Powdered Pink Prayer
By Rev. Jarrett B. Washington, Columnist
Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.
James 5:14, NIV
Most recently during the pastoral observations at the church I serve, a woman dressed in a powder pink dress makes her way to the second row of the church where my wife and daughter were seated. This woman was unfamiliar to me, and most of the ministerial staff in the pulpit area. She began speaking with my wife about something, even through the distance, I could see that what the lady was saying was having a profound effect on my wife, the listener. I could see my wife holding her hands even as the woman shook and trembled. As I continued to minister to a particular situation, I noticed my wife and the lady in the powder pink making their way toward the altar.
Immediately, I began to think, what is going on, but I stay attuned to the spirit. Somehow, in the midst of my speaking and my wife and the unknown lady making their way to the altar, I met them on the floor. I hugged the lady and then she whispered in my ear, “I was told this is the House of Healing…I need to be healed.” As her very tears drenched the collar of my geranium colored polo shirt (it was casual Sunday) I literally saw the very pain she was experiencing. I felt in my spirit-man that this lady was burdened, but ready to be released. At that very moment, the spirit compelled me to ask, “do you really want to heal?” And to my question, she replied, “yes…right now.”
What happened next was almost a blur, but I recall calling on women and men who knew they had the anointing for intercession. I exclaimed that what we were about to war for in the spirit and furthermore it was not going to be easy. I needed those “elder” intercessors to come around this woman in prayer and I needed them to believe that her breakthrough was at hand.
There comes a time in everyone’s life where they need people around them that know how to pray. In the book of James, the argument is presented when someone is in need of prayer, they ought to call the elders around them, anoint them with oil and pray. Its not that the person in need of prayer cannot pray, but many times a person needs people around them who understand the power of intercession. Intercession is not about how loud or how long you pray, it is simply the ability to hear and listen to the voice of God in prayer with the ultimate realization the prayer is not for you, but its for God’s glory. It doesn’t take amazing language, perfect prose, or large words, it simply takes a pure heart and a deep relationship.
So the elders prayed along with me over the life of the woman in the powder pink outfit. The more we prayed, the more God lifted her burdens. As she fell to the floor, the intercessors continued to pray. We kept praying until her prostate position was lifted and she began to dance, sing and shout for the victory. At the conclusion of worship, my wife and I exchanged our contact information with her and asked her to please keep us posted on her situation. Last night, as my wife and I were preparing for bed, my wife received a text. It was from the lady in the powder pink outfit. She simply said, “I got what I needed, I walked in my home and everything was as we believed.” You can’t tell me what prayer can’t do.
The Reverend Jarrett Britton Washington is the Pastor of Hopewell African Methodist Episcopal Church in Hemingway, South Carolina. He is a graduate of Turner Theological Seminary at the ITC in Atlanta, Georgia, with both the Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Christian Education degrees. Currently, he serves as the Co-Editor of The Voice of Mission Magazine and Layout Artist for the Missionary Magazine. He is married to Deronda C. Washington and is the father of one daughter, Braylen Jael.
