Objection: Saying that Faith Does Things Depersonalizes the Transaction by Leaving God Out

If this objection is true, there were plenty of “depersonalized” incidents in Jesus’ ministry because He said that people’s faith did things!  See According to YOUR Faith Be It Done unto You for a list of such occurrences.

There is a legitimate extent to which a faith transaction is “depersonalized” because God does not make an individual ruling in your case to decide whether or not you should be healed.  He already provided the healing for you.  You can simply receive it.  You don’t have to get His permission to receive it; you already have that because of Jesus’ finished work.

However, the healing still comes from Him.  People who lay hands on you are only His conduits.  We are not New Agers claiming that our innate ability somehow makes these wonderful healings happen.  God still gets the credit and the glory because He is the Source of healing.  This is true even when you receive the healing yourself without hands being laid on you.

Suppose that I let you stay at my house, and I tell you, “Just tell me what you want to eat and I’ll get it for you, whatever it is.”  So you say that you want some cottage cheese, and you believe that I will give it to you because you think I’m honest.  So I serve you some cottage cheese.  I’m not making a fresh decision about whether or not you can have it when you ask for it; I already established that fact before you asked.  There is no decision-making involved on my part when you ask for the cottage cheese.  That’s an imperfect analogy, maybe even a cheesy one, but I hope that you see what I mean.

Believing that you receive when you pray in faith doesn’t leave God out at all because He is the one you’re receiving from!  If you instead command a sickness to leave, you have to do so in the name of Jesus.  When you use Jesus’ name, you certainly haven’t “depersonalized” the transaction by leaving Jesus out!