Church Leaders Need to Believe
You would be surprised how many Churches I have been to where I find that the leadership does not believe in the healing power of the Lord as they ought to. I find this disheartening. How can they teach their congregations to believe in God’s promises if they themselves do not?
James 5:14-16 tells us, “Is anyone among you sick? 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 sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
The people are to call for the elders so they can pray a prayer of faith over them and be healed. But more-times-then-not, the elders do not believe in healing for themselves, let alone for others. They have not taught themselves what the Word of God says concerning healing, the pastors are not teaching healing from the pulpits like they use to, and they don’t bother to bring in the teachers or healing evangelists to equip the people in God’s healing power, and oftentimes, the people are not encouraged to study the Word for themselves about healing. And therefore, many are sick and dying before their appointed time.
How can this situation be ratified?
There is godly criteria for choosing Church leadership. Let’s look at what it says in Acts 6:1-4 about finding the right people to fill the positions to wait on the people. “Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
It was not God’s intent that the leaders do all the work of the ministry. They were to dedicate themselves to continual prayer and ministry of the word. Oftentimes, you will find that Church leadership nowadays spend very little time in either. Two common reasons for this weakness are:
- The established Church has become all business and no ministry.
- Church leadership is elected for carnal reasons, rather then spiritual ones.
So, when the sick ask the elders of the Church to minister healing over them they are not spiritually equipped to do so, because they lack the faith to believe for healing.
As with the early Church it was so important that the ministry of helps was to meet a high standard of faith, how much more the elders should today? The 7 men they chose were to fulfill the following:
- They were to have a good reputation.
- Be full of the Holy Spirit.
- And be full of wisdom.
Too few Churches even consider the spiritual side when choosing people to serve the body of Christ, and the people suffer because of this. The elders are suppose to be able to pray a prayer of faith over the sick with healing results, but how can they do this when they themselves don’t believe.
The Church needs to revamp the way they select elders.
- They need to go back to the biblical basics and elect according to God’s guidelines.
- If their present leadership does not believe as they should they need to train them in, bring in the teachers and healing evangelists and equip their leadership to believe.
- If the leadership is unteachable, refuses to comply with the list of 3 spiritual requirements above, then they need to be replaced by others that will comply.
Church leadership, for the glory of our Lord, and for the well-being of the people need to believe in the healing power of the Lord.
Becky Dvorak is a prophetic healing evangelist and the Destiny Image author of DARE to Believe, Greater Than Magic and, soon to be released, The Healing Creed. Visit her at authorbeckydvorak.com.
