Like other gifts, the gift of healing is the supernatural manifestation of the Spirit of God. It is used to destroy the works of the devil in the human body. God employs various methods to heal people.

• 2 Kings 5:14: “Naaman, the leper, dipped seven times in the Jordan, and his flesh became like that of a little child, and he was cleansed.“

• 2 Kings 20:7: “Isaiah said, ‘Take a lump of figs.’ So they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.“

• John 9:6-7: “When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.“

• Mark 8:22-25: “Then He came to Bethsaida, and they brought a blind man to Him and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said, ‘I see men like trees, walking.’ Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.”

These stories are all accounts of miraculous healings, but they do not necessarily stem from the spiritual gift of healing. Now let’s examine an example of the gift of healing with the apostle Paul in Acts 28:7:

“Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days. It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery. And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him, healed him. And when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured.“

After escaping a shipwreck, the entire crew, including the apostle Paul, arrived on an island. There, Publius’s father was sick with fever and dysentery. Paul went to him, prayed, laid hands on him, and he was immediately healed of fever and dysentery. This is the manifestation of the spiritual gift of healing. Paul might not have been the only Christian on the ship, but he was the only one with the spiritual gift of healing.

Any Christian can pray and receive healing for a sick person based on God’s promise that those who believe will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover in the name of Jesus (Mark 16:18). However, this is not the gift of healing; it is simply the fulfillment of God’s promise for all those who believe and testify that God is faithful to His word.

With the gift of healing, people with cancer and AIDS, those poisoned or bewitched, are healed. This gift differs from the promise in Mark 16:18. That’s why when hands are laid on a sick person, and they do not recover, they are taken to a servant of God who has the gift of healing. If this gift did not exist, many people would die from medically incurable diseases.

A woman who couldn’t sleep at night underwent various examinations to find the cause, but nothing was revealed. In reality, she was under a spell but didn’t know it. One day, she attended the annual Pentecost vigil we organize. During the deliverance prayer, when I invoked the name of Jesus, the woman vomited a beetle. Tell me, which doctor or X-ray could detect this insect in her entrails, let alone get it out? Another day, we were in a village. While we prayed, bewitched women vomited snails and grasshoppers.

An old intercessor received a visit from a woman who had disguised herself as a good person. The servant of God was saddened that day because he was going through a difficult time. Sadness was a breach that allowed the witch to attack him. Back home, she took an iron and spiritually bound the old man’s ribs so tightly that he could no longer breathe properly. He was condemned to die quickly. I was called. I took anointing oil and prayed, relying on James 5:14. Angels came to release the old man, and he regained normal breathing.

It is imperative that we have a fervent desire to possess this gift. Consider how many people die from poisoning and bewitchment. Show the Lord how much we want to help those suffering in their bodies and ask Him to grant us this gift so that we can assist them. When we come to the deliverance prayers of CIMIDI (International Center for Mission, Deliverance, and Intercession), out of twenty sick people, doctors can only heal four.

This text is an excerpt from the book “The new discovery of the Holy Spirit” written by Prophet Emmanuel SAWADOGO.