Our personal faith plays a very important role in obtaining our healing from God. He requires us to have and exercise faith when it comes to healing. We may seek prayer for healing from others (ie- pastors, elders in the church, people used in the gift of healing and/or faith,etc. ) and this is scriptural (James 5:14-15, Matthew 18:20), as well as very important for us to do. However, God still requires and honors us our faith, not just the faith of the person praying for us, in order to see Him move on our behalf.
There are three stories in scripture that come to my mind which illustrate the need for us to exercise our personal faith for healing. The first story involves the man who brought his demon possessed son to Jesus in Mark 9:17-29. In this portion of scripture, the father tells Jesus that his son is robbed of his speech and is physically tormented by a demon. The father mentions that the disciples could not cast out the demon and he begs Jesus to heal his son.
It is easy to understand the father's frustration, fear and concern for his son whom he loves. What loving parent wouldn't give anything to see their child healed? In the story,the father says ..."but if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us" (Mark 9:22b). To this, Jesus replies: "If [I] can? Everything is possible for one who believes" (Mark 9:23). As we can see, Jesus made it plain that there was no question about His ability to heal the father's son. Additionally, Jesus plainly stated that the father had to have faith in His ability to heal in order for Jesus to do exactly that.
Isn't Jesus wonderful? He blew the lid off of the father's unbelief and told him that "Everything", not just healing the demon possessed son, is possible for anyone who believes. Jesus' statement pierced right through the atmosphere of unbelief and oppression that haunted the boy and his father. Jesus, spoke the Word, and in doing so created an atmosphere of faith and victory whereby this evil spirit was then after cast out. We are to do the same - as we speak God's Word, we too change the atmosphere around us from one of defeat to one of victory. In verse 24, the boy's father responds in faith and immediately exclaimed, "I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief." With the father declaring his faith in Jesus, He honored the man's faith and rebuked/commanded the demon to leave, and the boy was then healed.
The second and third stories are actually intertwined in Mark 5:21-43. Jairus, a synagogue leader, asked Jesus to come to place His hand on his daughter and heal her. While Jesus was going to Jairus' home, a large crowd came upon Him and a woman who had a blood disease for twelve years exercised her faith by touching His clothes and was immediately healed. He questioned who touched Him and the woman, trembling in fear, admitted that she was the one. In vs. 34, Jesus said: ..."Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering". Notice that Jesus said it was her faith that healed her. It wasn't the healing of Jesus alone that healed her. It was her faith combined with the the healing anointing of Jesus by which she received her healing. If she lacked faith, she would not have been healed because Jesus does not work miracles where unbelief exists - see Mark 6:5.
Meanwhile, Jairus' daughter died (vs. 35). In vs. 36 Jesus told Jairus: "Don't be afraid; just believe." Again, Jesus demanded the person requesting the miracle to have faith. Notice that in verses 39-40 Jesus told most of the people in the room where the daughter is lying dead to leave. He did this to remove the spirit of unbelief so that healing could take place. We need to remove the obstacles around us when ministering faith and healing to others. In verses 41-41, Jesus took the little girl by the hand and told her to get up, which she did, proving that she was healed.
We can see from the these three scriptural illustrations that Jesus calls for us, as believers, to stand in our own faith (as opposed to trusting in someone else's faith) for healing. We see that our faith is directed toward Him (not directed toward someone with the gift of healing, because they are not the healer) - He is our healer. When we do this the anointed healing of Jesus can flow into our lives and heal us according to the promise of His Word.
