THIS HAND IS NOT EMPTY

Dear Believer,

I have had to lay hands on the sick to minister healing several times, and God has honored this action of faith on several occasion. But I will mention a particularly interesting one.

In the earlier years of our marriage, my wife and I lived in a government reserved area on the outskirts of Ibadan. This ‘estate’ was bounded on one side by a village. In that village lived many people who practiced black magic. Stories of bewitching and and sorcery were rampant. We evangelized and tried bringing many to Christ. One of our converts was a young man whose name I will call Tony here.

We were told one day that Tony’s mother died, and the cause was poison. It appeared someone deliberately ‘poisoned’ her. A few weeks after her burial, Tony too was ‘poisoned.’ He lay down groaning. But he sent for us to pray for him.

After I prayed, I laid my hand on his tummy. As soon as my hand touched him, something solid rose up in him, pushing up my hand. Then the thing moved to another part of the tummy as if avoiding my hand. That was when Tony grabbed my hand and began to chase the thing around his body. “It is here, oh, it has gone here! It is now up here…” As this thing ran around his tummy, he kept chasing it with my hand. Suddenly, the thing disappeared and the young man breathed a sigh of relief. The pains were gone and his life was saved. He got up and walked without any problem.

What does this tell us?

That we should remember the words of Jesus, “You shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Mark 16:17-18. While I believe in anointing with oil, I think Christians should be more cognizant of the indwelling anointing that they have by the presence of the Holy Spirit. If you are a child of God, you have the unction in you, and it is capable of being activated in the time of need. (John 7: 37-38; 1John 2:20;27). It will flow out and be deposited in the sick the same way a pill will be deposited in the sick. It works, brethren.

f laying hands on the sick implies that something good will flow out of us to the sick person, then we must take care to fill ourselves of ‘virtue’ always, so that like Jesus, a touch from the sick will bring out the power that will heal them.

Why did Jesus tell us to lay hands on the sick? Because something will flow out through that hand! If it is an empty hand, what’s the point? And I believe that the more you do this, the more your faith grows. Don’t say you did it once and it didn’t work. Do what you are commanded, and let God do His own part.

One of the reasons I challenge Christians to feed on the Word constantly and live a life of divine communion in prayer is so that we will be full of the Holy Spirit at all times. A man who is full has more to give than a man whose level of filling is low. If laying hands on the sick implies that something good will flow out of us to the sick person, then we must take care to fill ourselves of ‘virtue’ always, so that like Jesus, a touch from the sick will bring out the power that will heal them.

Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. 2Timothy 1:6

It is our responsibility, not God’s, to stir up the gifts of God in us.

To the glory of God, I have visited sick people who got healed while I was chatting with them. I hadn’t even prayed at all. Virtue went out and healed them, and that was all.

If we live with the consciousness of the presence of the Holy Spirit at all times, and keep a healthy spiritual life, we will probably be getting more people healed accidentally than we are now doing on purpose.

It is in you, Believer, let it out by faith and bless the world.

Your friend,
Deon.
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For further studies read Acts 1:1-11.