Does God Still Heal People? And What About When He Doesn't?

Healing, unanswered prayer, and learning to ask with hope without blaming the person who is hurting.

By Pastor John Erickson

I believe God can heal people. I've prayed for people and seen things happen that I cannot easily explain.

But can I admit something else? I've also prayed for people and watched them remain sick. I've seen people suffer. I've seen circumstances get worse when I desperately wanted them to get better.

If you've walked with Jesus for any length of time, you may know that tension.

Some Christians respond by saying miracles don't happen anymore. Others seem to say that if a person isn't healed, somebody must not have had enough faith. I don't think either response does justice to the story Scripture tells.

Let's talk about that tension without pretending it's simple.

A God Who Is Actually Involved

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul names gifts of healing and miraculous powers among the ways the Holy Spirit works for the common good.

That's an interesting claim. Paul isn't describing a distant God who created the universe, stepped back, and now watches everything run on its own. He's describing a God who is present and active among his people.

We sometimes carry a picture of God that's closer to an absentee landlord. He owns the property, and perhaps he'll show up if something catastrophic happens. Otherwise we're on our own.

But the Gospels show Jesus healing people, restoring dignity, forgiving sins, and responding to human suffering. In Acts, God continues working through the early church.

The question isn't simply whether we believe a God exists. It's whether we believe God is still present and able to intervene in the world he made.

Paul Couldn't Control Healing Either

Here's where it gets interesting.

In Acts 19, there are remarkable accounts of healings associated with Paul's ministry. Yet the same New Testament also tells us about people who remained ill. In 2 Timothy 4:20, Paul says he left Trophimus sick at Miletus. In Philippians 2, Epaphroditus becomes so ill that he nearly dies.

If healing were something Paul could produce whenever he wanted, these passages would be difficult to explain.

The Holy Spirit is not a vending machine. You don't put in the correct amount of faith, press B7, and receive a miracle.

Paul calls these gifts. They are not achievements or techniques for controlling God's power. That should produce both hope and humility.

We can ask boldly. We can pray expectantly. But we shouldn't claim to know why every prayer receives the answer it does.

Healing Is Bigger Than We Often Imagine

James 5:13-16 tells believers to pray when they are in trouble, sing praise when they're joyful, and call the elders to pray for the sick. James speaks about anointing with oil, confession, forgiveness, and healing. His words about the prayer of faith and the Lord raising the sick person are strong words of hope. They call us to pray, rather than giving us a technique for making every outcome happen on demand.

Notice how much is happening there. Physical sickness matters. But so do sin, fractured relationships, and the burdens people carry inside.

That doesn't mean every illness is caused by personal sin. Please don't hear me saying that. Jesus explicitly challenges that kind of simplistic assumption in John 9.

It does mean we sometimes shrink the concept of healing until it only refers to one thing. God is concerned with our bodies, but he's also concerned with our hearts, our relationships, and the restoration of our whole lives.

You may know someone whose medical situation didn't change, but whose experience of God's presence changed the way they lived through it. That isn't a reason to stop praying for physical healing. It's a reminder that God's work is wider than we can measure with one result.

We Can Be Honest About What We Don't Know

My truck developed a serious problem with its manual transmission. I couldn't get it into first gear or reverse, and I was bending the shifter trying. The shop said the transmission was out, and finding someone to work on the discontinued model was proving difficult.

I talked about it at a guys' night. We were looking online for a replacement transmission. This was not shaping up to be a small problem.

One Friday night I prayed, "God, I don't know what I'm going to do." The next day, it shifted without trouble. When I originally told that story, it had been working for about two weeks.

Was that a miracle? I was cautious about calling it one. The problem could have returned, and I couldn't prove there wasn't a mechanical explanation I didn't understand. But I had prayed and then experienced something surprising. I was grateful.

That kind of humility is important. Not every unexpected event is a miracle, and not every person who claims a miracle is telling the truth. Scripture repeatedly calls us to discernment. We shouldn't be gullible or build our faith around dramatic stories that cannot be tested.

But we also shouldn't become so cynical that we stop praying.

What Do We Do When Healing Doesn't Come?

This is the harder question.

I don't want to offer someone who is suffering a clever sentence that explains away their pain. I don't have that sentence. Sometimes there isn't one.

We can keep praying without accusing a sick person of spiritual failure. We can seek appropriate medical care and support people through treatment. We can bring meals, sit in hospital rooms, listen, lament, and help carry practical burdens.

We can believe in God's power without pretending to understand all of God's decisions.

And we can remember that Jesus never treated hurting people like interruptions to his schedule.

So when someone asks for prayer, pray. If your church practices anointing with oil, do it with care and faith. If healing comes, give thanks. If it doesn't, don't disappear. Keep showing up.

The miracle we ask for may not happen in the way we hope. But we can still be a community where sick and hurting people are loved, honored, and never left to face their pain alone.

That, too, matters deeply to the heart of God.