Jesus never prayed for the sick. Did you know the Bible never shows Jesus praying for the sick before healing them? Jesus performs healing miracles like curing blindness, paralysis, and leprosy. Yet we never once see Jesus ask God in prayer to heal any sick or demonically oppressed person. Instread of praying, Jesus speaks a command to bring healing to a person, or remove demonic oppression.

Why does Jesus not need to pray for God to heal someone?

Jesus knows Father God wants Him to heal them all. So, Jesus never needs to ask God to permit Him to do what God already is asking Him to do. Jesus does not need to pray to get Father God to change His mind, instead of leaving someone sick. So, the question is, does Jesus have all the qualifications, permission, ability, and power to do this for whosoever?  The answer is of course, yes. When Jesus is ready to launch His public ministry, He is qualified, authorized, empowered, and assigned by Father God to heal all the sick and cast out all the demons.

Qualifications

Born of King David’s lineage by earthly father, Levite Priestly lineage by Levite mother.

Baptized into ministry with water by Levite Prophet John the Baptist.

Filled at baptism with Holy Spirit by Father God

John’s testimony that Jesus is the One, and baptismal blessing, gives Jesus his Levite authority needed to minister in Israel under Mosaic Law.

Authority

Beyond only Levite authority, Father God declares Jesus as His Son, giving Him authority to do the work He assigned His Son to do

 Empowerment

Jesus does the miraculous works by the power of the Spirit of Father God

Assignment

The assignment is to announce that He is the Messiah and fulfill all of Isaiah’s prophecies. While ministering on earth Jesus quotes Isaiah 61:1-2 as we will see in Luke 4:18.

Jesus goes to the towns and villages throughout Israel. His purpose is to announce God’s Good News message that Jesus is the Messiah. He first goes to the equivalent of the local churches in His day, their synagogues. We see it is customary for Him to read a passage about Himself in the Scroll (Book) of Isaiah. Next Jesus tells them He is fulfilling this prophecy. But Jesus never prayed for the sick. He will demonstrate the power God gave Him to do the miraculous healings the passage says He will do without praying for them.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, ¹⁹ To preach the acceptable year of the Lord” ² Luke 4:18-19

They were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.

1.    First, Jesus tells audience the scripture (Isaiah 61:1-2) prophesying what Messiah will do.

2.    Jesus next tells them He is here to fulfill the prophecy, including healing and deliverance.

3.    Finally, He demonstrates His power and authority over sickness and demons

Jesus goes about healing all

Jesus never prayed for the sick, yet He does heal them all. 2 And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. 13 And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.  Luke 13:12-13

 And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. 37 And the fame of him went out into every place of the country roundabout. Luke 4:36-37

Notice Jesus declares to the woman, thou art loosed. He then lays hands on her, and heals her immediately. Jesus commands unclean spirits to depart, and they come out. These divine healings never include begging or even politely asking God to do it. God already gave Jesus the authority and the power to do it.

All means all regardless of their spiritual condition 

Jesus also proclaims the Good News outside the churches where much larger crowds could hear His message. How many of the people He laid hands on out there are holy, righteous, and full of faith? Virtually none of them. Jesus never prayed for the sick to be saved, forgiven, or righteous before He is allowed or able to heal them. He has compassion on all of them. Jesus is commanding healing to everyone He lays his hands on, and heals them all.

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the kingdom’s gospel, and healing all manner of sickness and disease among the people. ²⁴ And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. Matthew 4:23-24

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. Acts 10:38

 There are far more who need healing today

As great as all of these miracles are, we know that there are still millions who have not heard the Good News. Many are sick, and many are oppressed by the devil. They need healing and deliverance. What does God expect us to do about that?

2 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. John 14:12

⁶ He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. ¹⁷ And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; ¹⁸ 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 16:16-18

It would seem that Jesus wants all who believe to save and to heal

Jesus was able to give a command, and sickness, disease, and demons obeyed Him. The apostles did the same. Jesus said those who believe, not just apostles and prophets, shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Do we have the same qualifications, authority, and empowerment, to back up our assignment?  We will answer that question in the next blog.

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash