and is willing to hear and grant in answer what He would not bestow if they did not ask.

Immediate recoveries illustrate the promise, as when prayer following James's directions was followed by sleep, the end of a severe cough, and gratitude for heaven's blessing. After brethren prayed, rest in faith was followed by waking with the cough gone, bringing praise to God. Prayer and anointing applied to a distressed infant was followed by the child's continual cries ceasing, bringing peace and rest to child and mother. While prayer was offered over Sister Temple with oil poured on her afflicted arm, her pain and soreness left during the prayer, and she was later found in good health. Other answers brought ceasing of fever, cramps, vomiting, inflammation and distress, with renewed strength, healthy color, firm grasp, gained weight, good sleep, and ability to eat, walk, travel, and work the same day.

Healing also comes after prolonged suffering and trial of faith, as when God answered prayer by miraculously sparing a woman whose health had failed and who was near death, making her a living witness to His healing power. Following the directions in James 5 while severely ill with influenza, deliverance from pain and sickness came after a great stretch of faith and was followed by a vision. The answer may wait through weeks of extreme suffering to try faith, when neighbors have given up the sufferer to die and the sufferer feels prayers are only protracting pain, yet continued united prayer of family and friends prevails. After many prayers and weeks of severe illness, laying on of hands in the name of Jesus Christ with declaration of wholeness through Christ was believed to be God's work, pain left, strength returned at once for travel and work, and the soul was filled with gratitude and peace in resting in God and waiting for His salvation. Healing may come in stages with partial relief first and full restoration later, and weakness may continue for a time to test faith.

The promise includes raising up from grave, hopeless, and incurable conditions, often as from death itself. The Lord raises up those given over by physicians to die with disease pronounced incurable, removes afflicting pain in answer to specific request, cures conditions such as dropsy, and spares life for years by a miracle of mercy so the healed one lives to witness to the truth of God's promises. Earnest effectual prayer spared Bro. Gage from death and gave further time to repent of unfaithfulness and redeem the time. Prayer was followed by complete recovery from severe illness and disappearance of a painful eye growth, bringing assurance of God's love. A sick man at the point of death who prayed for mercy and forgiveness, while believers prayed through the night, felt relief and recovered after consecrating himself to keep the Sabbath and serve God, so that the physician credited survival to a higher power rather than medical skill. Prayer joined with humble confession of fault restored Brother Hyde to health. Severe lung trouble, consumption, cholera, brain fever, failing eyes, broken bones, and throat and stomach inflammation are among the conditions healed.

Bodily restoration may come in an instance without addressing forgiveness, as when James gravely ill with cholera morbus was anointed and prayed for together in faith, his fever, pain, and distress left and he quickly regained strength. Frances was healed after the group prayed and a sister in faith took her by the hand and told her to rise in the Lord's name, illustrating healing without saying illness was connected to sin or discussing forgiveness. Restored life does not mean never dying later, for Sister Hastings's infant was left at peace when crying ceased, yet Sister Hastings died about a year afterward. United earnest prayer was followed by a sick child becoming whole and a seriously ill mother recovering health and enjoying good health until her death a year later after faithful witness.

God's answers do not make His laws a limit on His freedom and do not violate His laws, for the natural works together with the supernatural. Miracles are compatible with God's freedom and power. The principle reaches also beyond bodily sickness to the burdened and distressed, for Jesus hears sincere humble prayer in faith and has power to help. Prayer of faith brings strength and grace to overcome harmful appetite, as when prayer for Sister Harris was followed by her stopping snuff with much relief and better health. Those in difficulty should fast and pray to God for trials to be removed and support God's servants with prayer rather than burdening them with difficulties to be settled before God, turning to God in prayer and fasting rather than relying on messengers to settle personal disputes.

Forgiveness Joined With Healing

The promise joins bodily raising with pardon, for when the sick upon the bed calls for the elders to anoint with oil in the name of the Lord and pray the prayer of faith over him, the Lord Himself raises him up and forgives his sins where sin is present. Trusting wholly in that direction rather than applying to earthly physicians alone is reliance on the pledge that the sick will be healed. The healing is done by Christ as the great miracle-worker to whom all glory belongs, not by any human power to work miracles or to pardon. Physicians are therefore to know how to pray in faith while also giving proper treatment, teaching repentance, conversion, and salvation for both soul and body.

The way is prepared by confession of wrongs and faults before God and the church, with broken hearts, tears, humiliation, repentance, and restitution, while believers unite in claiming the promises until the Saviour comes near and opens His ear. Such wrongs as sowing discord among church members are to be confessed before the sick is earnestly presented to God as the Spirit moves. The sick are to be pointed to the compassionate Saviour and Advocate in the heavenly courts who has power to forgive and to heal, who will heal if they repent, cease to transgress the laws of God, humble the soul, do His will, and submit themselves to Him. Then forgiveness brings light, grace, peace, joy, and assurance, and bodily afflictions such as confusion of brain, fever, stomach trouble, and severe pain are healed so the sick will not die but live to praise God, as when after anointing and confession of wrongdoing pain stopped and praise followed. So through the night of prayer the gravely ill man who prayed for mercy and forgiveness, consecrated himself to keep the Sabbath and serve God, felt relief and recovered, with even the physician crediting survival to a higher power rather than medical skill.

Prayer in the sickroom ministers to soul as well as body, for short, direct, simple prayer offered in faith prepares the way for grace to reach the soul. It encourages the sick to trust that God hears and looks with compassion, brings a ray of light and hope to the despairing and hopeless soul, and becomes a savor of life unto life whose great victories will be seen only in the future world. Even unbelievers feel its strange and new influence and realize God can and will hear, and the kneeling physician asking the Great Physician to take the case may make an impression resulting in salvation. Special prayers for the sick, whether present or absent, thus belong to ministry for bodily suffering and for sin, leading to conversion, consecration, Sabbath observance, return to work as a converted man, and service. The same saving reaches the soul after failure and fall into wrongdoing, for the Lord permits fall that lessons otherwise unlearned may be learned, and if there is repentance with confession and restitution He helps to vantage ground, purifying as fire purifies gold by temptation and trial, as Peter was made a better man after his fall, and where the heart is not hardened by disregard of great light such fall brings repentance hiding a multitude of sins.

Submission to God's Will

Prayer for healing is to be offered in calm faith subject to God's will, asking Him to raise the sick to health if it accords with His will, His glory, and the good of the soul. It is earnest intercession, not a command to God, and it must not demand recovery or insist with excitement that recovery must occur. Confidence rests in God hearing reasons and fervent prayers made according to His will and doing what best honors Him, leaving the outcome trustfully in His hands. The sick are directed to seek the Lord in faith and follow the instructions of James 5, for the Lord can heal soul and body and will raise up if it is for His name's glory. Sin and unbelief can hinder prayer, and the promises are fulfilled toward those who obey.

God alone knows the past, the future, and the heart, including whether restored life would honor Him or lead to backsliding and apostasy. He may therefore wisely withhold healing when healing would bring spiritual ruin, for He oversees the outcome and knows motives and purposes of the heart. Failure to recover does not prove the prayer lacked faith, for God may have wise purposes in delaying healing while giving comfort and strength through the Holy Spirit. If He does not raise the sick to health, the request turns to asking for His grace to comfort and His presence to sustain in suffering. A season of prayer may thus bring God's blessing even when the sufferer continues to suffer, with faith looking to Jesus as the source of power rather than to place or treatment.

Trust in prayer does not forbid preparing for possible death, and it is not denial of faith to put affairs in order, counsel and care for family, and use available hygienic measures that support recovery. Patients are to be told truthfully that a power higher than the physician controls their case, with promise to do what can be done and to pray and work for them in hope that God will raise them up, but without false assurance of recovery when it cannot honestly be promised. When recovery cannot be promised, the sick are to be pointed to the loving, sympathetic Redeemer, for faith in the Saviour can bring peace and joy even to one who is dying. Seeking healing requires entire resignation of life or death to God, desiring life only for further usefulness in His vineyard, with active resistance of satanic influences. The prayer of faith saves through the Lord's mighty power where the sick person is, even when elders cannot be present, if healing is best, and God raises up by sending an angel to resist the devil who has the power of death, or by suggesting measures necessary for recovery.

Prayer may be answered with blessing even when the sick continue to suffer or die, and human skill having done all it can, recovery would be as from the dead. Confidence in the Lord as the Great Physician alone able to raise to health can stand alongside a condition so grave that restoration would be like raising from the dead, even when the sufferer nevertheless dies. Prayer offered in faith can bring healing because the Lord raises up the sick, supporting confident prayer for one far away that God can hear and heal and enable continued service in His work.

Faith Joined With Practical Care

Faith and work go together in healing, for prayer does not excuse neglecting methods of restoration according with nature's laws, and to treat such means as forbidden is presumption, not faith. Simple natural means without drugs are to be used to restore the sick, and after treatment is given prayer is to be offered that God will make the effort successful and that Jesus will impart healing power. The promise may be claimed by the consecrated, faithful, intelligent worker who looks to Christ as able and willing to make His loving kindness known, gives God the glory for every healing done, and acts in humility with living faith. The blessing comes through dependence on God and the power of the great Healer working with human effort, and when the human agent feels competent to do the work and leaves out that essential power, decided victories are not gained. God and people cooperate in recovery, and using healthful means does not show lack of faith.

God is not glorified by answering prayer while His laws of health are violated, so disregard of health laws hinders prayer from being fully answered. The prayer is not now more fully answered among God's afflicted people because they are violating the laws of health, and health reform and the Health Institute are designed to prepare the way for the prayer of faith to be fully answered. God does not answer prayers for recovery when He knows restored health would again be recklessly sacrificed to unhealthy appetite, and He will not perform a miracle to undo consequences of knowing abuse of the body. Expecting healing while having abused health and neglected intelligent care is presumption, and it is not a general promise that anyone who comes to a health institution will be cured by prayer. If all were healed that way, few would learn healthful habits.

Prayer should accompany the faithful use of simple natural remedies and good habits, such as pure air, sunlight, pure water, cleanliness, healthful food, rest, exercise, and treatments that relieve suffering and prepare the way for prayer to be answered. Treatment and right habits of living provide relief and also help prevent sickness, while prayer, wise human effort, and the grace of Christ work together in care that addresses both body and soul. The sick should call together believers they have confidence in and ask them to pray, putting trust in God and believing in Christ as the Mighty Healer and Physician who never loses a case, together with faithful and persistent use of simple remedies. Saving and raising up means laying hold of divine power with a faith that will not be denied until the salvation of God is seen, and forgiveness and healing require willingness to do God's will, humility of soul, and confession of sins.

Physicians and nurses are to know how to pray in faith with and for the sick while giving proper treatment, pointing them to the Great Physician and teaching repentance, conversion, and salvation for soul and body. Prayer offered in humble trust can give the sick abiding confidence and may do more for them than medicine, for bringing a patient's case to the Great Physician can be a source of greater help than drugs. The Christian physician kneeling beside a sick person and asking the Great Physician to take the case into His hands may make an impression that results in the sick person's salvation. This joining of prayer, treatment, and instruction gives hope to the afflicted, including those who think their cases are hopeless, and the physician should rely on God for wisdom and use natural remedies rather than depend on drugs to bring health.

Prayer for the sick belongs in sanitariums, medical missionary work, and gospel ministry everywhere, and should be offered more often, including in sanitariums where Christ's healing power can strengthen and bless many and heal acute illnesses. No human power heals the sick, pardons sin, or saves the sinner, for Christ alone heals body and soul. Those serving as gospel medical missionaries are to pray for the sick, meet their needs with nature's remedies rather than drugs, and teach them how to regain health and avoid disease. Many sick people will be healed and regain health, enabling them to advocate the principles of health reform, and prayer joined with rational care and present truth brings healing and converts many.

The verse does not make a sanitarium a place where prayer alone raises the sick, nor does it make sanitariums or medical care unnecessary. The sick also need education in healthful living, nursing care, and treatment near cities, including simple eating, self-denial, sunlight, and other principles that support recovery. After using all available human skill, prayer commits the case to God, asking Him to bless the means used and guide those caring for the sick, and it does not end efforts for recovery but increases earnest labor to use the means His own hand has provided with prayer for sanctified wisdom to cooperate with God. Healing must be wholly God's work, left entirely with Him as a conditional petition confessing that only He knows the heart and whether raising the sufferer is for the soul's good and His glory.

When human help fails, God is the helper of His people, for the prayer of faith saves the sick and the Lord raises them up. In sickness the elders of the church are to pray over the person and anoint with oil in the Lord's name, and trusting God's promises in purity of heart brings the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit to body and soul. Trusting wholly in God means relying on His promise rather than applying to earthly physicians alone, and trusting God in prayer is contrasted with seeking help from satanic and spiritualist agencies. The Lord's help surpasses what an earthly physician can do, as seen when a sick child entrusted to the Lord through this prescription recovered and fast improved. Available remedies are still to be used and, where needed, counsel of an earthly physician, while trust rests wholly in God's promises.

Those healed are to glorify God, not man, for God is the one who does the healing though the answer may come in connection with treatment, and human agents are not to receive the credit. Physicians should do what they can, then ask God to work with their efforts, for God has restored sufferers in some cases and will continue to do so when they are faithful and trust in Him. The gift of health calls for appreciation shown through preserving health and living in a way that helps avoid sickness, and those healed through prayer who continued careless habits and indulgence of appetite suffered again and failed to show appreciation for the Lord's goodness. Added time is to be used to repent and redeem the time, and those healed have a duty to tell other afflicted ones that the Lord will heal those who surrender themselves to God.

Prayer for friends and for the church in need, offered with faith in prayer's power, belongs to the verse's application beyond the sickroom. The prayer of faith is prayer offered for someone in need, asking believers to pray for friends and asking God to raise up the sick. The request for the church and others of faith to pray for healing reflects asking God to restore the sick to health, and the call to pray does not depend on knowing who will ultimately be greatly blessed in God's kingdom.