1 Corinthians 12:9, 28, 30

INTRODUCTION

There are three verses in 1 Corinthians 12 that mention the gift of healing. First Corinthians 12:9 says: "To another, faith by the same Spirit; to another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit." Then verse 28 says, "And God hath set some in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; after that miracles [powers], then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues [languages]." Then verse 30 says, "Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues [languages]? Do all interpret?" The gift of healing is one of the spiritual gifts cataloged in this chapter, and therefore, an important one to study.

Now, I want to begin our study of the truths relative to this gift with a few preliminary remarks:

A. Healing: The Controversy of Opinions

First, I realize that the gift of healing is a very controversial subject. There is much concern because the number one human problem in the world is illness. I am well aware of the variety of opinions, and I have done my very best to read as much and as widely as I could in order to understand the varying viewpoints. I am going to attempt to give you what I believe is God's clear Word relative to this area of ministry. Despite my frailties and humanness, I am trusting that God can use me to speak for Him. I am going to do the best I can to open my mouth and share with you what I see is in the Word of God. This is not a question of my opinion; this is what I believe the Bible says, and we ought to understand it.B. Healing: The Criteria for Analysis

Second, what I say is not directed as an attack; it is simply directed at dealing with the truth and exposing what appears to be error. I am not trying to attack or judge someone; and I am certainly not trying to wound, grieve, injure, or cause bitterness within the body of Christ. I have to make that statement because there will be some who think that this is my approach. It is not. Whenever you deal truthfully with the Word of God, there will be some people who are outside that area of influence. As a result, they need to be recognized as being in error. But at the same time, what I say I want to be understood as being said in a spirit of gentleness, in a spirit of love, and in a spirit of concern for people who have not understood the truth about the area of healing.C. Healing: The Choice of God

Third, please do not assume by what I say that I do not believe God heals. I do believe God heals. God heals in answer to prayer. God heals miraculously in answer to prayer. God heals miraculously in answer to prayer in order to reveal His glory. I do not question God's miraculous healing in response to the prayers of saints. What I want you to understand is the difference between the healing by God and the gift of healing. There is a great difference between God healing someone immediately and God healing someone through a human instrument. That is the distinction that needs to be made.

REVIEW

We have studied the spiritual gifts and ministries in three categories. The first one was the gifted men (1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11). God has given to the church Apostles, prophets, evangelists, teaching pastors and teachers. Second, among the members of the church, God has given a second category of ministry which we have called the permanent edifying gifts. These are the divine enablements that equip the saints to minister to each other and to build the body. These gifts will function for the duration of the church. There were two kinds: speaking gifts and serving gifts.

Now we come to the third category: temporary sign gifts -- certain enablements and energizings given to certain believers for the purpose of authenticating and confirming the Word when it was still being proclaimed in the early church, before the Scriptures were completed. These were temporary gifts. Their primary purpose was not to edify, though they accomplished that in a secondary sense. Their primary purpose was to authenticate the message of the apostolic community. The first one we considered was the gift of...

I. MIRACLES (1 Cor. 12:10)

The primary function of the gift of miracles (or powers) is the ability to cast out demons. For example, no Apostle ever performed what would be called a miracle of nature. No Apostle ever fed five thousand men by multiplying bread and fish. No Apostle ever did any miracles connected with nature. The gift of miracles was primarily connected with the casting out of demons -- God's power over the kingdom of darkness.

Now, we come to the second of the temporary sign gifts, the gift of...

II. HEALING (1 Cor. 12:9, 28, 30)

A. The Problem of Disease

Now, I think we are aware that disease is the most tragic human reality. Disease is the number one human problem. It is that which hits hardest and hurts the most, especially when it culminates in death.

1. Searching for Cures

Since the Fall of man in the Garden of Eden, disease and death have been a reality. Since that time, the search for cures to alleviate the reality of illness and suffering continues. In the darkest part of an aboriginal society, witch doctors have potions and approaches to curing disease. Even the most sophisticated, complex hospital in the world today is doing the very same thing. The primitive beginning of medicine occurred centuries ago in Egypt. Throughout the history of Western civilization, man has continually searched for cures for the terrible reality of disease and illness.

2. Seeking to Heal

I know that many people seek certain gifts of the Spirit. There are people who tarry for the gift of languages, or tongues. If I could have any gift of the Spirit, beyond the gift the Holy Spirit has already given me, I would seek, beg, plead, and tarry for the gift of healing. I wish I had the gift of healing. I have stood by a mother and father in a hospital and watched their child die of leukemia and wished I had the gift of healing. I have prayed with a dear friend while cancer was eating up his insides and watched him die and wished I had the gift of healing. I have been in intensive care units again and again, seeing people crushed from accidents. I have seen people torn up by surgery. I have watched people eaten by disease and wished that I could heal them with a word and a touch. But I can't.

Think of how thrilling it would be to have the gift of healing. Think of what it would be like to go to a hospital, to all the sick and dying, and just touch them and heal them. Fantastic! Think of all the efforts and years that doctors go through in medicine. Think of the millions of dollars spent on technology when all we need is the gift of healing. Sickness and disease is heartbreaking. It's all over the world.

Imagine that all of the people who had the gift of healing got together, got on an airplane, flew to the great pockets of disease in the world, and went through the crowd healing everyone. Fantastic! How humanity and sympathy would speak for Christianity! Just imagine what would happen if we went through the world with the gift of healing and banished illness from the world. It has been said that in three years Jesus banished disease from Palestine.

Why don't we do it? Why is it that the people who claim to have the gift don't leave their tents? Why do they have to perform their gift in a controlled environment -- staged their way, run by their operation, begins on time and ends on time? Why aren't they in the hospitals? Why aren't they out in the areas of the world where people are really hurting? Why aren't they in India or the other places where masses of humanity are racked with disease? It just doesn't happen. Why? I submit that they don't have the gift of healing because it was a temporary sign gift for the authenticating of the Scriptures as the Word of God. Once the Word of God was authenticated, the gift ceased.

3. Saving the Soul

Jesus doesn't say to us, "Go into all the world and banish disease." He says, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel" (Mt. 28:19). Jesus is more concerned about the soul of a man than He is the body of a man (Mt. 10:28). He didn't say to go and banish disease, He said to go and banish damnation. Many people are naive in their assumption that if we healed everyone in the manner Jesus did, they would all believe the gospel. Do you believe that? If you do, then you totally misunderstand the life of Christ. For three years Jesus Christ banished disease from Palestine, and when He was at the end of His ministry, the population agreed that they ought to kill Him. After all of the multitudes that He healed, when His true followers gathered in the Upper Room to wait for the birth of the church, there were only one hundred and twenty of them.

Saving faith is a gift from God according to His sovereign will. It is given to whom He wills, and it comes through hearing the gospel and mixing it with the divine gift of faith. It doesn't come through being healed. In Romans 10:17, Paul says, "So, then, [saving] faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God [a speech about Jesus Christ]." Saving faith comes by hearing a speech about Jesus Christ. Don't think that if we could heal that everyone would be saved. They weren't in Jesus' day and they weren't in the Apostles' day. The Apostles did miracle after miracle of healing and were thrown in jail (Ac. 3-5). Then in Acts 8 a wholesale persecution broke out against them.

B. The Pretense of Healers

1. The Counterfeit Claims

What are the claims that are being made about healing today?

a. The Historic Claims

Historically, the oldest of all the claims comes out of the Roman Catholic Church. They have claimed to be able to heal people with the bones of John the Baptist, the bones of Peter, and the relics of the cross. They have claimed to be able to heal at the shrines where Mary has appeared. They have claimed to be able to heal with vials of Mary's breast milk. Incredibly, they have claimed many healings at the shrine at Lourdes.

b. The Present Claims

1) Satanic Influence

There are Oriental psychic healers -- those who do "bloodless surgery," using only their hands as scalpels, and even claiming to raise the dead. There are witch doctors who are using their fading fetishes on the diseases of the aboriginal few left in our world. There are occultists who use black magic, operating in the power of Satan to do lying wonders such as will appear in the Great Tribulation (2 Thess. 2:9). Raphael Gasson, the former spiritualist medium converted to Christ, says in his book The Challenging Counterfeit, "There are many spiritualists today who are endowed with this remarkable gift by the power of Satan; and I myself, having been used in this way, can testify to having witnessed miraculous healing taking place at healing meetings in spiritualism."

There are actually demonic counterfeit healings done by Satan using God's words. Kurt Trampler, a Munich author and lawyer, uses the names of God and Christ in his healings, but denies the clear teaching of the Word.

2) Sincere Illusions

I have talked with one woman who said that her pastor had the gift of healing. His wife had cancer, but he healed her. I said, "Well, that's interesting. How's she doing now?" She said, "Oh, she's dead." I said, "She's dead? How long after the healing?" "One year." What kind of a healing is that? She had the mentality to believe that everything of that nature was a healing.

This same pastor said that his gift of healing works in this way: "In the morning services the Lord tells me what healings are available. The Lord will say, `I've got three cancers available, one bad back, and two headaches.' I announce this to the congregation and tell them that whoever comes in the evening with enough faith can claim the available healings."

Mary Baker Eddy healed through telepathy. Today there are Charismatics who claim all kinds of healing. You can turn on your television and they will heal you from a distance, even on a delayed tape.

3) Strategic Intention

You say, "What about people like Oral Roberts, the late Kathryn Kuhlman, and Brandt Baker? What are they doing? Healings seem to happen with them." They have tremendous claims, startling routines, and all kinds of gimmicks. Behind them are many lesser-known healers plying their trade. Each has his own technique. Each operates in a controlled environment. Each operates with a set strategy. But I have never yet seen any of them walk down the hall of a hospital and heal everyone, yet they all claim that God heals through them.

Operate in the Spirit

All the gifts of the Spirit operate truly only in a Spirit-filled life. If your life isn't controlled by the Holy Spirit, will your gifts function in the Holy Spirit's energy? No, they will function in the energy of the flesh. If you are walking in the flesh, you will function in the flesh. If you walk in the Spirit, your gift will be ministered in the Spirit. Now, if you say, "I have the spiritual gift of healing," then several things should be true of you: You will have a pure life. You will have pure doctrine. You will be characterized by humility. You will have a life of total submission and obedience to Scripture. You will have a life set on completely exalting Jesus Christ. And you will manifest all the fruit of the Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit must operate in the energy of the Spirit, and that only happens when the Spirit is in control. As you begin to study the people who claim to have this gift, you will find that they are very wanting in these areas.

2. A Clarifying Commentary

There is an interesting book entitled Healing: A Doctor in Search of a Miracle by William Nolen M.D. (New York: Random House, 1974). He is not a Christian, but he writes from a very objective viewpoint. He has a section in his book on Charismatic healers, with particular reference to Kathryn Kuhlman, whom he studied in detail. I feel this will provide some really solid answers:

"Finally it was over. There were still long lines of people waiting to get onto the stage and claim their cures, but at five o'clock, with a hymn and final blessing, the show ended. Miss Kuhlman left the stage and the audience left the auditorium.

"Before going back to talk to Miss Kuhlman I spent a few minutes watching the wheelchair patients leave. All the desperately ill patients who had been in wheelchairs were still in wheelchairs. In fact, the man with the kidney cancer in his spine and hip, the man whom I had helped to the auditorium and who had his borrowed wheelchair brought to the stage and shown to the audience when he had claimed a cure, was now back in the wheelchair. His `cure,' even if only a hysterical one, had been extremely short-lived.

"As I stood in the corridor watching the hopeless cases leave, seeing the tears of the parents as they pushed their crippled children to the elevators, I wished Miss Kuhlman had been with me. She had complained a couple of times during the service of `the responsibility, the enormous responsibility,' and of how her `heart aches for those that weren't cured,' but I wondered how often she had really looked at them. I wondered whether she sincerely felt that the joy of those `cured' of bursitis and arthritis compensated for the anguish of those left with their withered legs, their imbecilic children, their cancers of the liver.

"I wondered if she really knew what damage she was doing. I couldn't believe that she did.

"Here are some aspects of the medical healing process about which some of us know nothing and none of us know enough. To start with the body's ability to heal itself: Kathryn Kuhlman often says, `I don't heal; the Holy Spirit heals through me.' I suspect there are two reasons why Miss Kuhlman continually repeats this statement: first, if the patient doesn't improve, the Holy Spirit, not Kathryn Kuhlman, gets the blame; second, she hasn't the foggiest notion of what healing is all about and once she puts the responsibility on the shoulders of the Holy Spirit she can answer, if questioned about her healing powers, `I don't know. The Holy Spirit does it all.'

"Let me repeat: a charismatic individual -- a healer -- can sometimes influence a patient and cure symptoms or a functional disease by suggestion..." (pp. 60, 239, 250).

Functional vs. Organic Disease

In your mind you must make a distinction between a functional disease and an organic disease. A functional disease is diagnosed when a perfectly good organ does not function properly. An organic disease is diagnosed when the organ is organically destroyed, maimed, or crippled. The functional disease has only a symptom without a reality. An organic disease has a reality and a symptom. And you will find that in all the cases of so-called healers, the only types of healings they ever accomplish are functional, never organic. They are only dealing with the symptom.

Nolen goes on to say: "...a healer -- can sometimes influence a patient and cure symptoms or a functional disease by suggestion, with or without a laying on of hands. Physicians can do the same thing. These cures are not miraculous; they result from corrections made by the patient in the function of his autonomic system. We don't know yet how to control this system, but we're learning.

"All healers use hypnosis to some extent (`See -- your pain is going away. Isn't that wonderful?')....

"Doctors use hypnosis, or suggestion, frequently. When I give a patient a pill or a shot, I make a point of saying, `This medicine should make you better in twenty-four or forty-eight hours.... This medicine always works very well.' I know that in some cases I'm going to get better results if I suggest to the patient that the medicine will work than I would if I said, `Well, I don't know about this medicine...sometimes it works pretty well, sometimes it's not so hot. We'll give it a try and hope for the best.' There's a lot to the power of positive thinking, particularly where functional disorders are concerned.

"Hypnotism is not something with which one should trifle. Relieving symptoms can be dangerous -- remember the poor woman whose back pain went away at Kathryn Kuhlman's suggestion, leaving her temporarily free to frolic until her cancerous vertebrae collapsed? Symptoms -- pain, nausea, dizziness -- may be purely psychological, but they may also be the warning signals of dangerous, possibly life-threatening, organic (as opposed to functional) diseases. To eliminate a symptom without getting at the cause of that symptom can cause delay in treatment which may be serious or even fatal.

"Now, finally, in our attempt to understand `healing,' we must deal with organic diseases -- diseases that are caused not simply by dysfunction of an organ but by derangement of the structure of an organ or organs. Infections, heart attacks, gallstones, hernias, slipped discs, cancers of all kinds, broken bones, congenital deformities, lacerations, and multitudes of other diseases and subdivisions of those I've mentioned are included in the organic-disease classification. Some organic diseases are self-limited, i.e., healed by the body itself; the common cold and minor sprains are examples of such ailments. But to cure many organic diseases, the body needs help.

"These are the diseases that healers, even the most charismatic, cannot cure. When they attempt to do so -- and they all fall into this trap, since they know and care nothing of the differences between functional and organic diseases -- they tread on very dangerous ground. When healers treat serious organic diseases they are responsible for untold anguish and unhappiness; this happens because they keep patients away from possibly effective and lifesaving help. The healers become killers.

"Search the literature as I have, and you will find no documented cures by healers of gallstones, heart disease, cancer or any other serious organic disease. Certainly, you'll find patients temporarily relieved of their upset stomachs, their chest pains, their breathing problems; and you will find healers, and believers, who will interpret this interruption of symptoms as evidence that the disease is cured. But when you track the patient down and find out what happened later, you always find the `cure' to have been purely symptomatic and transient. The underlying disease remains" (pp. 250, 256, 257, 259, 260).

To give you an illustration, Nolen took some eighty cases of Kathryn Kuhlman's healings. She suggested that he follow up these cases. He followed up all of them. His conclusion at the end of it all -- not one was a legitimate healing.

"Now consider Kathryn Kuhlman. In a letter sent to me by Marilyn March, Kathryn Kuhlman's secretary, Ms. March says that Miss Kuhlman conducts `approximately 125 healing services in a year's time.' Attendance at these services varies; Ms. March mentions that `there are always 7,000 in attendance at the once-a-month services at the Shrine Auditorium [in Los Angeles]'; in Tulsa, Oklahoma, `18,000 people in Mabee Center with 3,000 viewing on closed-circuit TV'; in Atlanta, 8,000; in Ottawa, 16,000. Let's assume that Miss Kuhlman has an opportunity to treat an average of 10,000 patients per service, or 1,250,000 patients a year. We will have to guess, but I think it would be reasonable to say that one third of these patients are cancer victims -- about 400,000 cancer victims a year. Miss Kuhlman, therefore, may treat 4,000 times as many cancer patients as I treat in one year, and I have, by national standards, a very busy surgical practice. It would be highly likely that in the approximately 400,000 cancer victims that come to her every year, there might be one patient who would fall into the spontaneous regression category. I know Kathryn Kuhlman (or Norbu Chen, or Tony Agpaoa or any other healer) will never find among the patients she treats a spontaneous cure of a cleft palate, a hernia, gallstones, heart disease, paralysis due to injury, or any of the hundreds of other organic ailments for which patients seek help. What I find most unusual is that there are no well-documented spontaneous cancer cures reported in her books. You'd think, among the millions of cancer patients healers treat, at least one or two would demonstrate a spontaneous regression.

"My point, in case I haven't made it clear, is that even if we were to find isolated cases of documented cancer cures in the files of Miss Kuhlman or any other healer, it would prove nothing; isolated spontaneous cures of cancer occur with or without the ministrations of healers. The chances of being cured of cancer by Kathryn Kuhlman or any other healer are the same as the chances of being cured if you do nothing and go to no one at all. To be logical, the cancer patient should go to a healer only if the healer had a cure rate of 50 percent or better -- the cure rate physicians can achieve. But cancer patients who go to healers are emotionally distraught and for this reason don't act logically" (pp. 266, 267).

3. The Critical Causes

a. There Is Evidence

I want you to understand that there is another way to view the claims of healing. So, when someone says, "You have to believe; look at all the evidence," where is the evidence? Where are the organic, spontaneous healings? Where are the healings of broken bones?

b. The People Are Spirit Filled

You say, "Well, I believe in healings because the healers are so obviously Spirit filled." I am not sure, given the kind of production and the kind of things that go on in the lives of the people in those positions, that they really manifest the fruit of the Spirit. As I have examined the lives of people who are involved in this, I have been very distressed at what I have found.

c. The Healing Is Biblical

Someone else says, "The reason I believe is that they do it biblically." The fact is: They don't do it biblically, as we will see.

d. The Healing Is Based on Sound Teaching

Someone else says, "I believe it because it is based on the sound teaching of the Bible that by His stripes we are healed. Healing is in the atonement." That is a gross interpretation of Isaiah 53:5. It is not talking about physical healing, it is talking about spiritual healing -- salvation.

e. People Are Desperate

You say, "If people don't go for any of these reasons, why do they go?" They go because people who are sick are desperate. There is a certain amount of desperation in disease. Sickness drives people to do things that they normally wouldn't do. Ordinarily clear-minded, intelligent, balanced people become irrational. Job 2:4 says, "...Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life." People will do anything to live. All you need to have happen is for your doctor to say, "You've got a terminal illness," and the panic sets in, as well as the desire to be healed. People will do anything to be healed. So, one of the reasons the healers do so well is that there is a fantastic market of people who are really sick and desperate. But the really organically ill are not healed by healers. Then there are those who aren't really sick at all, they just have psychosomatic disorders. And then there are those who are ill because they just can't believe God -- they are so doubtful that they attempt to have their doubts reinforced by "miracles."

C. The Pattern Of Christ's Healing

In order to make a comparison between what goes on today and what the Bible teaches, we just look at Jesus. How did He heal? He set the pattern for all the spiritual gifts. There are six points that are absolutely critical:

1. Jesus Healed with a Word or Touch

a. A Word

Matthew 8:5-8 says, "And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto Him a centurion, beseeching Him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof; but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." You say, "How did the centurion know that?" That was the common way in which Jesus healed.

b. A Touch

Jesus also healed with a touch. Mark 5:25-34 tells the story of a woman, who had an issue of blood, as she crawled through the crowd to reach Jesus. Verse 27 says, "When she had heard of Jesus, came in the crowd behind, and touched His garment. For she said, If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague" (vv. 27-29). Jesus didn't push her over, she simply reached up and grabbed one of the rabbinical tassels hanging on His robe (rabbis had four tassels on their robes) and she was healed instantly. With a word or a touch He healed all. There were no dramatics and no theatrics.

2. Jesus Healed Instantaneously

a. Mark 5:29 -- "And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague." When? Immediately. I have heard people say, "The Lord healed me. Since He did I have been getting better progressively." Jesus never did a progressive healing. When He sent away the lepers, they were healed instantaneously as they traveled on the road (Lk. 17:14). When the blind man washed his eyes in the pool, he saw instantly (Jn. 9:7). What about the man who first saw men like trees, walking? (Mk. 8:24). He was just focusing what God had just created. Instant healing -- the Scripture knows no other kind; otherwise, if Jesus healed progressively, that kind of miracle would be worthless to demonstrate His deity. Someone would say it was just a natural process. His healing had to be instant.

b. Mark 7:31-35 -- "And again, departing from the borders of Tyre and Sidon, He came unto the Sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of Decapolis. And they bring unto Him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech..." (vv. 31-32a). Now, very frequently when someone has always been deaf, it is difficult for them to articulate clearly. So they speak with a certain impediment because they cannot hear themselves talk. This is an organic problem.

Verse 32 continues: "...and they beseech Him to put His hand upon him. And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers into his ears, and He spat, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, He sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly" (vv. 32b-35). No healer today has ever done that. All of a sudden, a person who is stone deaf from birth, and who talked in the manner characteristic of one who has never heard himself speak, is given the freedom to speak clearly and to hear everything instantaneously. That is what Jesus did to prove that God was intervening. There was no other possible explanation, otherwise the miracle ceases to have its significance.

3. Jesus Healed Totally

Luke 4:38 says, "And He arose and left the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever...." Peter's mother-in-law was very ill. In fact, the implication here is that she was dying. Verse 39 says, "And He stood over her, and rebuked the fever, and it left her; and immediately she arose and ministered unto them." She got up and made dinner. Here is a woman lying on her deathbed, and when Jesus healed her, He healed her totally. He didn't say, "Now that you've been healed, I want you to just take a little honey and hot tea, and then I want you to make sure that you stay around the house and just lie down." She was healed of a deathly disease, then got up and made dinner. That is instant, total healing.

4. Jesus Healed Everybody

Jesus wasn't like Kathryn Kuhlman, Oral Roberts, or Brandt Baker. He didn't have all the people with organic diseases leave the same way they came. Luke 4:40 says, "Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any who were sick with various diseases, brought them unto Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them, and healed them." He healed with a word and a touch, instantaneously, totally, and everybody. That is why He didn't have to heal in His own environment; He could go where they were.

5. Jesus Healed Organic Disease

People who were crippled from birth could walk. People who were blind could see. People who were deaf and dumb could speak and hear. These are all organic problems. Jesus didn't go around healing low back pain, palpitation of the heart, and breathing problems.

6. Jesus Raised the Dead

Mark 5:35 says, "While He yet spoke, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain who said, Thy daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the Master any further?" The ruler of the synagogue had asked Jesus to help his sick daughter (v. 23). Verse 41 picks up the narrative: "And He took the child by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Little girl, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway the child arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment" (vv. 41-42). The miracle was in the resurrection. He raised the dead.

I wish the people who claim to have the gift of healing would spend a little time in funeral parlors. They could sure make some exciting things happen. Wouldn't it be super that the next time you went to a funeral someone with the gift of healing came in and said, "I feel badly about this situation. Would you please get up?"

Why did Jesus heal with a word or a touch, instantaneously, totally, everybody, those with organic diseases, and raise the dead? Did He do it to infatuate or play games with the people? John 20:30-31 gives the reason: "And many other signs truly did Jesus...but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name." This gift was an authenticating gift to confirm the statement of Jesus that He is God. You say, "But what about when the Apostles healed?" It was to confirm their proclamation.

I'm not saying that God doesn't do miracles. I'm not saying that God doesn't heal. He does heal, and He can do anything He wants to do. Miracles are neither impossible nor necessary -- that is up to God. But there is no evidence biblically or practically that anyone today is operating the gift of healing. If God wants to heal, that is His business and privilege. He may heal through the prayers of an individual. He promises that "the prayer of faith shall save the sick" (Js. 5:15a). But let's not confuse God's healing in response to prayer with the ability to heal everyone at will, as in the case of Jesus and the Apostles.

Focusing on the Facts

1. Does God heal? What motivates God to heal? 

2. What is the number one human problem? 

3. What benefit would be derived if some people actually had the gift of healing? Why don't those who claim to have the gift function in this manner? 

4. What was the purpose of the gift of healing? Why was it only a temporary gift? 

5. What is Jesus most concerned about in relation to man? 

6. After Christ spent three years banishing disease from Palestine, what did the people decide to do with Him? How many true followers met in the Upper Room? What happened to the Apostles as a result of their healing? 

7. Why do people believe in the gospel? What effect does healing have on bringing someone to Christ? 

8. Where do the oldest claims of healing originate from? Give some examples. 

9. What are some of the claims of healing that are influenced by Satan? 

10. What is characteristic of someone who is operating under the control of the Holy Spirit? 

11. What is the difference between a functional disease and an organic disease? 

12. Why do doctors use suggestion to help patients in their recovery? What type of disease will this technique help? 

13. Why is there the possibility of danger in relieving symptoms? 

14. How is it possible for "healers to become killers"? 

15. Why do so many people go to healers if they are not truly healers? 

16. What are the six ways in which Jesus healed? Explain each one and give an example. 

17. Why did Jesus heal, according to John 20:31? 

Pondering the Principles

1. Matthew 16:26 says, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" How would you answer those two questions? Look up the following verses: Matthew 4:4; 10:28; 16:24-26; 26:41; John 3:3-8; 1 Corinthians 2:11; 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:9. In what ways do these verses reveal that Jesus is more concerned about the soul of man than He is the body of man? What is the most important disease that man needs to be healed of? If you know someone who is afflicted by an organic disease, memorize 2 Corinthians 4:17 so that you might have an encouraging word to share: "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

2. Is your gift being operated in the energy of the Spirit? Do you manifest the following: A pure life, pure doctrine, humility, total submission and obedience to Scripture, a life that exalts Jesus Christ, the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23)? These characteristics will be manifest in a life that is under the control of the Holy Spirit. Which of these characteristics are not being manifest as they should? Take this moment for some self-examination. Ask God to reveal to you how you might more effectively use your gift to God's glory.

3. What new insights have you gained from the excerpts from William Nolen's book? What changes has it produced in your view of modern healing? In what ways has it reaffirmed your present view? If you were confronted by someone who believes that some people today have the gift of healing, what things could you share with them? Make a list of those things, then add to it when you find any new information that will help. Remember, be ready to make a defense of your faith to anyone who asks (1 Peter 3:15).