Gifts Of Healing Series

Intro

This message is for all those who are dwelling in a mortal body. We are going to talk about the gifts of healing. If you are dwelling in a mortal body, the gifts of healing matter to you. As I age, I become more and more interested in the gifts of healing. As I see precious people around me hurting, I become more and more interested in the gifts of healing.

How do we tap into the healing power of God? How do we enjoy the full benefits of the cross in that area of our lives? James 5:14 asks the question: “Is anyone among you sick?”.i I wonder if anyone here this morning is sick. What do we do about that? James gives this instruction. “Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” Healing is available to us through the atonement. Healing is always based on what Jesus did for us. “By His stripes we are healed.”ii Our subject is gifts of healing as listed by Paul in 1 Cor. 12:9.

GIFTS OF HEALING DEFINED

What does Paul mean by the phrase gifts of healing in that context? He is not talking about cures implemented through medical science. I thank God for people who dedicate their lives to serving people in the medical field. I have personally benefited from their service and so have multitudes of others. But that is not the gifts of healing Paul is talking about in 1 Cor. 12. I also praise God for designing our bodies with a certain capacity for self-repair and recovery. When I receive a cut in my skin, my system immediately goes to work repairing the breach. He has given us an immune system that can rally white corpuscles and fight off disease. There are limits to that but thank God for it. Those natural processes of recovery are not gifts of healing as Paul intends for us to understand. However, the supernatural acceleration of that healing process may be a gift of healing in operation. Sometimes the way God manifests the gifts of healing is for the Holy Spirit to supernaturally energize the body for rapid recovery.

I would define gifts of healing as, “Supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit to bring correction, cure, and recovery from disease or defects in the physical body or soul of a person.” Gifts of healing bring wholeness to the body and soul of an individual. It includes all supernatural healing by the Holy Spirit except creative miracles. Healings drive out disease and fix biological systems. Miracles create parts where they don’t exist. If a person is blind because of disease or defect in the eyes, gifts of healing can bring a cure. If a person is blind because there are no eyeballs, a creative miracle is needed to give the person sight. Therefore, almost all supernatural healing by the Holy Spiritiii of body or soul would fall under the umbrella of this gift. Sometimes it involves driving out a disease.iv Sometimes it involves restoring the proper function of mind or body. This gift of the Spirit covers a large variety of cures.

In fact, this gift of the Spirit is a cluster of many gifts. In the original language both words, gifts and healing, are plural. Most translations only translate the word, gifts, plural. But it could be translated “gifts of healings.”v Young’s Literal Translation of 1 Corinthians 12:9 reads, “and to another faith in the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healings in the same Spirit.” Why are both words plural? I’m not sure. It could be that each healing is a gift. Or it might be that different gifts are given to heal different kinds of conditions. I have observed this over the years: Those who minister a lot in gifts of healing often have significant success in certain sicknesses and less success in others. Derek Prince said his success rate was very high in praying for people with back problems.vi Smith Wigglesworth was reported to particularly effective in dealing with internal conditions like appendicitis, stomach problems, or other internal disorders.vii I knew a ministerviii who said his success with arthritis was very good. He loved to pray for people with that condition because they usually got healed. Other conditions were healed under this man’s ministry, but not nearly so consistently. That’s just an observation that many have made.

But when we talk about gifts of healing, we’re talking about a single cluster of gifts. One person likened it to a cluster of grapes. God “has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Everything we need is available. If gifts of healing are needed, then it is available to us in Jesus’ name. All the gifts of the Spirit are available to the believer. If you’re in a place where you need it, God can do it through you. It’s not just reserved for super saints.ix However, the Holy Spirit chooses when He will do it, how He will manifest it, and who He will manifest the gift through. We cannot control that. What we can do is stay connected to the Lord, listen to His voice, and do what He tells us to do. If we do that, we will see a lot of good things happen. So we are talking about the gifts of the healing.