Rooted deeply in both the Old and New Testaments, the practice mirrors actions by figures like Moses commissioning Joshua, and Jesus or the Apostles healing the sick and bestowing the Holy Spirit. Denominations view the physical touch not as possessing inherent magical power, but as a focal point for faith and an outward sign of God’s invisible work. Yet this idea is sometimes distorted into a misunderstanding: that people blessed with the inherent power of the Holy Spirit are the ones authorised to bestow it upon others by laying their hands on them.
There is a physical pattern in God’s creation whereby water flows downward, finding its way to fill the lower-lying places. Likewise, the laying on of hands may become a channel that opens the floodgates, paving the way for water to flow into the lower and parched grounds. Now, this water may be pure — formed on the high mountains, perhaps through the melting of ice under sunlight — or it may be stagnant and contaminated water that had been trapped behind some blockage, which then begins flowing downward, once the wind clears the obstruction, filling the vacant places with dirty, contaminated water. So the truth is this: when a person lays on hands, there is an equal chance of either good or evil entering the other person, whose spiritual level is lower than the one laying hands upon them.
What Do We Receive?
Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.
1 Timothy 5 : 22 (NIV)
Paul advised Timothy not to lay hands on anyone hastily, and to keep himself from sharing in the sins of others (1 Timothy 5:22). Similarly, the author of Hebrews urges us not to dwell on the laying on of hands but to move on towards maturity (Hebrews 6:1-2). It is noteworthy that these passages discourage the servants of God from continuing to lay hands on believers or seekers of the truth. On close observation, those who laid on hands were people who walked closely with God and Jesus. When that closeness faded because of sin between us and God, we ought not to continue the practice. Paul explained that a man’s spirit knows the mind of man, while the Spirit of God knows the mind of God (1 Corinthians 2:11). It is clear, therefore, that when sin separates us from God, it is our own human mind that is at work rather than the mind of God within us. Without the Spirit of God, when we lay hands on a seeker of the truth, our own thought processes flow to that person. The seeker has an emptiness within and longs to fill it with the knowledge and love of God, and in turn with the Spirit of God. Instead, he receives the principles and doctrines of the one laying hands on him, not the Spirit of God. This is why we see uniformity within the denominations: their members are confident in what they have been taught so far and lose interest in seeking the truth.
After the ascension of Jesus Christ among the disciples of Jesus, some served God by the pure guidance of the Holy Spirit, while some unwittingly claimed the work of the Holy Spirit as theirs by following the tradition.
Philip in Samaria
Nowhere is the real work of the Spirit shown more clearly than in what happened at Samaria. Philip preached there, the people believed, and they were baptised. Yet something was still missing.
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Acts 8:14-17 (NIV)
The Samaritans turned their minds and believed through Philip’s preaching, and it was through that belief that they received the Holy Spirit to guard it. Philip simply preached the Gospel; at first he neither laid his hands on them nor baptised them. It is clear that neither baptism nor Peter and John’s laying on of hands brought the Holy Spirit to the new believers. The account is recorded as it is because the disciples, and Luke as the author, misunderstood what had taken place. Philip did baptise them, because the people, following the practice already common among believers, wished to express outwardly what had already taken place within them. This is easily missed today, when the ritual is so often placed before belief, as though the water itself carried the power, rather than serving as the outward response of a heart that has already believed.
Later, further along the same road, Philip met an official from Ethiopia, who came to believe through Philip’s teaching. Nothing stood in the way, because the man’s heart was already given to God. No requirement was laid upon him first, and there was no test to pass before the water. The baptism simply followed what God had already done.
As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
Acts 8:36, 38 (NIV)
Philip did not insist on water baptism or press it upon anyone; he baptised only those whom the Spirit had already claimed. Nor was he living by his own schedule or following a plan of fasting of his own. The Holy Spirit led him directly to that road at that hour, and he obeyed. It was that obedience, not his own effort or discipline, that God used to give the Holy Spirit to the eunuch.
Is it Simon’s Mistake Or Peter’s Model?
A sorcerer named Simon had spent years astonishing the people of Samaria with his magic, and he too became a believer when he heard Philip preaching the Gospel.
Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.
Acts 8:13 (NIV)
Soon afterwards, a different kind of desire for the Spirit showed itself, and it reveals a danger that has never truly left the church. During his ministry, Philip neither laid hands on anyone nor baptised anyone. He left them in the hands of God, knowing that God had instilled faith in the hearts of the believers and had given them the Holy Spirit to keep that faith secure. But the team that came from Jerusalem, unwittingly influenced by the council and its tradition there, could not accept that the believers in Samaria had received the Holy Spirit. They had learned that Philip had not laid his hands on them but had simply preached the Gospel.
Paul followed this same pattern in his ministry at Ephesus. He questioned some believers who had put their faith in what Jesus had done. The Holy Spirit was already at work in them, safeguarding their faith, as Paul himself states in his letter to that very city (Ephesians 1:13–14). When a citizen does not know the President of his nation, it does not disqualify his citizenship. Yet Paul misread the believers’ answer when they said they did not know the Holy Spirit, even though he understood he could not rule out the Spirit’s role in their transformed lives. He laid his hands on them and witnessed some manifestation of the Holy Spirit, which satisfied him. This is the danger of tradition: it looks for outward manifestations while overlooking inward transformation.
When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
Acts 19:6 (NIV)
We now turn to the repercussions of Peter’s action, a pattern still followed by God’s servants today. Up to this point, Simon the sorcerer had not seen Philip give the Holy Spirit to people, but he did see the Spirit given through the laying on of hands by Peter and John. Though a believer through hearing the Word of God and harbouring the Holy Spirit in his heart, he was now taken in by Peter’s action and desired to buy this power with money. He wanted the power to give the Holy Spirit to others, just as he had once given people a false spirit through some other power — a practice that was nothing new to him.
The pattern itself is what should trouble us: a spiritual gift appearing to flow through the hands of one particular man. The believers had already received the Holy Spirit the moment they first believed, and when Peter prayed, what appeared was only the manifestation of that same Spirit, already dwelling in the hearts of those new believers. To onlookers it seemed that Peter was giving the Holy Spirit through the laying on of his hands, but he was not; he was praying over what God had already done. This scene has been misread ever since, and the misreading is still repeated today. It has been distorted into something people now attempt to buy, whether with money, with loyalty, or with their unquestioning devotion to a preacher. It is why churches still fill more readily when a well-known visiting pastor or a famous name from abroad comes to speak, as though the presence of God depended upon that person’s hands rather than upon Him.
Jesus was clear about what lies behind a mistake of this kind. Whoever would follow Him must first deny himself. Those who cannot deny themselves will eventually set themselves where God alone should be: seeking credit for what only God can do, wanting to be seen as specially anointed above others, or re-enacting scenes from Christ’s own life for the sake of their own image — as some pastors today stage triumphant entries upon a donkey at Easter, borrowing what belonged to Jesus Christ alone. Until we deny ourselves, we will keep misrepresenting our role in bringing people closer to Him.
This false ritual strikes at the very sanctity of the Holy Spirit, and here we must pause and listen closely to what Jesus Himself once said, at a moment when people mistook Him for a sorcerer rather than recognising Him as the Son of God.
Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
Matthew 12:32 (NIV)
If speaking against the Holy Spirit is so grave a sin that it cannot be forgiven, how much graver still is the warning for those who deceive others by posing as distributors of the Spirit — deciding, by the offerings they collect, who is worthy to receive Him and who is not.
A Direct Relationship With God
All of this points back to one simple correction: we need a direct relationship with God, not one routed through the hands of another person. A pastor, a preacher, a well-known name from Jerusalem or from abroad — each is like the small bulb in a room: useful, but never the main power source. The moment we begin looking to the bulb instead of the switch that feeds it, we lose sight of where the light truly comes from.
This is not to say pastors and teachers have nothing to offer. Learning from someone God has used for years is a genuine gift. But the very thing they ought to be teaching us is to operate the main switch ourselves — to keep our own relationship with God secure, rather than depending on their hands or their presence to feel that God is near. We are not responsible for correcting every fault we see in others who have not yet learned to deny themselves. We are responsible only for keeping our own bond with God intact, learning from the mistakes we witness rather than repeating them, and remaining content to stay hidden. To hide ourselves in that secret place is to let God be the one who finds us and uses us, rather than putting ourselves forward to be seen.
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
Psalm 91:1 (NIV)
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