Thread: Praying for Sick Believers

Unbelief is an active denial in the heart of the things of God, an active rejection. It's different to a lack of faith. The Bible talks about times when the power to heal was with Jesus.

Luke 5:17 NASB One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.

If everything had been a simple matter of people having faith for healing then that power would have flowed automatically. The power being present with him for healing suggests that he was also able to meet them in their lack of faith. The gifts of faith, miracles and healing mentioned in 1 Cor 12 suggest the same. If every healing was by the faith of the one being healed like with the paralyzed man in Acts 14 then there would be no need for a gift of healing, only a prayer of agreement.

The gifts of faith, miracles and healing operating will increase the faith of those who see them operate and more will happen according to their own faith. As a WoF minister once said "faith explodes the power of God". I've seen this happen myself, less power going through me producing more results because the faith of the people involved had increased.

Todd White has a video where he prays for an atheist who sort of lets him. He appears to be healed after being prayed for but still doubts that it will last and will only consider repenting if it does last. Is the atheist full of unbelief ? Not necessarily but he is displaying a total lack of faith. Unbelief is more like a wall that people put up. In Acts 2 people heard them speak in tongues in their own languages, whatever language that was, and some mocked them even so. That's an active rejection in the face of whatever is or has been going on, the atheist was more like "let's see what happens".

Originally Posted by Ezekiel 33

I believe that the biblical model for us is not to say we are healed when we are not, but to pray it through until we see results.

In fact, wouldn't it be lying to say you are healed when you are not?

I think it is both. One may be sick according to the natural but one is always healed by His stripes in the spiritual sense. Faith for healing and the power gifts of the Spirit access the spiritual provision and makes it take precedence over the natural and then one is healed. Actually healed, meaning the healing has manifested.

It's not a lie to say that one is healed by His stripes when one is still sick. But it is a lie to claim that one is not sick when the healing hasn't manifested yet.

Originally Posted by victoryword

If a person is sick they should say so. If they have been prayed for and are still sick, they should say so. Faith is not make-believe and pretending that something is there that is not.

However, if God says that something is yours right now and you have the conviction in your heart that it is yours then you need to say so despite what you see and how you feel. Faith believes before it receives from a physical standpoint (Mark 11:24; Heb. 11:1; 2 Cor. 5:7). Christians do it all the time by claiming that they are "saved" or "born again" apart from any physical evidence confirming it. Rom. 10:8-10 as well as the conviction in their heart (Rom. 8:16) gives them that assurance.

The new birth has already manifested at the level of the human spirit (by the infusion of the Holy Spirit) and that is sufficient for salvation. That is a bit different to healing being a reality in Christ but not necessarily manifest in the body and soul.

Originally Posted by Valiant Woman

It seems that Christians have a difficult time believing that Jesus can't heal us if we're in unbelief. There are many scriptures that point to this truth. Mark 5:34-36 is one. Another is...Mark 6:4-6.

"But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house."

Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief.

Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching." Mark‬ *6:4-6‬ *(NKJV‬‬)

The Bible says Jesus "couldn't" do any mighty work in His hometown because of the people's unbelief. Why is that? We know He is able. Is it because He would be violating their free will?

I believed like this for many years of course because that's how we were taught in WOF. But the more I began to study it, I now disagree with with it generally speaking. Let's take the "Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief". We were always taught this with the impression that Jesus laid hands on a lot of people but all of them didn't get healed due to their unbelief. In other words their unbelief actually stopped the power of God even though Jesus laid hands on them. I don't see it that way know. The people He laid hands on DID get healed. In other words, unbelief didn't stop the power of God, the unbelief kept them from letting Him pray for them in the first place. Every one that allowed Jesus to lay hands on them DID GET HEALED. Only a few folks got healed because only a few let Jesus pray for them. And when it's speaking of no 'mighty' work being done it's not speaking to the degree of the miracle, i.e, healing someone with a cold as opposed to healing a cripple, but 'mighty' in regards to the fact there weren't many miracles period because not many allowed Jesus to pray for them due to their unbelief toward Him in who he was.

Look at the multitudes Jesus prayed for and all the healings and miracles he did over His ministry (I don't supposed the books of the world could hold them). Do you think that in a crowd of several thousand where all were healed that all of them had perfect lives? Perfect faith? No one with unbelief? No one with unforgiveness? No one with bitterness? Etc, etc, etc? Of course they did, but they still got healed. The difference was their unbelief didn't keep them from letting Jesus pray for them as they did in Nazareth.

From what I can see, with the unhindered power that Jesus walked in, all you needed was enough faith to let Jesus pray for you. If you did, then you got healed. If you're unbelief stopped you from letting Him praying for you, then obviously you didn't get healed.

When Jesus was addressing the disciples on why they couldn't heal the lunatic boy, He said to the MINISTERS, the DISCIPLES, it was because of YOUR unbelief. Then he gave them the remedy for their unbelief, prayer and fasting. The prayer and fasting wasn't dealing with the devil, it was dealing with the disciples spiritual condition that kept the power from flowing through them like it did Jesus. Unbelief was the root cause. So the fasting and prayer deals with the root cause.

Let's look at something closer in regards to this. In Luke 11 Jesus said to the disciples in regards to casting the devil out that He did it by 'the finger of God'. The Matthew account says 'Spirit of God'. So the finger of God is the Spirit of God, and Jesus said it was by the power of the Spirit that He cast out the devil. So let's connect this back to Matthew where the disciples couldn't cast the devil out, but Jesus could.

How did Jesus do it? By the Spirit of God. So then how would the disciples do it? By the Spirit of God. So when Jesus spoke to the devil, it came out. When the disciples did the devil didn't. So what was the difference? The Spirit of God 'showing up' so to speak. So their unbelief didn't really directly affect the devil, meaning the devil wasn't in the kid monitoring their faith or unbelief and deciding on whether to come out or not. The devil (and sickness and disease) is defeated. He's not our problem. If the Spirit of God 'shows up', that devil is coming out. So our unbelief doesn't affect the devil or the disease or whatever, it affects whether the Spirit of God 'shows up' or not and manifests and drives the devil or disease out!

I said all that to say this: Jesus put the emphasis on the minister's unbelief and not those being ministered to. It appears to me, with Jesus being the example, that if the ministers are not being hindered by their unbelief, then the person being prayed for will be healed as long as that person allows the minister to pray for them. And one way we combat our unbelief as ministers is not being afraid to declare that Jesus will heal them and not being afraid to lay hands on people for healing and deliverance. I think it starts with us just being bold in the highways and byways where ministering to the bound is concerned. Boldness is faith in action.

Originally Posted by fuego

I said all that to say this: Jesus put the emphasis on the minister's unbelief and not those being ministered to. It appears to me, with Jesus being the example, that if the ministers are not being hindered by their unbelief, then the person being prayed for will be healed as long as that person allows the minister to pray for them. And one way we combat our unbelief as ministers is not being afraid to declare that Jesus will heal them and not being afraid to lay hands on people for healing and deliverance. I think it starts with us just being bold in the highways and byways where ministering to the bound is concerned. Boldness is faith in action.

It's such an obvious point but it's been run over by powerless ministers who ascribe their own shortcomings (lack of faith, boldness, etc.) onto the recipient of ministry.