When a person is sick, the first thing he should do is to discover the cause of his illness. After finding the cause, there are several things to do. One of them is to call for the elders of the church to pray and to anoint him (James 5:14-15). This is the only charge in the Bible for believers who are sick: “Is anyone among you ill? 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 will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, it will be forgiven him.”
When a person is sick, and he has dealt with the Lord about his sickness, one of the things that he can do is to call for the elders of the church to anoint him. This means that he allows the anointing of the Head to flow to him as a member of the Body. He is a part of the Body, and he is asking for the anointing to flow from the Head to him as a member. Some illnesses disappear as soon as life flows through the person. The purpose of the elders’ anointing is to convey the anointing of the Head to the members. Sometimes a person has moved away from the protection and circulation of the Body through disobedience, sin, or other matters. When he calls for the church elders, he is asking to be received once again into the circulation of the Body. He is asking to be placed once again in the Body of Christ and to receive the flow of life.
As soon as a member does something wrong in his standing as a member, the life of the Body stops flowing into that part of the Body. The anointing restores that flow. This is the reason behind the calling of the church elders. The elders stand for the church; they are the representation of the Body in a locality. They should anoint for the Body and bring the anointing of the Head once again to the blocked member. Our experience tells us that this kind of anointing can even heal a seriously ill person. We have witnessed God’s frequent and speedy intervention in things which are humanly impossible. When this happens, the person is healed.
Sometimes there is another reason for illness—individualism. Please remember that individualism is the biggest source of illness. Some people are individualistic; they do things according to their own will. They act by themselves and are always on their own. When God disciplines them, they become ill, and the supply of the Body no longer reaches them. If this is the reason for a person’s illness, he needs to ask for the supply of the Body to flow through him once again.
I dare not say that I have listed all of the reasons for our sicknesses. There are many causes for sickness. Some become sick because they have disobeyed a command of the Lord. Others become sick because they have not fully carried out the Lord’s command. Still others become sick because of a certain sin or because of their individualism. Some are individualistic, yet God does not discipline them. However, there are many people, especially those who know the church, who become ill as soon as they become individualistic. Those who do not know the church have less illness. The more we know about the church and the more we are related to the church, the more the Lord will put us in a situation where His hand will be heavy upon us as soon as we become individualistic.
Sometimes a person becomes sick because he has defiled his body. Whoever defiles his body will find God destroying His temple in that person.
There are many causes for illness, and I cannot give a list of all of them. I can say only that there is always a reason behind any illness. We must always find the cause of our illnesses. There may be one or more than one reason. Once you discover these reasons, you must confess them one by one to God. Then call for the responsible ones of the church, confess to them, and pray together with them. Ask them to anoint you and to recover you to the life of the Body. You will find your illness immediately gone when life begins to flow through you once again. Although there are natural causes for sickness, you must know that spiritual reasons far outweigh natural reasons. Once you take care of the spiritual reasons, the illnesses will leave promptly.