Healing is for Believers

In my short time as a Believer, I have met many other believers that either don’t believe that God still heals today; or they think that God chooses who gets healed and who doesn’t.  There is also the mis-belief that only certain people can pray for the sick and see them healed.  When we talk about healings, many people envision, tv healing evangelists, where the center of attention is the anointed evangelist. 

During my disease the elders of my church, prayed for me three times, after my healing which happened at home. I discovered only one elder, truly believed in healing and that elder, believed that God picks and chooses who gets healed, no wonder I wasn’t healed at church! The preacher himself had never seen a healing. So essentially the prayers I received were riveted with unbelief. It was simply for the sake of fulfilling the scripture that the elders of the church are to anoint the sick with oil.  That they prayed for me, they no more expected me to be healed than they would expect bigfoot to walk into the church.

James 5:14

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

They look over the second part of that scripture James 5:15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up;

This isn’t to bash anyone, but it is about truth.  In a majority of churches calling the sick to the altar is out of formality and not with faith or there isn’t an alter call at all (mainly denominational churches), but only intercerary prayer. Another common  misbelief is that only those in ministry are called to pray for the sick, this is again  only based on the scripture in James.  We as believers are all called to pray for the sick. Mark 16:17-18 “and these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall lay hands on the sick , and they shall recover.  I left two out because they are not part of this discussion.  Shall follow them that believe, this is a command to all Believers, not to a select few.  And it doesn’t say to just pray for, it says to lay hands on the sick and they will recover.  Now there is the Gift of Healing, but for this post I won’t go into the difference between the Gift of Healing and simply praying for the sick and seeing them recover. 

Some people believe that healing the sick was intended for just the Apostles, not true.  Jesus, after He had the twelve anointed, He anointed another 70 followers to cast out demons and heal the sick.

 Luke 10:1”After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.” Remember when He did this the New Covenant had not officially began yet. The New Covenant began after Jesus’ blood was shed and He was resurrected. In Matthew 16, this was the beginning of the New Covenant, in which all Believers are responsible for laying hands on the sick and seeing them recover.  Furthermore, healing did not die out with the Apostles.  Everyday followers of Christ healed the sick, until around 300-325 A.D., when the First Council of Nicaea took place. Another, piece of information, that many do not know, is that Under the Old Covenant, healing was a part of it, but was reserved for the priests/rabbis, Jesus wasn’t the first to heal or work miracles. But He was the first to heal four things that were reserved for the Messiah: Leprosy, deaf mute spirit, blind from birth and raising the dead! Hopefully this has started the thinking process, I am going to address this and other questions on healing for the next few posts.

 Many Christians are running to Reiki, healing  hands, any of the energy healings etc... before they turn to Christ! These are counterfeit, yet many are innocently turning to these methods of healing. It is time for Believers to stand up.