And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word?” . . . Luke 4:36

It is not always easy to find faith for healing, especially when a condition presents itself that we ourselves have never seen healed. Sometimes it’s the severity of the condition and sometimes it’s because we know there is no human cure.

Jesus has no trouble with this. No condition is too great or too little for him. Sometimes the disciples were not able to take care of a problem and then they came to Jesus, who seemed to take care of it effortlessly.

What is the relationship between faith and healing in terms of the prophetic word? Do we need faith in order to see our prophetic word accomplish healing? What if we don’t have faith, will it still work? Can we just utter whatever we want and expect the Lord to heal the person in accordance with our word?

I am not here to give an easy or definitive answer to these questions. I want to raise the question because an element of faith is often involved, whether it is on our part or on the part of the person seeking the healing.

Many times I pray for healing out of obedience and I have no idea whether the person in front of me will get healed. Sometimes I am as surprised as the person asking for the healing. I remember one time someone wanted healing from TMJ. I laid my hand on the person’s face and prayed for healing. I was as delighted as she was when she said that it was gone.

It is easier to have faith for conditions that you have seen healed before. It is more difficult when you have never seen someone with that particular condition seen healed before. We know it is possible because nothing is impossible with God. Yet it stretches us when we have prayed for a particular condition before and saw nothing happen. Our own faith is tested.

I declare things prophetically when I sense this is what I am supposed to do. I can always pray for healing; I prophesy it when I sense God leading me to do it. That doesn’t mean it always happens instantly when I prophesy it. Sometimes I never find out or it certainly didn’t happen when they stood in front of me.

Faith is a gift from God. There are those times it rises to a level that makes us confident that the healing is going to take place. Sometimes the Spirit of God compels us to prophesy a person’s healing. I am thankful for those times. Sometimes the person seeking the healing is so confident or hungry for their healing that it overrides our doubts and reservations. Sometimes God in His goodness surprises both the person praying and the person seeking the healing. Sometimes we just need enough faith to step out and release what Jesus gives us in the moment.

By Ralph Veenstra