Why Don’t FAITH HEALERS Heal Everyone in Hospitals?
Published: 18th May 2026
Critics of ministers involved in faith healing will make an argument that goes something like this:
‘You don’t see faith healers working in hospitals for the same reason you don’t see psychics winning the lottery.’
The first problem with this argument is it implies that Christians involved in the ministry of faith healing are con artists, similar to psychics. Yet healing was an important part of Jesus Christ’s ministry when he was on Earth. Note for yourself:
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
As you can see, the three components of the Lord’s ministry on Earth were:
- Teaching the truths of God’s Word.
- Preaching the Good News of God’s kingdom.
- Healing every disease and sickness amongst the people.
This is what Christ’s ministry consisted of when he was on Earth — teaching, preaching, healing; teaching, preaching, healing. Say it. The point is that one third of his ministry was devoted to healing the sick via faith.
Paul functioned in this ministry as well, as observed by Acts 19:11-12 and Acts 28:8-9.
Was Jesus Christ a con artist, like psychics today? Was Paul? Obviously not. So, the argument that believers involved in the ministry of faith healing are akin to modern psychics needs to be discarded.
Another problem with the core criticism (in red above) is the idea that faith healers should barge into hospitals and go from room-to-room, healing the sick en masse. Why don’t they? For one thing, hospital authorities and govt authorities wouldn’t allow it.
Secondly, the argument suggests that receiving a healing by faith is 100% the responsibility of the one teaching healing, yet it’s not. Over and over in the Gospels the Lord said to people who received healing, “your faith has healed you” (e.g. Mark 5:34, & Mark 10:52). What this means is that they believed it was God’s will for them to be healed and so they received from the conduit of God’s healing power, which was Jesus Christ. In the case of James 5:14-15 the conduit would be the elders of an assembly (an “elder” would refer to the fivefold ministers in a fellowship or any anointed mature believer). Yet the individual can also receive healing by faith without any conduit. Remember, the Lord said: “whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). For details, see this article and the corresponding video.
Now let’s apply this to a healing minister going to a hospital and serving the needy people thereof. The patients wouldn’t have the faith to be healed until they first heard God’s Word on healing and believed it, which would result in receiving healing by faith. So, even if authorities allowed an anointed faith healer to go into a hospital and minister to the patients, the minister in question would have to invest the time to minister God’s Word on receiving a healing by faith before the patient could believe it and therefore receive the healing. After all, if he or she doesn’t have faith to be healed, they won’t receive it. How long does it take to do this — an hour? Two hours? Longer? It depends on the person and the situation.
This of course can be done on a small scale in regards to willing patients and the specific ministers they’ll receive, whether that involves a minister visiting the patient at his/her bedside or a ministry conducting services in a larger room of the hospital for willing patients, assuming the facility would allow it. For instance, a local rehabilitation hospital used to have a ministry hold Christian services for willing patients wherein the message of Christ was preached. In one such service my Dad received the Lord back in 1986.
Christ was able to serve as a conduit for faith healing to masses of people because they willingly came out to where he was teaching & preaching God’s Word and many had the faith to receive the particular healing they needed. This can be done at Church services, campmeetings and so forth today. Unfortunately, this type of ministry is rare because we live in an era of gross unbelief. Such unbelief gave birth to the very argument we’re addressing in this article.
Some people confuse receiving a healing by faith with the gift of the spirit called “gifts of healing” (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). This gift of the Spirit should not be confused with what we’re talking about here — the faith necessary for any believer to receive a healing at any given time. To explain, the charismatic gift of healing is a sudden impartation of faith to heal a specific malady regardless of the faith of the recipient. Christ’s amazing healing of the high priest’s servant with a cutoff ear is a good example (Luke 22:50-51). Another is Paul’s healing of Publius’ father of fever and dysentery (Acts 28:7-8). Verse 11 of the key text on gifts of the Spirit plainly states that these gifts are distributed to believers as the Spirit determines. In other words, a believer cannot turn on a gift of the Spirit at will; rather they manifest as the Spirit wills and in response to the faith of the one ministering the gift. You can read more about the nine gifts of the Spirit here.
Let me close by saying that the Scriptures do make mention of false ministers and they could certainly be designated as con artists (Matthew 7:15-23; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15), but this doesn’t discount the many legitimate ministers involved in faith healing.
Related Topics:
Should You Get the Surgery or BELIEVE FOR HEALING?
If Healing Comes by Faith, Why Use ANOINTING OIL, HANDKERCHIEFS, etc.?
When You Should ASK and When You Should SPEAK IN FAITH, aka DEMAND
Faith — What Is It? Why Is It Important? How Does It Grow?
What are the Nine Gifts of the Spirit?
What is Cessationism and is it Biblical?
Slain in the Spirit—Is it Biblical?
What Are THE BASICS of Christianity?
