And so we come to laying hands on the sick to be healed and the casting out of demons. We know that our Lord has raised up ministry gifts and given them a special anointing to minister His healing power to the sick and to cast out demons. Smith Wigglesworth would have been an example of just such a ministry. But again, unsaved people that we know who are ill have most probably never heard of any ministers of the gospel that are specially anointed by the Lord to heal the sick and cast out demons. And so they will never experience receiving their healing through those ministries. But those same unsaved people, who are ill, encounter us every day. It is those people that our Lord Jesus expects us to minister to through the laying on of hands. I want you to notice that Jesus does not expect us to get them healed and delivered, for we can’t do that, only He can. Jesus only expects us to pray in faith for those people and lay our hands on them. And He then works the miracle of healing and deliverance in those who choose to believe, for it is the same Holy Spirit that resides in every anointed minister of the gospel who also dwells in every believer. And so ultimately He is the healer. Believers who are obedient to tell the unsaved about salvation through Jesus Christ will experience seeing some of them being saved. But just as not everyone is saved who hears an evangelist preach the gospel, not everyone that we witness to will be saved, for not everyone will believe our testimony. However just because some don’t believe, we don’t then stop telling others about the gospel of salvation through Jesus, for our mandate is to tell people about Jesus and so we continue telling them. In the same manner, believers who are obedient to lay hands on the sick and pray for them in the name of Jesus Christ, will experience seeing some being healed and delivered. But also, just as not everyone is healed who have an anointed minister lay hands on them, not everyone that we pray for will be healed, for not everyone will believe in the healing power of our Lord Jesus. But just because some don’t receive healing when we pray, we don’t then stop praying for others to be healed and delivered, for our mandate is to lay hands on people in Jesus name and so we continue praying for them. I want you to notice that I said that not everyone will believe in the healing power of Jesus. Scripture teaches us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). No one witnesses to the unsaved by walking up to them and asking them if they can pray for them to receive salvation through Jesus. People would think that they are nuts. We first witness to people about salvation through Jesus. The Holy Spirit then takes those words to minister to them so that their faith can be stirred up to respond to the message of salvation. And so it is only after we have witnessed to the unsaved that we ask them if we can pray with them to be saved. In the same manner when we pray for the unsaved to be healed and delivered, before we pray for them to be healed we first need to tell them about the healing power of Jesus Christ. The reason we do that is so that we can stir up their faith to receive the Lord’s healing power when we lay hands on them. Let me say that the only thing that can hinder an unsaved person from receiving healing from the Lord is unbelief. Sin is not a hindrance simply because all unbelievers are sinners. Our Lord Jesus laid His hands on all sinners seeking to be healed through His ministry and He has not changed one bit since then.
Michael E.B. Maher
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