30 plus years ago, at a chapel service at Queen’s Theological College in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, one of the students read the following passage out aloud as the Scripture reading for the day.

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. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:14-16)

Then she turned to us and said something like: “Well, friends, you heard what James said about healing. I am sure that everyone of us here needs healing in one aspect of our life or another—physical, emotional, mental or spiritual, right?”

Pause. Pregnant Pause.

She continued: “So, right now, I encourage you all to pair up and confess your sins to each other.”

If you thought the pregnant pause caused a hush to come over the gathered community, the silence that followed this call to action was deafening.

The looks on the worshippers’ faces were nothing short of bewildering. “Awkward” does not come close to describing what we were experiencing.

Of course, we were seminary students who wanted to honour the word of the Lord. And, yes, we all had one healing need or another. Even if we couldn’t identify one at that moment, we could be part of the process of healing for another. It made sense.

But, did we have to confess…like…right now? Under the watchful eyes of our worship leader and one another?

So, after what seemed like eternity, which was in reality, a few moments, there was the quiet shuffling of feet followed by quieter conversations.

To be perfectly honest, I do not remember what I or my prayer partner confessed. But, I didn’t have to. I got the message. We all got the message.

Most of us were quite familiar with the part about anointing with oil…but not the part about confessing.

It was only recently that I have come to recognize the significance of this crucial step.

Over the past two years, Sulojana and I have been blessed by “inner healing” ministry through two different models—Restoring the Foundations & Sozo—where prayer ministers helped us work with Holy Spirit as He revealed and healed wounds that had been inflicted upon our hearts.

Frankly, we have been amazed at the incredible freedom that has come to us as a result of these times of ministry.

Friends have often asked why we couldn’t have done this on our own—just between us and Holy Spirit. We have certainly done that in times past, but for some reason, the results never matched what we experienced at the end of these sessions.

Could it be because we were obeying the command of the Lord in James 5:16 to “confess our sins to each other and pray for each other so we may be healed?”

Perhaps corporate worship was not the most conducive setting for this to happen, but our worship leader at Queen’s did indeed hit the nail on the head, methinks.

No wonder that Alcoholics Anonymous includes the Fifth Step in which you simply confess every sin you have ever committed to another person in confidence.

How about you? Have you experienced the healing that comes from confessing your sins to another?

Please share your responses with the rest of your DWOD family