Gifted (Part Eight) Series

GIFTED (part eight)

1st Cor. 12:7-11, "Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines."

1) Healing.

The ability to serve as an instrument to bring about the curing of illnesses and restore health. They are the vessel through whom God chooses to use to heal. God moves him at specific times when he wants them to perform a miracle of healing.

This ability can often be seen with someone like a missionary for the same purpose as was needed in the time of Jesus and the Apostles when they traveled to new places to spread the gospel to confirm the power and supremacy of God over any other god or belief system already established.

The gifts of miracles and healing may not be as prominent in today's church like they needed to be in the first century establishment of the new church, but they do still exist and shouldn't be deemed as non-existent because of all the fake healers and so-called miracle workers.

I'm not here to legitimize or de-legitimize any of them but I think one important thing to note is you have those who will say if you're not healed it means you don't have enough faith. That could be true if a person doesn't believe God can heal. But I can believe God can heal me but I don't know if he will heal me. That's not a lack of faith that's leaving room for his will.

There may be various reasons why a person isn't healed from their affliction. Sometimes the healing doesn't come because there's a certain sin getting in the way of the it. But don't believe the misconception that my suffering is automatically because of sin.

The disciples made that mistake with the blind man; assuming his condition was because of sin. Jesus corrected their thinking and said that wasn't the case. Job's suffering wasn't because of sin, like his friends thought.

But you not being healed doesn't mean God has rejected you; It could be that it just isn't God's will for whatever reason. It could be a test to see if you will remain true to the Lord despite not being healed.

The following is from a sermon by K. Edward Skidmore, "I’ve know people who questioned God’s love for them because God didn’t heal them. I’ve known others who questioned their own faith...they felt like if they’d just had more faith God would have healed them. In fact, I’ve known people who were told by a faith-healer that the reason they were sick was because they didn’t have "enough faith."

A few weeks ago, I saw a TV special about faith healers. In that show, Lisa Ling went to the meeting of a renowned faith healer where she interviewed a man named Steve. When he was 18, Steve was in a car crash that left him with a brain injury and a speech impediment. Years after that, he fell off a roof and was paralyzed from the waist down.

Doctors said Steve would never walk again--but Steve said God had told him this was his time to be healed. He was completely convinced that he would leave that meeting walking and pushing his wheelchair. His faith was absolute; he didn’t express a single doubt that God was about to heal him.

On the last day of the meeting, Steve’s turn came. He went forward and sat in a row of people where the faith-healer touched his forehead and said "Bam!" Then a group of people prayed over him, reached under his arms, and lifted him up--but then after a couple of minutes, they set him back in his wheelchair. His condition was unchanged.

After this, Lisa Ling became very concerned for Steve. She knew he was completely convinced that he would be healed and she wondered what would happen to his faith. When she found Steve after the meeting, though, she was amazed. He was disappointed--but his faith was unshaken. In his halting voice, Steve told her, "It wasn’t my time to be healed--but one day I will walk and run--when I get to Heaven, God will give me a new body." Then Steve laid his hand on Lisa and prayed for her.