Who Has to Be in Faith, the Person Laying Hands, the Sick Person, or Both?

Preferably both.

Some situations have different nuances, but with the exceptions below, God expects both parties to exercise faith.

Mark 9:17-29 gives us an illustration of this point.  When those ministering were not in faith, nothing happened.  When Jesus, who WAS in faith, came along, He still told the father to believe.  He did NOT say, “MY faith will carry this without yours getting involved.  If My disciples had just had their acts together, your son would already be delivered.”  In fact, the exasperation Jesus expressed was “O faithless generation” as opposed to “O faithless disciples.”  Furthermore, that comment was addressed to the father of the demonized boy, not to the disciples!  It was lack of faith on the disciples’ part AND on the father’s part, not just one or the other.

On a boat, Jesus rebuked His disciples for lack of faith, but His disciples were the only ones there to rebuke – there were no members of the public at large on that trip.  On another occasion He rebuked the faithless hearers and not the faithless disciples: “Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not” (Matthew 11:20).  So both a minister and a recipient could be rebuked for not exercising faith.  Having said that, let me say that Jesus is far more interested in building your faith than He is in rebuking you for not exercising it.

Consider the many times that Jesus told the recipient, “According to YOUR FAITH be it done to you.”  He never said, “According to MY FAITH be it done to you.”  This shows that the recipient needs to be in faith, not just the person ministering healing.  Therefore, we should never teach that we can just lay hands on people and it’s all up to our faith.  Too many sick people think that way already, with the result that they just sit there like a blob expecting someone else to do all the “work” for them.  They sometimes go from meeting to meeting, assuming that if a minister is just anointed enough some night, they will get healed.  They will keep going from meeting to meeting until they learn the truth!

If it were all up to the MINISTER’S faith, JESUS would have been at fault for not having mighty miracles at Nazareth.  Clearly the problem was not on His end.  He COULD NOT do miracles because of their unbelief.  You won’t find a more faith-filled preacher than Jesus!  So no matter how much faith you walk in, you’re not above your Master.  Your faith cannot override other people’s unbelief.  So it is not all up to you.

This is further underscored by the fact that Jesus gave His disciples instructions about what to do when a city did not receive them – dust off their feet and go somewhere else!  He did not say, “If they don’t receive your words and get healed in that city, pray harder and blame yourself for not having the faith to get them healed.  Then go actually get the job done in that city.  Don’t come back until they’re healed.”

On the other hand, it must partly be based on you as the person laying hands, because Jesus got the demonized boy healed while the disciples did not.

One could theorize that God would not expect much faith from unbelievers or new believers, but that isn’t true either.  NONE of the people Jesus addressed in the four gospels was a believer in the New Testament sense of being born again!  Yet “their faith” made them well.

I understand why a minister might WANT to say, “If you don’t get healed, blame me – it’s my lack of faith.”  This would be a convenient way to defuse the common objection that faith healers make people feel guilty for not having enough faith.  However, as we’ve just seen, such a comment would not harmonize with Scripture, even if it makes people feel better – unless they also are people who lay hands on the sick, in which case they will now feel bad (often unnecessarily) if nothing happens.

Now let’s consider three special cases.

Manifestation of Gifts of Healings, Working of Miracles and (Special) Faith

Sometimes when the Holy Spirit manifests Himself in these ways described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:8-11, a person can get healed when NEITHER the person laying hands NOR the sick person is really in faith in the normal sense.  That’s why they’re gifts – they’re God’s freebies!  Sometimes unbelievers, weak believers and even older believers without a good Bible foundation can be healed this way.  I’ve seen people healed by the gifts of healings in environments where there wasn’t a lick of real faith for healing between the minister and the sick person.  The minister couldn’t preach his way out of a paper bag and the sick person had no idea what the story was with divine healing, which made sense because the minister certainly didn’t tell the story.  And by God’s mercy, the sick were healed anyway.

In other cases when the gifts manifest, the sick person may need to respond by coming forward or raising his hand.  In such cases, at least some faith does get involved on the sick person’s part.  And the minister needs to exercise enough faith to offer to minister healing.

The Sick Person in James 5

The sick person in James 5 may or may not be a believer (a point proved as part of another long discussion).  The “prayer of faith” is prayed by the elders.  There is no mention that the sick person has to pray along with them at all.  So the faith that matters there is the faith of the people doing the ministry.  The sick person still DOES have to exercise faith to call for the elders of the church for healing ministry (which lamentably, few do although they are supposed to do it if they have a serious illness that keeps them bedridden).  That does require at least some faith, as otherwise the sick person would conclude that a visit from the elders would be a waste of time and not bother calling for them.

The Mature Believer

Mature believers don’t necessarily need anyone to lay hands on them, though if they’re struggling with something, they’re certainly permitted to ask.  The best ways to be healed are to speak to the sickness and command it to leave and to “believe you receive” the healing Jesus provided when you pray.  These two methods don’t require anyone else to be present, so in this case, ALL the faith being exercised is on the part of the sick person.