There is much talk today about healing revivals, and healing ministries. Stories of miraculous healings appear frequently in sermons and articles. Evangelists, who claim to have the gift of healing, exercise their "gift" in front of large crowds and TV cameras — often whipping up the enthusiasm of the crowd by chanting phrases such as, "Jesus heals! Jesus heals!"

While some healers claim absolute power over disease, others admit that the success rate is closer to 60%. Now if a man claiming to be a prophet of God had a 60% accuracy rate, we would give him little credence. But what about one who claims the gift of healing with a 60% success rate? Does he really have the gift of healing? What is the gift of healing?

Jesus was the ultimate faith healer. By studying His healing ministry and His teachings, we can learn a great deal about the gift of healing. Here are some observations about His healings.

(1) There is no record of Jesus praying publicly for the healing of anyone. He simply touched the sick or commanded healing. Sometimes Jesus instructed the sick person to do something. On various occasions, lepers were sent to the priests; blind men were told to wash, etc. But in most cases Jesus commanded healing. He simply dispensed the power of God, which had been delegated to Him.

Notice the following examples: Jesus said to a man with leprosy, "Be clean!" The results were instantaneous: "Immediately he was cured of leprosy," Matthew 8:3. Jesus said to the centurion, whose servant was paralyzed, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would. And his servant was healed at that very hour," Matthew 8:13. When Jesus saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever, "He touched her hand and the fever left her . . . ," Matthew 8:15. One example involving a prayer was that of the raising of Lazarus. But it was not a request; rather, it was a prayer of thanksgiving that His Father always heard him, John 11:41-42.

(2) Jesus did not use crowd enthusiasm to induce healings. He did not make a big show of healing. Sometimes He left crowds, in order to heal in private. Often He healed with crowds present, but there is no record of His ever asking them to participate in the healings in any way (to sing, or pray, or raise hands). In Cana, a royal official’s son was healed with just a word from Jesus; the son wasn’t even present, John 4:50. Jesus sent one blind man to wash in the pool of Siloam where he was healed without benefit of anyone else, John 9:7. A crowd was present at the raising of Lazarus, but if anything, this was a negative factor, John 11:21, 32, 39. At the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the people present laughed at Jesus; only the parents were allowed in the room with Jesus and three of His disciples, Luke 8:51.

(3) Jesus did not advertise His healings. Often Jesus commanded the person He healed to tell no one: Matthew 8:2-4, 9:27-30, Mark 7:31-37, Luke 5:12-14, 8:49-56.

(4) Usually faith was expressed in some way by the person (or parents) requesting a healing, but frequently it was not. No faith is mentioned in the healing of the blind man, John 9:1-7, the raising of Lazarus, John 11:1-49, the raising of the young man of Nain, Luke 7:11-16, or the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, Matthew 8:14-15. But Jesus’ faith was always present. In cases when a person’s faith was weak ("I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief" Mark 9:24), Jesus’ gift of healing was not restricted. However, in general, He healed among those who desired healing and believed that He could heal if He wanted to. There is a reference to His healing miracles being limited. In Nazareth, "He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith," Matthew 13:58. The implication is not that His power was somehow inhibited, but rather that He was not about to display His power to the full in the face of skeptics and doubters, Mark 6:5-6.

(5) Jesus never failed at healing. If He said it, it happened! This is perhaps the most important characteristic of the gift of healing.

The Apostles, particularly in their early ministry, healed in the same way Jesus did. The crippled beggar at the temple gate was healed without benefit of crowd psychology, without confession of faith, without prayer; Peter and John simply commanded healing, Acts 3:1-7. People were healed when the shadow of Peter passed over them, Acts 5:15. Frequently no faith was evidenced in persons being healed, though sometimes it was, Acts 14:8-9. The Apostles commanded healing with 100% success. They exercised the gift of healing in exactly the same way Jesus had.

Based on the examples of Jesus and the Apostles, I suggest the following definition for the gift of healing:

Whatever gift modern "faith healers" have, it differs remarkably from that of Jesus and the Apostles in virtually every respect. Modern healers are only partially successful; they require faith on the part of the sick and blame the sick persons’ lack of faith if they are not made well; they frequently do pray for healing rather than command it; and they frequently use crowd psychology to accomplish healings. Their approach doesn’t match up with that of Jesus and the Apostles.

If modern healers don’t have the gift of healing, as it was exercised by Jesus and the Apostles, how is it that some people are apparently healed through their ministries?

It is certainly not my place to judge the sincerity of any who claim to heal. God is their judge and there is no reason for me to pass judgment on them. However, I certainly can judge their methods in comparison to those of Jesus and the Apostles. And I can postulate a number of explanations for their apparent effectiveness, apart from the gift of healing, which I don’t believe they have.

(1) In His mercy and omnipotence, God can miraculously respond to the prayers and the faith of the sick, in spite of the errors, antics, and mistakes of the faith healer. God is God; He can choose to heal in any way He wants — in spite of human sin and ignorance. Thank God for His mercy — because we all come before Him in some degree of ignorance.

(2) The faith healer may simply be using the laws of psychology to heal. The mind can cause sickness and the mind can bring about healing, according to laws put in motion by God. These laws are neutral; they work for Christians and non-Christians alike, for hypnotists, doctors, spiritists, witch doctors, psychologists, ministers, and for faith healers, who can be instrumental in unleashing an individual’s own powerful mental forces to bring about healing.

(3) Deception of two types may be involved. Individuals, caught up in the powerful psychological forces of a healing revival, may really think they are healed and publicly claim a healing — only to discover later, in the privacy of their own homes, that their illness persists. Follow-up studies of people who have claimed public healings indicate that many "miraculously healed" people do not stay healed. Deliberate fraud can also be used; people feigning illness can be used as plants to feign healing, to "get the ball rolling," so to speak.

(4) Satan has great spiritual powers. It is possible that some faith healers can wittingly, or unwittingly, use the powers of evil to effect apparent miracles — just as spiritists and mediums do.

A faith healer could be "healing" through one or more of these four means and not have the gift of healing as exercised by Jesus and the Apostles. How can you know for sure? If he doesn’t teach the truth, don’t have any part of him, no matter how many people he heals, Isaiah 8:20. If he appears to teach the truth, check him out. Thoroughly investigate the man, his methods and teachings, comparing them with the Bible. Get to know dozens of the people said to have been healed by him. In the final analysis, let God be his judge. Remember that the workers of Satan can often produce lying miracles in an attempt to deceive the very elect, Matthew 24:24, II Thessalonians 2:3-12, Revelation 13:11-14. Miracles, per se, are NOT the proof of a true servant of the Almighty!

You can be sure of this — James 5:14 instructs a sick person to call the elders of the church for anointing and prayer, and that God does heal. You can go to Him in prayer, you can ask others to pray, you can call for the elders of the church for anointing and prayer. This is the general practice prescribed for the church; it is an appeal for God’s mercy and is significantly different from the gift of healing. Part of the problem of modern faith healers is that they confuse prayer for healing (which is what they should be doing according to James 5:14) with the gift of healing (which they don’t have). This is not to say that God cannot at any time give someone the gift of healing, just as He gave it to Jesus and the Apostles. But if and when He does, that healer will not be dependent on crowd enthusiasm or psychology; and when he commands healing, it will always happen. He will never command healing when it is not God’s will to heal that person.

Many modern healers teach what has been called the "gospel of good health," that it is always God’s will for us to be well, that sickness is of the devil, that just as it is God’s will to forgive all our sins, it is His will to heal all our sicknesses, Psalms 103:3. Scriptures such as John 14:14, "You may ask Me for anything in my name, and I will do it," and Mark 9:23, "Everything is possible for him who believes," are cited to show that all we have to do is believe — that our healing is already established in the will of God — all we have to do is claim it.

This line of understanding claims that if a person does not experience healing, it is always because he lacks faith — that he must investigate his life to find secret sins that are preventing him from receiving the healing promised by God. We should examine ourselves, yet realize that it is not always God’s will to heal right away.

To be sure, the gospel of good health makes some very valid points. It has done much to counteract the erroneous concept that Christians should be poor, sick, and downtrodden, that there is some eternal reward in penury and suffering. But the Scriptures used to support this "gospel" must be understood in the context of other verses such as I John 5:15 ( . . . that if we ask anything according to his will . . . ) and the whole of God’s word. The fact of the Bible record is that, for whatever reasons, human beings in every generation, including men of powerful faith, have been sick; and all eventually died!

Elisha, a prophet with a double portion of the spirit, suffered from a disease that eventually took his life, II Kings 13:14. Even after Elisha died, a dead man whose body touched his bones, came to life. In the New Testament are numerous accounts of healings, frequently of non-Christians or of new Christians. Yet there are also a number of references to sickness with no mention of divine healing.

The Apostle Paul was denied his petition for removal of his "thorn in the flesh," II Corinthians 12:7-10; he stated ". . . outwardly we are wasting away . . ." II Corinthians 4:16; he also refers to having had an illness that resulted in his preaching to the Galatians, Galatians 4:13-14. Paul’s fellow minister, Trophimus, was sick and was left behind — not healed — by Paul, II Timothy 4:20. Timothy was encouraged to drink wine for his stomach’s sake and for his "frequent illnesses," I Timothy 5:23. Epaphroditis was sick and almost died "for the work of Christ . . . but God had mercy on him," Philippians 2:25-30. Note that in this last example, Epaphroditis’ healing is described as an act of God’s mercy, not of obligation.

From all these examples, it is obvious that even men of powerful faith got sick and were not healed immediately. Some undoubtedly recovered eventually from their sicknesses. Some died from or with their sicknesses! While one could argue that it was because of their lack of faith that they weren’t healed, the argument seems rather hollow. Not once were their sicknesses attributed to lack of faith, so it seems rather presumptuous for modern preachers to claim that a lack of healing proves a lack of faith. Are faith healers today aspiring to a faith so much greater than that of Elisha and Paul?

The Bible reveals that God is interested primarily in eternal "good health." He doesn’t always heal right away because He uses the sufferings and pain natural to human existence to teach us what is really important. Peter wrote, ". . . while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith . . . may be proved genuine," I Peter 1:6-7. Paul wrote, ". . . we also rejoice in our sufferings, because . . . suffering produces perseverance . . . character . . . hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us," Romans 5:3-5. James wrote, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything," James 1:2-4. See also Romans 8:21-26; I Corinthians 15:42; II Corinthians 4:10-17; 5:2-4; 12:7.

Perhaps we can understand the question of God’s will on sickness by thinking of how we parents view our children. Certainly we don’t want them to be sick or to suffer pain. We want them to see life in positive terms of joy and hope — not in terms of suffering and

pain. On the other hand we recognize that scrapes and bruises are part of growing up — and that children learn very valuable lessons by experiencing pain. In like manner, God doesn’t want us sick and doesn’t deliberately cause us to suffer. Yet He has put us in an environment of which pain and suffering, including sickness, are a part — because He is preparing us for the real life, eternal life, that lies ahead.

Faith healers generally do not have the gift of healing. They do not follow the example of Christ. Anyone with the gift of healing will heal 100% of the time. The general prescription for New Testament believers is to seek prayer and anointing from the elders of the Church. God’s servants sometimes do get sick, not always from a lack of faith or a sin they have committed.

We shouldn’t have an "I'm-meant-to-be-sick" attitude. Such a negative outlook only consigns us to a life of sickness. Rather we should have an overall expectation of health and wellness — viewing illness as the exception, not the rule. But when we do get sick and God delays healing, we can know that He is accomplishing in us something far more important than physical health. A healed body will last for a few decades at most. But the love, peace, patience, temperance, and meekness learned through sickness and suffering will last for eternity. God’s ultimate will for us is to prepare us for the ultimate healing — which is living with Him for all eternity in a body that knows no sickness or suffering.

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