Hope for Healing, Faith for Living Podcast

Can We Use Faith To Receive Healing?

Summary:

“Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.”

Mark 10:46-52 NIV

Jesus said, "Your faith has healed you."

That’s a huge statement. It’s some belief that God can heal but doesn’t always choose to. Jesus put the emphasis on the faith of Bartimaeus as the reason he was healed.

If Bartimaeus and others in Scripture can use faith to receive healing, so can we.

Let’s see what Bartimaeus did.

He heard of Jesus. Now for him to react the way he did he must have heard Jesus was healing people. 

Bartimaeus called out to Jesus and referred to him as the Son of David.

This was a title given to the awaited Messiah because it was prophesied that the Messiah would be a descended of David.  (2 Samuel 7:12–16)

In fact Matthew Chapter 1 gives the genealogical proof that Jesus was a direct descendant of David through Joseph, Jesus’ legal father and Luke 3 traces Jesus’ lineage to David through His mother, Mary. 

So, Bartimaeus heard about Jesus, believed Jesus was who he heard he was, confessed who he believed Jesus was and called out for mercy.

Often we see people who need healing crying out for mercy because sickness and disease was believed to be is part of the curse or result of sin. So to cry out to for mercy is to cry out saying I’m asking for you to spare me from what I deserve.

So there’s a lot of humility in the way Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus.

Another important fact to point out, Bartimaeus wouldn’t quit. The Scripture says many told him to be quiet but he shouted all the more! Faith doesn’t quit.

The Jesus did call for him and immediately Bartimaeus stood and threw off his cloak. Why is that significant. It’s said that back in that time, people could recognize who was a bigger by the cloak they war. It was their identity and how they received money from those willing to give to him. 

But he believed Jesus could and would heal him so he through it off. It was an act of faith that he was going to be healed now. No longer was he hoping that healing would happen for him someday. He had the attention of Jesus and he believed Jesus would healing him right then.

He came to Jesus and Jesus asked him what did he want him to do for him. Did Jesus not know? Of course he knew. But Bartimaeus needed to voice what he was coming to Jesus for. We need to voice our needs, in faith, meaning we know It’s God’s will when we ask.

Let’s look at a Scripture that shows this.

1 John 5:14-15 ESV

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

This account is in Scripture for out benefit. So that we can see what happened, understand healing is God’s will and know how we too can use the faith we have, (which comes from hearing His Word, Romans 10:17) and receive God’s will, his promises, for ourselves.

Blessings in Christ,

Tim Dumas