Many Christians believe that the key to seeing more sick people healed is to pray longer and seek after more of God’s power. One or all of these may be true, but another key is to go to more who are sick — especially those who know little or nothing of the Lord’s willingness to heal them.
The parable of the mustard seed informs us that the power of faith in believers does not depend on how much more faith we can get, but rather on how willing we are to use the faith we have already.
God will send sick people to churches where His will to heal the sick is preached and hands are laid on them for healing (hands being a point of contact for the release of the faith of the person praying and the person being prayed for).
But why wait for them to find us when our job is to find them? Jesus came “to seek and to save the lost”, and in so doing spent much of his time healing the sick. So, why is it that many pastors do not use their faith to seek out those who are sick, but doctors use all the knowledge and skills they have to aid their patients’ recovery?
Some will say that healing the sick is a medical matter. The Lord Jesus often saw it as a spiritual one. Yes, he did say “The sick have need of a physician” yet he also sent out his disciples to heal them.
Physicians counsel their patients on diet and lifestyle because they see healing as holistic: inclusive of the inner self, the soul, as well as the body, which is why they refer many cases to medical specialists.
Paul the apostle writes that God desires to preserve “spirit, soul and body” (1 Thessalonians 5:23), which means that Divine Healing is also inclusive. Medical advice and Bible-based psychology can combine to restore wellness. “Psychology” comes from the NT Greek word “psyche”, which in the New Testament is translated “soul”.
Again, I ask, why are ministers less holistic, less inclusive than doctors and other skilled professionals in the field of medicine? This is, I think, a reasonable question: one that more pastors need to address.