A gift of the Spirit

The Gift of Gifts of Healing

The nine gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 · 1 Corinthians 12:9

The gifts of healing are Spirit given moments in which God heals the sick through the prayers and hands of His people, as a sign of His compassion and of the kingdom that is coming. Paul names them in the plural, gifts of healing, and like every gift they are given by the Spirit for the good of the body and the glory of Christ.

To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;1 Corinthians 12:9 (KJV)

What the gift is

Paul writes not of a gift of healing but of gifts of healing, in the plural, as though each occasion is its own gift freshly given, rather than a power a person owns and controls. The healings run through the whole Bible as tokens of God's mercy and previews of the world made whole, where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying. Sickness is one of the marks of a broken world; healing is a sign of the kingdom pressing in.

The gift is never presented in Scripture as a power to be wielded at will or a proof of special holiness. It is God's mercy, given as He chooses, for His purposes. Even the apostles did not heal everyone; Paul left Trophimus sick at Miletum and told Timothy to take a little wine for his frequent infirmities. Healing is a grace, not a formula, and it always points beyond the healed body to the Healer.

How it appears in the New Testament

Jesus healed constantly, moved with compassion for the sick, the blind, the leprous, and the lame, and He sent out His disciples to heal as well. In the book of Acts the apostles healed in His name: Peter and John at the temple gate, Paul on Malta, the gospel spreading with signs of mercy following it. James tells the church that anyone sick should call for the elders to pray and anoint with oil, and that the prayer of faith shall save the sick, placing the ministry of healing in the ordinary life of the congregation, not only in the hands of apostles.

In every case the healing serves the gospel, confirming the word, revealing the compassion of God, and turning hearts to Christ. It is never an end in itself and never a spectacle for its own sake.

How it builds up the body of Christ

When God heals through the prayers of His people, the whole church is strengthened: the sick are comforted, faith is encouraged, and God is glorified. Even the ministry of praying for the sick, whether or not healing comes, binds the body together in love, as members bear one another's burdens and carry each other to the Lord.

This gift, like all the others, is for the common good, not for the fame of a healer. Where it is used to build a platform, or to promise what God has not promised, or to shame the sick for a supposed lack of faith, it has been twisted out of its purpose. Rightly used, it is pure mercy, and it makes the compassion of Christ visible in His body.

How to recognize and use it

The clearest counsel Scripture gives is the plainest: when someone is sick, pray. Call the elders, anoint with oil, ask in faith, and leave the outcome to God, who is good whether He heals now, heals later, or carries us home to the healing that never fails. Care for the sick with your hands as well as your prayers, for the church has always served Christ by tending the ill.

Hold this gift with great humility and great honesty. Never manipulate the desperate, never promise in God's name what He has not said, and never lay the weight of a person's sickness on their own faith. Let every prayer for healing point to the crucified and risen Christ, by whose stripes we are healed, and to the day when He wipes away every tear.

Where Christians differ, held honestly. Because healing is one of the more visibly miraculous gifts, it is one of the ones Christians most discuss. Here sincere, Bible loving Christians genuinely differ, and it is worth saying so plainly. Cessationists hold that the more visibly miraculous gifts were tied to the foundational age of the apostles and to confirming the gospel before the New Testament was complete, and that they have therefore ceased, or greatly quieted, now that we have the finished Scripture. Continuationists hold that the Spirit never withdrew any gift, that the same God still gives as He wills, and that we should earnestly desire the gifts while testing everything by the Word. Godly, careful believers stand on both sides. The Living Bread takes no side in this. What every faithful reading agrees on is the purpose: the gifts are given by one Spirit to build up the church, never to exalt the person who carries them, never to rival or add to God's revealed Word, and never to be pursued apart from love.

How this gift points to Christ

Every healing is a signpost to the Healer, and beyond every cure to the cross, for by His stripes we are healed. Jesus healed the sick as a sign that the kingdom had come near in Him, and the deepest sickness He came to heal is sin, which He bore in His own body on the tree. So this gift points past the mended body to the Savior of the soul, and past every healing in this life to the final healing of resurrection, when the Lord shall wipe away all tears, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying. It magnifies not a healer but the great Physician who alone makes whole.

The more excellent way

Whatever place the gift of Gifts of Healing holds, Paul sets one thing above every gift. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, he says, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal; and though I have all knowledge, and all faith, and have not charity, I am nothing. The gifts will one day pass away, but now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; and the greatest of these is charity.

So this gift, like all the rest, is given by one Spirit for the common good, to build up the one body of Christ, and it is nothing at all apart from love. The gifts are not for our standing but for our serving, and they all belong to Him whose body the church is. Use whatever you have been given to love one another, and to point every eye to Jesus, from whom every good gift comes and to whom every gift returns its praise.

The Giver calls you

Every gift of the Spirit comes from the risen Christ and points back to Him. The same Lord who pours out gifts on His church calls you by name to know Him, to be filled with His Spirit, and to take your place in His body. Read the Word, pray, and gather with the family of God on The Living Bread. Free, with no ads, for all people.

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Questions people ask

Does God still heal today?

Christians agree that God can heal, and many pray for the sick as James 5 directs. They differ on whether a distinct gift of healing continues as in the apostolic age. Both sides affirm that healing is God's mercy, given as He wills, and always points to Christ.

Why are some people not healed?

Scripture never treats healing as automatic or as a reward for enough faith. Even Paul left a companion sick and bore his own thorn in the flesh. God is good and wise whether He heals now, later, or through the final healing of resurrection. Lack of healing is never proof of lack of faith.

Should Christians see doctors?

Yes. Luke, a beloved companion of Paul, was a physician, and Paul urged Timothy to care for his health. Prayer and medicine are not rivals; both are gifts of the God who heals, and thanking Him for either is right.