Opponents of divine healing will present several objections to the practice. In this page I’m going to address four of the most common arguments and my responses.
1. If God gives these ministers the gift of healing why don’t they just go into the hospitals and heal everybody there?” Some people are under the mistaken assumption that God gives people a gift of healing. Others who don’t believe in divine healing will respond to that misconception by asking the question above. Paul tells us in I Corinthians:
“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.” (I Cor. 12:7-11)
First of all, nobody has the gift of healing. The Holy Spirit has the gifts (plural) of healings (along with the other gifts) and He disburses them as He wills to different people. Some have more manifestations than others, depending on their calling, their anointing, their sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, and other considerations. But nobody can just activate the gift of healing whenever they choose like they can with tongues for personal devotion.
Secondly, even Jesus didn’t just arbitrarily go about healing every sick person He encountered. He never emptied out any hospital either, that we have record of. He was led by the Spirit, and was in many cases limited by the faith (or lack of faith) of others as we will see later.
2. When Jesus and the apostles healed, it was instantaneous and permanent. Healing evangelists today say that it can occur gradually and the recipient of healing can lose their healing. This proves that faith healing isn’t consistent with the Bible. Both of these points are simply not true. The first point is disproven by Luke 17:11-16.
Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
In this passage we see that the lepers were healed of their leprosy as they went to show themselves to the priests. When the one who gave thanks saw that he was healed he returned, which means that he had already traveled some distance before realizing that he was healed. That means it wasn’t instantaneous.
In the eighth chapter of Mark we read of a healing that wasn’t exactly instantaneous either.
Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.” Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. (Mark 8:22-25)
Here Jesus healed a blind man, but the healing wasn’t complete at first. He had to put His hands on the man a second time. If Jesus didn’t always heal thoroughly and instantaneously why should we expect different today?
Regarding the issue of losing one’s healing, Jesus indicated that this is possible. In John 5:14 Jesus told the man who He healed “… See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you …” In Matthew 12:43-45 Jesus tells us that unclean spirits seek to return to their former homes. We can see from these verses that healing and deliverance are not necessarily permanent, even when they come from Jesus Himself. The believer still has the responsibility to stay full of God’s Word and Spirit, and live in faith and holiness.
3. Paul had a thorn in the flesh which most Bible scholars believe to have been an eye disease. Doesn’t that prove that God doesn’t choose to heal everybody? Yes, Paul had a thorn in the flesh, but he never described it as a sickness. Here’s what he said.
“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (II Cor. 12:7-10)
Paul describes this thorn in the flesh as a messenger of Satan. It was a demonic entity that stirred up trouble and resistance everywhere he went, making his life miserable. Clearly it would be difficult for him to become full of pride from the revelations he received when he encountered such continual hostility.
But what about his eyes? In Galatians 4:13-15 Paul says that he preached there because of an infirmity of the flesh, and that they would have plucked out their own eyes for him. In Galatians 6:11 he mentions his handwriting with large letters. Does this prove the eye disease theory? Not at all!
Remember that at one point Paul was completely blind, and God healed his blindness through Ananias. You may also recall that after the healing of the lame man in Lystra Paul was taken outside of the city and stoned, being left for dead. After God raised him up he went to Derbe and preached there. Lystra and Derbe were cities in Galatia. It could very well be that Paul’s infirmity was the result of the stoning that he suffered. When a person is stoned the target is the head. If you have ever seen a person who has received a traumatic injury to the head around the eyes, it can be repulsive.
I can’t prove that Paul didn’t have an eye disease of course, no more than opponents of healing ministries can prove that he did. But if the condition he was describing was an injury instead of a disease it would be perfectly consistent with what the rest of his writings reveal concerning the messenger of Satan, the fact that he was once blind, the persecution at Lystra …. etc.
4. Jesus healed all the sick, but in healing meetings today many people leave without their healing. Doesn’t that prove that modern healing isn’t consistent with the Bible? No, because the premise that Jesus healed everybody is wrong. When Jesus went to His hometown of Nazareth he was limited by their unbelief.
“Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief.” (Mark 6:4,5)
If Jesus could be limited by the unbelief of the crowd, certainly ministers today can be limited.