Laying on of hands

[B-A-C]

I am reminded by some other threads on here that talk about receiving the holy Spirit in various ways.
Some of the larger charismatic churches believe that laying on of hands is required.

Acts 6:5; The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.
Acts 6:6; And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them.
Acts 6:7; The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

Acts 8:14; Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John,
Acts 8:15; who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
Acts 8:16; For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Acts 8:17; Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.
Acts 8:18; Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money,

Acts 9:11; And the Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying,
Acts 9:12; and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight."

Acts 9:17; So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
Acts 9:18; And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized;

Acts 19:3; And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" And they said, "Into John's baptism."
Acts 19:4; Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus."
Acts 19:5; When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Acts 19:6; And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.
Acts 19:7; There were in all about twelve men.

Acts 28:8; And it happened that the father of Publius was lying in bed afflicted with recurrent fever and dysentery; and Paul went in to see him and after he had prayed, he laid his hands on him and healed him.

1 Tim 4:14; Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.

2 Tim 1:5; For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.
2 Tim 1:6; For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
2 Tim 1:7; For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

Heb 6:1; Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2; of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3; And this we will do, if God permits.

Some churches take the passages from Acts 6; Acts 8; Acts 19; and 2 Tim above to mean the only way you can receive the Holy Spirit is if someone who already has it lays their hands on you. Is this practiced in your church?

I've included a few other verses above about laying on of hands for healing also. It seems in some cases this is more effective. I will also add anointing with oil for healing.

Jas 5:14; Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;
Jas 5:15; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

I actually had this done to me last week (first time in quite a while) and I have to say there was quite a bit more power in that prayer.

Mark 16:18; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

 

[Grace]

Acts 10 does not describe laying on of hands.

 

[B-A-C]

It may not be a requirement, but is there any reason not to do it? It seems most of the time in the New Testament it was done that way.

It seems there are some here on TJ who are strongly opposed to going to church.
Others are strongly opposed to speaking in tongues.
Some are strongly opposed to being baptized in water.
Now I don't know that I can find many scriptures saying any of the above are absolutely required, but it seems we were asked to do those things,
and Jesus was our example in doing those things. I was asking a question here rather than making a statement.
Is there any reason we shouldn't lay hands on people to receive the Holy Spirit or to be healed?

 

[ph8th]

It may not be a requirement, but is there any reason not to do it?

NO!
I died in 05 was without a pulse for 20 minutes. My brother drove 4 hours to make a derision about unplugging me from life support. When they got the call his wife got on the phone and called everyone she knew asking people to pray for me. My brother arrived he was told the brain damage was so I would never function in society again. There was a lady who knew me in the ICU unit where I was after my brother introduced himself he told her he was going to pray and she could pray with him or leave. There was a laying on hands I started to breathe on my own still assisted. They moved me back to my home state after I was stable. I knew who I was 2 months later being fed through a tube and peeing in a bag. MY brother would attend family meetings where he was told I had plateaued and this was as good as it was going to get. I am told his reply was always he is getting better. He told me that the battles of what he was being told and leaning totally on the Lord were intense. From the time I knew who I was again my brother was telling me everything was possible with Jesus.
I was unable to sit up due to the brain injury(lack of oxygen) after being taught to sit I was able to be put in a wheel chair. I had to be taught to eat again because I would try to inhale my food due to lack of muscle control. They removed the bag and taught me to transition from bed to chair and back. The they began teaching me to walk again, from walker to cane to belt. People thought I had a stroke because I dragged the left side of my body. The cognitive rehab went on for years after leaving the nursing home. In Aug. of 07 the anniversary of my death I did the first triathlon I had ever done and one the next 2 years 08 and 09.
This is all a testimony of my God. He gave me a ministry of poetry, I am the gas pump poet I recite any and everywhere He prompts me. All the poetry is about Him, there have never been little pieces I have to go back to work on. Everything is written at once.
He is my portion.
This is God!

 

[Grace]

Nothing wrong with laying on of hands!! I believe there is more to it than we realize!

 

[Dovegiven]

NO!
I died in 05 was without a pulse for 20 minutes. My brother drove 4 hours to make a derision about unplugging me from life support. When they got the call his wife got on the phone and called everyone she knew asking people to pray for me. My brother arrived he was told the brain damage was so I would never function in society again. There was a lady who knew me in the ICU unit where I was after my brother introduced himself he told her he was going to pray and she could pray with him or leave. There was a laying on hands I started to breathe on my own still assisted. They moved me back to my home state after I was stable. I knew who I was 2 months later being fed through a tube and peeing in a bag. MY brother would attend family meetings where he was told I had plateaued and this was as good as it was going to get. I am told his reply was always he is getting better. He told me that the battles of what he was being told and leaning totally on the Lord were intense. From the time I knew who I was again my brother was telling me everything was possible with Jesus.
I was unable to sit up due to the brain injury(lack of oxygen) after being taught to sit I was able to be put in a wheel chair. I had to be taught to eat again because I would try to inhale my food due to lack of muscle control. They removed the bag and taught me to transition from bed to chair and back. The they began teaching me to walk again, from walker to cane to belt. People thought I had a stroke because I dragged the left side of my body. The cognitive rehab went on for years after leaving the nursing home. In Aug. of 07 the anniversary of my death I did the first triathlon I had ever done and one the next 2 years 08 and 09.
This is all a testimony of my God. He gave me a ministry of poetry, I am the gas pump poet I recite any and everywhere He prompts me. All the poetry is about Him, there have never been little pieces I have to go back to work on. Everything is written at once.
He is my portion.
This is God!

Praise the Lord! You have a powerful testimony.
I've received laying on of hands for health problems that appeared hopeless twice. Nurses and doctors witnessed those and many are Christians from seeing miracles that followed laying on of hands with fervent prayers. What turns them off is a memorized chant, impersonal, a prayer that includes "if it be thy will", and many other signs of partial belief. From then on I was eager to be invited to bring some olive oil to a hospital room, ask permission of the family, then pray a Bible oriented prayer. When people recover that aren't supposed to, it gets the attention of witnesses.

 

[Dovegiven]

It may not be a requirement, but is there any reason not to do it? It seems most of the time in the New Testament it was done that way.

It seems there are some here on TJ who are strongly opposed to going to church.
Others are strongly opposed to speaking in tongues.
Some are strongly opposed to being baptized in water.
Now I don't know that I can find many scriptures saying any of the above are absolutely required, but it seems we were asked to do those things,
and Jesus was our example in doing those things. I was asking a question here rather than making a statement.
Is there any reason we shouldn't lay hands on people to receive the Holy Spirit or to be healed?

That's been such a significant practice for many years I had never thought to bring it up as a topic. We laid hands on people even in all my So. Baptist years, but that was reserved for ordaining, or blessing someone about to go into foreign missionary work, which required going off to training to learn a culture, language, laws, etc. pertaining to the area called to, and learning some business understanding to manage a support basis. It takes at least a year to meet their standards.

I can remember the first time hands were laid on me while I was visiting a charismatic assembly, later to become non-denominational myself. The doctrine of it was to agree to take every scripture as God-breathed, and literal unless the context clearly made it symbolic, typical, analogous, or otherwise. Just moving there for some people is a great deliverance from dead religion, walls with rules posted like the Decalogue, "Thou shalt not Dance" and "Thou shalt not Laugh in Church", real old timey fears to mull over. So "in the fullness of time" my moment came. I was standing at the altar praying (the preacher wanted everyone to come down there, so I yielded) when someone touched the back of my neck with a spot of oil, praying that I be baptized by Jesus into the Holy Spirit. I didn't know the theology of that, but knew the Lord was ready for me to be born again, which I thought I was already, and begin serving him with power. That little touch staggered me, and I did that which I had been taught was "of the Devil" since I was 12, and spoke in tongues. I had been to meetings elsewhere seeking something missing, but refused to submit to that practice down there. From that minute on my life changed dramatically, which in turn got the attention of lots of old friends that knew the old me.

I've seen people bypass that, receiving deliverance from terrible problems instantly, saved, healed, refreshed from a state of apathy, many things without being touched. I'm pretty certain that mostly happens with people who have been seeking and preparing, not many my way. I think I can see Cornelius and his family and many neighbors searching the scriptures together, going out and hearing the gospel preached here and there, being prepped for someday a preacher coming by to preach the good news so they could finish receiving from the Lord. I imagine he had some Roman soldiers scouting for a disciple, then when commanded they went directly to Peter's compound as soon as Peter and Cornelius had their visions. I understand that the anticipation level of Cornelius and those around him must have been electrifying. They only needed the touch of Peter's anointed words.

I am convinced both laying on of hands with prayer makes a special interpersonal connection, presenting some acceptance that often is very lacking in a poor soul struggling a long time. Words spoken to a person have power to save, but when doing that with hands laid on, people quickly feel they become a deep part in the group present ministering.

Men still don't typically take quickly to another man grabbing shoulders, sometimes bowing up like the Hulk. When the big boys do that I sing in the spirit and massage that oil like crazy praying strong words. What makes it a lot of fun is when they turn around with red face, tears streaming, bawling like a calf, then hugging me like a bear and taking me a foot off the floor. The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force! That's what I tell them.

I'd rather carry on like that while most are making their ways out, planning lunch, shaking hands, until the last light is turned off.
The Bible says at the end of John that the acts of Jesus, if they could all be recorded, would fill more books than the world could contain. I figure there was a lot of laying on hands. Oh to experience those hands on my head, oil soaking my collar!

 

[Dovegiven]

Nothing wrong with laying on of hands!! I believe there is more to it than we realize!

There's only one restriction of it that I know of. 1 Timothy 5:22 (KJV)
22 Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure.

The idea is not to let this pleasant exercise lead to ordaining a deacon, teacher, youth leader, etc. before his time. That comes after a season of observing him, interviewing, talking to folks that voted for or against, and why. The last one turned out to be really nice, but he had a poor knowledge of of the Bible, needed some training up in several areas. We couldn't promote him yet. I wouldn't want to lay hands on someone that was freshly living in some grievous sin, either. That would immerse me into his complicated life. When praying that close I can detect body language that often says "I have a problem and can't tell it". I'll step around face to face and offer to counsel, removing them from someone that might reach over and anoint.We take it very seriously because people change from that experience, some to euphoria, some to depression for not confessing first, like unworthily taking the Lords Supper.