Praying for People to Be Healed
Selected Scriptures
1st Lay hands on them
Matthew 8:3, (NIV)
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.
Matthew 8:14-15, (NIV)
When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.
2nd Rebuke the demon causing the sickness
Luke 4:38-39, (NIV)
Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.
It is tempting to suggest that the woman’s “high fever” was malaria, a common ailment in low-lying, water-bound Capernaum. If it was malaria, Luke implies it was demonically induced. In both the NT and rabbinic tradition, fevers are often attributed to divine punishment or demon possession. Luke precedes this story (vv. 33–37) and follows it (vv. 40–41) with exorcisms. This is the only healing miracle in which Jesus addresses the illness rather than the ill person, and the rebuke (Gk. epitiman) preserves the common Greek technical word reserved for exorcisms...
~Pillar Commentary, Luke, James Edwards
Matthew 17:14-16,18 (NIV)
When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. "Lord, have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him."...Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
Mark 9:25, (ESV)
He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again."
3rd Command healing
Mark 7:32-35, (NIV)
There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!"). At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.
Matthew 12:9-10, 13
Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" ...Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.
Acts 9:32-35, (NIV)
As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the saints in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years. "Aeneas," Peter said to him, "Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat." Immediately Aeneas got up. All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.
Acts 14:8-10, (NIV)
In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, "Stand up on your feet!" At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.
4th Pray again
Mark 8:22-25, (NLT)
When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch the man and heal him. Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man's eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, "Can you see anything now?" The man looked around. "Yes," he said, "I see people, but I can't see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around." Then Jesus placed his hands on the man's eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly.
5th Instruct an act of faith
John 9:1, 6-7(NIV)
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth...Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
Luke 17:12-15, (NIV)
As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.
6th Anoint people with oil
Mark 6:12-13, (NIV)
They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
James 5:14-15, (NIV)
Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.
Note the unconditional nature of the promise! We have no scriptural warrant to end a healing prayer with the faith destroying phrase, “If it be Thy will”! God has made it perfectly clear in His Word that it is His will to heal the sick–period! Jesus never prayed for the sick in a conditional manner. Some remind us that Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, “If it be Thy will”- or rather, “Not my will but Thine.” This is an entirely different situation, Jesus knew the Father’s will...
Dennis Bennett, The Holy Spirit and You, p.116
We do not need to make long prayers for the sick. When we have the faith to say it, a word of command can be effective: “Be healed, in Jesus’ Name!” Jesus healed with a touch or a word–most often with a command, “Be thou clean!” He said to the leper. To the “sick of palsy,” He said, “Get up, pick up your mat, and go to your house!” To the deaf man’s ears, He commanded “Be opened!” To the man with the withered hand, He said, “Stretch forth your hand!” and it was instantly healed.
Dennis Bennett, The Holy Spirit and You, p.117
The one who feels led to pray for the sick should take time to ask God how He would have him proceed. Other gifts of the Spirit such as the word of knowledge and the word of Wisdom should be expected to be manifested in conjunction with the gifts of healing. There may be something in the sick person’s life that is stopping the healing, and that could be revealed by a word of knowledge.
Dennis Bennett, The Holy Spirit and You, p.120
1st Some healings are instantaneous
2nd Some healings are gradual
3rd Some healings are partial
Mark 9:28-29, (NIV)
After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer.* "
*Some manuscripts: prayer and fasting.
Matthew 17:19-21*, (NIV)
Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." *
*Some manuscripts add. But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.
John 14:12-14, (NIV)
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
John 15:16, (NIV)
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
John 16:23-24, (NIV)
In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
