What is the “gift of healing”? In this study, we do a survey of the Old and New Testament teaching on divine healing, especially in relation to the ministry of Jesus Christ and His disciples.

Teaching Notes:

Divine Healing

1. Divine Healing in the Old Testament:

• God heals Abimelech of a fatal illness, and his wife and female slaves of barrenness. (Genesis 20:17-18)

• God strikes Miriam with leprosy, then heals her in response to Moses’ prayer. (Numbers 12:10-16)

• God instructed Moses to fashion a bronze serpent, so that if anyone who was bitten by the fiery serpents looked to it, they would live and not die. (Numbers 21:9)

• Naaman is cleansed of leprosy. (2 Kings 5:1-14)

• God heals Hezekiah of a near fatal illness, by having Isaiah prophesy to bring a cake of figs and lay it on the boil. (2 Kings 20:1-11)

Summary: Divine healing did occur in the OT, but we have only a few isolated accounts recorded for us.

2. Divine Healing in the Ministry of Jesus Christ:

• Matthew 4:23-24 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.

• Matthew 8:16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.

• Matthew 9:35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

• Matthew 17:18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. (In this case, healing could not take place until the demon was cast out)

• Luke 6:18-19 A great throng of people came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.

• Luke 7:21 In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight.

• Luke 9:11 When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing.

Summary: When Jesus ministered to the multitudes, his ministry consisted primarily of 3 things: preaching/teaching – healing – casting out demons.

3. Divine Healing in The Ministry of the 12 Disciples:

• Luke 9:1-2; 6 And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal… And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

Summary: The 12 disciples were given the very same ministry functions that their Lord had been doing: preaching, healing, and casting out demons. At this time, Jesus was seeking to replicate His own ministry in 12 other men.

4. Divine Healing in the Ministry of the 70 Disciples:

• Luke 10:9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.´

Summary: The 72 disciples were given the very same ministry functions that the 12 disciples and Jesus Christ had been doing: preaching, healing, and casting out demons. Jesus, now, is broadening out His ministry beyond the 12 to 72 others.

5. Divine Healing in the Ministry of All of Christ’s Disciples:

• Mark 16:15-20 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

Summary: The same ministry Jesus, and the 12, and the 72 disciples had been engaged in is now promised to those who believe. Was this promise fulfilled? Did ordinary believers lay their hands on the sick and see them recover? Did they cast out demons in Jesus’ name? Let’s see.

• Acts 3:1-10 Peter “heals” the lame man at the Gate Beautiful.

• Acts 5:14-16 Divine healing through Peter’s ministry was so well known that the sick were being laid on cots and mats in the street so that at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people were bringing all the sick even from adjoining cities and towns around Jerusalem, and they were all healed.

• Acts 6:8 Stephen was performing great wonders and signs among the people

• Acts 8:5-8 “Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city.”

• Acts 9:10-18 God used Ananias to lay hands on Saul, who was healed of his blindness.

• Acts 14:3 The Lord, who bore witness to the word of His grace, was granting s igns and wonders to be done by the hands of Paul and Barnabus.

• Acts 14:8-10 God uses Paul to bring healing to a man at Lystra who was crippled from birth and had never walked.

• Acts 16:16-18 Paul commands an evil spirit to come out of a slave girl

• Acts 19:11-12 God was doing extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that he had touched were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.

• Acts 28:1-6 Paul is bit by an apparently deadly snake bit, but suffers no harm (compare Mk.16:18)

• Acts 28:7-10 God uses Paul to bring healing to Publius’ father. After he is healed, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases came and were also cured.

• 1 Corinthians 12:9, 28 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit… And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.

Summary: Indeed, believers in Jesus, did exactly what Jesus promised they would do. They laid their hands on the sick in His name, and the sick recovered. They drove out demons in His name. They were bitten by serpents, and it did not harm them. Admittedly, most of the examples we have in the Book of Acts, are of the apostles Peter and Paul performing these miracles. However, the book of Acts focuses primarily on the ministries of the apostles Peter and Paul, so this is not surprising. What might be surprising is that others also perform healings and cast out demons like Stephen, Philip, Ananias, and unnamed believers in the church of Corinth.

Concluding Questions and Thoughts:

1. Could Jesus or the Apostles Heal Anyone At Any Time? In other words, could they go into a hospital, and heal everyone there? There are some passages which indicate that Jesus healed everyone who was sick at certain times (Mt.8:16; 12:15). However there are other passages which indicate that at other times He could not heal all (Mk.6:5-6; Luke 5:17). In John 5 Jesus went to the Pool of Bethesda where there was a multitude of sick people, and healed only one person. Later in the same chapter (Jn.5:19) Jesus said that he could do nothing of his own accord, but only what He saw the Father doing. On another occasion, a woman who had an issue of blood touched the fringe of Christ’s garment, and Jesus immediately knew that power had gone out of Him to heal her, even though He had not pronounced the healing (Luke 8:42-48). Jesus told her that her faith had made her well. Often faith had to be present in order for the healing to take place. Further, in 1Cor.12 the literal Greek is “gifts of healings.” This implies that the person who has this gift can only minister the healings to whom God has ordained, similar to a postman who can only deliver packages to those whose name and address is on the package. God is sovereign in bestowing healing, but apparently there are some who are uniquely gifted as “delivery men” in bringing God’s healing to afflicted individuals.

2. Does a “healing” need to take place instantaneously in order for it to be valid? Very often, when Jesus healed, it took place instantaneously (Mt.17:18). However, we do have an example where a man who was blind was healed in 2 stages (Mk.8:22-26). First Jesus spit on his eyes, and laid his hands on him and asked if he could see anything. When the man replied that he saw men walking as if they were trees, Jesus laid his hands on him again, and this time the man saw everything clearly. We would expect that the gift of healing would operate more powerfully in Jesus’ ministry than in anyone else. Yet, even in Jesus’ life, healing was sometimes hindered by the lack of faith of the recipients, and sometimes it was not instantaneous. We should not be discouraged if our prayers for healing do not result always result in instantaneous healings! Furthermore, sometimes people are sick because of God’s sovereign will, and they will not be healed until or unless it is God’s right time for it (Jn.9:1-3; Ex.4:11).

Concluding Exhortation – Pray for Healing! We have much Biblical evidence to expect God to heal in response to the laying on of hands and faith. Our problem, most of the time, is that we have such little faith and expectancy. (We pray for God to guide the hands of the physicians, instead of praying that God would heal supernaturally.) The obvious application of this study is that we should be quick to pray for one another for healing, and we should pray in faith, expecting God to heal. James tells us that the one who doubts will not receive anything from the Lord (James 1:6-7).

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