“They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:18b).
So what do we do during a pandemic? How do we lay hands on the sick and keep our social distance? Is laying on of hands only symbolic? Consider this Scripture:
“One of the rulers of the synagogue, named Jairus, saw Jesus and came and fell at His feet and earnestly asked Him, ‘My little daughter is lying at the point of death. I ask You, come and lay Your hands on her, so that she may be healed. And she will live.’ So Jesus went with him” (Mark 5:22-24).
Jesus went to the little girl to lay hands on her and heal her. It seems the laying on of hands has important practical and spiritual functions here.
Chuck Parry, the director of Healing Rooms at Bethel Church in Redding, California, joined me on a recent Greenelines podcast to discuss healing through digital connections.
“We’ve used every avenue. We’ve used Skype phone calls, Zoom rooms and Facebook Live to minister healing to people,” he said. “In the past few weeks, we’ve seen two people come into a Zoom Room from their hospital room. We saw a person come out of a coma during a Zoom call. Two different people in the past few weeks have awakened from a coma right in the Zoom room.”
Though the COVID-19 virus has challenged our mental endurance and our perception of limitations, we are learning that the Lord moves in the midst of every circumstance.
“We are letting God enlarge our capacity to believe even while we can’t do the things we did before [the virus]. So, we are going to be OK. I can believe that He can. I know he spoke to the centurion’s servant who was in another town, and we saw him healed,” Parry said.
He was referring to the story in Matthew 8:5-13: “And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, entreating Him, and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home, sick with paralysis, terribly tormented'” (vv. 5-6).
Jesus agreed to go heal the servant, but the centurion stopped Him. “‘Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But speak the word only, and my servant will be healed. ‘For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, “Go,” and he goes, and to another, “Come,” and he comes, and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it'” (vv. 8b-9).
Jesus was amazed at the great faith of this military leader and faithful father. He held him up as an example to the ages, saying, “‘Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel'” (v. 10b). And he sent the centurion on his way with these powerful words:
“Go your way. And as you have believed, so let it be done for you.’ And his servant was healed that very moment” (v. 13b).
The centurion had “great faith” to believe that Jesus had the authority to command healing from miles away. Jesus didn’t have a Google Hangout or a Zoom room, but He walked in His anointing.
Do you? {eoa}
