Is “faith healing” real? It’s a question many are asking, as newspaper articles and TV programs feature the Christian rite of prayer for the sick and the amazing results that follow. But how do such healings happen?
Speaking of believers, Jesus said: “They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” There’s no doubt that those Christians who have ministered to the sick by laying hands on them, and praying in faith, have seen remarkable results.
The touch of a human hand can convey something deeply spiritual, as well as emotional. In a time of need, it can strengthen faith, banish loneliness, and keep hope alive. Who can measure its effect on the sick, the suffering, and the bereaved?
Small wonder, then, that this “point of contact” between people is God’s way of conveying His healing power. Faith – on the part of the person ministering and the person who is being ministered to – creates a channel through which the Lord’s healing power can flow. And faith, it seems, is at its strongest when one believer touches another, and together they draw on the power of God.
To a woman whose serious physical condition drove her to Jesus for a miracle of healing, the Lord said: “Your faith has made you whole.” Her faith? Wasn’t it his power entering her that healed her? Yes, but her touch of faith was the means by which his power was released into her body. (Mark 5:25-34) Her faith in him released his power into her. Jesus hadn’t known, beforehand, that it would happen.
That anonymous woman set a wonderful precedent, for we read that people later brought from the surrounding country “all that were diseased, and implored him “that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.” (Matthew 14:34-36)
The statement, “Your faith has made you whole” – repeated in the gospels – invites the sick to draw healing from Jesus today, as we lay hands on them in faith. Need draws power. The more desperate the need, the more God’s power flows.
Is there power in a touch? No young man who has held a beautiful girl’s hand for the first time would ask that question. Nor would a nurse in a hospital ward, or a mother, at her sick child’s bedside.
Is faith healing real? If you are sick, ask a Christian friend or pastor to “lay hands” on you for healing. Or “touch” God in faith, while praying alone at home, and find out for yourself.