Prayer is Powerful to Change Situations

My notes for Pastor's sermon were few. You will find I have edited this sermon.

Today the teaching emphasized only the spiritual side of Isaiah 53 and James 5.  

The Old Covenant was only to cover our sins, and did not include physical and mental healing.   Praise God, Jesus brought us a New Covenant that includes Body, Soul and Spiritual Healing.

However as Pastor spoke, he realized there were many in our congregation who were needing spiritual healing for their habits, addictions, and sins.  Often when these are taken care of; then healing for the body will occur.

Notice James is urging the afflicted to pray for himself.  For others to sing especially the scriptures. 

James 5: 13-16 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.  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 avails much.

For those physically sick, the elders can be called to anoint with oil in the name of Jesus and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and also forgive their sins.

This can be taken a step further to find a trustworthy person and confide in them your sins, and then pray for each other to be healed both spiritually and physically.

We pray for our city, our family and our children, and we continue to believe for this to come to pass.  We pray, "Lord send the Rain," for the Supernatural, and for God to pour out His Holy Spirit and flood our hearts and souls with His abundance of Living Water.

In a body of believers such as our church, there are some who are on various levels of being IN Christ.  Although they have come to Jesus, there are problems in their lives they continue to struggle with.  They are in need of a change in Mind, Body and Spirit.

When there has not been rain, the land is dry and parched, and all are thirsty.

Because of the wickedness of the King and the people, the prophet Elisha prayed that there be no rain,  and for three years there was none.  It was being more difficult to find water for the herds and searches for water had to be made. 

During this time of drought, God took care of Elisha, but finally it was time to deal with King Ahab and pray again for rain.

Elisha sent a message to the King to get ready for there was a "Sound" of abundance of rain.  As Elisha prayed and sent his servant to look, there seemed to be no answer.  After seven times the servant reported, that there was a small cloud coming in from the sea, about the size of a man's hand.  Elisha knew that was enough, so he told the king to head for the palace as a storm was on its way.

There are times when Satan attacks our minds with doubt and unbelief and his lies.  The enemy tells us that God is not really interested in our every day lives.  We can listen to the devil and wallow in our sin and unbelief, or we can find scriptures that tell us of God's abundant love and caring for us. 

Jesus declared that he came to save us from our sins; Notice that Jesus took Isaiah 53 further and vowed to take our sorrow, our grief, our pain, our infirmities, our diseases, our infections, our fractures, our bruises, and bring us total man healing for Body, Soul and Spirit.  Jesus brought us a New Covenant that includes Sozo healing.

Pastor called up the church leaders and placed oil in their hands.  Then he asked those who need "healing" to come forward and be prayed for.  Many came for various reasons and God blessed all who came.