Laying on of Hands for Healing: How to Receive the Health Jesus Purchased on the Cross
To appropriate the healing and health that Jesus purchased in His work of redemption on the Cross…
…you must be dedicated to:
Renewing Your Mind to the Truth.
Aligning Your Heart and Mouth.
Holding Fast to Your Confession.
Letting Patience Do Its Work.
Asking God for Clarification.
Staying in Unwavering Faith.
But there’s also the role that laying hands on the sick holds for your own healing and health, and you will also see that God can use you to lay hands on others for their healing and health. But the Bible makes it clear that one way God can deliver healing and health to you is through the laying on of hands.
As I was growing up in a denominational environment, throughout my childhood and adolescence, I never once witnessed the laying on of hands. Oh, how I want to make it clear that I am not speaking negatively about my church where I grew up, as they taught me so many wonderful truths from God’s Word. As I have repeatedly stated, much of who I am today in God is due to all the wonderful things I received in that church.
However, our church didn’t practice this doctrine of laying on of hands or consider it important. We were taught to believe the words of the Bible, but we sincerely didn’t understand the importance of the laying on of hands. In fact, I had never even heard about it until years later when I was filled with the Holy Spirit in my mid-teens and introduced to various Charismatic groups. It was in those environments where I first experienced seeing the laying on of hands demonstrated.
But the Bible shows that God has always used hands as conduits for the miraculous exchange of power, blessings, spiritual gifts, and authority. While hands may not possess any supernatural properties on their own, God, in His infinite wisdom, chose them as vessels for spiritual transmission. A divine transaction takes place when a believer lays hands on another person in faith and the Holy Spirit then imparts whatever is needed to the recipient. This includes healing and deliverance to the sick and the oppressed, and so much more.
It is well established in Scripture that God designed human hands to be His instruments through which these blessings would be transferred to another person. But we can also see throughout the Word that this same principle is true concerning God’s hands. In the Old Testament, we read often about “the hand of the Lord” coming upon someone. That Old Testament phrase was used to denote a moment when God supernaturally imparted something to a person or a group of people.
I suggest you read my book Build Your Foundation, in which I devote an entire chapter to how God used hands to transmit His blessings in the time of the Old Testament. But as you are about to see, this practice of transferring blessing was also very prominent in the ministry of Jesus and throughout the New Testament.
The Laying on of Hands in Jesus’ Ministry
Luke 4:40 says, “Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.”
This verse tells us that the entire town left their homes and converged on the place where Jesus was, and they brought to Him all who were sick, diseased, or oppressed. Despite the overwhelming size of the crowd, the Bible says Jesus laid His hands on every single one who needed His healing touch.
At times in Jesus’ earthly ministry, Jesus employed a variety of methods to bring healing to those in need. Sometimes He spoke a mere word and healing followed (see Matthew 8:5-13 and 15:21-28). However, Jesus recognized the unique significance of physical touch in His ministry. He realized that laying His hands upon the afflicted was a powerful means by which divine power, spiritual gifts, authority, and healing flowed from Him to humanity. His hands, indeed, served as vital instruments through which the miraculous was made manifest.
In Luke 4:40, we see that Jesus wanted to lay His hands on the people who were sick or diseased — because through His hands, a transfer of power would take place that would heal their bodies. Imagine the hours it took as He patiently and willingly moved through the throngs and reached out to lay His hands on each individual in need. But Jesus was willing to do whatever was necessary to be able to lay His hands on the sick and infirm so they could receive the power of God that would make them whole.
In Mark 6:5, we learn that when Jesus went to His own village, “…He could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.”
Once again, we see Jesus using His hands as conduits of healing and deliverance. When Jesus traveled to His own hometown, He arrived there eager to replicate the miracles He had performed elsewhere — to heal all who came to Him who were sick, oppressed, and diseased.
But the people there were full of doubt and unbelief. They had difficulty receiving His ministry because they had known Jesus all His life, and their familiarity with Him and His family made it difficult for them to see who He really was. They couldn’t get past their own familiar view of Jesus to see from a spiritual perspective who He actually was so that they could receive from Him. Yet Mark 6:5 says there was a category of sick people in Nazareth upon whom He laid His hands to impart healing power.
The laying on of hands occurred again and again in Jesus’ ministry. He understood the way God had designed the power to flow. He knew it came through His hands. The following are just some examples from the gospels of Matthew and Mark that illustrate how this principle was powerfully demonstrated throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry:
In Matthew 8:3, Jesus laid His hands on a man and healed him.
In Matthew 8:15, Jesus laid His hands on Peter’s mother-in-law and healed her.
In Matthew 9:29, Jesus laid His hands on blind people and healed them.
In Matthew 17:7, Jesus laid His hands on the apostles and divinely imparted encouragement to them.
In Matthew 20:34, Jesus laid His hands on blind people — and as healing power passed through His hands into them, they were healed.
In Mark 1:41, as Jesus laid His hands on a leper, power passed through His hands, and the leper was cleansed.
In Mark 8:23, Jesus laid His hands on a blind man. Healing power passed through His hands, and the blind man was healed.
As stated in this list, the examples of Jesus placing His hands upon individuals are taken exclusively from the books of Matthew and Mark. We could still go through Luke and John and add many more examples. The gospels are simply filled with these accounts.
Moving on to the book of Acts, we find that the laying on of hands continued to be used in the Early Church. Early believers understood that whenever the laying on of hands occurred, some kind of transmission took place. They had grown up learning about this principle from the Old Testament, they saw it in the ministry of Jesus, and they continued this pattern as they walked out those first, early days of the Church. So from the beginning to the end of Scripture, we find the importance of this doctrine of the laying on of hands.
All Believers Are to Lay Hands on the Sick
Before Jesus ascended to Heaven, He told the disciples that particular signs would follow those who believe. Among those signs was the laying on of hands for the healing of the sick. In Mark 16:18, we find Christ commanded all believers when He said, “…They [believers] shall lay hands on the sick, and they [the sick] shall recover.” This means that every believer is ordained by God to use his or her hands to deliver His power and blessing to someone else.
The words of Jesus in Mark 16:18 mean that God wants to use your hands. Through your hands, He stands ready to impart His blessing, power, healing, and deliverance to others. You simply must yield by faith and obey His command to lay hands on those who need His touch as His Spirit leads you. In this verse, Jesus Himself tells you, “Your hands are instruments for My power!” If you’ll get your hands out of your pockets and start laying them on people, you’ll begin to see supernatural activity because God works through the laying on of hands.
When you yield your hands for God to use them as His instruments, you will be amazed at the opportunities that come your way to transfer His blessings to others. Your hands may be used to impart the baptism in the Holy Spirit, healing to the sick, deliverance to the oppressed, an increase of financial blessing, anointings to carry out special tasks, or any of God’s many other spiritual blessings that He’s so eager to bestow upon those who will receive in faith.
Take a good look at your hands and realize with fresh understanding that they are more than just hands — they are instruments that God wants to use to impart blessings to others. They may look like mere hands to you, but your hands are actually conduits through which all kinds of spiritual goods are meant to be transferred to other people. And as you lay hands on others by the leading of the Holy Spirit, you will begin to regularly see supernatural evidence of God’s power and blessing manifested in people’s lives because of your obedience.
You Can Lay Hands on Others Who Need Healing, and Others Can Lay Hands on You to Be Healed
Not only does God want to use your hands to bring blessings or deliverance and healing to others, but He may use someone else’s hands to release the healing and health you are believing to be manifested in your life. If you have done the six things I’ve mentioned at the beginning of this article, but you’ve never asked anyone to lay hands on you, I encourage you to ask someone who believes to lay hands on you and to pray in faith. It may be that healing and health will be appropriated in your life by the laying on of hands.
But Jesus promised that any believer — including you — can lay hands on the sick and see them get better and better until they are fully restored to health. And God can use any faith-filled believer to lay hands on you for healing and health to be manifested in your life as well. All that is required for a person to be used in this way are three basic criteria:
Have a desire for God to heal through you.
Lay hands on sick people.
Release your faith and believe that God’s power will be transmitted through your hands to heal and to impart blessings of all kinds.
Healing the sick is part of your responsibility as a believer (see Mark 16:18), and the Holy Spirit is present to impart His power when you lay hands on others in Jesus’ name. So rather than look at sick people and only feel pity for them, pull your hands out of your pockets and lay them on sick people by faith in His name — just as Jesus did when He was ministering on the earth!
And if you’ve already been renewing your mind to the truth; aligning your heart and mouth; holding fast to your confession; letting patience do its work; asking God for clarification; and staying in unwavering faith — maybe now is the time for you to courageously ask a faith-filled believer to lay hands on you to trigger the manifestation of the healing you are waiting for right now.
Not All Healing is Instantaneous
But it is also important to note that Mark 16:18 says believers will “lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
The words “they shall” are a futuristic form of the Greek word echo, which means to have, to hold, or to possess. The tense used here doesn’t picture something that is instantaneous — rather, it refers to something that occurs progressively or over a period of time. This brings us to the word “recover,” which is a translation of the Greek word kalos, meaning to be in good shape, to be healthy, or to be well. When we take the meaning of the words “they shall recover” together as one complete phrase, it pictures those who progressively feel themselves getting better and better until, finally, they are well and healthy. This lets us know that all healings do not occur instantly; some of them take place over a period of time.
But Jesus’ promise is that if we will lay our hands on the sick, God’s power will be released into the bodies of the afflicted. And if we will allow others to lay hands on us, as we engage our faith and believe for His healing power to flow, it can be deposited into our bodies as well. Just as medicine gradually works to reverse a medical condition, the power of God that is deposited with the laying on of our hands on others — or deposited as others lay hands on us — will begin to attack the work of the devil and progressively restore any person to a state of health and well-being again. This is Jesus’ promise!
