THE HEALING GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT
Rev. John H. Hampsch, C.M.F.
I recently came across a book with the fascinating title: 150 Ways to Serve Potatoes. It had never occurred to me that potatoes could assume such a wide variety of forms—french fried, mashed, baked, boiled, scalloped, served as chips, soup or potato pancakes, etc. Yet common to all of these recipes was one basic ingredient—potatoes.
Like potato recipes, God’s gifts—including the Holy Spirit’s special “power” gifts called charisms—come in an amazing variety of forms. The New Testament provides scattered lists totaling about 25 of these charisms, and some of these gifts themselves—such as healing—come in multiple forms. And yet—as in the potato recipe collection—there is one basic “ingredient” in all: “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit” (1 Cor.12: 11).
Included in the list of the nine so-called “classical” gifts (1 Cor.12: 8-10) is the charism of healing. But, curiously, that power to heal, mentioned three times in that chapter, is expressed in the original Greek as a double plural: “gifts of healings” (charismata iamaton). This unexpected double plural form has led some charismatic scholars to explore the multiple varieties of healing. And reviewing these various forms of healing can lead to a deeper understanding of how the charismatic power of healing itself operates. Some of the varieties of healing are as follows:
1) First, the double plural form may refer to different kinds of disorders as targets of healing power, such as back problems, headaches, depression, addictions, etc. Jesus went about “healing every disease and sickness” (Matt. 4:23)—a multiple and limitless objective also available to us believers (John 14:12).
2) Second, the plurality may refer to the various means that God may use to heal, such as the anointing with oil, laying on of hands, intercessory prayer, prayer of healing at a distance, or Paul’s use of aprons and handkerchiefs (Acts 19:12), etc. Jesus himself used a wide variety of means in healing: touch, spittle, mud, washing, fingers in the ears of the deaf, etc.
3) Third, the plural form may also imply the various areas of healing: physical (bodily), emotional (psychological), spiritual (sin erasure) and deliverance (from demonic influence).
4) Fourth, the plural form may refer to various modalities of healing: instantaneous, gradual, phase-in, delayed and recurrent healing. In any given case God’s sovereign will determines which modality is engaged. (The most common modality is gradual healing, and the least common is instantaneous healing.)
5) Fifth, the plural form may also indicate that various healers may have various “specialties ” in healing. Thus, Charles and Frances Hunter have an extremely high rate of healing for obesity and also for nicotinism (reportedly a 95% success rate). Francis McNutt has a special ability to heal joint problems, such as various types of arthritis. Jerry Barnard has a specialty in healing back problems, etc., etc.
6) Sixth, the double plural form may implicitly refer to the distinction between a) a gift of healing (any prayer of petition or intercession can instrument God’s healing, of course), and b) a ministry of healing, characterized by being time-tested, very consistent, often dramatic and/or sudden, long-lasting, and recognized or discerned by communitarian discernment (which, as St. Ignatius says, is the most reliable form of discernment).
THE CHRIST-FOCUS FACTOR IN HEALING
Following through with the potato recipe analogy, keep in mind the essential “ingredient” that Paul assigns to all the gifts, including the healing powers we are spotlighting in this review. This common factor, namely, the Holy Spirit’s empowerment, is that which authenticates each charism. From this it follows that it is most appropriate, if not necessary, that both healer and healed co-function with the premiere role of the Holy Spirit—which is to promote the glory of Jesus, who by his divine works reflects the divine beneficence of the Father. This glorification of Jesus as the objective of all charisms involves a kind of “trinitarian synergism” described by Jesus himself in the rather enigmatic pericope of John 16: 14-15. The Living Bible gives a very understandable (but paraphrased) translation: “The Spirit will…bring me great honor by showing you my glory. All the Father’s glory is mine. This is what I mean when I say that he will show you my glory.
This “showing” or revealing of Jesus’ Father-reflected glory, was first occasioned by a miracle-working charism, namely, the water-to-wine miracle at Cana, where Jesus first “revealed his glory” (John 2:11)—the same glory that John attests to having witnessed: “We have seen his glory, the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father” (1:14). And that Father-reflected glory was patent in Jesus’ own charisms: “The Father living in me…is doing his work…Believe on the evidence of the works themselves” (14:11).
Yet, the Holy Spirit’s glorification of Jesus is designed to be revealed not only to us, but also through us. We know this because John states that “from the fullness of his grace we have all received” (John 1: 16). And, remarkably, Jesus promises us that, in his name (that is, in glorifying him), we ourselves will be able to do the same and “even greater works” (14: 12).
Considering that two-thirds of Jesus’ recorded “works” were miraculous healings, it would seem that we are thus called to perform “the same and even greater” healings. But that would be true only for those who “have faith” in him; yet many don’t “have faith” even in that statement of his that we could “out-perform” him! They would like to delete that statement from their bibles.
The fact that Paul tells us to “earnestly desire spiritual gifts” (1 Cor.14: 1), implies that God wants us to employ those gifts, including the “gifts of healings,” such as the plural healing gifts conferred on his apostles—healing the sick and exorcising the demon-afflicted (see Mark 6:13). And for us believers he listed the same multiple healing gifts among the “signs that will accompany those who believe” (Mark 16:17-18).
But obviously he wants us to observe any scripturally stated prerequisite for the exercise of those gifts of healing (as we should with all the charisms), since “everything should be done in an orderly and fitting way” (1 Cor.14: 39). And the one prerequisite that is to pervade all forms of the healing ministry is the Holy Spirit’s function of glorifying Jesus. For instance, in exorcistic healing, this Spirit-spawned glorying of Jesus in his divine lordship is the test of discernment: “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor.12: 3).
WHEN HEALING GIFTS DON’T GIVE HEALINGS
There are many obstacles to healing, as I wrote in my booklet, When God Says No—25 Reasons Why Some People are Not Healed. One of the most common but least recognized forms of failure in healing is on the part of the client and/or the healer; and it is one of the most difficult obstacles to correct. It has to do with the focus of one’s faith while praying for healing—and that focus is directly related to the aforementioned prerequisite of seeking the glorification of the Divine Healer.
Most suffering persons are so overwhelmed with their physical or mental anguish that they have difficulty in viewing their cross in the perspective of divine providence and therefore in keeping their desire for a healing subservient to the desire for God’s glory in their hoped-for healing. They may pray more earnestly for a healing than for a healing encounter with Jesus the compassionate Healer, who is praised for the expected healing.
There is a subtle but very significant difference between having faith that one will be healed, and having faith in Jesus as the Healer through whom the healing will happen. The first is seeking a kind of “faith healing,” and the second is seeking a “divine healing.” Self-focus more commonly tends to eclipse Christ-focus in the exercise of the many “gifts of healing.”
One who has faith in his faith more than in Jesus may pray: “I believe I will be healed by Jesus”; but the words, “by Jesus,” are uttered almost parenthetically. One who prays, “I believe in Jesus and in his compassionate love that will heal me.” is a prayer of one who has faith in Jesus. The second type of prayer expresses a faith that seeks to glorify Jesus, putting him in the spotlight, while waiting expectantly for the healing to occur.
Focusing on the problem rather than the problem-solver was what caused Peter to start to sink while walking on the water; he stopped looking toward Jesus, and focused on the turbulence of the waves. After Jesus uplifted him with a handclasp, he reprimanded him for being a man “of little faith” (Matt. 14:31).
Recognizing one’s out-of-focus faith in praying for healing may elude those who are less spiritually refined. The more mature regard it as a privilege to reinforce the Holy Spirit’s role in glorifying Jesus. From a pastoral perspective, those engaged in any of the many “gifts of healing” will find their healing power enormously enhanced by directing their own intentions along this line, and also by urging their clients to do the same—that is, desiring primarily God’s glory in the sought-after healing.
Paradoxically, faith itself can come between us and Jesus, if that faith seeks primarily the comfort of a healing (an “it”) rather than primarily the desire to glorify “him”—the Healer on whom we rely for the cure. The example of Bartimaeus, the blind man in Jericho, may help to illustrate the priority of Jesus’ glorification in one’s faith focus. This man, by acknowledging Jesus as “Son of David,” glorified Jesus by an implicit acknowledgment of his messiaship. Only after that did he humbly beg for “mercy”—that is, a bestowal of compassion—a request which embraced his desire for healing (but also possibly an expression of his spiritual need). Jesus’ fullest attention was brought to bear on his petition, for he stopped and took the initiative of calling the man to be brought forward. Jesus then asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51).
The instant cure that followed was, as Jesus told him, a faith-triggered healing. Above his great desire to be healed his faith focus was primarily on Jesus as the healing agent, not primarily a faith focus on his belief that he would be healed.
Of the ten lepers that Jesus healed, only one returned—probably at the cost of considerable hardship, which would have reflected his priorities—to humbly give praise and glory to God for the healing (Luke 17:15 and 18). Thus, he acted in tandem with the Holy Spirit’s premiere role of glorifying Jesus. The other nine lepers (a fairly representative cross-section of our society, perhaps) certainly must have appreciated their cure, but neglected to prioritize their appreciation by glorifying Jesus.
Like the faith of the blind Bartimaeus, the faith of this Samaritan leper was a Christ-focused faith, stronger than the naturally self-focused desire for healing. Both of these beneficiaries of a divine healing power received from Jesus a special compliment for their very special and Spirit-fused faith.
If frequent failure characterizes our efforts at exercising the “gifts of healing”—or our desires of being healed—then perhaps we need to retrench our efforts along other more scripturally based lines. We would do well to reconsider the basic prerequisite of cooperating with the Holy Spirit in using his charisms to show forth the Father’s glory in Jesus, the Healer. Then we will be able to exult with John (1:16): “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another!”
