The Gift of Faith, Healing, and Miraculous Powers: What the Bible Says About How God Still Works Today
There is a difference between knowing about the gifts of the Spirit and actually understanding them. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul makes it clear that these gifts are not reserved for a spiritual elite. They are available to every believer, given by the Holy Spirit for a specific purpose at a specific time. This post unpacks three of those gifts: the gift of faith, the gifts of healing, and miraculous powers.
What Does 1 Corinthians 12 Say About Spiritual Gifts?
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:4-7: "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." (1 Corinthians 12:4-7 English Standard Version (ESV))
That phrase "to each one" is significant. It means everyone. You do not need a title, a platform, or a special spiritual status. The manifestation of the Spirit is available to every believer for the benefit of others.
Paul also emphasizes nine times in eleven verses that these gifts do not come from within us. They are not personality traits or natural abilities. They come only from the Holy Spirit. These are not gifts you own and operate at will. They are given by God, through you, for His glory.
What Is the Gift of Faith and How Is It Different From Saving Faith?
When Paul lists the gift of faith in 1 Corinthians 12, he is not talking about the faith that brings someone to salvation. Romans 10:9 describes saving faith: "because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9 English Standard Version (ESV))
The gift of faith is something distinct. Bible translator Richard Francis called it a "special faith." Theologian Stanley Horton described it as an energizing power given by the Spirit for a particular and specific moment.
Think of it like a battery. Think of the clicker I am using to change the screen. The clicker itself has no power on its own. It needs the battery to function. In the same way, the gift of faith is not something we generate. It is the Holy Spirit working in and through us as a catalyst for something specific.
Biblical Examples of the Gift of Faith in Action
Elijah on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18): Elijah called fire down from heaven in front of the prophets of Baal. It took a special, Spirit-given faith to make that declaration. Notably, just a chapter later, Elijah is exhausted and suicidal. The gift was for that moment, not a permanent state.
Peter walking on water (Matthew 14): Peter stepped out of the boat and walked toward Jesus. The moment he broke eye contact and tried to do it in his own strength, he began to sink. The gift of faith is sustained through relationship with Jesus, not personal willpower.
Stephen before the Sanhedrin (Acts 6): Stephen stood before his accusers and spoke with extraordinary boldness and wisdom. It was faith in action, even in the face of death.
Peter at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3:1-10): Peter looked at a crippled beggar and said, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" (Acts 3:6 English Standard Version (ESV)). He then took the man by the hand and pulled him up. The healing happened in the doing, not just the speaking.
Is Faith Only About Breakthrough and Getting What You Pray For?
This is where many believers have been given an incomplete picture of faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1 English Standard Version (ESV)). That is absolutely part of faith. But it is not the whole picture.
Think of faith like a coin with two sides. One side is faith for the breakthrough. The other side is faith that sustains you in the middle of something deeply difficult, when there is no breakthrough in sight, but Philippians 4:7 becomes real: "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:7 English Standard Version (ESV))
That sustaining peace is just as much a gift of faith as any miracle.
In 1978, nine adults and four children serving as Elim Pentecostal missionaries in Zimbabwe were martyred by guerrilla soldiers. One of the nurses, as she was being killed, shouted to others not to worry because they would soon be in the presence of their Saviour. She began to sing hymns. The children were heard praying, telling Jesus they could not wait to see Him. Some of the soldiers who carried out those killings were so impacted by how those missionaries died that they came to faith in Christ.
That is faith. Not faith for a Disney ending, but faith that holds on to Jesus when everything is falling apart.
Faith is not a tool to manipulate God into giving us what we want. It is an empowering trust in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. He gives the gift of faith in the best of times and in the worst of times.
What Are the Gifts of Healing and Who Are They For?
As Pentecostal believers, we hold firmly to the truth that God heals today. The gifts of healing are given by the Spirit to bring about supernatural healing. But there are a few important things to understand.
First, we are not the healers. We are the catalyst. No one has magic hands. God works in us and through us as His humble servants.
Second, the word "gifts" in the original Greek is plural, as is "healings." Theologian Stanley Horton explains that this may indicate there are various gifts to heal various kinds of sickness and disease, that the Spirit wants to use a variety of people, or that He wants to heal the whole person, not just one area of need.
Healing Is More Than Physical
We often reduce healing to physical miracles, deaf ears opening or blind eyes seeing. But human beings are not just physical. We are spiritual, emotional, and psychological. When God heals, He is interested in the whole person.
Acts 3: A physical healing at the Beautiful Gate.
Acts 5: Philip heals in Samaria, beginning with casting out demons, showing that the spiritual and physical can be connected.
Acts 28: Paul heals Publius's Father in Malta, which then draws others to come for healing and leads them to faith in Christ.
John 4: Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman. This is a healing of a broken Spirit, broken relationships, and a broken identity. It also becomes a catalyst for an entire village coming to faith.
What Is Negative Confession and Why Is It Dangerous?
Negative confession is the teaching that if you are sick, you should refuse to accept the reality of your diagnosis and confess against it by faith. The idea is that accepting a doctor's diagnosis is a lack of faith.
This teaching is harmful and unbiblical. A pastor who was given three months to live received a letter from a church member telling him his cancer was the result of unconfessed sin and insufficient faith. Even as a mature believer, that letter caused real damage to him and his family.
More tragically, a type 1 diabetic woman was told by a pastor to stop taking her insulin as an act of faith. She did. Four months later, she died. She did not have to die.
If your doctor gives you medicine, it is not a lack of faith to take it. God can heal you through the medicine, or He can heal you miraculously while you are taking it. Loving God with all your mind, as Jesus commands in Luke 10:27, includes listening to qualified medical professionals.
Ephesians 2:8-9 is clear: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9 English Standard Version (ESV)). The same principle applies to healing. It is by grace, not by anything we do or say or confess. Healing is a gift, and gifts are given at the discretion of the giver.
What Are Miraculous Powers and Does God Still Perform Miracles Today?
The Greek phrase is "energomata dynamon," which literally means "workings of powers." This is the same root word used in Acts 1:8 when Jesus says His followers will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. It is where we get the English word dynamite.
This gift covers all the extraordinary ways God works beyond healing, acts that surpass natural laws to demonstrate His power and presence.
Biblical Examples of Miraculous Powers
Moses parting the Red Sea: Liberation of God's people through the miraculous.
Acts 9: Peter raises Tabitha from the dead, strengthening the church and advancing mission.
Acts 13: Paul strikes the sorcerer Elymas blind, demonstrating God's power in spiritual warfare.
Acts 16: Paul and Silas worship in prison. An earthquake shakes the foundations, their chains fall off, and so do the chains of every other prisoner. Their worship had an impact on people who did not even know Jesus.
Does Science Disprove Miracles?
Our culture has inherited a mindset from the Enlightenment period (roughly 1680 to 1800) that places science and faith in opposition. But many of the early Enlightenment thinkers were themselves Christians who saw the natural world as part of God's good creation, not as evidence against Him.
Today, some of the foremost scientists at Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard are believers who say their work does not disprove God. It reveals how magnificent He is.
Science requires something to be repeatable and evidenced to be proven. By definition, a miracle is something that does not happen every day. If it happened every day, it would not be a miracle. The two frameworks are not in conflict. They simply operate differently.
As believers, we do not live in a closed system of reality. We live in what could be called an enchanted reality, where the God who created the natural world can, whenever He chooses, work within it or beyond it. If God breathed out creation, He can certainly disrupt it for His purposes.
Life Application
This week, take one step of active faith. It does not have to be dramatic. It might be praying for a colleague who is unwell, asking God for an opportunity to speak life into someone who is struggling emotionally, or simply being honest with God about a situation where you need His sustaining peace rather than a breakthrough.
The gift of faith, healing, and miraculous powers are not reserved for the platform or the pulpit. They are available to each one, which means you.
Ask yourself these questions as you go into the week:
Am I trusting God only for the breakthrough, or am I also allowing Him to sustain me in the middle of difficulty?
Is there someone in my life right now who needs prayer for healing, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, and am I willing to step out and pray for them?
Have I been trying to use faith as a formula to get something from God, rather than as a deepening trust in who He is?
Am I keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus, like Peter on the water, or am I trying to do this in my own strength?
God is still moving. He is still giving His Spirit. And He is still looking for people who will say, by Your grace, Lord Jesus, I am here. If You want to use me, use me.