My Experience with James & God's Healing Hand

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is 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. And 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. Therefore 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.
James 5:13-16

A number of quizzers were asking about this section on Wednesday, and about how God heals in response to prayer. I thought you might find my experience interesting and informative.

About 2 years ago now, I started noticing a pain in my right ankle. It was strange because I had not done it any damage that I was aware of, but it was quite nagging. I ignored it for a few weeks, figuring I had just pulled a muscle, but it would not go away. Finally, I went to the doctor. It was diagnosed as tendonitis (swelling and inflammation in the connecting tissue between joints), and they prescribed a medication to reduce the swelling. I took the full course, two weeks, and no improvement. Saw the doctor again. They prescribed a different medication. Another two weeks, and it got worse. The pain got pretty severe, and started radiating up my leg at night when I was in bed. Finally, I started walking with a cane, and the doctor sent me off to a specialist. They checked everything out, but had no idea. They even did a test where they poked my spine with accupuncture needles, to see what kind of electrical activity was going on. Nothing useful.

Finally, my family called the Elders of the church. (They call them the "Overseeing Board" at our church.) Two elders and a pastor came over to our house, and prayed over me. You will note that James puts in close proximity the idea of "the prayer offered in faith", the healing, and "confess your sins." Before they prayed with me, we talked over any issues in my life that might require confession. We made sure everything had been confessed. Then, they annointed my head with oil (not as weird as it sounds, the pastor dipped his hand in oil and then touched my head) and prayed. They each prayed in turn over me for healing. Then they offered to be there for anything I needed, including any accountability for any matters of sin.

The next day, my doctor scheduled me for an MRI. (MRI stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging - it is a way of getting a 3D image of what is going on inside of your body.) I went in and got slid into the tube, and prayed for about a half hour while they made noises and ran the scanner. Afterwards, I went home and limped back to my room to sleep. The films came back and the doctor suddenly knew the problem! One of the disks of tissue between the vertebrae in my spine had torn and was leaking away from where it was supposed to be. It was pressing directly on the "wiring" for my spine where the signals from the right ankle normally go, so my brain thought my right ankle was hurting. They immediately scheduled me for surgery. I was in the hospital about a week later, and when I woke up from the anesthesia I was already feeling better. It took several weeks of healing after that, but the underlying problem was solved and I was on the way to recovery.

You can see here how God acted for me without working immediately and miraculously. My health problem arose and the doctors could not figure it out for months. Then the Elders came to pray over me and annoint me with oil. They made sure all sin was confessed, and dealt with. Then God opened the way for the doctors, and they were able to heal me with surgery. Not every act of God must be as bold and full of special effects as when He parted the Red Sea. But that does not mean He is not acting. Instead, it may mean God is guiding events with a gentle hand, to bring about the results He promises in scripture.