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This is a gift that I've been thinking on for a while now, and interested to know what others might think on...

Well, I know not everyone has the same spiritual gift as the next person, since we're all different with it (despite what some people I've heard, say). The one I've wondered quite a bit on, was the gift of healing. I was thinking on some hypotheical scenarios and curious... Basically being, how would one know if they even HAVE the gift?

Taking the scenario of someone in pain, and someone comes over to pray over the wound. But, what if nothing happened? Would it mean it wasn't in God's will? Did the person not have enough faith and had a little bit of doubt on the outcome? Or was the person just not blessed with the gift?

I've always thought it was be so amazing to pray over someone and see them be healed for whatever ailment was making them suffer. But with the thoughts above, I wonder on... To pray on for someone and have nothing happen at the time or even at all, would be hard, especially if the people you pray over were unbelievers and it could've been a miracle that might have made them think.

*shrugs* Just some briefs thoughts on it^^

Tenshi no Ai wrote:Taking the scenario of someone in pain, and someone comes over to pray over the wound. But, what if nothing happened? Would it mean it wasn't in God's will?

Roughly, yes, it means it was not God's will for the person to be healed at that particular time.

Did the person not have enough faith and had a little bit of doubt on the outcome?

Nonsense.

Or was the person just not blessed with the gift?

Why are we assuming that the gift of healing manifests itself solely through positively answered prayers? Isn't it possible that Christians who have the gift of healing...become doctors or nurses or something?

RedMage wrote:Why are we assuming that the gift of healing manifests itself solely through positively answered prayers? Isn't it possible that Christians who have the gift of healing...become doctors or nurses or something?

That's another way of looking at it too, I guess. There IS also those people in some places that do what is known as "psychic surgery" which has been shown to be quite a hoax, sadly, saying it was "a gift from God" that they can do :/

With the faith thing though, it's mostly from a story I remember back from in my youth group days. A friend of mine had a sore leg and my youth leader prayed over her, and something about her doubting had the pain come back a little. Can't remember it too well, but I guess in a sense if that was the case it almost sounds... placeboish in a sense, if being healed by His will is moreso with the fact that you sit in doubt and don't have enough faith whatsoever to happen or... something... ...I'm just confusing myself now^^ My thoughts are getting just a little tangled up^^

Personally, I don't think of healing so much as a gift. Why? Because if healing is solely a gift, then you can only be healed when someone with the gift of healing prays for you. But does that mean that He won't answer your prayer if you don't have the gift? I don't think that's the case. God heals in His time and His way. He may choose certain people a vessels, but they aren't the ones who are doing the healing; God is. I don't think you need to worry about whether you have the gift. If God wants to use you in a situation, He will.

Tenshi no Ai wrote:With the faith thing though, it's mostly from a story I remember back from in my youth group days. A friend of mine had a sore leg and my youth leader prayed over her, and something about her doubting had the pain come back a little. Can't remember it too well, but I guess in a sense if that was the case it almost sounds... placeboish in a sense, if being healed by His will is moreso with the fact that you sit in doubt and don't have enough faith whatsoever to happen or... something... ...I'm just confusing myself now^^ My thoughts are getting just a little tangled up^^

I think a lot of people are very quick to assume that recurrence of pain or illness automatically comes from doubt. I think that's just an excuse because people don't want to believe that God allowed it to come back. A few years ago I was healed of depression, but since then I have dealt with depression again. I don't think it was because God took away the healing; I think it was because the factors that caused the depression were once again present. Jesus said we can move mountains with faith the size of a mustard seed.

meboeck wrote:. I don't think you need to worry about whether you have the gift.

Oh I wasn't particularily worried about myself, I was moreso curious on having a different perspective of the issue.

meboeck wrote:I think a lot of people are very quick to assume that recurrence of pain or illness automatically comes from doubt. I think that's just an excuse because people don't want to believe that God allowed it to come back.

Yeah that's true. Some things can be healed 100% and never return, but for others, ailments can return. I just thought it was interesting with the whole "if you doubt you won't be healed!" I can almost see "doubting" as a sense of shock and surprise too, as in a "no way! I can't believe it!" but I guess in that sense, it wouldn't really even be doubt.

It's not a gravedig if you have something new that's relevant to post, right?

My Theology class covered spiritual gifts this week and our textbook has a nice discussion of the gift of healing. After reading it, I must say that my views have been modified a good deal!

Previously I was willing to consider the gift of healing as merely a natural talent for medicine or health care - mainly because I freely admit I'm cautious almost to the point of suspicion of the more "miraculous" gifts in the current era because I think to a large extent they've been co-opted, exploited, and counterfeited by hucksters and false teachers or at least used in an un-Biblical way.

However, there's a difference between a natural talent and a true spiritual gift, and I have to say that after consideration, I'd say skill in medicine is more in the former category.

Our theology textbook discusses various methods of healing in the New Testament, including laying on of hands and anointing with oil, but for the most part, it focused on prayer for healing.

This was especially meaningful to me because, for one thing, the best guess I have about my own spiritual gift so far is intercession, which isn't on any of Paul's lists (though I don't think they were meant to be exhaustive) and therefore is considered by some Christians to not be a spiritual gift at all (something that's brought me a lot of emotional hurt recently), and also because the question of how to properly pray for the ill is a question that's been on my mind for several months now.

Besides prayer for physical healing, the section also covered prayer for the healing of spiritual and emotional wounds, and prayer in spiritual warfare, as setting people free from demonic attack is also sometimes referred to as "healing" in Scripture.

The book says: "Perhaps the gifts of being able to pray effectively in different kinds of situations and for different kinds of people are what Paul referred to when he used the plural expression, 'gifts of healings.'"

Now that just blew me away! It was a huge encouragement to me in my wrestlings with whether my gift of intercession, assuming I really have it, is a "valid" spiritual gift.

Now, I'm not prepared to say I have the gift of healing, especially when I'm still waiting for results on most of the prayers for healing that I've been praying, and because (frustratingly at times) Christians define each of the gifts so many different ways that when I say "gift of healing" to a person they may construe it in a totally different way than I mean it.

Still, after reading this material I'm far more informed and "comfortable" with the meaning and nature of the gift of healing in the present church age than I was before, as well as greatly encouraged in my own personal education about my spiritual gifts.

Coming back more closely to Tenshi's original questions, I would now say that I agree that prayer is the primary means through which the gift of healing is expressed, but we also have to remember that a lot of what the Bible says is about persevering in prayer. I would never expect even someone with a strong gift of healing to pray over an injury and have the injury instantly be healed. I think the gift of healing through prayer is the ability to pray effectively for healing with fervency, sincerity, and faith and perseverance for as long as it takes to get an answer.

Just got around to reading this, and it's interesting^^ Of course, the more to prayer, the better it is^^ So a combination of those prayer for someone ill is all the more better... Not saying that one person on their own can't do it, but you know...