I woke up this morning around 3 am with pain from head to toe. Sadly, this is not an odd occurrence for me as I deal with many forms of pain on a daily basis. I chose to examine the spiritual gift of healing this month because I often question God about my pain and ask for healing.
When thinking about the spiritual gift of healing, my mind immediately jumps in several directions, including the late-night television pastors who promise to heal in exchange for a monetary gift or the old-time tent revivals where someone goes forward in a wheelchair and walks away on their own accord. I also think about those, like me, who deal with pain on an ongoing basis. Why are we not healed?
Diving into Scripture presents an interesting view of spiritual gifts. I Corinthians 12:8-9 notes: “To one there is given through the Spirit as a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gift of healing by that one Spirit” (NIV). This passage continues by listing various gifts that the Spirit can bestow upon believers. The same gifts are not given to each person. But, the spiritual gift of healing is given to some believers.
Now, my question was, what might this spiritual gift look like? My mind still reels with images of those who claim to have the gift of healing today, but is this what the Bible means? So, let’s go back to the Scriptures and look at the ultimate example for all Christians: Jesus’s examples of healing. The New Testament includes a listing of nineteen healings performed by Jesus. At the crux of each healing was drawing humanity to God. The man born blind in John 9 was healed to bring glory to God. In John 5:14, Jesus heals a paralytic who is told to “go and sin no more.” Numerous other passages point to Jesus’s healing abilities.
After studying a topic, I try to apply it to my life. So, going back to the visualizations of the modern “spiritual healers,” I find myself asking: does this healing bring glory to God or man? If the healing only points to man, I believe the gift is not of the Spirit. If it truly points others to God, I think that healing is a gift of the Spirit. Personally, I try to let my daily struggles with pain draw me closer to God, and I use my pain to recognize and come alongside those around me with pain so I can show them the hope that I have found in Christ.
-Dr. Elissa Rogers (a contributing writer and member of the COBI community)