Faith And Healing

We have already established that faith is important in healing. But we have not dealt with the question, "Whose faith is required?" Is it the faith of the person praying? Or is it the faith of the person who needs healing? Or is it the faith of their friends and family?

The truth is that any of those can provide the necessary faith.

Some of you are saying, "Wait a minute. Are you telling me that I can pray for the sick without much faith and some of them will get healed anyhow?"

Yes, that is precisely what I am saying. How do you think you get faith in the first place? Most of us get faith by seeing God heal some of the ones we are praying for. Suddenly something inside of us clicks and we realize that God really can (and does) heal through us. That boosts our faith. We begin to gain confidence that when we pray, He will show up. But we will never have that experience if we don't pray for the sick. God can't heal through us if we are not doing healing prayer.

(There are a few exceptions to this. Sometimes God will heal sovereignly during worship. I was at a Randy Clark meeting once and Gary Shelton was leading worship. I almost did not go to the meetings because of a serious health problem. And I was spontaneously healed of it during the worship. I was very excited and told a friend of mine who went to Randy's church. She went up to the platform and told Randy. Randy asked me to come up and give a testimony right in the middle of worship, so I did. Afterward, he had a word of knowledge that God was going to heal several people during the next song. He asked that people raise their hand if they felt God's healing presence on them and asked that they wave both hands over their head if they were healed. As the song progressed, we saw more and more people raise first one hand and then wave both of them over their heads. I can't remember the exact count, but I think it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 or 60 people who were miraculously healed during worship that night.)

In general, we have to pray for the sick to see them healed. And there is always what I call a "bootstrap problem." How do you pray if you don't have faith, since you need faith to pray? We will talk about that in more detail in the next lesson, but one of the ways is that God will sometimes set you up in situations where there is a person present with faith for the healing, so you can pray and God can begin to build your faith.

Let's look at some Scripture passages that identify whose faith was involved in the healing. First, let's look at situations where it was the faith of a friend or relative:

Faith of a mother for her child

Matt. 15:28
Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Faith of a friend/employer

Matt. 8:5-13
5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, 6saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented."
7And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."
8The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
10When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! 11And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 13Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." And his servant was healed that same hour.

Faith of a group of friends

Matt. 9:2
Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you."

Next let's look at situations where the person being healed had the faith for the healing:

Mark 5:34

And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction."

Matt. 9:22

But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, "Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well." And the woman was made well from that hour.

Acts 14

8 And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb, who had never walked. 9This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, 10said with a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet!" And he leaped and walked.

Luke 18:42

Then Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has made you well."

Of course, it is always good to have faith for healing if you are the one praying. But the good news is that it is about God and His desire to heal much more than it is about you and your personal faith for healing. Sometimes God will orchestrate it so that there is a person present with great faith for healing when you are put into a situation where you have to pray for a sick person.

I remember one time when I was part of a prayer team. It had been a long evening and I had prayed for maybe 50 people and it took over three hours to do that. I was on my way out of the meeting and someone came up to me and demanded that I pray for them. They said that God told them that if I prayed for them, they would be healed. I was tired and I did not want to pray for them. I did not expect anything to happen if I prayed. So I did not even stop walking. They were walking along side me. I was too tired to recognize that this was a divine appointment. I simply put my hand on their shoulder and said, "In the name of Jesus, be healed." I kept walking but they stopped and started jumping up and down and screaming. I stopped and went back to see what happened. I was thinking maybe a demon had manifested and I would have to shut it down. It turns out the person was healed and they were very excited about it.

I did not have any faith for that particular healing, I did not expect anything to happen when I prayed. But the person had the faith that was required. When I said the short prayer, it was the final impetus they needed and they received their healing from the Lord. I had very little to do with that person receiving their healing. They had the faith. The individual took initiative proactive and "forced" me to pray for healing when I was tired and did not want to. And they received their healing.

God loves to respond to faith with healing, and it doesn't always have to be the faith of the person who is doing the praying.