Some while ago, Andrew Wilson wrote about four different types of healing.

Type #1: The ongoing healing that takes place every time I graze my knee, or a virus enters my body:

‘My body is being healed all the time, and it’s a result of the grace of the God who created me, searches me, knows me and loves me that he has designed a body that functions that way. I never want to forget – although I often do – the daily wonder of living in a self-repairing physical body.’

Type #2: In response to prayer, a man born deaf is healed, completely and instantaneously, a woman who has been wheelchair-bound for years stands up and walks, a young woman’s protein allergy disappears; a Jewish prophet lays his hands of blind eyes and deaf ears, and they are instantly able to see and hear.  This same young man declared:

“Whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).

Type #3: A serious road traffic incident is attempted promptly by ambulance crew.  A splint is applied to a broken leg.  A surgeon removes some shattered glass from the victim’s torso.  The leg is reset under general anaesthetic. Recorvery is complete, apart from a few scars.

‘The materials to build the hospital, the oil that fuels the ambulance and enables me to get there before I die from blood loss, the image of God in the paramedics that makes them give themselves to rescuing people they’ve never met, the wisdom of the surgeon, the intelligence and skill of the thousands of individuals whose discoveries have made operating theatres and anaesthesia possible – all of these are gracious gifts of a loving God, whose mercy enables healings to take place across the world that would, in any other generation, be considered quite miraculous. No wonder they call him Yahweh-who-heals-you (Ex 15:26).’

Type #4: The healing that takes place at the last day, when:

‘A trumpet sounds, and the dead are raised in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, never to perish again. Physical bodies become incorruptible, spiritual, glorious, powerful; no sickness or affliction will ever befall them again. Cholera and cancer are consigned to the cosmic skip for all eternity. Operating theatres, doctors, ambulances and health secretaries become a thing of the past. Nobody cries, except with joy. Nobody grieves. The sterile smell of the Emergency Department corridor is no more. The octogenarians who sit, walnut-faced, under blankets in wheelchairs in hospital reception areas are given a new life and a new youth that will never again be stolen by the long march of time. Every deaf ear is unblocked, every damaged limb is made whole, every blind eye sees. Autism and Down’s syndrome and schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s are swallowed up in victory. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Cor 15:26).

Andrew Wilson concludes:

I want us to see as much of type #2 as possible…Let’s continue to pursue more in prayer, but without forgetting the glorious existence of types #1, #3 and #4. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins, and heals all your diseases (Ps 103:2-3).

Comment

This is a helpful analysis, but misses out, I think, the type of healing that takes place in answer to prayer, but which doesn’t have the characteristics of miraculous healing.