The Holy Spirit, Spiritual Gifts, and Discernment — Unit 5: Divine Healing I: Biblical Foundations and History

Key Verse

"how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." (Acts 10:38, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain the biblical basis for divine healing in the Old Testament, in the ministry of Jesus, and in the early church.

2. State the Pentecostal teaching that healing is provided for in the atonement, and explain how other Christians read Isaiah 53 and Matthew 8:17.

3. Describe the gift of "gifts of healings" and the ministry of the elders in James 5.

4. Trace the history of the divine healing movement from the early church through the Holiness movement to modern Pentecostalism.

5. Answer common objections to divine healing, including cessationism and the claim that healings are only psychological.

The Voice of This Unit

This unit is written from inside the classical Pentecostal tradition, for students who belong to it. It is conservative and Trinitarian. We believe that God heals today, and we believe this because Scripture teaches it. We also believe in the use of medicine and in honesty about suffering. Those subjects are the work of Unit 6, which should be read together with this one. Nothing taught here is a reason to refuse medical care. The history of the Holiness and early Pentecostal movements was taught in Course 1 (Unit 2), and the "Full Gospel" in Course 2 (Unit 3). We refer to them briefly and do not repeat them.

Healing in the Old Testament

The Bible begins with a God who gives life and health. After the crossing of the Red Sea, God made a promise and gave Himself a name: "For I am the Lord who heals you" (Exodus 15:26). The Hebrew name sometimes written Jehovah-Rapha means the Lord our healer. The promise was tied to obedience, but it shows God's own character.

The psalmist praises "the Lord, . . . Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases" (Psalm 103:2-3). Here forgiveness and healing stand side by side in one praise. The Old Testament also records healings by prophets: Elijah and Elisha each raised a child from death, and Elisha's word led to the cleansing of Naaman the leper (2 Kings 5). And when King Hezekiah was sick, the Lord heard his prayer and added fifteen years to his life (2 Kings 20).

The Old Testament is also honest. Job suffered although he was righteous. The psalms often cry out, "How long, O Lord?" Not every sick person was healed, and the Old Testament does not pretend that they were. We keep this in view for Unit 6.

Healing in the Ministry of Jesus

Healing fills the Gospels. Jesus healed lepers, the blind, the lame, the deaf, a woman with long bleeding, and a man who had been sick thirty-eight years. He raised the dead. Matthew 8:16 says that He healed "all who were sick." Luke tells that Jesus began His ministry in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14), and Peter summarized His work in the key verse of this unit: He was "anointed . . . with the Holy Spirit and with power," and He went about "healing all who were oppressed by the devil" (Acts 10:38).

Three points deserve attention.

Healing was a sign of the kingdom. Jesus told John's disciples to report what they saw: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them (Luke 7:22). The healings were not random acts of kindness. They showed that the rule of God had come near. Jesus said, "But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Luke 11:20).

Healing was an act of compassion. Many times we read that Jesus was moved with compassion and healed those who came.

Jesus healed by the Spirit. Jesus lived as a man full of the Holy Spirit. This matters for the church, because the same Spirit now fills His people. Course 3, Unit 1 explained this link.

Not all sickness in the Gospels is the same. Jesus never taught that every illness is the result of a person's sin. In John 9:3 He told His disciples that a man's blindness was not caused by his own sin or his parents'. We keep this in mind when we pray for the sick.

Is Healing in the Atonement?

This is the most debated question in the doctrine of healing. Pentecostal statements of faith have long taught that deliverance from sickness is provided for in the atonement of Christ, and is the privilege of believers. The main texts are these.

Isaiah 53:4-5 says of the Servant, "Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows," and "by His stripes we are healed." Matthew applies the first part of this to Jesus' healing ministry: "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 'He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses'" (Matthew 8:17). Peter also writes of Christ's wounds in 1 Peter 2:24, a verse that many read as including healing.

The common evangelical objection. Many evangelicals reply that the "healing" of Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter 2:24 is mainly spiritual healing from sin. They point to the context in 1 Peter, which speaks about sin and righteousness. They also note that Matthew 8:17 is placed at the time of Jesus' healing ministry, before the cross. And they say that if physical healing were guaranteed in the atonement in the same way as forgiveness, then no believer would ever be sick or die, which contradicts experience.

The Pentecostal answer. We reply in four steps. First, the words in Isaiah 53:4 for "griefs" and "sorrows" are ordinary Hebrew words for sickness and pain, and Matthew, an inspired writer, applies them to bodily healing. Second, sin and sickness are both results of the fall, and Christ's work answers the whole of the fall. Third, we do not say that healing is given in exactly the same way or at the same time as forgiveness. Forgiveness is received fully now. Bodily redemption is a promise whose first fruits we taste now and whose fullness waits for the resurrection (Romans 8:23). Healing in the atonement means that the door is opened by the cross and the privilege is offered to faith, not that a believer will never be sick. Fourth, many Pentecostal teachers hold this carefully. They say that healing is a provision that God grants as He wills, not a contract that we can demand. Those who go beyond this and teach that every sick believer lacks faith are going further than classical Pentecostal bodies do, and Unit 6 answers them.

Gifts of Healings and the Elders

Paul lists among the gifts of the Spirit "gifts of healings" (1 Corinthians 12:9). Both words are plural in the Greek. This is often understood to mean that the Spirit gives different healings on different occasions, and not a permanent power held by one person. A person who is used in healing does not own the gift. The Spirit gives it as He wills (1 Corinthians 12:11).

James gives a separate pattern for the ordinary church: "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven" (James 5:14-15). Notice that the sick person calls the elders. It is a quiet ministry in the church, not a stage performance. Anointing with oil is done "in the name of the Lord." The oil is a sign and carries no power of its own. Unit 6 returns to the meaning of the oil.

The Great Commission texts also bear on healing. Jesus sent out the Twelve and the seventy with authority to heal (Luke 9:2; 10:9). Mark 16:17-18 says that signs will follow those who believe, including laying hands on the sick so that they recover. Students should know that many Bible scholars question whether Mark 16:9-20 belonged to the original ending of the Gospel, because some of the oldest manuscripts do not have it. For this reason Pentecostal teachers do not build healing on that passage alone. Healing is clearly taught elsewhere, as in Acts and James.

Healing in Acts

Acts continues the story. Peter and John healed a lame man at the temple gate (Acts 3). People brought the sick into the streets that Peter's shadow might fall on them (Acts 5:15-16). Philip's ministry in Samaria included healing (Acts 8:7). God worked unusual miracles by Paul (Acts 19:11-12). Notice that healing is often joined with the preaching of the gospel and brings many to Christ.

The History of Divine Healing

The early church. Christian writers in the second century, such as Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, speak of healings and exorcisms in the church of their day. In the fifth century, Augustine in The City of God recorded healings that he knew about. Healing prayer continued in the church, alongside medicine. The historian cannot prove every report, but the sources show a church that expected God to heal.

The Reformation and after. Later, many church traditions limited miraculous healing to the first century, and B. B. Warfield's Counterfeit Miracles (1918) gave this view its fullest argument. Healing prayer never disappeared, but it was often pushed to the edge.

The nineteenth century. In the 1800s a renewed interest in healing arose in several places. Johann Christoph Blumhardt, a Lutheran pastor in Möttlingen, Germany, saw healings and deliverance in the 1840s. Dorothea Trudel in Switzerland opened a home of prayer for the sick. In America, Charles Cullis, a Boston physician, opened healing homes. Carrie Judd Montgomery wrote about her own healing, and the Baptist pastor A. J. Gordon published The Ministry of Healing in 1882. A. B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, taught that Christ is Savior, Sanctifier, Healer and Coming King. John Alexander Dowie founded a healing community at Zion, Illinois, in 1901, though his later leadership became controversial. Historians like Donald Dayton have shown that these Holiness and Keswick leaders prepared the way for Pentecostal teaching on healing. Course 1, Unit 2 told more of this story.

Early Pentecostalism. When the Pentecostal revival came, healing was already one of its main themes. The Apostolic Faith printed testimonies of healing alongside testimonies of Spirit baptism. Evangelists such as Aimee Semple McPherson carried healing ministry into large public meetings. After the Second World War a healing revival arose in which Oral Roberts and others held large campaigns. Historians note that this period brought both great blessing and some serious abuses of money and publicity.

Around the world. In Latin America, Africa and Asia, healing has been among the strongest reasons people came to Pentecostal churches. For many poor believers, medical care was far away or too costly, and prayer for the sick was a real and immediate hope. Allan Anderson's work shows how central healing is in the global movement. This is a gift of mercy, and also a heavy responsibility for pastors to practice with honesty.

Objections and Answers

Objection 1: Healing ended with the apostles. Cessationists teach that miracles authenticated the apostles and ceased when the New Testament was finished. Our answer. No text says so. James 5 was addressed to ordinary church elders, not to apostles. The gifts of healings are listed in 1 Corinthians 12 among gifts for the whole church, and Paul nowhere says they would be withdrawn. Unit 10 treats the cessationist case in full.

Objection 2: Healings are only psychological. Skeptics say that faith and expectation can relieve symptoms. Our answer. We agree that mind and body are connected and that God made them so. We do not need to claim that every reported healing is a miracle that medicine cannot explain. We hold that God is the Healer, whether He acts through prayer, through medicine, or through the body's own recovery, and that He sometimes acts suddenly and beyond what medicine can explain. Honest pastors ask for medical confirmation when a serious illness is said to be healed.

Objection 3: Reports of healing are exaggerated or false. Some are, and sad cases of fraud and false claims are on record. Our answer. Scripture warns of false signs (Matthew 24:24). The answer is to test claims carefully and tell the truth, not to give up praying for the sick.

Objection 4: If God heals today, why are so many believers not healed? This is the hardest question, and Unit 6 deals with it directly. Here we say only that God's healing is real and His ways are higher than ours.

Pastoral Application

A woman in your congregation comes to you after the service. Her husband, who is not a believer, has a serious illness, and the doctors have started treatment. She asks, "Pastor, will you pray for him to be healed?"

You answer yes, gladly. You ask her about his condition and what the doctors have said. You tell her that God can heal and that you will ask Him to, and you encourage her to continue to follow the medical advice. You offer to visit, pray with the husband if he permits, and read Psalm 103 and one of the Gospel healings. You do not promise a result that you cannot know. You trust God and keep loving the family. If the husband recovers, you thank God, whatever means He used. If he is not, you remain with the family as a pastor and a friend.

Summary

The Bible teaches that God is the healer of His people. Jesus healed as a sign of the kingdom, in the power of the Spirit, and the early church continued the ministry, as Acts and James 5 show. Pentecostals teach that healing is provided for in the atonement, and we hold this carefully, as a privilege offered by God and not as a guarantee against all sickness. The nineteenth-century healing movement and early Pentecostalism restored this ministry to the church, and today it is a major reason for Pentecostal growth in the majority world. We answer cessationist, psychological and skeptical objections from Scripture and honesty, and we never set prayer against medicine.

Further Reading

• A. J. Gordon, The Ministry of Healing (1882), a primary source.

• B. B. Warfield, Counterfeit Miracles (1918), a cessationist argument.

• Gordon D. Fee, God's Empowering Presence (1994).

• Max Turner, The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts (1996).

• Wayne Grudem, ed., Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? Four Views (1996).

• Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit (1993).

• Donald W. Dayton, Theological Roots of Pentecostalism (1987).

• Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism (2nd ed., 2014).

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