My internet feed is full of items that I must purchase to be healthy, wealthy or wise, of people living the dream whether it be travelling, dining or living in luxury, or of fake-happy celebrities with attention-seeking antics. The inauthenticity of such happiness assaults us everywhere we look resulting in so many people hooked on this artificial and temporal reality.
Not so the readers to whom James addressed – the saints of the first century who sought an ‘unseen and eternal’ primary reality (2 Cor. 4:18). In this modern world it may feel daunting to set aside tangible outcomes and visible successes and live a life that shows the authenticity of our faith by displaying actions that are related to a Kingdom reality.
James reminds us that we show the reality of our faith by living in kindness to others and living in obedience to God’s commands in the face of opposition, but more than that – our focus on the eternal reality will result in changes to the face of ‘that which is seen’. Faith results in eyes for the heart and we then live from the invisible to the visible.
Jesus expects us to live from the unseen realm. Remember how Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees because they could discern the weather but they couldn’t discern the times? (Mk. 16:2-4). They were blind to the dominion of Jesus because their hearts were set upon present reality.
We are born again by grace through faith and this enables us to see from the heart. The Holy Spirit will open our eyes as we abandon ourselves in worship and we will see and understand things in the kingdom realm that our everyday minds couldn’t grasp.
Just look at the Psalms. There is David abandoning himself in worship and the words he has written show us that he was aware of and saw in the Spirit the constant Presence of God. He saw God as only good and that changed his reality. For example, he saw sickness to the body as sin is to the soul so no disease could terrorise him: “He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases” (Psa. 103:3).
Unbelief makes the visible world of more importance and relevance than the invisible realm.
I’ll just finish with these words from James that I think sum up the link with faith, prayer, healing and forgiveness:
13 Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. 14 Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.
16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. (James 5:13-16).
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Sermon 8.9.24 on James 2:14-26 8am Traditional Service - YouTube
All quotations are from the NLT.
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