God Uses Imperfect People in Mighty Ways (Episode 109)

If you are a Christian, your prayers, when coupled with faith, are extremely powerful. You may not feel that way when you pray. You may feel less than perfect because you are. You may feel you don’t have it all together—because you don’t. In this episode, Frank King encourages Christians to believe more deeply in God’s ability to use imperfect people in extraordinary ways.

Specifically, this episode focuses on the power of the prayer of faith to accomplish healing in the Christian church. In his epistle, James writes:

“The prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (James 5:15-16, NASB).

Based upon these verses, it was never God’s will to use only the apostles to minister healing to others—even during the apostolic age. God can and wants to use ordinary fellow Christians to pray for one another to receive their healing.  This is not a put down of medical doctors. God uses them to minister healing as well. But the biblical prescription for healing in the church is prayer coupled with faith.

To encourage us to believe that God can use imperfect people in extraordinary ways, James cites an experience of Elijah the prophet. “He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months” (verse 17). Elijah was not perfect. He was a fallible human being just like the rest of us. But through the prayer of faith, he shut up the windows of heaven for 3-1/2 years.