should we pray for the sick, or heal them?

How should we approach the sick? Many would say we should pray for them, but it is worth noting that neither jesus, nor the apostles "prayed" for the sick on the healing accounts we have recorded in the N.T. check out matthew 10 and note that jesus says to "heal the sick" (of course in the authority of his name and by the power of his spirit).

James 5 does state the following:

13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.


Matthew 17:14-19 (Amplified Bible)
14 And when they approached the multitude, a man came up to Him, kneeling before Him and saying,

15 Lord, do pity and have mercy on my son, for he has epilepsy (is [a]moonstruck) and he suffers terribly; for frequently he falls into the fire and many times into the water.

16 And I brought him to Your disciples, and they were not able to cure him.

17 And Jesus answered, O you unbelieving (warped, wayward, rebellious) and thoroughly perverse generation! How long am I to remain with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to Me.

18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly.

19 Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked privately, Why could we not drive it out? 20He said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith [that is, your lack of firmly relying trust. For truly I say to you, if you have faith that is living like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to yonder place, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

who can we blame when they dont get healed? Is it their faith or ours that is the problem? The son with epilepsy was brought to the disciples and they could not heal him, jesus blamed their faith, not the father of the boy! can we blame our lack of "results" on the people we are praying for? it is said that jesus couldnt heal in nazareth cause of their unbelief, but note that it was because of their unbelief that they did not come to him to be healed. those that did come to him (only a few sick people) were healed. never did jesus pray (lay hands i should say) for someone without results and then say it was their lack of faith (but the case with him laying hands on the blind man twice to heal him is interesting).

- do we heal or pray? whose faith gets them healed?


I think there are more than simplistic answers for both of these questions, so please throw out some ideas, issues and scriptures! i will share my thoughts a little later.