Alpha Course, Does God Heal Today

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time when I think about faith healing today. The first thing that leaps to mind is the movie, "Leap of Faith," and those of that ilk that seek to prey upon the hopes and desperation of people in need. I also tend to be skeptical about the sign gifts — healing, prophecy, miracles, and tongues — which doesn't make it easy to understand and address modern takes on healing rationally.

I appreciate the way Nicky Gumbel eases into this topic. He talks about his own skepticism, which I could identify with, and talked about the way he started to think about the idea of healing. His conclusion is that God still heals in miraculous ways today, and regardless of what you think of laying on hands, faith healers, and people given a miraculous word of healing, you can't deny that God's healing power is still evident in the world today.

It's interesting to me that I have so much trouble, at times, thinking about this concept given its prevalence in Scripture. Think about the amount of times that Jesus did miraculous healings, or even the disciples for that matter. And I never have trouble with that, but sometimes it's harder to reconcile the idea of that kind of miraculous healing with people in our own day and age.

But, I think we've all experienced the power of God's healing. I can remember when my Grandpa was diagnosed with cancer. He had a baseball-sized tumor in his esophagus that was inoperable. The prognosis wasn't good. My Grandpa wasn't a believer, in fact he often called faith a crutch for the weak-minded. But my mom put him on the prayer list at our church, and we prayed for him.

A few months later, when he went to the doctor the tumor was gone. It was a medical miracle, and I know it was because of the prayer warriors who interceded on his behalf. That experience, in some ways, softened my Grandpa's heart. I don't know if he ever really became a believer, but I know that miracle was a testament of faith to my family, and probably to those who prayed for his healing.

I don't know how I feel about some of the more charismatic views on modern healing, but I do know NOTHING is impossible for God. And I also know that nothing we can do is more powerful that faithful prayer.