One of the biggest barriers to receiving healing from God is the wrong idea that your healing is up to God. That is no different from saying that your salvation from hell is up to God. In both cases, God has made a provision for you through Christ's atonement, and in both cases it is up to you to believe this and receive what Jesus died to give you.

Suppose that you thought your salvation were up to God. "If God wants me to be saved, he will save me; if not, it must be his good pleasure that I remain unsaved." This is no less absurd than saying, "If God wants me to be healed, he will heal me; if not, it must be his good pleasure that I remain sick." God's will for you concerning both your salvation and your healing are clear from his Word. He wants you to have both, and you receive them both the same way -- through your faith.


Many who are prayed for think that the preacher's faith is supposed to get them healed. This is not what Jesus taught. He never
said, "My faith has made you whole." In many cases, he told the healed person, "Your faith has made you whole." It was up to the person receiving the healing.

Take the case of the woman with the issue of blood. Jesus was not conducting any kind of healing service when she touched him. He was on his way to take care of another healing matter at the time. He had no idea that this woman was coming to him for healing. He had to ask who had touched him! The disciples were amazed because everyone was bumping against him, but Jesus wanted to know who had touched him in faith. He felt power go out of him and knew that someone had touched him in faith, but he did not know who it was.


Therefore, this healing could not have had anything to do with Jesus or his faith. This healing was brought about solely by the woman's faith. Jesus told her that her faith had healed her.

Where did she get this faith? The same way you do -- by hearing the gospel. The woman went and got her healing "when she had heard of Jesus." Someone must have told her the good news.

You will find the following statements in the New Testament (the Scripture references in context are below):
"As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee."
"And Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy..."
"Thy faith hath made thee whole." (This phrase appears 5 times!)
"According to your faith be it unto you."
"Great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt."

"And perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet."

For your clicking-and-reading enjoyment, here are the passages of Scripture where Jesus (or in one case, Luke) said that the person's faith (or a household member's faith) was responsible for the healing:

The centurion's son -- Matthew 8:5-13
The paralytic -- Matthew 9:2-8, Luke 5:17-26
The woman with the issue of blood -- Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, Luke 8:43-48
Two blind men -- Matthew 9:27-30
The Canaanite woman -- Matthew 15:22-28

Blind Bartimaeus -- Mark 10:46-52, Luke 18:35-43
A leper -- Luke 17:12-19
The lame man at Lystra -- Acts 14:7-10

Now let's look at what happened in a place where the people did not have faith:


Matthew 13:54-58

Mark 6:1-6

The Bible does not say that Jesus refused to do many mighty works. It says that Jesus could not do them at Nazareth, and that he marveled at their unbelief. Consider this: Jesus himself, the best preacher ever to walk the earth, could not get many people in the congregation healed because of their unbelief. Here we see the opposite side of the cases where people's faith got them healed.

How unfair for unbelieving congregations today to point the finger at the preacher when no signs and wonders occur. Yes, the preacher must believe also, but even if he does, not much will happen in a congregation with a hostile and unbelieving attitude. If Jesus himself could not get results where there was such unbelief, no other preacher can, because the servant is not greater than his master.

It is not that God did not want to heal every disease at Nazareth. We know that he did from Psalm 103:1-5 and elsewhere. The same preacher (Jesus) was healing multitudes in other cities. Jesus did not change from one place to another. What the people received depended more upon their faith or their unbelief than it did on Jesus!


If that was true then, that is still true today. It is not all up to Jesus. It's not up to God who gets saved or healed; it's up to us. "Whosoever will" can receive salvation and healing.

Read the account of the man with the demon-possessed boy in these verses:


Matthew 17:14-21
Mark 9:17-29

Luke 9:38-42

Jesus attributed the disciples' failure to their lack of faith. He had already given them power and authority over all devils (Luke 9:1-2), so power was not the issue. They had the power! The issue was not what Jesus could do, but what they could believe.

Then the man asked Jesus to do something "if you can do anything." Jesus again made it clear that the issue was not what Jesus could do, but what the man could believe. His answer was: "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."

We know that with God nothing shall be impossible (Luke 1:37), but it's not solely an issue of what God or Jesus can do. It's also an issue of what you can believe.

In Mark 11:24, Jesus made it clear that you can have whatsoever you desire if you believe that you receive it when you pray. It depends on your faith, not Jesus' faith.


This is not a popular teaching these days because many Christians are lazy and do not want to take responsibility for anything. It's so easy just to say that whatever happens is the will of God, and to let the will of Satan be done in your body while saying that it must be God. If it's solely up to God's will, you have no responsibility. Yet Jesus made it clear throughout his ministry that it is up to you, not him, to do something. God is not responsible for any man's failure to receive something that is available to all.

This is especially true now that healing has been permanently provided "by his stripes" (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus has done everything he needs to do about your healing. Whether you receive the healing he paid for in his atonement is completely up to you. God can heal you, and God wants to heal you. The only issue is, can you believe it?


You can be healed in God's mercy by the gifts of the Spirit operating through another believer. But the best way (and only sure way) to get healed and stay healed is to believe for yourself. Ultimately, it is according to your faith that it will be done unto you!