"Lord, Increase My Faith": How God Heals Today

Introduction: a simple prayer for this morning

You may have come to church this morning carrying a worry, a burden, a concern. Anxiety rises easily when you look at everything going on around you. And yet you hear talk of miracles, of healing, of faith that moves mountains. So you wonder: "Where is God in all this, for me, in my ordinary life?"

The guest preacher this Sunday, February 8, a former hospital chaplain, offered one simple prayer as a thread running through the whole message: "Lord, increase my faith." He drew it from a father's cry in the Gospels, the father who brings his child to Jesus and says, "I believe; help my unbelief." He carried this prayer from beginning to end, drawing on Isaiah 38 and Mark 6.

What he shared wasn't a theoretical lecture on healing. It was a pastoral perspective, forged in hospital hallways, that resets you when you expect only the big signs from God and risk missing how he's already at work in the everyday.

Outline of the message

1. Hezekiah: when prayer changes the sentence

The first reading is Isaiah 38. King Hezekiah is struck with a fatal illness. The prophet Isaiah comes to tell him: "Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live." Hezekiah turns his face to the wall, prays to the LORD, recalls that he has walked before God in faithfulness, and weeps bitterly.

The Lord's answer comes quickly: "I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life." And Isaiah asks that a lump of dried figs be brought and applied to the king's boil.

This detail is far from incidental. God answers the prayer, he adds years, and at the same time he uses a very concrete remedy. Faith doesn't rule out action. Faith doesn't put God in competition with medicine. It places everything in the Lord's hands.

2. Mark 6: three ways God works

In Mark 6, the evangelist sets three moments side by side. In Nazareth, Jesus "could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them," and he marveled at their unbelief (vv. 5-6). Then he sends out the Twelve, who "cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them" (v. 13). Finally, at Gennesaret (vv. 53-56), people ran everywhere, laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged Jesus to let them touch "just the fringe of his garment."

Three passages, three ways. Laying on of hands. Anointing with oil. Simple contact with a garment. The preacher said it plainly: God isn't limited to a single way of working. If you're only looking for one kind of miracle, you risk missing how God is making himself available all around you.

3. Faith is not the automatic condition for a miracle

We often say, "If you have faith, you'll be healed." The preacher gently corrects that. In Mark 6, in Nazareth, unbelief didn't stop Jesus from healing a few sick people. Elsewhere, Jesus heals people whose inner state we know nothing about. Faith is neither a psychological condition nor a currency of exchange.

"Faith provides an environment where the meaning of the miracle can be received and understood. The miracle doesn't necessarily create faith. It simply gives faith the occasion to be exercised." This shift changes everything, especially for you if you've ever told yourself, "If I'm not healed, it's because I don't have enough faith." The preacher was clear: it isn't a matter of how much faith you have. That thought hurts, it torments, and it isn't biblical.

4. Laying on of hands: a sign, not magic

Hands can do so much. We raise them to bless. We extend them to say, "I carry no weapon, I open myself to you." We fold them to pray. Jesus himself doesn't need his hands to heal. He healed from a distance with a simple word. Laying on of hands isn't essential, but it communicates something: presence, compassion, prayer.

The preacher told of a heart patient, far from his home country, far from his family. "When I arrived in his room, I wasn't a complete stranger to him. I reached out my hand and made my presence known with a light touch on his hand. He could barely speak. The post-surgery fatigue was plain to see. That gentle, almost invisible sign was a reminder of our friendship and my support. The hand laid on him signified prayer and blessing, and reassured the patient of his Lord's goodness."

Your outstretched hand, your compassionate gaze, your gift, welcoming an asylum seeker: these are hands that bless. "We are agents of healing. We are his eyes, his hands."

5. Anointing with oil: a sign for the community, not a miracle cure

Mark 6:13 speaks of anointing with oil. The preacher was clear: it isn't the oil that heals, it's the Lord. The gesture points to the Holy Spirit, to joy, to the fullness that's been promised. It isn't something to put on display, nor is it a gesture of last resort.

He shared his own experience: once when he was sick, he asked his pastor and the elders of his church to come to his home for the anointing. The brother was generous: "he didn't just put a few drops on my forehead, he practically gave me a shampoo with how much he used!" He wasn't healed on the spot that day. He had surgery a few months later. But he was reassured, surrounded, supported by the community. And that's exactly where the gesture does its work: it breaks isolation, which is destructive, and it places the sick person within the family of the church.

6. Healing, saving: one word, a bigger salvation

At Gennesaret (Mark 6:56), the text says that "as many as touched him were made well." The word there is the same one that can also mean "saved." Our salvation itself is a form of healing.

Turning to the Lord often has an impact on your mental health, your relationships, your confidence in yourself. The preacher thought of women who lack confidence because of the horrors they've endured: Jesus wants to lift them up from that too. And he reminded us never to draw a direct line between an illness or an accident and some personal curse. Jesus himself said as much in Luke 13 about the victims killed when the tower fell: their death didn't prove they were worse than anyone else.

Key takeaways

• God is at work every day, not only through the big signs. The sunrise he brings, a home, a family, health, your ability to pray and to hear his word: these are all real grace worth recognizing.
• Three ways of working in Mark 6: laying on of hands, anointing with oil, simple contact. One Lord, several ways of acting.
• Faith isn't the mechanical cause of a miracle. It's the space where you can receive what God is doing. If you aren't healed, that isn't proof your faith is too small.
• Salvation is bigger than physical healing. It touches forgiveness, freedom from shame, restored confidence, fellowship.
• You can be an agent of healing. An outstretched hand, a compassionate look, a prayer: God uses your hands to communicate his love.

Personal application

• What "sign" are you insisting on from God right now, and is that expectation keeping you from seeing what he's already doing in your daily life?
• Are you secretly carrying the idea that your illness, your trial, or your accident is a punishment? How does Jesus's word in Luke 13 set that free?
• Is there a brother, a sister, someone sick that the Lord is inviting you to visit this week, with a simple outstretched hand or a short prayer?
• Have you ever asked your pastor or your church elders to pray for you with anointing of oil (James 5)? What's holding you back?
• How will your prayer, "Lord, increase my faith," change your week, regardless of the answer God gives you?

Verses cited

• Isaiah 38:1-6 · Hezekiah prays and the Lord adds fifteen years to his life.
• Isaiah 38:21 · The lump of figs applied to the boil.
• Mark 6:5-6 · Jesus in Nazareth: a few hands laid on despite the unbelief.
• Mark 6:12-13 · The Twelve on mission: anointing with oil and healing.
• Mark 6:53-56 · At Gennesaret, everyone who touches Jesus's garment is made well.
• Mark 16:17-18 · The promise to the apostles: they will lay hands on the sick.
• Luke 13:1-5 · The victims of a tragedy are no more at fault than anyone else.
• James 5:13-16 · Calling the church elders for the anointing with oil.

FAQ

Do you need a lot of faith to be healed?

No. In Mark 6, Jesus healed a few sick people in Nazareth despite the widespread unbelief around him. Faith isn't the mechanical condition for a miracle. It isn't a matter of quantity. Telling yourself "I'm not healed because I don't have enough faith" is a thought that wounds, and it isn't biblical. Your prayer is heard; the answer belongs to the Lord.

Is anointing the sick with oil still for today?

Yes, at the request of the sick person, together with the leaders of the church, just as James 5 calls for. It isn't a miracle cure, nor is it a gesture of last resort like the extreme unction of the Middle Ages. It's a sign of the Holy Spirit's presence, of the church's prayer, and of the fellowship of brothers and sisters surrounding the sick person. It's the Lord who lifts up.

Is my illness or my trial a punishment from God?

No. In Luke 13, Jesus is very clear: the victims of the fallen tower were no more at fault than anyone else. Drawing a direct line between your suffering and a personal sin is neither fair nor pastoral. What God invites you to do is turn to him, in trust, without carrying a guilt that isn't yours to bear.