DOES GOD HEAL NOWADAYS? Yes. God’s power never changes. The confusion arises when we fail to make the following distinctions:- 1. God’s power v/s God’s plans or timetable 2. Healing as a widespread phenomenon v/s an occasional healing in response to prayer. God’s power never changes but His timetable changes. It would be foolish for someone to stand at the shores of the Red Sea and expect it to split because God is always the same. Yes, God He split the Red Sea long back but that was as part of a plan (Israel’s liberation) that God is not carrying out today. So it wrong to expect God to split the Red Sea every time we visit it. In the first century we see widespread healing (see Acts 5:15-16, 19:11-12). No reference is made to the faith of the patients. This was the kind of healing that would easily put hospitals out of business. However, Paul, who was one of the healers involved, left Trophimus sick (2 Timothy 4:20) a few decades later. This seemingly strange change can be understood by finding out why God enabled widespread healing in the first place. In Mark 16:17-18, the Lord Jesus promises dramatic healing (plus some other signs) and in Mark 16:20, we read that these things were fulfilled; God confirmed the word with these signs. A similar testimony appears in Acts 4:33. We therefore conclude that widespread miraculous healing was one of the signs that God gave in the first century to authenticate the church and the rest of New Testament revelation (which was, at that time, a “new” thing). Authentication is necessary only once, and so after those early days, God does not grant healing at the same scale. Today, however, we are free to pray to God when we are sick, and if it suits God’s purposes He will heal us. He is more than able to. There are some people today who say that the same scale of healing (the “gift of healing”) that was operational in the early churches is operational today. But such people are unwilling to provide a handkerchief or shadow that can be used to empty hospitals. This proves them wrong. To summarize: God heals today occasionally in answer to prayer, but not indiscriminately like in the early days, because the purpose of the latter has already been served. PS: The healing in Isaiah 53:5 is a spiritual healing from sin. This is indicated by the context and also verified by the common sickness and death among believers in Christ.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 02:30:14 +0000
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