Can I Believe and Receive a Healing for Someone Else?
Not in the sense that you can believe and receive your own healing in Mark 11:24.
The only exceptions found in Scripture are for members of your household, generally young children. God does not expect an infant to believe and implement Mark 11:24. In such a case, you can pray in faith and God will heal your child.
Also, you can lay hands on a sick person and expect him to recover if you have preached the gospel to that person. (Remember that signs and wonders follow the preaching of the Word.) You do not have to preach the whole New Testament to the person, but you need to explain what you are doing so that he can consent to it. God will honor your faith in this case even if the other person is not completely sure about it. You will find that this works better with unbelievers than with fellow Christians who know the Bible and should believe for their own healings. God expects more from believers.
You cannot attribute anyone’s death to a lack of faith on someone else’s part. Ultimately, your faith only works for you; the other person’s faith needs to work for him.
Receiving a Healing for Someone Else in a Prayer Line
With the exception above, you cannot “believe and receive” for someone else. Many well-meaning people come up in healing lines and ask if they can receive a healing for a loved one. Some even use a charismatic cliché: “I want to stand in proxy for someone.” Barring a manifestation of the gift of faith (1 Corinthians 12:9) for that particular circumstance, this does not work. In a service where there is a tangible healing anointing, the person receiving the healing must be brought into physical contact with that anointing. Often being in the service is sufficient, but if the person needing healing is not present, there is one Scriptural way to get the anointing to the person. In Acts 19:11-12, people had Paul wear cloth items that were then taken to the sick. The tangible anointing on Paul went into those items and went into the person who needed healing or deliverance when that person received the cloth.
The use of “prayer cloths” is thus justified, if there is a tangible healing anointing in manifestation. This practice was not done all the time, and you would not just do it “in faith” when no healing anointing is present. (I suppose that one exception would be if you were sure that God wanted you to lay hands on a cloth at that particular moment, even though nothing seemed to be happening at the time. The anointing to do this would manifest as you obeyed Him.)
Why You Generally Can’t Believe You Receive Something for Someone Else
In Mark 11:24, Jesus said to believe that YOU receive what YOU ask when YOU pray, not to believe that SOMEONE ELSE receives what YOU ask when YOU pray.
You cannot override someone else’s will, even if his will is contrary to God’s will. If you could, you could “believe you receive” everyone else’s salvation and the whole world would get saved. But it is clear from Scripture that not all men will receive salvation. In fact, those who find the “narrow way” to salvation will be fewer than those who don’t.
With the exception already noted, there is no Scriptural precedent for believing something and receiving it for someone else.
Some people might point to Acts 16:31 (“And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house”) as an example of your faith forcing other people to receive something, but this is not justified by the context. In this case, the jailer’s house believed after they were all preached to and all of them had to be baptized (Acts 16:32-34). The jailer’s faith did not save the others in his family; their individual faith did.
Further proof that Acts 16:31 is not a blanket promise for “household salvation” may be found in 1 Corinthians 7:15-16: “But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace. For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?”
If Acts 16:31 meant what it is commonly thought to mean (a guarantee of household salvation), 1 Corinthians 7:15-16 would have to be rewritten to say, “Wife (or husband), you know that your faith guarantees the salvation of your spouse. Believe your spouse into the kingdom and your spouse will have to get saved!” But that is not what Paul said. You cannot make someone else get saved, even your spouse, just by “believing for his salvation,” much as you might like to do that.
Also, the situation in Matthew 10:36 would not apply (“And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”) I don’t recommend “claiming” that Scripture for your family, but it does happen in some families. Jesus said that some families will even put to death relatives who convert (Mark 13:12). It’s obvious that the convert will not live to see the families saved if they ever get saved. Saved people don’t murder people for getting saved.
In fact, the catch phrase that we should “stop using our faith for health and money and start using it for souls” is mistaken because you cannot receive someone else’s salvation the way you can receive health and money for yourself. You could instead use your faith that God would send laborers to the person and that the Holy Spirit would convict the person of his need for Jesus. You cannot force the person to make the right decision by using your faith. Please know that I am in no way de-emphasizing soulwinning. Jesus came primarily to save lost humanity and church people need to remember their mission to GO reach the lost! I am simply saying that “faith” as shown in Mark 11:24 does not apply in the case of someone else whose will is involved.
I don’t want to throw cold water on the hopes of anyone who is praying for a loved one. There are MANY Scriptures (beyond the scope of this book) detailing blessings that apply to your direct descendants. With the advantage of those promises, it will be very hard for one of your descendants to stay away from Jesus. However, his free is still honored. In some cases, a believer is put under unnecessary condemnation by those who feel that if he “just believed hard enough,” the problems with the family member would disappear, and this is not the case. Of course, I am not justifying acting like a jerk around the family member and turning him off to the gospel, either.
Jesus’ Teaching: Get Your Own Faith
Jesus taught that everyone has to get his own faith. You cannot transfer your faith to someone else, and you can’t use someone else’s faith. This is clear from this parable:
Matthew 25:1-13:
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out.
But the wise answered, Not so; lest there not be enough for us and you: but go ye rather unto them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
Scriptures Where Someone Received a Healing for Someone in the Household:
(Note that this is the exception, not the rule, in the New Testament.)
We see the centurion believing for his servant, the Syrophoenician woman believing for her daughter, and the nobleman believing for his son. Here are the Scriptures related to these incidents:
Intercession
Please understand that I am not minimizing the role of BIBLE-BASED intercession. It is a good thing to have people interceding for the sick, specifically that God would show them any hindrances to their healing and that God would give them a revelation of His Word concerning healing. Intercession is a good addition to sharing God’s healing covenant with the sick person, but it is not a substitute for it. Faith comes by hearing God’s Word, not by being prayed for.
The Prayer of Agreement
If the person is in agreement with being healed but is weak in faith, you can pray the prayer of agreement (Matthew 18:19) with him to get him healed. But if he doesn’t learn to stand for himself, you will have to keep repeating this process. God’s best is for the person to learn to “believe and receive” for himself.