How Long Should We Keep Our Hands on Someone When We Lay Hands on Him?

There is no set amount of time in Scripture to keep hands on someone, but there is no case in Scripture of hands being laid on someone for a long time.  Technically, there is no need to leave your hands on anyone more than an instant, since you can then claim Jesus’ promise, “They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:18).

In practice, “hit and run” laying on of hands won’t work for a lot of people because they’re too nervous or distracted when you first lay hands on them.  It takes them a little time to settle down and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to them.  You’ll have to be led by the Spirit when it comes to this.  Some people are “human bricks” who for one reason or another are in no position to receive at all, and you could stand there all night and nothing would happen.  This is unfortunate, but there are plenty of such people out there.  (Don’t “assure” such a person that he has received his healing just to be able to move on!)

With some people, you may feel the anointing start to go into them and then seem to come back out.  You can encourage such people to receive the healing anointing.  You may want to say that you can’t receive it with your head; you receive it with your heart.  Some people will receive when they just quiet their heads down enough for their spirits to rise up.

You may even have to yell at some people (in love) to be quiet because they start going into a hyper-spiritual tizzy when you lay hands on them.  Encourage them that it is not time to pray and not time for them to praise at the top of their lungs, nor time to suddenly engage in machine-gun-speed tongues; it’s time for them to receive.  I think most people will find that it’s easier to receive from God with their mouths shut.

On the other end of the spectrum are people who want “soaking prayer” – they want you to lay hands on them for a long time, possibly hours.  This is advocated in some circles, but I challenge anyone to come up with the biblical case of the need for lengthy “soaking prayer” because I can’t find one.  It’s the faith, not the duration, of the prayer that counts.  The prayer of faith should not take a long time.  Believing that you receive does not take hours.  If the person wants lengthy ministry, he is probably not picking any particular time to turn his faith loose to believe that he receives at that moment.  Once you believe you receive, any prayer after that should be simply thanksgiving.

Imagine that an unsaved person came up and said, “I want soaking prayer for my salvation.  Please lay hands on me until I’m saved.”  What would you think of that idea?  Probably about what I think about long prayers being needed to receive the physical benefit of salvation – healing!  You would not believe that someone was saved just because you prayed soaking prayers for his salvation for an hour.  The person could be saved immediately by making the risen Jesus the Lord of his life.  Likewise, a person can receive healing immediately by believing that he receives the benefit of healing that Christ purchased for everyone.

If you’re laying hands on a sick person and there is a tangible flow of the anointing, which usually indicates that some kind of special manifestation of the Spirit is happening, I have no problem with keeping your hands on that person until you sense that the anointing to lay hands on him has lifted.  That might take a little while, but I’ve never felt led to do it for really long periods of time.