Is It Faithlessness to Take Medicines While Believing God for Healing?
1) Direct Answer
No. Taking medicine while believing God is not faithlessness. God is the Healer; medicine is only a help. Keep your faith in God, use what help is available, and give Him the glory.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- “I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26). Healing is God’s work.
- Hezekiah: God said, “I will heal thee,” and yet commanded a poultice of figs to be laid on the boil (2 Kings 20:5–7). Promise and means walked together.
- The Good Samaritan poured in oil and wine to treat the wounds (Luke 10:34).
- “Luke, the beloved physician” was honored among the saints (Colossians 4:14).
- Paul counseled, “Use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities” (1 Timothy 5:23), showing Scripture recognizes medicinal help without endorsing excess or drunkenness.
- The prayer of faith shall save the sick (James 5:14–15). The oil is a sign; God does the healing.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- You see, a doctor can set a bone, but only God knits it. Medicine can fight infection, but only God gives life and restoration. So using medicine doesn’t replace faith; trusting medicine instead of God does.
- If it were unbelief to use means, why did God direct a poultice after promising healing to Hezekiah? The issue is not the fig; it’s the God who heals.
- Keep your confession: after prayer, hold to God’s promise regardless of symptoms or prescriptions. Don’t throw away needed aids to “prove” faith unless the Lord has clearly delivered you. Faith is obedience to God’s Word, not presumption.
- Walk clean and sober. Scripture condemns bondage and excess. Be led by the Spirit, not ruled by any substance.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice, God heals; means are servants. Keep your eyes on Christ, use what helps are at hand with a clear conscience, and testify that the Lord is your Healer.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The mark of the beast
56-0715 §71
And now, Lord, give us faith to operate this power. We see when You give the disciples power and told them to raise the dead, heal the sick, and cast out evil spirits. We find that they were defeated. And they said to You, "Why couldn't we do it after You give us the power?" You said, "Because of your unbelief." God, take away my unbelief and the unbelief of this audience. And I approach Thee, Lord, as if I were dying. And I stand in the breach here this morning, between the living and dead. And I ask Thee, dear Go...
Why?
60-1126 §32
Now, sometimes in taking medicine... Sometimes the medicine's not... It's good. The Bible says it is. "A merry heart doeth good like medicine." Notice, but sometimes medicine won't always work the same on the person, and you have to take a chance on that. I was amazed here in Africa (if there might be a doctor near) how that God takes care of His people. A native told me that when they got a sore that wouldn't heal up, they would go out under an old wild orange tree and get an orange that was covered all over with...
Be not afraid
61-0224 §65
...ural for fifty years, give me a shot of penicillin every day, and all kinds of salves, and sew up, and everything else, fifty years from the day the cut will look just like it was when it was cut. If it heals the human body, why don't it heal it? Well, you say, "Sure, life's gone out of it." Well, tell me what life is and I'll tell you who God is. That's right. It's God. Medicine does not build tissue. It takes life to build tissue. That's right. And your attitude towards God is what does it. Someone said to me, "W...
It is I, be not afraid
59-0811 §8
Now, last night I just spoke to you a little. And tonight, it's a healing service. We don't claim now---if there happens to be someone by who would not understand that---we do not heal anyone. We only pray for the sick. I've seen tens of thousands of people healed, but I never did heal one. I've had some direct answers to prayer for praying for the sick, but I've never healed anyone. And I don't believe that lays in the power of man. It's a finished work that Christ did at Calvary. Healing doesn't lay within man, n...
God keeps His Word
58-0328 §46
Now remember, I'm on record with that. There is no medicine that says, that heals your body. A medicine keeps the place clean while God heals. A doctor can remove a--a obstruction, but what about the hole that he cut in you to take it out? Who heals that? Healing is developing of cells. And take my word: there is no healing power in the devil. And a preacher that would say that, shows he doesn't know the Bible, or his God. Jesus said, "Satan cannot cast out Satan." Psalms 103:3 said, "I'm the Lord Who heals all of...