Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God and read in it about miracles God performed such as healing people and raising Jesus (who worked many miracles!) from the dead. But can – and should – we expect to see such miraculous healings happen today?
Why Healing Miracles Can Happen
God created the world and thus established the “rules of nature” and the various processes of this world. Therefore, it is wise to remember that even the ordinary workings of this world are from the hand of God. God did not just get things started, though, as the Bible also tells us He continues to interact with His world; we believe in an all-powerful God who is not distant from the world, but still involved in it. Therefore, there is good reason for seeing God as not only having the power to work miracles but believing He does; He works through the “rules” He set up but also is free to work outside of them.
A key element of God’s intervening work in this world is His work of redemption. The reason there is illness and suffering in this world is because of sin. It is important that we don’t move from that statement to a personal application that says all of the suffering we experience is because of our sin. There are examples of people in the Bible who suffered illness or ailments as a direct result of their sin (e.g., 2 Kings 15:5; 1 Corinthians 11:30). However, there are other times it is clear that suffering of illness does not come as the consequences of a particular person’s sin (Job 1-2; John 9:3). But the ultimate cause of all illness is sin, as Adam and Eve’s transgression after being tempted by the devil is the root cause of disease and death in this world. These things may happen as the natural outflow of life in this broken world, or could come about due to the interaction of the devil himself (see Luke 13:16).
However, Jesus came to destroy the work of the devil (1 John 3:8) which involves the defeat of death and sin. Thus, Jesus performed miracles of healing not just to be nice to people, but as a picture that God’s kingdom was coming in him and that he was undoing the effects of sin and defeating the forces of evil. His miracles show that the kingdom of God has come in his ministry (Mark 1:14-15).
Therefore, Christians believe in miracles not only because all things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26; Luke 1:37), but because Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God to earth – and we live after the inauguration of his kingdom. Thus, it seems proper to see Him as potentially bringing healing into our lives now and asking Him to do that in prayer.
In fact, James 5:14 encourages people to have the elders pray for them when they are sick. I don’t think this implies that only the elders of the church can do so – the Bible tells us to pray about everything (Philippians 4:5) – but they do not need to seek out people who claim to have miraculous giftings of healing but simply go to those who exercise care over us. The use of oil in these prayers is not because the oil had a magical element but rather, it symbolizes a setting apart of this person for God to the care of God.
Why Healing Miracles Don’t Always Happen
Jesus’s work in bringing the kingdom points to why we should ask for healing miracles today, but we need to also remember that the full arrival of the kingdom awaits in Christ’s return, at which point there will be no death or disease. In the meantime, diseases will remain, so we can’t presume that every illness and disease will be healed. In fact, we have to remember that not every ill person at the time of Jesus or the apostles was healed; God chose for some, but not all, to be healed and that seems to be the case today as well. Why some are healed and others are not is a mystery similar to the mystery of election, as God chooses to save some, but not all. However, there are various passages in the Bible that may show why healing doesn’t come in some places.
For example, James 4:2 states that we have not because we ask not, so a reason a healing might not happen is that we have not asked for it. If you don’t ask for a miracle, God is probably not going to act on it! Jesus teaches us to pray persistently (Luke 18:1-8), so just because we have prayed once and the prayer wasn’t answered, it does not mean that it never will and that you should stop praying.
At the same time, we should recognize that asking for something does not guarantee that God will do it. James 4:3 reminds us of that and points to another important reason for lack of healing that I think is often overlooked: “You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” These words indicate that a prayer request might not be granted because it is tied to the motivation behind it. At times when we ask for healing, it may be less about God’s kingdom being manifest to the world and more about a person’s comfort (ours or others).
Another factor could be a lack of faith, but I think what is meant by this could often be misunderstood. In the parallel accounts of Matthew 13:58 and Mark 6:5-6, Jesus says that he did not perform miracles in his hometown because of the people’s unbelief. This statement is not saying their faith was not strong enough because they had doubts but that they did not believe Jesus was the Messiah. Elsewhere, we see someone with weak faith and some doubts receive the miracle he requested (Mark 9:23-27). Thus, it does not seem that “lack of faith” is having some doubts or a weak faith, but a lack of true trust in God. James 1:6-8 speaks about not being double-minded and asking without doubting, but we read later in James, that being double-minded is seeking to both trust God and the world (James 4:4-10), so the idea of a “lack of faith” is really about trusting Him alone. That being said, I don’t think that seeking medical means for healing constitutes such lack of faith, as we believe that these means come from the way that God has designed the world and the human body to work; we can pray to God for healing through medical means that comes through His hand or from direct intervention.
A lack of faith may be a reason a healing does not happen, but we should not think that having faith guarantees it will happen either. We don’t know if the “thorn in the flesh” the Apostle Paul labeled as a “messenger from Satan” in his discussion in 2 Corinthians 12 was a physical ailment, but it seems likely, and God does not heal Paul. This is certainly not due to a lack of faith in Paul, nor a lack of asking or doing so with persistence. God offered Paul something of an explanation, as it helped Paul to avoid becoming conceited and showed Him how God’s grace is sufficient for him.
We might not receive as concrete of an explanation when we do not see such a healing, but it shows that there are many reasons that God does not bring about a healing that is asked for. I think it also reminds us that we don’t ultimately need Him to explain why He might choose not to – His grace should ultimately be enough for us. In fact, many people experienced, witnessed, or heard about Jesus’s miracles, yet it still did not lead them to believe in Jesus. Therefore, the granting of a miraculous healing may not ultimately be what is best for us, as it is only through faith that we will experience the ultimate healing of our bodies at the resurrection of the body that happens at Christ’s return.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask God to Bring Healing, But Don’t Be Alarmed if He Doesn’t Do It….Here and Now
While longing for (and not being afraid of asking) for healing, we should trust and glorify God “in sickness and in health” by looking to His power and the promise found in Jesus and his already, but not yet fully here, kingdom. We know the day will come when all sickness will be gone and we pray for that aspect of the kingdom to come now as we trust in God in whatever lot we might be in as we wait.
So let us pray and look for such healings. When healing occurs, we should rejoice and share it with others to encourage them as well. But we should also recognize that such healings are temporary, as we are still destined to die on this earth; we will be freed from disease and ailments when Christ returns. So whether the request is granted or not, let us remember God’s grace and power in Christ and the ultimate healing that we will receive at Christ’s return.
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Unless otherwise noted, all Bible translations are from the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers.
