Objection: “Prayer Cloths” Are Unscriptural Because the Only People Healed Touched Garments That Paul Wore

Let’s look at the one passage that describes what happened in Paul’s case:

Acts 19:11-12:
And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:
So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

A quick “Greek check” shows that the word for apron means the same thing you would think it means reading this today and that handkerchiefs is translated napkins the other three times it appears (Luke 19:20, John 11:44, John 20:7) – in two cases the napkin was used to cover a dead person’s head or face and in one case it was used to wrap money buried in the ground.  In other words, it would be a cloth item, not a paper napkin used to wipe the secret sauce from your face when you eat a Big Mac.

The plurals used for handkerchiefs and aprons demonstrate that Paul was not just giving away particular pieces of clothing that he happened to have on – who would wear more than one apron at a time?  It is clear that these items must have been brought to Paul so that they would contact his body.

Besides, the passage says explicitly that God did the special miracles by the hands of Paul, so it appears that his hands were the part of his body that contacted the cloths.  Thus, laying hands on cloth items to be brought to the sick and demonized is biblical.

It is evident, though not explicitly stated, that the anointing on Paul got into these items and was then released into the people who needed it.  This is a similar situation to where multitudes thronged to just touch Jesus’ cloths and be healed.  The anointing on Jesus got into His clothes and a person could be healed merely by coming into contact with that anointing by touching His clothes.

The objector agrees that the people in the passage above were healed.  The issue is whether today we can have “prayer cloths” that a preacher wears or lays hands on be taken to sick or demonized people so that they will be healed or delivered.  Can we expect that the anointing will go into a cloth item the way power goes into a rechargeable battery, to be released at the appropriate time?

Nothing in Scripture indicates that anything about the anointing has changed since Bible days.  There is not some new, weaker “anointing” on the earth today.  What worked then should work equally well now.

Perhaps the objector has seen preachers offer to send anointed cloths in exchange for donations and is turned off by that practice.  If so, I am just as turned off by it.  I have had wonderful success with prayer cloths, but I have never charged for them.  No mention is made that Paul charged anything either.  I could cite a lot of examples here of spectacular healings people have received from “prayer cloths” through my ministry, but my experience, though good, should not determine your doctrine.

I am not denying that prayer cloths have been used as gimmicks, but Paul’s experience with cloth items as well as people’s experience touching Jesus’ shows that the transfer of the anointing through cloth items is legitimate.