Gift of healing is one of many spiritual gifts that are identified in the New Testament. It is the miraculous healing of physical, mental or spiritual ailments. There are some debates on whether the gift continues today and what forms it may take.
The main body of text that informs our understanding that healing is a spiritual gift is in 1 Corinthians 12, but the majority of healings occur in the four gospels and the book of Acts. Outside of those passages there are very few references to God providing healing to believers.
Some scholars believe that healing was a miraculous gift used exclusively by Jesus and the Apostles to validate his ministry. Other scholars believe it occured more frequently within the church and that all believers can be expectant to receive this gift as one of the available signs and wonders.
How to receive the gift of healing?
Scholars agree that healing was a miraculous gift and that Jesus ministry of physical healing was used as proof of his ability to provide spiritual healing. However, outside of these verses there is very little instruction on how to receive the gift in order to become a healer.
However, if you are a person that is in need of healing then you can pray and call the elders of your church. We see that written in the letter of James:
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 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 one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
James 5:13-15 ESV
There are no scriptural reasons to believe that God has ceased to heal. However, there are debates over whether the gift to heal continues today. It is my view that the gift of healing refers to those that received healing as opposed to those that healed. The only healer is God and while he has on occasion used people to do his ministry, it has always been him as the source. Therefore, if you're in need of healing, I would encourage you to pray fervently like Elijah and call your elders to do the same.
What was the purpose of healing?
Healing in the New Testament served as a sign to both believers and unbelievers that God was working among his people. In the ministry of Jesus he used healing to demonstrate his power over forigiving sin:
And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
Luke 5:20-26 ESV
Also that he had the power to bring others back to life, that the resurrection could be believed:
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:25-26 ESV
When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
John 11:43-44 ESV
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