Big Healing Book - 1 Corinthians 12:8-11

1 Corinthians 12:8-11:

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

Notes on 1 Corinthians 12:8-11:

The Spirit “works” all these things. These gifts are not “given” to you in the sense that they ever become your possession to control at your will. The Holy Spirit alone is in charge of the operation of the gifts. It is conventional to say that someone has, for example, “a gift of healing,” and even the Scripture above speaks about having a gift. God operates certain gifts through certain people on a more consistent basis, but no man ever possesses the gift in the sense of being able to control when and how it manifests. (If anyone tells you that he does control it, or any other spiritual gift in this passage, run the other way! He’s nuts. I WISH I could control these gifts, because if I could, I would make them manifest all the time.) The only “control” you have is that you can quench the Spirit when He wants to do something, or just not be open to the Spirit instead of earnestly desiring spiritual gifts, as the Bible commands you to do.

Also, you can pray and sing in tongues as you will when your audience is God, as Paul made obvious in 1 Corinthians 14:15. This is NOT the same as giving a public message in tongues to be interpreted, which is what the passage above refers to when it talks about tongues.

These gifts are definitely for today. See the reply to Objection: Healing and Miracles Are Not for This Current Dispensation for proof of this. The presence of “gifts of healings” shows God’s will in the matter of healing. There are no “gifts of sickenings” where the Holy Spirit makes the well sick to teach them patience or valuable lessons.

It is interesting to note that gifts and healings are both in the plural here. Apparently, God uses people in different exceptional ways to heal the sick.

These gifts are not the ONLY ways that God does signs and wonders. This is proved by Hebrews 2:3-4, which separates signs, wonders and miracles from gifts of the Spirit. While gifts of the Spirit can be involved in signs, wonders and miracles, it is evident that there are signs, wonders and miracles that do not fit into the nine categories of gifts. Don’t limit God by restricting Him to only nine ways of operating.