Do It Anyway

What if you don’t feel confident to lay hands on the sick like those bold preachers on TV who preach at major campmeetings?  It seems so easy and natural for them, but YOU find yourself always battling thoughts of doubt that it won’t work for YOU.  Hmmm…maybe YOU aren’t even called to do it, because if you were, surely you would be a ball of confidence like those other preachers who must be called in a way that you aren’t.  Thus saith the devil!  He tries to talk everyone he can out of laying hands on the sick.

Do it anyway.

Want to know something that might shock you?  Even “big name” preachers battle thoughts of doubt just the way you do!  How do I know?  Because the same devil who tries to talk YOU out of laying hands on the sick tries to talk them out of it, too – his temptations are “common to man” (1 Corinthians 10:13).   In other words, he uses his same tired old tricks on everyone.  Also, I know that the “big names” battle contrary thoughts because they have spiritually dead flesh the same way you do.  No one is exempt from having to deal with the flesh in this life.

What if you feel AFRAID to lay hands on the sick, especially someone with a serious condition?

Do it anyway.

Consider the apostle Paul.  If anyone was “confident,” if anyone had a revelation of the Word, if anyone was a “well-known” preacher, it would have been Paul.  But even Paul battled INNER FEARS (2 Corinthians 7:5).  He got a lot of sick people healed ANYWAY.  So even if you battle inner fears the way Paul did, YOU can get a lot of sick people healed ANYWAY.

What if you don’t feel like you’ve done a very good job of LIVING the gospel this week?  Should YOU be laying hands on a sick person?

Do it anyway.

God doesn’t use people because they’re morally good.  He uses people because they’re available.  So go ahead and be God’s instrument of grace for that sick person.  God would prefer that you be morally good, but the only people He can use in healing the sick are morally imperfect people like you.

What if YOU need healing in your own body?  You don’t want to be a hypocrite, after all.  Should you wait until YOU have absolutely no physical imperfections before you lay hands on other people who have physical imperfections?  No!   Paul still bore marks in his body when he performed signs and wonders.  The Galatians received miracles by faith (Galatians 3:5-6) even though Paul has physical issues when he first arrived in Galatia (Galatians 4:13).

So do it anyway.

Always act on the WORD and nothing else.  The WORD says that you SHALL lay hands on the sick and they SHALL recover (Mark 16:18).

The bottom line is that you need to settle this in your heart:

“I am determined to act on the Word NO MATTER HOW I FEEL and NO MATTER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES TELL ME!”

So throw all the devil’s reasons why YOU can’t lay hands on the sick into the landfill where they belong and DO IT ANYWAY!