How Much Faith Does It Take to Heal a Serious Illness?
Let’s see how much faith it takes to do some other things.
If you have really small faith – the size of a mustard seed – you can speak to a mountain and command it to be thrown into the sea (Matthew 17:20) and you can speak to a tree to be uprooted and thrown into the sea (Luke 17:6).
Peter walked on water during a storm based solely on Jesus’ command to come. He got his focus off Jesus’ command and onto the wind and waves. He began to sink. Jesus rescued him and called him “thou of little faith” (Matthew 14:28-31). That actually excites me! Sure, Peter didn’t make it all the way to Jesus, but his “little faith” got him out of the boat and on top of the water at least for a while. Can you imagine yourself doing that rather than being the other 11 disciples who stayed safely in the boat? All you would need to do that is a little faith, based on what Jesus said!
When the disciples asked Jesus for more faith, Jesus didn’t say, “Sure, here’s some more faith!” Instead, He told them what would happen if they’d USE just a little bitty bit of faith (Luke 17:5-6).
I can tell you on the authority of these verses that you do not need whopping big humungo-faith to get rid of a serious illness. You can terminate terminal illnesses with really small faith – if you USE it.
The devil may tell you that you don’t have enough faith to do anything. He will be satisfied with the outcome if you determine that you need 27.4 believons (an arbitrary unit of faith) to get rid of stage 4 cancer, but your faith can only operate at the level of 12.1 believons. But seriously, how hard can it be? Multitudes of unsaved people in the gospels came and received healing for EVERY kind of sickness! God didn’t even live in them. They were not new creatures in Christ with born-again spirits created in God’s likeness in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24). They hadn’t been to New Testament Bible training centers or faith campmeetings and they didn’t have libraries of books about faith and healing. They didn’t have Scripture recordings to listen to at home. They didn’t even have the New Testament yet! So getting a serious illness healed can’t be as hard as we’ve made it out to be!
Not one of the disciples was a born-again believer during Jesus’ earthly healing ministry, yet they did all kinds of miracles while their spirits were still unregenerate. So how much of a faith giant do you think you need to be to do miracles? Jesus taught that some wicked people who never knew Him would do many wonderful works in His name (Matthew 7:22-23)! How “spiritual” do you think those people are? So you don’t have to be a faith giant or even a believer to get results when you minister with faith in the name of Jesus.
Even a carnal Christian whose love walk is a train wreck could still have mountain-moving faith (1 Corinthians 13:2). So just how “spiritual” do you have to be in order to have faith that could get rid of cancer? I think you’d agree that healing cancer is a lesser feat than relocating a mountain with your words, which requires only teeny-tiny faith. You do not have to be perfect or even a mature believer to exercise mountain-moving faith!
A man in Lystra got faith to be healed just by listening to Paul preach the real gospel. He then received healing for a lifelong disability. (See Acts 14:7-10.) He had a VERY serious birth defect, but he got healed in short order.
So it CAN’T be true that you need years of “faith-building” before you’re ready to cancel cancer. We have sometimes majored on the size of our faith when that isn’t really the main issue. The larger issue for most of us is that although we have faith, we also allow contrary thoughts to deter us. An unrenewed mind and unmortified flesh are our main problems, because they lead us to act based on unbelief rather than faith. The issue certainly isn’t one of power if you’re baptized with the Holy Spirit! You have enough power to wipe out every cancer case in your city if you can get people to cooperate with you and with God.
When the disciples failed to cast out a demon, Jesus basically said that they’d only get His results if they fasted and prayed. Doing those will keep your flesh in check. Your flesh naturally wants to eat and doesn’t want to pray because it is unspiritual. When you keep your flesh under, you eliminate a major source of resistance to operating in faith. You rise above walking based on sense knowledge. It is your flesh’s nature to walk in unbelief, but it is your born-again spirit’s nature to walk in faith. That’s why God calls you a BELIEVER!
So the answer to the question, “How much faith does it take to heal a serious illness?” is “Not much, if you’ll just USE the faith you have!”
Healing serious illnesses in the name of Jesus is not something only for veteran Christians. If you’re a Christian, the right to lay hands on the sick – including the seriously sick – is yours to exercise right now (Mark 16:18)! Rather than focusing inwardly and wondering how much faith you have, why not just believe what God says and act like the entire Bible is true. It’s not about struggling to believe – just ACT on what you know God has already said – whether it “looks like” it will work or not – and you WILL get the results that He promises!
See also: