TotD: The Laying on of Hands.

This is one I wouldn't have thought about myself but someone once suggested to me that the next step in my spiritual walk is probably to have the power of the Holy Spirit imparted onto me by the laying on of hands. As far as I'm aware the Holy Spirit is already present and active in my life but I thought it was something worth looking into as "He must increase and I must decrease".

So the idea of the imparting of the authority and gifts of the Holy Spirit comes from, as far as I can see, two passages in Scripture (or two example of passages that have different people but the same pattern).

The first of these is in Numbers: "So the LORD said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey."
(Numbers 27:18-20 ESV)
This is the point at which Moses elects Joshua as his successor and the scripture seems to imply that the authority of Moses passed to Joshua by Moses laying his hands on him. There are, of course, other scriptural examples of laying on of hands on an individual to give them authority but this one will do as the example of what I'm talking about.

The other example is found in Acts 8: "Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit." (Acts 8:14-17 ESV)

That second example is obviously the big one. It, almost clearly, states that the Samaritans had not received the Holy Spirit until there was hands laid on them. Similarly Paul encourages Timothy not to be too fast in the laying on of hands (1 Timothy 5:22).

However, the norm for the NT church was not to have hands laid on them to release the power of the Holy Spirit into their lives. Many churches were set up around Asia Minor and Europe and North Africa that we are not told there was any 'laying on of hands' to pass on the power of the Holy Spirit.


It does seem as if it was used as a sign of passing on authority though. What Paul is saying to Timothy is that if he lays on his hands on the wrong person, a person who should not be in leadership, then he may be blamed for the sins of that person because he is the one who established them by the laying on of hands.

So, to conclude, there are scriptural passages which suggest that the laying on of hands transfers spiritual authority and power to those who have the hands upon them, however, there is also evidence that this power and authority can come from God without any laying on of hands (think of the men who helped judge with Moses). Therefore, I have no idea if the next step in my life of allowing Him to increase and me to decrease involves the laying on of hands.


You may feel that was pointless. This blog is about my thoughts. From time to time/ more often than not, those thoughts will not be fully formed. This means you may get blogs like this. I would very much appreciate that, if you have any thoughts on this matter, you share them in the comments below (using your Google/gmail account) or in a comment on the FB post or in a message. All would be appreciated :)

God Bless,

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