Dr. Jay Snell Newsletter Feed and Free BonusesChapter Nine
Dr. Jay Snell Newsletter Feed and Free Bonuses
Many of us were brought up believing that the laying on of hands is just a ritual. But there is a lot more to it in Scripture than that. The laying on of hands was used in the Old Testament. In the New Testament Jesus used it. He also authorized us to do it. He said there are some things we will be able to do by the laying on of hands. In Mark 16:18, Jesus said, "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover."
Mark 16:17-18
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. (KJV)
Well, who are they? Jesus said in verse 18 above that they are "them that believe." These signs shall follow them that believe. And then, He lists some signs that will follow us believers. When you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then you are included in this passage of Scripture. The Bible says that believers shall have these signs follow them. Jesus said, "These signs shall follow them that believe. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover."
I want you to look at this series of shalls. Look in verse 17. These signs shall follow. Furthermore verse 18 says, "They shall lay hands on. . .and they shall recover." I want you to see all these shalls. They are in the Greek future indicative mood. Everybody knows that a future statement describes something that will happen in the future. But not everybody understands the function of a Greek indicative. The Greek indicative is the mood of reality. It states what will actually come to pass. It states what will actually take place.
In our case here, had there been some doubt about the recovery, had the recovery not been certain, Jesus could have used the subjunctive mood which declares what is just potential or probable. However, He used the mood of certainty, the indicative, and said, "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." By using the indicative, Jesus meant that they really will recover. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. There are no maybes or let's try and see what we can do. He said that they shall recover in the indicative and that is exactly what He meant. He was speaking about what will (of a certainty) become real to them that believe--what was actually, really going to be.
Since He used the indicative mood in verse 18 and said, "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover," the recovery of the one who has hands laid on him is a certainty. You may read a maybe in here, but I don't. Neither did Jesus. Neither did the Greek text. The indicative mood means it really will happen. "They shall recover," leaves nothing to chance. Jesus left nothing up in the air. He made a statement of fact that is really going to be. "They shall recover," does not mean maybe. He did not say that they might recover, but that they shall recover. The indicative declares the recovery is certain.
So what do we have here? The laying on of hands is to be used in the recovery of illness. "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover," Jesus said. Therefore when I lay hands on somebody, I absolutely expect that person to get well because Jesus said, "They shall recover."
Their recovery may be instantaneous or it may be a process. It may take a few minutes or it may take a day, or even a month, but the point is they shall recover. They shall recover. Sometimes their healing occurs right then. Sometimes a person will have hands laid on them, the prayer of faith will be prayed over them, the demons are cast out and the sickness demanded to go, and that person actually recovers right on the spot. Or they may not recover on the spot. This does not mean, however, that the healing is not going on and that the power of God is not taking over. God's Word is set in concrete and there is nothing that can change it for they shall recover when hands are laid on them. Why? We have been given both power and authority over all the demons and all the diseases. There is not one sickness that we don't have authority over. There is not one demon that we don't have authority over.
In a service one night, I asked if anyone needed to be healed of anything. A girl named Kim came down the aisle and said, "I need to be prayed for because my back hurts and I have diabetes. It costs several dollars per month for insulin." We prayed for her and she went down under the power. She got up after the service was over. She hugged my neck and said, "My back popped and my pain is gone." On the way home that night, the Holy Ghost said to me, "Her diabetes has been healed."
She didn't know that yet. But the Holy Ghost kept saying, "God has healed her diabetes." He also was telling me to keep on preaching on healing. He said, "I am putting healing in this church right now." Then, we got the report a few days later that Kim hasn't required any more insulin since that Wednesday night service. So, the Holy Ghost said, "I want you to start laying hands on people. You are going to see healings as a result of laying hands on people." Consequently, I have seen many people healed.
There was a lady sitting in my service one morning who said she had a bad sinus infection. While I was praying for other people in the healing line, her sinuses cleared. You see, God is in the healing business, and one of his Healing Delivery Vehicles is the laying on of hands.
The power of God is actually transmitted from the hands of the one praying in faith to the one that needs it. Many times, they feel that. I have had people tell me that they could feel the transfer of power while I was laying hands on them. Other times, they didn't feel anything, but the results came later. I have had people say that my hands were hot like fire; they felt like coals of fire touching their skin.
The power of God is transmitted from the person laying on hands to the one that needs it. Don't ask me to explain this. I can't. But I don't have to understand everything I preach. If I could understand everything there is about God, He wouldn't be much of a God would He?
I don't care how smart you or I might be, if we could capsule and analyze and understand everything about God and His ways, He really wouldn't be too much of a God, brought down on our level where we had a perfect understanding. I don't have to understand. I just need to act on what He says in His Word.
This is how I got saved. I ran across a Scripture that said, "Lean not unto thine own understanding, but trust in the Lord thy God with all thine heart," Proverbs 3:5. That was the key to what I had been looking for. I quit trying to understand and started trusting and less than three days later, I got saved in the late hours of the night in my home. I don't have to understand. Neither do you have to understand everything.
I don't understand everything about the laying on of hands, but the Bible says, "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." I like the part about "they shall recover," because my part is just the laying on of hands. That's easy. I don't heal them. You don't heal them. The Holy Ghost heals them when we obey by the laying of hands on them in faith. The Bible says that they shall recover.
I laid hands on a girl that had a cancer. Through the rain and the cold, I went to see her three days a week for weeks. There were only a few people who had this type of cancer and lived. It was so deadly. I taught her what her rights were as a Christian. We worked all the teaching out of her mind that we should pray, "If it be thy will, dear God, please heal me." I showed her what the Bible said about healing. She saw for herself that the Bible really says that it is the will of God for His child to be healed. She saw that. She acted on it. Guess what? That woman is healed today, but her healing occurred many years ago.
They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. There is a transference of power that leaves the one praying the prayer of faith and goes into the body of the one that needs it, and things happen. "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." This is demonstrated throughout the New Testament, especially the book of Acts. Look at Acts 5:12.
Acts 5:12
12 And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. (KJV)
What Jesus said was simply carried out in the book of Acts. There is absolutely no reason in the world why every church cannot to be conducted just like they conducted it in the book of Acts. If I have a choice between the modern spirals, staircases and steeples and the raw power of God as presented in the book of Acts, you know which choice I will make. I will go with the book of Acts.
I don't care about man's ways, structures and bureaucracies. I am sick and tired of that. I want the real thing and I have found it. The book of Acts is still running right now and I am right in the center of it. That is where I want to stay. I would rather be in the book of Acts than any other place in this world. I want the raw power of God more than I want anything else.
I believed in the Holy Ghost so strongly, even when I was in the denomination, that I underlined every verse in the New Testament where the term "spirit" or "ghost" was used. I underlined them in a bright yellow. I went through my New Testament and learned everything that it said about the Holy Ghost. I said, "Bless God this is for me. How can I get it?" And the Spirit of God just said to me, "Start acting on it. You don't have to get it. You already have it. Just act it out." I did, and things began to happen.
I had healing services in the denominational church. It just turned some of them wrong side out. I said, "Well, I am going where I can have a healing service and it doesn't bend everybody out of shape. Some people are grateful to God that He still heals. I don't want to be around people who get all fouled up if somebody gets miraculously healed."
This reminds me of the man who got healed at the Beautiful gate of the temple. After his healing, he went into the synagogue and told the Pharisees about it. They went ballistic because he didn't get their permission to be healed. Do you know what the Bible says they did? They didn't rejoice about it. The Bible says they cast him out. They threw the guy out because he got healed by the power of God! Can you believe that? This nonsense has been with us down through the centuries. But enough of it! We need to get loose! We must be where God and His power is operating and we can see God do things. "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover" happens all through the book of Acts.
Look again at verse 12 in Acts chapter 5. It says that signs and wonders were wrought by the hands of the apostles. By the what? By the nose? By the ear? By the knee? It says, "By the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonder wrought among the people." Well, look here. It says, "By the hands...."
But somebody says, "Well, that was just for the apostles; that doesn't apply to us." It is true that God gave the twelve apostles power and authority in Matthew 10:1.
Matt 10:1
1 And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. (KJV)
But in Luke 10:19, He gave seventy more the same identical power and authority that he gave the twelve and they were not apostles.
Luke 10:1
1 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. (KJV)
Luke 10:9
9 And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. (KJV)
Then, that same power and authority was transferred to us.
Mark 16:17-18
17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (KJV)
Do you know how I know it was transferred to us? Because many of us lay hands on the sick and watch them recover. It's just that simple.
Who shall? Believers. These signs shall follow them that believe. I believe. Therefore, the signs must follow me. Here's the great mistake you make. You look for the signs and follow the signs. That's the great mistake about charismatic people. They will hear about a sign somewhere and take off to chase it down and see it. But you ought to have them following you. You don't have to hunt somebody else's signs.
Just start acting on the Word of God and look behind you. The signs will follow you. So great wonders were wrought at the hands of the apostles. Why did He use the word, "hands"? Because these signs shall follow them that lay on hands. They shall lay on brick bats? No. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.
Faith is information we get from God for us to act upon. Believing is acting on that information. In this chapter, the information says, "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." That is our information. When I act on it, I lay on hands. That's believing. When you believe, you act. In this case, you lay hands on the sick. Now it is out of your hands. It is in the hands of God. "They shall recover" is God's part. But guess what? They will recover. Now, look at Acts 9:12. This describes the conversion of the Apostle Paul.
Acts 9:10-12
10 And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
11 And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,
12 And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. (KJV)
Paul was the greatest preacher and apostle that ever lived, yet here is another man named Ananias that nobody ever heard of before or since. God told this unknown man to go lay hands on the one who would become the Apostle Paul. Lay what?
Lay what? There's something about the laying on of hands; I don't know what it is. I don't have to know what it is; but I must obey it; I must do it. When I lay hands on people, things start happening, supernaturally, that is totally out of my control. I have nothing to do with it. I just lay hands on, get out of the way, and let God move.
So here is a man named Ananias. The Bible refers to him as a certain disciple. He was not an apostle; he is low on the totem pole. In English, the expression certain disciple makes him look important. But in Greek, the expression certain disciple describes a disciple who is insignificant, just a little guy. Ananias, then, is just a little guy.
Do you know what the word disciple means? It's the Greek word, MATHATAS, from which comes our English word, mathematics. In Greek, it simply means learner. In other words, here is a fellow who is just learning about the things of Christ. We, too, are disciples. We, too, are just learning. This guy was a learner. He was a MATHATAS, a disciple, a learner. He hadn't graduated yet. He was still learning.
He was in Damascus when the Lord spoke to him in a vision. He said unto him, "Arise and go into the street which is called Straight and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prayeth. And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him."
Putting his what? His what? His hand--that he might receive his sight. There is something about the laying on of hands. We have been authorized to lay hands on people. We have been told that when we lay hands on people, things will happen. One thing that happens is they are going to recover from their sickness.
Here is this little learner, commissioned of God, to lay hands on the Apostle Paul, who became the greatest Christian that ever drew a breath and who changed the face of this planet for the cause of Christ. This little learner must lay what on him? There is something about the laying on of hands, and we have been authorized to do it. Jesus did it when he healed the sick and when He blessed little children. He also said that those who believe shall lay hands on the sick (indicative mood, the mood of reality, that which really will be), and the sick shall recover. When we understand what the Bible says, is it any wonder that we fully expect healing to occur? They shall recover. They shall lay hands on the sick. They shall recover.
Through the laying on of hands, you can transmit the baptism in the Holy Ghost. I don't understand all about this either. But through the laying on of hands some people are baptized in the Holy Ghost. Notice verse 17 below.
Acts 9:17
17 And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. (KJV)
"Filled with the Holy Ghost," in this context, is a synonym for being "baptized in the Holy Ghost." They mean one and the same thing." And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales and he received sight and arose and was baptized." Ananias laid hands on Paul who received his sight and received the baptism in the Holy Ghost right there. He was filled with the Spirit of God. He was baptized in the Holy Ghost right there. Through what? Through the laying on of hands.
We have to understand some terms. When we get saved, we have the Holy Ghost dwelling in us. But for many of us, He's more a "holy it" than a Holy Ghost. We must recognize that the Holy Ghost is a person. He is the third person of the God-Head just like Jesus is the second person. We know what we mean when we say that we receive Jesus, the second person of the God head, as our savior.
We understand that. That is something we do. We deliberately receive (accept) Jesus. We accept Him as the person He claims to be, the Son of God. He died for our sins and God raised Him from the dead to prove it. Therefore, He becomes our substitute and we consent to that and receive Him and what He did. It is an act of our will. We receive Jesus as our savior.
This also applies to receiving the Holy Ghost. We have to receive the third person of the God Head in the same way we receive the second person. It is a fact that when you get saved and receive Jesus, the Holy Ghost does come in and live there forever. He never leaves. But unfortunately, many Christians never receive Him as a person and He is stuck in the foyer, as it were. We have to receive Him out of the foyer into the balance of our house as the third person of the God-Head.
We have to literally talk to Him like we talk to Jesus. We must say, "Dear Holy Ghost, I recognize that You are the third person of the God Head just like Jesus is the second person. I know You are in here, but You have been stuck in the foyer because I haven't let You take over. I am receiving You now, Spirit of God, as a person to come in and live the life of Christ totally in me." That is receiving the baptism in the Holy Ghost. That's the terminology. That is what happens when you lay on hands. For more proof of this, see the case of Philip below.
Acts 8:14-17
14 Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:
15 Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:
16 (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)
17 Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. (KJV)
Philip had gone to Samaria and preached. When the apostles who were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John.
Now keep in mind, these people in Samaria had already been saved. The apostles heard about it and sent Peter and John down there to check out Philip's new converts. When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. Now look at this. These Samaritans are as saved as anybody reading this page, but Peter and John went down there to pray for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost.
Many of us were taught that when we get saved the Holy Ghost comes in and we already have Him. Why, then, the reasoning goes, do we have to pray that we receive Him? Because that's what they had to do and that's what we also have to do. Just because the Holy Ghost is in you, doesn't mean that you have received Him.
Let me illustrate this. I did a wedding in a house that had a foyer larger than the house I lived in. The butler met me at the door. I walked into this huge house. The floors were made of marble. The butler stopped me just inside the foyer. He said, "I will see if the lady of the house will receive you now." Well, he turned and walked away, leaving me standing there.
Here I am, standing just inside the foyer. I am the preacher. I am the most important guy there. I am more important than the bride, because she can't get married without me. The butler's words, "I will see if she will receive you now," are ringing in my ears, and I am saying to myself that they better receive me or there will be no wedding today!
After what seemed like an eternity, the butler returned with the Madame and her husband, and they received me royally. They gave me the red carpet treatment. They took me throughout the house, and gave me the total run of it. They said, "Anything you need, you just tell us and we'll do it." They received me.
When you get saved, you have as much of the Holy Ghost as there is. But His power will not manifest until you receive Him. When you perform the deliberate act of faith, using your will, you actually, actively receive Him just like you received Jesus. He takes over inside your heart (house). This is what it means when our verse above says they went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost.
Philip didn't explain the full gospel to them. But, these people were as saved as anybody. After they were saved, Peter and John went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. He was not yet fallen upon them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then, they laid they their hands on them. Their what? They laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. Things happen when you lay hands on people in the name of Jesus.
So we see two things here. People are healed through the laying on of hands and people receive the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands. Things happen when you lay on hands.
The Bible says in Mark 16 that these signs shall follow them that believe. Them that, what? Them that believe. Them that are big shots, stiff necks, stuffed shirts that believe? Those who have the laundries put so much starch in their shorts they can't sit down? That type? No, anybody that believes. Do you believe? Now what does it say? These signs shall follow them that believe. Period. Do you believe? Then the only thing you must do to get signs following you is start laying on hands, for things happen when you lay hands on people in the name of Jesus.
So what are we going to do? We are going to lay on hands. I hunt excuses to lay hands on somebody. There is something that happens when you lay hands on people. Signs and wonders follow them that believe by laying hands on people.
The Bible says you don't have to run across town hunting signs and wonders. Start laying your hands on people and you will get your own signs and wonders following you. You will have your own built-in show right there. Just lay hands on and look behind you. The signs and wonders will follow you also. I prayed for a lady one morning. After the service, she said to me, "You prayed for my sinuses, but my neck got healed, and I can see now." She took her glasses off. Another lady sitting beside her said, "You were praying for somebody else's sinuses and my sinuses got healed too. They are as clear as a bell." And she went sssssssssssss to prove it. Things happen when you lay hands on folk.
Just start. Go for it. You will be surprised. There will be signs and wonders following you. Look behind you. Signs are on their way. Jesus said that these signs and wonders shall follow them that believe. Do you believe?
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Date Last Updated:
June 01, 2010
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