Can miraculous healings still happen today?

Nick Charalambous

I looked and felt like a 90-year-old man that day in August 2015. Bent over a walker, I crept forward, painful inch by painful inch, so I could ask for healing prayer from my coworkers and friends.

At the time, I didn’t know I had an advanced and rare form of blood cancer. In fact, I didn’t know I had any kind of disease since the battery of tests run by doctors turned up nothing unusual.

But anyone could see something was terribly wrong.

Dozens of people rested their hands on my broken body, and hundreds prayed from afar, as my church family asked God for a miraculous healing.

Two years later, I appreciate something of what it means to be like Lazarus, raised from the dead. The long-shot chemotherapy worked. The experimental medicine was effective. The doubtful stem-cell transplant was a success.  My doctor admits science can't fully explain why I beat the odds.

Now cancer free and almost as athletically strong as I’ve ever been, my belief that God still works miracles has moved from merely theological to completely undeniable.

Grace For Every Need

It is faithful, not foolish, to believe God can heal physically today. Jesus loves the whole person, soul and body (Matthew 9:35). The Bible tells us to pray for the sick (James 5:14). And Jesus promises we will do even greater things than He did (John 14:12-14).

Jesus wants us to come to him with every burden, every problem, and everything that ails us — including physical sickness and disease.

1. Jesus heals miraculously now as He did then.

Physical healing is Jesus’ most common miracle. Were those events specific to that place and time? Undoubtedly, yes! They were part of Jesus' ministry of signs and wonders, which pointed to Himself as Messiah with authority to restore creation (Matthew 11:5).

If we are sick, we ought to have the boldness and confidence to ask for healing.

So can miracles like that still happen today? Undoubtedly, yes! God does not change (Malachi 3:6). The God of the Bible is the same God we worship today (Hebrews 13:8).

According to God’s sovereign purpose, He may not heal everyone or every type of sickness. But God favors His children (Psalm 84:11), and, like a good father, He delights in giving His children what they need (Matthew 7:11). If we are sick, we ought to have the boldness and confidence to ask for healing!

2. Jesus heals miraculously in extraordinary ways.

The physical healings in the Bible are almost all dramatic, supernatural, and instantaneous. Blind people see (John 10 and Mark 10:46-52). Lame people walk (John 5:8 and Mark 2:9). Leprosy vanishes (Luke 17:8-19 and Matthew 8:1-4). Bleeding stops. (Mark 5:25-34). Some healings reported in modern times, among missionaries to foreign lands and in American churches, still follow this miraculous pattern.

Few of us will witness or experience such a special work. But we would be dishonoring God’s power and work among us if we were to categorically dismiss the possibility of healing based on our finite awareness. The same goes for requiring absolute scientific proof of a miracle as if such a thing were possible.

But we must remember healing is always a gift of God’s grace. God endows some individuals with the spiritual gift of healing, but healing remains an act of God’s sovereign goodness and mercy working through that individual (1 Corinthians 12:9). God may indeed answer prayer for healing, but a miracle never depends on anything we or others do or say, nor even the amount of our faith, nor anyone else’s.

3. Jesus heals miraculously in ordinary ways.

Creation is miraculous through and through. Jesus upholds the universe by the word of His power — from every atom in a star to every atom of your body’s cells (Hebrews 1:3). Much physical healing today occurs through the practice of medicine, but that does not mean God is uninvolved.

Whether by prayer or by medicine, we are participating with God in the miracle of His grace for healing. God has ordered His universe for our benefit in such a way that human beings may know and affect the secret workings of the body. Treatment works because God made it work. Refusing medicine is as faithless as refusing prayer.

Even the ordinary wisdom and discipline of taking care of our bodies, such as eating well and exercising, can yield dramatic, miraculous results. In my case, almost all the pain and limitations from my spine damage was relieved at the end of a grueling rehabilitation process. I believed I could be fully physically restored, but I also had to act as if I was, even when doctors weren't optimistic.

Is there a physical miracle that you need? Trust that Jesus will supply every need of yours in Christ Jesus and gives good gifts to those who ask (Philippians 4:19). Even if God doesn’t physically heal, either immediately or at a later time, you can be sure that you have the grace, hope, and peace to endure and even rejoice through it (Romans 5:3-5).