What is the gift of healing?

Sickness touches every family sooner or later, and when it does, most believers instinctively pray for healing. That instinct raises a real question: does God still heal people today the way He did through the apostles, and is healing a spiritual gift some Christians actually possess? Television preachers who promise healing for the right donation have made many believers rightly cautious, while genuine, humble testimonies of answered prayer for healing keep the question alive. Scripture gives a clearer, steadier answer than either extreme.

Paul lists gifts of healing among the gifts the Spirit distributes for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:9, 28). The plural form in the Greek is worth noticing; it suggests specific instances of healing power given for particular situations, rather than a permanent personal ability someone could call up at will. This gift, like every gift, belongs to the Spirit's sovereign choice: all these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines (1 Corinthians 12:11).

The book of Acts records this gift in action. Peter and John healed a man lame from birth at the temple gate, an event so undeniable that even the religious leaders who opposed them could say nothing against it (see Acts 3:1-10; 4:14). Later, Paul healed a man crippled from birth in Lystra (Acts 14:8-10) and, after being shipwrecked on Malta, healed the father of the island's chief official, after which the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured (Acts 28:8-9).

These healings were not random acts of compassion detached from a larger purpose, though compassion was certainly present. They accompanied the preaching of the gospel and confirmed the authority of the men proclaiming it, much as Jesus's own healings validated His identity and message (John 20:30-31).

Hebrews describes this pattern directly: the gospel message was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will (Hebrews 2:3-4). Miraculous healing clustered around foundational moments in redemptive history, the ministry of Moses, of Elijah and Elisha, and of Jesus and the apostles, each time God was authenticating a new stage of revelation.

This does not mean God has stopped healing. It means the specific pattern of the apostles' healing ministry served a purpose tied to founding the church, and it helps explain why healings in Acts are concentrated around the apostles rather than spread evenly across every believer in every era.

It is striking that the New Testament also records unanswered prayers for healing, even involving the apostle Paul himself. Paul pleaded three times for God to remove a thorn in his flesh, and God's answer was not removal but sufficient grace: my power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). Paul's close friend Epaphroditus was ill, and almost died, and Paul describes God having mercy on him, not Paul simply healing him by command (Philippians 2:25-27).

Later, Paul writes matter-of-factly that he left Trophimus sick in Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20). If the gift of healing meant guaranteed, on-demand power to cure any illness, these verses would be hard to explain. They teach us instead that healing, even in the apostolic era, was always subject to God's sovereign purposes, not a formula believers could control.

Christians hold different views about whether the specific enumerated gift of healing continues in the same form today. Some believe it does, pointing to no explicit biblical statement that it ceased. Others believe the sign-confirming function of this gift was tied to the apostolic founding of the church and has ceased, while affirming that God certainly can and does heal in answer to prayer through His ordinary providence.

What both views share is confidence that God is not limited and still hears the prayers of His people for the sick. James instructs the church, without qualification tied to a particular era, to call the elders to pray over the sick and anoint them with oil, promising that the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well (James 5:14-15). This remains a living instruction for the church today, whatever one concludes about the enumerated gift itself.

If someone you love is sick, pray boldly. Ask God for healing without embarrassment or hedging, trusting both His power and His goodness. At the same time, use the means He has provided; Scripture never treats medicine or doctors as evidence of weak faith. Paul himself instructed Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach troubles (1 Timothy 5:23), and Luke, a physician, was one of Paul's most trusted companions (Colossians 4:14).

Above all, hold healing prayers with open hands. God sometimes heals dramatically, sometimes gradually through means, and sometimes chooses not to heal in this life at all, saving His people instead for the healing that has no exceptions: the resurrection, when he will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4). Every prayer for healing is really a prayer for a taste of that coming, certain restoration.