| (Copyright) by Nathaniel Burson (Big Sandy, Texas) |
|---|
|  When someone is healed, whose faith is responsible? The person praying, or the person being prayed for? The healer, or the healed? Whose faith is important? And why does James say to seek the elders of the church and be anointed?  There IS a simple answer! One that makes sense of ALL of the healings in scripture!  Mark 5:25-34 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing… [this proves that He DIDN’T know until then!] …in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, THY FAITH hath made thee whole; go in peace and be whole of thy plague.  This was HER faith, the faith of the person BEING healed, NOT the faith of the person HEALING! This was NOT the faith of Jesus, because He didn’t know it was happening until AFTER it had happened! And remember, Christ specifically said it was HER faith that made her whole.  So, the answer in this case is that the faith of the person BEING healed, was the faith that did the healing. But that isn’t ALWAYS the case!  Matthew 9:18-19, 23-26 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live… And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.  But this was NOT the faith of the girl being healed. Remember, she was dead, and dead people don’t have faith! So, in this case, it was the faith of her father, who showed HIS faith when he said, she shall live. But if it was the faith of the ruler…, why didn’t he just raise her himself?  Luke 22:50-51 And one of them smote the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear and healed him.  And here is another intriguing case. Whose faith was responsible here? The high priest’s servant didn’t ask to be healed, not that we know of anyway – and the bible gives no information by which this healing could be attributed to his faith. So, this healing must have been solely on Jesus’ faith.  Mark 6:5-6 And he (Christ) could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.  But Jesus couldn’t – that’s worth saying again – Jesus couldn’t do major miracles in his own country! It tells us why in another place…  Matthew 13:58 And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.  Putting these two scriptures together, we find that He COULD NOT do major miracles there because of THEIR UNBELIEF!  Summarizing what we have so far, I’ve shown that it can be the person BEING healed, the person HEALING, or a bystander! Not only that, but if a bystander’s faith is not good, it could prevent even CHRIST HIMSELF from healing someone!  When Christ went to heal the ruler’s daughter, as we read earlier, he put those with NO faith, (or negative faith, or unbelief) out of the room! Why did He do that?  Mark 5:39 And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.  Also, He kept the father and mother of the girl in the room. Why? The ruler, the girl’s father, had already shown that he had faith. So there can be only one conclusion? Christ wanted those WITH faith in the room, and WITHOUT faith out of the room, BECAUSE THEIR UNBELIEF, just like the people in His own country, would have PREVENTED Him from healing her!  Acts 14:8-10 And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked: The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.  Paul perceived that he HAD the faith to be healed. Notice that carefully. But I ask you… if he ALREADY HAD THE FAITH TO BE HEALED… why was he still a cripple? If you HAD the faith to be healed, wouldn’t you have walked long ago?  Of course, you would have! So again, there can be only one answer! One clear, SIMPLE ANSWER to our original question? WHOSE FAITH DOES THE HEALING?! That it was Paul’s faith, PLUS this man’s faith, that was enough to be healed!  Which leads us to the answer that the healing is performed by the SUM TOTAL of the faith of EVERYONE involved! *****  Faith is a force that can be measured just as electricity and gravity can be measured. A tangible, real, measurable force.  Christ proved this when he said. If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.? (Luke 17:6)  That proves that X amount of faith is sufficient to do Y amount of work. In this case, a mustard seed’s worth of faith would throw a tree in the ocean. So, it CAN be measured! But each miracle, each act of faith requires a different amount of faith. Again, I point to…  Mark 6:5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.  Notice that he didn’t do any MIGHTY works there, except that he healed a few people. In another place, to raise the dead Christ put the unbelievers out of the room. From those two facts, we can conclude that raising the dead requires more faith than healing a few sick folks.  To make this point clear, let’s say that faith has units, like volts and amps. I think that’s a reasonable hypothesis. And we know that there is positive faith, and negative faith.  So, let’s say it takes 40 units of faith to heal a lame man. And maybe 50 units to call fire from heaven, and maybe 60 to raise the dead.  In the incident at Lystra, let’s say Paul at this point in his life had 30 units of faith, and that the faith of the cripple had 12. The cripple by himself couldn’t heal himself, he didn’t have nearly 40 units – but Paul perceived that he had enough to be healed with HIS faith added!  It doesn’t matter who’s faith is strong enough to accomplish the miracle! What matters is the TOTAL faith of all those involved!  To make one last postulation to illustrate this point, if Christ had 100 units of faith, the people in his country had such strong negative faith that Christ’s faith plus their NEGATIVE 55 units of faith equaled only 45 units of faith! That, according to our hypothesis, is only enough for a few healings!  And so, we have the answer to our question, WHOSE FAITH DOES THE HEALING! It is the SUM TOTAL of the positive AND NEGATIVE faith of EVERYONE involved, that will either accomplish, or PREVENT, a healing.  James 5:14-16 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: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  And so now we can explain WHY God said to go to the elders of the church, to have them pray for you when you are sick! It isn’t for some confusing, ritualistic reason, nor is it because of church government, it is because the elders are SUPPOSED to have considerable faith!  1 Timothy 1:9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.  That is one of the requirements of even a Deacon, to have FAITH, and a pure conscience! All God was instructing you to do when you are sick, in James 5:14, is to seek out MEN WITH FAITH, so that YOUR FAITH, PLUS THEIR FAITH, could equal sufficient faith to heal you of your illness!  But if you go to an elder, minister, deacon, or friend, who has NO faith, and have THEM pray for you, that will almost GUARANTEE that you WON’T get a healing, because what faith YOU have will be dragged into the gutter with THEIR faith, as long as they are involved!  And so, a healing is accomplished by YOUR faith, PLUS THEIR FAITH. If you have enough faith, by yourself, to talk God into healing you, then by all means, do so!  James 5:14 wasn’t written to force you to have faithless ministers pray for you! Remember, Paul prayed for HIS OWN infirmities many times. So did Hezekiah, David, and many, MANY others. They did this because THEIR FAITH, ALONE, was enough to accomplish what they needed!  Is yours?  If not, then when you are sick, seek elders and friends who have strong faith to help you.  If it is… then be healed.  —————————————————————————- Reprinted with permission from: The Simple Answers https://www.thesimpleanswers.com —————————————————————————- |
Views: 0