The New Testament healings did not depend on the faith of the recipient.

Charismatic faith healers often attribute their countless failures to the faith of those who do not receive healing. As a result, many people believe that God cannot heal them because their faith isn’t strong. Perhaps they didn’t give enough money. Or maybe they just didn’t believe enough.

In spite of their willingness to take all the credit for their successes, fake healers often choose to avoid taking any responsibility for their countless failures.

Many “faith healers” today assert things like:

• “It is vital that you have faith in order to receive your miracle.”
• “Faith is necessary for healing to take place, and faith is necessary for healing to last.”
• “In order to be delivered from sickness, you have to have aggressive faith.”
• “Healing is impossible without a right relationship with God.”

Supposed “faith healers” may find it convenient to blame sick people for not being healed, but this is not biblical.

Taking a quick look at Christ’s and the apostles’ healing ministries demonstrates this point, where people were healed without expressing personal faith.

Here are a few examples:

(1)  Of the ten leapers and only one expressed faith, yet all were made clean (Luke 17:11-19).

(2)  Demon possessed people do not express any kind of faith, in fact some of them didn’t even know who Jesus was (Matthew 9:32–33, Matthew. 12:22).

(3)  The crippled man beside the pool of Bethesda didn’t even know who Jesus was until after he had been healed (John 5:13), and the blind man in John 9 was similarly healed without knowing Jesus’ identity (John 9:36).

(4) Jesus resurrected Jarious’ daughter (Mark 5:21-43), Peter revived a woman named Tabitha (Acts 9:36-42) and Paul raised Eutychus after he fell to his death (Acts 20:7-12). Dead people are not capable of making any kind of positive confession, much less showing any faith.

(5)  Peter healed the lame man without requiring faith (Acts 3-19).

(6)  Paul delivered unbeliever slave from demon possession (Acts 16:16-24).

(7)  Peter’s mother in law healed from a fever when she didn’t even know Jesus (Matt. 8:14–15).

These examples from Scripture clearly demonstrate that the miraculous healings performed by Jesus and the apostles were not contingent on the faith of the recipient. Instead, these acts of divine power served as undeniable evidence of God’s authority, mercy, and sovereignty, rather than being dependent on human belief or actions.

But didn’t Jesus use the phrase “your faith has made you well”? How then do we reconcile this?

Mark 5:34 (NKJV)

And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

The phrase “your faith has made you well” is better translated “your faith has saved you.” The Lord’s concern about faith was related to the “salvation of souls” and not a report of physical bodies.