Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

minal sicknesses, that require a shift of focus from abundance in life to abundance
in death, are usually quite easy to spot.
Fourth, generally speaking, then, there may be, indeed, must be total
confidence that both leadership and community prayers will be answered by
our generous God when they are offered up communally (Mt. 18:19) in the
name of the King (John 14:13-14), and are based upon the will of God,
whether an explicit promise or precept (1 John 5:14-15). 373 This confidence is
solidified, especially when and if it is bound up with individual and corporate
holiness of life (1 John 3:19-24). 374
Fifth, there also may be a general confidence when the prayers are offered
up in the spirit of the promises and the precepts, and are generally based
upon who God is, and what God customarily does. By way of illustration,
prayers for the salvation of sinners, based upon the mercy of God, or prayers
for the productivity of a farm, based upon the providence of God, may generally
carry that type of confidence. Of course, this does not imply an ironclad
guarantee that the prayers will be answered affirmatively in each instance.
The reason is simple. The promises of God do not reach that far. So to insist
on it would be to exceed the boundaries of the promises of God.
Sixth, whether it is ever justified to claim a private confidence--as a special
gift of God--, that he will answer a specific petition, apart from a specific
promise or precept, is a difficult question. The present writer has encountered
several instances of such claim. However, there does not seem to be a Biblical
precedence. Therefore a word of caution would be always in place. Nevertheless,
it appears the better part of wisdom not to attempt to destroy such
confidence, unless it is biblically preposterous or potentially harmful. Clearly
“confidence” of the latter two stripes is totally misplaced and eventually will
more likely than not precipitate a serious crisis. Of course, one may always
suspend judgment about the trustworthiness or propriety of such claim, and
carefully voice one’s opinion to that effect. On the other hand, someone who
claims to have received a private confidence is well advised not to force this
upon others. If, furthermore, they walk in the footsteps of the three friends of
Daniel, they will not fall apart, when such confidence proves to be without
foundation.
Seventh, in this context James does not necessarily speak about miraculous
healing (Burdick, 182). Consequently, the prayers of the elders do not
373 A word of caution is in place! God’s will here is not the man-centered and ethereal socalled
“Perfect or Ideal Will of God for one’s life” (contra Burdick, 186). As I have argued
already at length in Topical Focus # 16 in the context of James 4:15, this is an unbiblical
construct, and does not exist.
374 See for all this also Topical Focus # 6: Prayer in the context of James 1: 5.
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