Do we pray for the sick?

Off the bat, this is going to shock you. Now, I have learnt actually not to pray to God for the sick. 

Let me explain this... In a typical scenario, we have the following parties when we are in a situation where there is a sick person. 

1) The Sick person (the patient)

2) The administer (the person praying)

3) God

The contemporary teaching ( and I say contemporary, in that what is mostly held by the body of Christ today) is that The administer speaks to God, and ask God to heal the sick person of the disease. Put your hand up if this is you. Well this was me. We go up to someone who is sick, and we ask God to heal that person. All sounds good, We give it to God, and if he decides to do a miracle, its up to him, I have done my part, the ball is in His court. But I have never had any results praying to God this way. This is a very blanket statement, and I am not saying you may not get results this way, and if you are getting some results, I have a position of which I think I can explain why you do get results. If you are not getting results, I can suggest a better approach to it.

Lets start off by saying why I don't pray to God when I pray for the sick. The word "pray" in today's context has a double meaning, I would like to clarify this first. 1) Praying to God, could be about the notion of speaking to God, asking God, communicating with God. But 2) Praying for the sick person, can some times refer to the act of administrating some form of divine involvement or activity upon that person. So when I say I don't pray to God for the sick, I am stating that I do not speak to God, or talk to God or Ask God to heal the sick person. You may ask Why not? Well, its not how they did it in the bible., and in context of how God has set it up, its not done that way. Lets go though some of the verses.

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. 

Matt 10:8

You may ask, why quote this bible verse? This is profound, because I used to read this verse, and think nothing of it. Because I use to read it with a wrong assumption. ie Go pray for the sick, raise the dead (don;t even know what that means and if it applies today), leprosy is already dealt with with medicine, and then drive out demons by asking the pastor to come along if something fishy is happening. Okay ready for the Viola moment? it said Heal the Sick.  YOU heal the sick! Freely you have received, freely give. (this actually applies to the dead raising also). not seeing it yet? check out the below scripture.

Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
Matt 10:1

See Jesus gave the disciples the authority to do it. They have been given the power to heal and take out the bad dudes. This is why we can do it.

Is this given to the twelve ? or only the 72? 

This was my initial response when I saw this verse, because, you can understand the bible saying that the 12 were able to do it, but that doesn't mean we can do it. or even should do it. So lets check out the below scripture.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Matt 28:19-20

This is spoken when Jesus was being raised up back to heaven, and giving the commission to tell the disciples to make disciples. Think about what this means. To make disciples, was memicing what Jesus was doing, leading, teaching, showing the 12 to do things that Jesus himself was doing. So making disciples, is asking the 12 to replicate themselves, and teaching and training their students to be like them. it is a perpetual replication process of themselves, about the teaching of Jesus, the works of Jesus, but more so about the relationship to God, the reality of what has happened, what was accomplished, and what the World actually is like. So how does this apply to praying for the sick? well, if the new disciples were to do what the 12 were doing, they have to go to the nations, and heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons.

But how does one do that? 

Imagine, Peter telling a new believer. "Phillip, Stephen, come here, When Jesus was still on earth, he went about healing people, he sent us to do the same, so I am going to send you guys out also, as part of the discipleship program." What is Phillip and Stephen going to say to that?.. Hold on Pete,  How do we go about doing this? 

You see at this point, something supernatural has to take place, you can mimic a sermon or a teaching, But for the signs and miracles, This has to be God. The supply has to be there, there is nothing man can do to generate it. 

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Mark 16:17-18

See most of us read the above verse with little impact. Think about it. We don’t expect the signs to follow us for some reason. And most probably that reason is because we don’t see it happen often. Or we have been told that it doesn’t happen now. But this is not what Jesus is saying. He is telling you if you believe in me, these things should be manifesting. Mark was estimated to be written after the destruction of Jerusalem, scholars estimates it to be around 65-75 CE. In order for Mark to be recording this, he must have seen the signs to be prevalent in the church, at least for the 30+ years, after Jesus ascended. Imagine what the early church must have been doing, making sense?

Imagine the conversation between Stephen and Peter, "Stephen don't worry, you just go heal them in the name of Jesus, the authority is already given to us by Jesus himself. We tell the demons to go, and they go, you tell the sickness to go, they go! Check this out, see my shadow? BAM! Your knee is fixed! See it’s a done deal! Jesus was whipped, so we are all healed! We just tell the sickness to go, try it, put your hand on the sick people, and they will be healed". 

Non-apostles did it in the bible!

Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.

Acts 6:8

When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many,and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.
Acts 8:6-8

(Philip in Acts 8, should not be confused with the apostle Philip) And today you will see that this could be done by any believer, me included and if you believe and act upon it, you will be able to do it too.

See How Peter administered healing

⁶ Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

Acts 3:6

¹⁶ By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

Acts 3:16

and Peter said to him, 'Aeneas, heal thee doth Jesus the Christ; arise and spread for thyself;' and immediately he rose,

Acts 9:34 (YLT)

See how it is NOT about pray! Its about Jesus’ name, and about faith in the name of Jesus!

Brothers and sisters, try it out, take Jesus’ authority out for a test drive. If you want to do the will of the father, do what Jesus did! There is something way deeper here. The point is, we are not healing the sick because it looks all cool and spiritual (which it is!), but we go about it, because in the plans of God, he wants everybody healed, sickness is part of the decay that sin bought, and it doesn’t come from God, it comes from the devil. The Father Loves us and hates the works of the devil, inflicting on us. This is why Jesus had compassion on the people and healed them. You have to recognize that healing is part of the father’s love. Its part of who he is, it’s the nature of God. It is God's will to heal. Write a testimony if this has helped you understand more on God’s healing.