A story about "calling the elders" if sick

When Dawn and I were leading a community of faith in Stafford, I preached one Sunday on James 5v14-15. Although I don’t understand how it works, I believe that “if we do what it says on the box” with the promises in the bible, God keeps them.

14 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. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.

I said to the congregation that if we believe it and do it exactly as the bible says, it will happen. So, I offered that if anyone was sick, thy could send for me…very important that they did this, its no use waiting for me to have a word of knowledge or put them on the pastoral visiting list. Unless the illness prevented it, the person seeking the healing should do the asking, whereupon I would come as one with the role of elder, anoint them with oil, pray for them, and they would be healed. Surprisingly or not, only one person ever had the courage…or was desperate enough, or both, to take me up on the offer…..

…. A few weeks later, on a lovely Summer’s evening, with the help of his wife a guy called Mike rang me to “send for me” from the floor of his lounge where he was laying with a slipped disk or something so wrong with his back that he couldn’t get up. He had had quite a bit of trouble with his back before this. We bundled the children into the car and drove the 3 miles or so to his house. When we got there he was still on the floor, unable to move with pain. In hindsight, I guess he either had to call me or an ambulance. I anointed him with oil, said a no frills prayer, and told him to get up in the name of Jesus. I seem to remember hearing a sort of crack like an electrical discharge, but felt nothing, however Mike immediately got up completely healed by God, and to my knowledge never had another problem with his back. We spent a few moments thanking God, got back in the car and went home again in time to put the kids to bed. It all took less than an hour.

Chris Thompson, 22/01/2008