A friend asked me today about the ministry of laying on of hands for healing.
This goes into the deeper subject of healing and the question (does God still heal today and does he want you well). By the way, the answer to those two questions are both YES. But specifically, I want to spend a little time talking about what I know about laying on of hands for healing.
There are quite a few New Testament examples of healing with the laying on of hands:
- Jesus did it quite a bit.
- Paul did it.
- Hebrews calls the laying on of hands as an elementary teaching and that we are supposed to go on to the more mature things of God.
I don’t know what happens with the laying on of hands, as we can’t see the workings; it takes place in the spiritual and not physical. The bible teaches that the Holy Spirit can be received by the laying on of hands, and it also talks about how an anointing can be passed by the laying on of hands, and it talks about healing through the laying on of hands. So we know something special can happen with the laying on of hands.
Jesus told us that we are to heal the sick. He did this by many ways; laying on of hands being one of them, but in all the ways, they all exhibited faith. We are supposed to emulate Christ and carry on his ministry. We are His hands and feet.
Jesus was a man (flesh) with the spirit of God living inside him. He was then, in ways, very similar to us today as Christians. We are men with the spirit of God living inside us. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us.
I believe that when we lay hands on someone and pray for healing that we are extending our faith. We are stepping out of our comfort zone (our flesh). We are like Elijah in front of the prophets of Baal; we are publicly calling for the supernatural manifestation of God’s power and believing that God will not let us down. We are coming into one accord with the person believing for healing and agreeing and believing for God’s promises.
One of the very last instructions Jesus gave to us is in Mark 16. He says “These signs shall follow them that believe … they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover”. So after the Lord spoke these things, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God.
We don’t know how it all works, but Jesus grew his church (followers) by teaching and healing, with supernatural manifestations of God’s power (signs) following. These signs and wonders grew people’s faith. Jesus told us to do the same things he was doing and that we would even do greater things.
Isaiah 53:2 says that there was nothing beautiful or majestic with Jesus to attract us to him. He was just a Plain Joe with a ho-hum personality. When the people saw and heard of the signs and wonders He demonstrated, they watched in awe and thought ‘how could this be’. “And from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came to him.” It was the signs and wonders He used to draw people near. And when he spoke the Word, people felt their spirit stirring and believed.
I believe it was Jesus’ intention for us to take the Gospel to the world manifesting similar signs as Him and even beyond. He wanted us to walk the streets and have our shadow heal the sick. He wanted us to raise the dead. He wanted us to cast out demons. He wanted us to be supernatural exhibiting beings, magnifying God’s glory everywhere we went. But somewhere along the line, we became a weak church that doesn’t believe anymore as intended.
Thousands of years now separate us from the teachings of Christ and his direct ministry. We don’t know anymore exactly how things were done in the first church. All we can do is submit to God and ask God to use us for His Glory. The cornerstone or basis for being used is faith.
It is rejecting the world when it says it is delusional and believing to receive salvation.
It is rejecting the world when it says it is a stupid finance decision, and giving tithes and offerings.
It is rejecting the world when it says it is a scientific fallacy, and worshiping the Creator of the universe.
It is rejecting the world when it says we are deceitful, and speaking in gibberish to allow the Holy Spirit to pray through you with unknown tongues.
It is rejecting the world when it says it must be a scam, and laying hands on the sick and believing they will recover.
It is rejecting the world about anything that seems natural, and believing that nothing is impossible to those who believe and that He is the author and finisher of our faith.