Spiritual healing in Christianity is the when the Lord heals a person through His power rather than humans saving a person through physical intervention. For example, say a person has pneumonia, and rather than a person being saved by the power of medicine or treatment, they are healed after being prayed over by Christians.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding spiritual healing both inside and outside of the church for several reasons. Today, we are going to address what Biblical spiritual healing is, so that we can avoid making mistakes in its use, which consequences can be harmful or even deadly at its worst.

First, to be clear, healing by the power of God is a very real thing. It happened in both the Old and New Testament and was something that the Bible says is still permissible to practice today.

Mark 10:52 - And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

The practice is done in the New Testament and now by pouring oil over a person and then praying over them.

James 5:14-15 - Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Now, for any of you who say this is nonsense or that it does not apply anymore, I will testify that in one of my old churches, a child was sick and no doctor could heal him, but after pouring oil over him and praying for him, he was healed. It is real. It still happens. God has not done away with this practice.

Where does the controversy come from them? If this is a God given practice, what is the issue surrounding it? The issues occur in two areas - fake healers and misuse of healing.

Let's address the first. While there are truly events and maybe even people gifted to see people healed by the power of God, there are also quite a few people out there pretending to be such prayer for money. They may go around claiming to be men of God, but then ask you for a sum of money if you or your loved one wants to be healed. This goes against the principles of God who Himself says that such men will appear.

Titus 1:11 - Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.

Just because such people exist though does not mean that God never heals people by spiritual means, just like because there are bad churches, bad pastors, or bad anything does not mean everything ever associated with it is bad. One thing for sure is though, there are fake faith healers out there. They will usually be clear when they teach heresy or hoard wealth (you can be rich and generous, I'm talking about people who use healing as a cash cow). Some people may have different opinions about how much God heals people, for example, some people genuinely think it is God's will that all people be healed maybe even by spiritual means. I disagree, but just because I do does not mean they are a swindler. That is another issue which shall be addressed here -

Second, comes the idea that it is always God's will to heal people spiritually. There are some Christians who believe that doctors, medicine, and hospitals have no place in our lives and that God wishes to heal all people spiritually. God Himself speaks against ideas like this though. God says when someone is suffering, and we can end their suffering through good deeds, it is an injustice to merely pray for them when we can end their suffering. The specific example of this is poverty, but it applies to other areas of life as well.

James 2:15-16 - If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

Spiritual healing is for when doctors have done all they can do, and we know God is who we need to turn to. God wants us to have faith, but He also wants us to look for physical ways to cure and help people. Even when we do go to faith healing, doctors should still be trying to find ways to help others. To ignore this vital part of life that God wants us to use (Luke was a doctor), is a shame to Christianity and to our God.