The Ministry of Laying On of Hands

The Anointing Power of Jesus

Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My clothes?"

(Mark 5:29-30)

The passage quoted above records the incident of the woman with the issue of blood who was made well by only touching the Lord's garment. We know that she was healed by the anointing, for our Lord Jesus recognized that power—or the anointing—had gone out from Him. Once again, we see that Jesus was so saturated with the power of the Holy Spirit that even His clothes carried that anointing while He was wearing them.

Nevertheless, Jesus' primary method of healing people was to lay His hands on them. Just as power went out from Him through His clothes when the woman with the issue of blood touched Him, so it is that power or the anointing went out from Him through His hands into the bodies of whomever He was healing at the time. The anointing on Jesus was a tangible power that could be felt as it flowed from His hands into the bodies of those needing healing, for the woman with the issue of blood felt that power flow into her body when she was healed.

Healing Through Spoken Words

Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." And his servant was healed that same hour.

(Matthew 8:13)

Although laying on of hands was the primary way that Jesus ministered to the sick, as we have already seen, it was not the only way He ministered. Our Lord also healed simply by speaking words of faith. In the account quoted above, our Lord Jesus did not lay hands on the centurion's servant. He simply spoke the word, and the centurion's servant was healed. There are many other ways recorded in scripture in which Jesus healed the sick, but we will not examine them in this teaching because the focus of this teaching is the laying on of hands.

When Faith and Unbelief Affect Healing

Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking." Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. Then He sent him away to his house, saying, "Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town."

(Mark 8:22-26)

When we look at our Lord's ministry, we sometimes mistakenly think that everyone our Lord laid hands on was instantly healed. But that is not the case at all, because even though the Lord Jesus was saturated with God's healing power, it still required faith on the part of the person needing healing to receive that anointing. Therefore, when Jesus laid His hands on people, those people did not always instantly receive their healing or deliverance. There were occasions when our Lord had to take extra time to get people healed and delivered. In the account quoted above, we see our Lord taking quite a bit of time to get this blind man healed.

So what was different on this occasion that prevented the man from receiving his healing instantly from Jesus, as we saw earlier when all who just touched His garment were made perfectly well? The answer is unbelief. When they brought the blind man to Jesus, initially our Lord was reluctant to lay hands on him because He perceived that the man's faith was not very strong, which is why they had to beg Jesus to lay hands on him. Another negative factor was that there were many spectators present who were also in unbelief. When unbelief is present, it hinders the flow of God's power from being manifested.

To solve that problem, our Lord had to take the man away from the midst of all the spectators and lead him out of the town. When Jesus led the man out of the town, He instructed His disciples to prevent the people from following Him. How do we know this? You will recall the time that our Lord raised the little girl from the dead—there was a whole crowd following Him. But scripture tells us that Jesus only allowed Peter, James, and John to go with Him. How did He do that? He instructed His disciples to prevent anyone from following Him to the little girl's house (Mark 5:37). We know that no one in the town of Bethsaida witnessed this particular miracle taking place, because after Jesus healed the man, our Lord instructed him not to go back into the town nor tell anyone in the town what Jesus had done.

However, not only did our Lord have to deal with the unbelief of the spectators, but He also had to deal with the weak faith in the blind man as well, which is why our Lord had to do something more than just lay hands on the man. The account tells us that our Lord, in this instance, also spat on the man's eyes. This man needed some help in releasing his faith, and just as pouring oil on the sick at times helps them to release their faith as they feel the oil on their bodies, so feeling the Lord's spittle on his eyes helped this man release his faith to receive God's healing power.

But even though our Lord did as much as He could to help the man release his faith, initially the man only received partial healing. So our Lord had to lay hands on him a second time, and this time he received his full healing. If it had been up to the Lord alone, this man would have been instantly healed, but it wasn't up to the Lord alone. The blind man's faith was involved, and that is why it took the Lord some time to heal him.

Lessons for Modern Ministry

Remember that in this section we are looking at our Lord Jesus' ministry of laying on of hands so we can learn from Him how to operate in this ministry. Most believers encountering a similar situation as we have read in this passage would have simply laid hands on the blind man when asked to do so, and nothing would have happened.

From our Lord's example, we can see that in order to get results, we first need to discern the level of faith in the person we are laying hands on. Secondly, we need to make sure the person is out of an environment where unbelief is present. Thirdly, we need to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit if He wants us to do something extra to activate the person's faith. And finally, if only a partial manifestation of healing occurs when hands are laid initially, then it is scriptural to lay hands on the individual a second time.

Michael E.B. Maher

Laying on of Hands

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