Gifts of the Spirit

Healing & Miracles

Three friends are discussing funerals. Specifically, they ask each other "When you are in your coffin and friends and family are mourning you, what would you like to hear them say about you?

The first guy says, "I would like to hear them say that I was a great doctor of my time, and a great family man."

The second guy says, "I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and school teacher which made a huge difference in our children of tomorrow."

The last guy replies, "I would like to hear them say, "Look! He's moving!"

Miraculous healing, eh?

Those who know me well know that I am cautious and analytical – sometimes perhaps over-cautious and over-analytical! I don’t want to run to conclusions about spiritual matters – yet nor do I want any unbelief to prevent me from fully participating in all that Christ plans for his Church. I want to take spiritual gifts seriously, and I’ve been asked to talk about the most miraculous of those from our list in 1 Cor 12.

I would like to start by reflecting upon experience, then take a look at the biblical record, and finally come back to our response in the light of all that, and a recommendation for us.

Does God heal today? Yes. Does God heal in any and every circumstance? No.

This is my experience and, I believe, the teaching of the Bible.

Contemporary Experience

It can be hard to find testimonies of healing which have been independently medically verified, which is a shame. Certainly attempts by the media to access supposed medical verification of healing under Todd Bentley, as was shown regularly on God.tv earlier this year before Bentley’s fall from grace, have been fruitless.

However, I’d like to offer a couple of items of personal testimony, which you may take as you will. Firstly, back in 1998, I was involved in a minor car accident (I was shunted by a van which didn’t stop in time on a rainy roundabout). The impact jerked my head back and by that evening my back was in quite a lot of pain. Walking, turning, lifting stuff was all very difficult and painful.
I’d spoken to a doctor who told me that it would probably take about 6 months to get better – and I was just about to leave my home in Leeds to join my Bible training course down in London! What awful timing! I phoned up Jo who was in London, since we were just courting in those days, and moaned to her about the situation.

Now Jo knows something about healing – ask her about veruccas if you would like to know more – and so she told me that she would like to pray for me over the phone, which she did. I didn’t feel any different at the time, but next morning I woke up and all pain had gone and I was back to normal, for which I give God all the glory and all the credit.

The second testimony I’d like to give is of a time a couple of years ago when someone I know was suffering from a very, very painful infection. I was upset seeing them in so much continual pain and I decided to pray for them to be healed. I prayed with them for about half an hour or more, and then suddenly their pain went, and they had no more problem with that infection.

Now I’d love to be able to tell you that this was something I see regularly... but I can’t. It is far, far more likely that I pray for healing for someone and there is no change.

It is interesting that early church history is full of examples of miraculous healings – Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in the 2nd century, Origen in the 3rd century and Augustine in the 4th century all record many healings. I imagine that many of us have either seen God working in a miraculous way or know someone who has.

Yet we know that more often than not, God doesn’t answer our prayers for healing. We know that for some people in our church God has said ‘no’ or ‘not yet’. We can see in recent church history – amazing Christians who are full of faith and serving God like it is going out of fashion such as David Watson, John Wimber (one of the founders of the Vineyard churches), Rob Lacey the writer/ performer and Rob Frost the Methodist national evangelist. People for whom there was much believing prayer, and yet no gifts of healing manifested for them.

So experience leaves us with as many questions as answers. What do we find in the Bible?

Biblical Record

Old Testament

I read of people like King Hezekiah being healed after he calls out to God in Isaiah 38, or the numerous people healed by the prophets Elijah and Elisha who also performed many miracles – but notice that Elisha eventually dies of an illness in 2 Kings 13.
We also find interesting insights into the healing of broken hearts (Ps147, Is 6v10, Prov 12v18).

The New Testament gives us an interesting commentary on some of the Old Testament accounts. Jesus is recorded as saying (in Luke 4v25-27) “I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed-- only Naaman the Syrian."

In the OT narratives we see God bringing healing and other miracles on his own agenda, to fulfil his own purposes.

Gospels

The gospels are where the floodgates of healing swing wide open. In Jesus we see the compassion of God given full reign. Time and time again, especially in the early years of his ministry, we see their travels grind to a halt as the world and its brother come to their door in search of healing. Young and old, believers and want-to-believers, Jews and Gentiles, all came to Jesus and found healing in his arms. Jesus commissions the 12 disciples and sends them out preaching and working miracles. He later does the same with another 72 disciples (so it was more than just the apostles).

Yet even Jesus doesn’t heal in every and all situations.

In John 8, when Jesus heals the lame man by the pool at Bethesda, he doesn’t heal any of the other sick people waiting around the pool. At one time in his home town, Matt 13v58 tells us that “he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith”.

In John 9, when Jesus is asked whether it was the man born blind, or his parents, whose sin was responsible for his blindness. Jesus says “neither... but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life”.

Healing and miracles in the gospels seem to fulfil the twin purpose of providing evidence of Jesus’ compassion and being a sign of the new kingdom which He was proclaiming.

Acts

As some of you may remember from our series in Acts six years ago, the ‘Acts of the Apostles’ really concentrates on just two apostles (Peter in the first half and Paul in the second half), with a few additional people mentioned here and there. We clearly see the apostles healing people quite dramatically. One of the first examples is especially interesting in Acts 3-4, because when the authorities question Peter and John after the event they “realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus”.

We then see additional men drafted in to help wait on tables so the apostles can concentrate on teaching and prayer. These include Simon and Philip, and we read of these miracle-working waiters in Acts 6 and 8 respectively. We also see Ananias healing Paul in Acts 9. There is a lot of it going on, and there was clearly some expectation in the early church, as we read in their prayer from Acts 4 a little earlier.”Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.  Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

Epistles

The epistles were typically written to correct or instruct with regards to specific problems, so we mostly see the problematic behaviour which needed correction, and in Corinth there was clearly a problem over the issues of wisdom, knowledge, division and spiritual gifts, hence the long sections dealing with those issues.

Miracles are mentioned in passing in Heb 2v4 and Gal 3v5 says “Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?”

James 5 has the well known passage telling those who are ill to call the elders and ask them to anoint and pray for their healing. It is stated not as a guarantee of what will happen, but to give us confidence to ask God. We still say “thy will be done”, not “my will be done” when we pray.

However, we still see people who are not healed. Timothy is told to ‘take a little wine for his stomach’. Trophimus was left sick at Miletus. Epaphroditus was ill and almost died. The ‘thorn in the flesh’ which Paul prayed about three times and it wasn’t removed is normally considered to be a physical ailment.

Revelation

I wanted to additionally mention the Revelation, because from Jesus’ preaching onwards healing has been a sign of the kingdom, and although we are living in the early days of the kingdom at the moment, and see Gods power breaking into this world, we are not in the fullness of the kingdom yet – and won’t be until Jesus returns. The future looks towards a new heavens and a new earth, and this wonderful promise from God in Rev 21v4 “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Summary

So looking through the scriptures, we see that throughout Bible history God is able and willing to provide supernatural healing, but he doesn’t do it in all cases and all situations. It is a foretaste of the complete healing and wonder of heaven.

More a sign of the kingdom to come, than a comfort for the child of the king.

Our Response

Tony Campolo tells a story about being in a church in Oregon where he was asked to pray for a man who had cancer. Campolo prayed boldly for the man's healing. That next week he got a telephone call from the man's wife. She said, "You prayed for my husband. He had cancer." Campolo thought when he heard her use the past tense verb that his cancer had been eradicated! But before he could think much about it, she said, "He died."

Campolo felt terrible. But she continued, "Don't feel bad. When he came into that church that Sunday, he was filled with anger. He knew he was going to be dead in a short period of time, and he hated God. He was 58 years old, and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn't take away his sickness and heal him. He would lie in bed and curse God. The more his anger grew towards God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence."

But the lady told Campolo, "After you prayed for him, a peace had come over him, and a joy had come into him. Tony, the last three days have been the best days of our lives. We've sung. We've laughed. We've read Scripture. We prayed. Oh, they've been wonderful days. And I called to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing."

And then she said something incredibly profound. She said, "He wasn't cured, but he was healed."

I’ve mentioned John Wimber, who was well known for healing ministry, and he once said "When we prayed for no one to be healed, no one was healed. When we prayed for lots of people to be healed, quite a few were healed."

I think we have a lot more opportunity to pray for people to be healed than we take advantage of.

By that, I mean that we as a church could be doing a lot more to pray for people with medical problems, or who would benefit from healing of one kind or another. There are several things that may be hindering this:

I’d like to draw a parallel with evangelism, if I may. I don’t think there is any doubt that we need to be spreading the gospel, telling other people about Jesus. When someone is saved, is it because of our persuasive words and winning manner? No! It is because of the power of the Spirit moving in their life!

Furthermore, a lot of the time (perhaps most of the time?) we talk to people about Jesus and they are not saved. Does that mean that we throw up our hands and say “obviously not for our day and age”. No!

Prayer for healing is just the same – it isn’t our wonderful words or skill which will lead to some people being healed, it isn’t our faith in our ability to heal people either. When someone is healed it is because of the power of the Spirit moving in their life!

For those who would pray for others, I think we must be like the Galatians who “believe what they heard”, like Peter and John who “had been with Jesus”.

I think that the scriptures and history are unequivocal. God heals in the church. Our responsibility is not to make someone well, but to lift them before Jesus and ask him to do it.

If you would like to find out more about the possibility of prayer ministry for healing, whether praying or receiving prayer, please speak to me over coffee 

Alex White