As we arrive at the gift of healing so do our baggage and misconceptions about the gift of healing. We have to remember the goal of our study is not to be reactive to how poorly the spiritual gifts have been used in this world. Our goal is to see what Scripture says and see if God has more for us through the Holy Spirit and his gifts.

We see right away that Paul does not call it the gift of healing, but the gifts of healing. It seems that Paul did not envision that a person would be endowed with one healing gift operative at all times for all diseases. His language suggests either many different gifts of healing, each appropriate to and effective for its related illness, or each occurrence of healing constituting a distinct gift in its own right. One obstacle to the understanding of healing is the erroneous assumption that if anyone could ever heal, he could always heal. We see illnesses linger after years of prayer in Scripture and in this world. So we have to come to the conclusion that it is better to view this gift as subject to the will of God. We don’t heal people God does! The gift of healing is occasional and subject to the sovereign purposes of God. It is not up to our will that people are healed, but it is up to God’s. The truth is God is merciful and compassionate and cares about our physical bodies, which is why sometimes he heals.

Our motto for healing is stolen from Alpha and it goes like this: “We used to never pray for healing and no one was healed. Now we pray for healing all the time and sometimes God heals.” God delights when we take our hands out of our pockets, pray for healing, and expectantly wait for a move of the Spirit. God wants us to regularly pray for the sick. God has also gifted us with a beautiful medical system in this country. So we see our doctors, we get the cancer meds and we allow God to heal in that fashion as well. We keep praying throughout it all though! Here are a couple of observations that hopefully will encourage us to fix our faith on God and his power and pray regularly for the sick. 

1. Healing and health are portrayed in Scripture as the blessing of God.
2. All sickness is suffering, not all suffering is sickness. 
3. Sickness and disease in and of themselves do not glorify God. Our unwavering faith, loyalty, and love for God in spite of sickness and disease do glorify God.
4. We must leave room for mystery in God’s ways. There will always be things that cannot be explained. 
5. God’s heart is for healing. He’s compassionate and gracious to his children. 
6. We must be willing to bear the stigma of failure as we pray. We have succeeded when we have obeyed the Scriptures to pray for the sick. Whether or not they are healed rests with God. 
7. We pray expectantly, not presumptuously. Praying presumptuously is when the person claims to heal without a revelatory warrant, or on the unbiblical assumption that God always wills to heal then and there. 

So we pray for healing. We pray expectantly when we pray a humble petition to a merciful God for something that we don’t deserve, but that God delights to give.