Faith Brings Healing - James 5:14-16

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 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.

Miracles attend faith. Why? Because the gifts of the spirit attend those of faith; Including the gift to heal and the gift to be healed. (1 Corinthians 12:7-11, Moroni 10:8-18) I have seen the gift of healing work numerous times, and it is done on behalf of the faith of those asking for the healing. The important thing about faith is that one attains the will of God before asking for the blessing. I guess what I'm saying is that we should approach these things with an attitude of "Thy will be done" - asking for His will to be done is always the correct approach, since nothing will ever come to pass except it be His will. And we must seek to align our will with His.

The seeker of a miracle should first have a belief in the power of God. That He has the power and ability to do the thing that is needed. (This belief is fundamental.) Next the seeker should pray to know His will. And be assured that the answer will come. Finally, having ascertained the will of God concerning the matter the seeker now has promise in which to place their faith - because He is a God of truth. The seeker then would call those with authority (the Elders of the church) to perform the anointing and blessing.

Every circumstance is different, but the steps are roughly the same. Faith is a belief in a promise from God. Obtaining such promise, is in my opinion fundamental to faith. Again, every circumstance is different - it may take months or years to understand His will concerning a matter, or it may take only a matter of minutes. But I don't believe that we're expected to believe in a miracle or other blessing without first obtaining His promise. I want to point out here that the promise may not be easily recognizable; it may simply be nothing other than an urge to have a blessing performed. The point is to follow such feelings and not doubt or dissuade ourselves from them.

Note that there are also promises which are based on us keeping certain parts of a covenant; Where the Lord has offered certain promises to those who keep certain laws. One such is that if we honor our parents, we will live a long life (Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 6:2), Another is the promise associated with paying tithes and offerings - which is that we will have enough and to spare (Malachi 3:10). In fact there is a principle in which every blessing is based on either our asking for it, or performing the law associated with the blessing:

There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.(Doctrine and Covenants 121:20-21)

Finally, I want to address the final promise given in this scripture concerning the healed person which is that  if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. This amazing promise is exemplified in the story of Jesus' healing the man with the palsy:

And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him.
And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.
And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.
And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?
But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?
Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?
But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.
And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. (Luke 5:18-25)

What's interesting here is that it is not necessarily the healed person that showed faith, and yet they are the ones that receive forgiveness of their sins. It is similar in the case of a person converted, or the receiver of a charitable act, those acts carried out by the faithful can have the effect of cleansing the receiver. (James 5:20, 1 Peter 4:8) To me, this seems strange since it seems that the receiver of the gift (healing, charity, etc.) has done nothing to warrant forgiveness of sins, however, it occurs to me that an honest receiver is in fact changed by the receipt of the gift if their heart is in the right place.

Take for example, the old Charles Dickens tale Great Expectations, where a young orphan performs the simple act of giving food to an escaped convict. That simple act has such an effect on the convict that he completely changes his life.

It occurs to me that the receipt of any gift from God, can quite literally change us, and in fact "hide a multitude of sins" if we recognize the true source of the gift (and all gifts for that matter). So you never know how an act of kindness or faith, no matter how small can affect the life of another for good. Truly, we live in a vicarious universe, where no act, good or evil is performed in a vacuum. All acts ripple into other's lives and quite literally into the eternities. This is a topic which I feel strongly about and must discuss further in another post.