Question: What is the gift of miracles? Does anyone have it? Is it not the same as the gift of healing as recorded in I Corinthians 12:9, 28, 29?
Answer: Miracle in the dictionary is defined as “An extraordinary event manifesting the supernatural work of God.” And, of course, healing of sicknesses in answer to the prayer of faith without the aid of doctors and medicines would fall into this category and be included in this definition. The fact that they are mentioned separately in the scriptures referred to, seems to me sufficient evidence that the scriptures separate between healing and miracles and places them in different categories.
Sickness is defined as a disease, malady, disorder, illness, nausea, etc. This would include such things as tuberculosis, cancer, fevers of various kinds, polio, etc. Some sicknesses leave their marks and effects in the body such as blindness, deafness, deformed and undeveloped parts, as in the case of polio and various other weaknesses and disorders. Healing, it seems to me, would involve curing of the disease itself while it would involve a miracle to remove the effects of the sickness which remain in the body after the sickness itself is gone; such as restoring of sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and restoring of the deformed and useless or crippled parts left as a result of polio after the polio is gone.
Miracles also reach out into areas beyond the category of healing, such as the expulsion of evil spirits (Acts 8:7 and Acts 16:18); the controlling of the elements such as Jesus calming the storm Mark 4:39; Peter’s deliverance from prison Acts 12:5-10; and the release of the other apostles from prison Acts 5:17-23; feeding the multitudes with five loaves and two fishes Matthew 14:15-21; and seven loaves and a few fishes Matthew 15:32-38; raising the dead to life again Matthew 9:18-26 and Acts 9:36-41; the numerous instances of restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, making the lame to walk and the dumb to speak, etc., and such like: too numerous to mention.
And even though I may not know or be able to point out specifically someone who has this gift of miracles, yet I am sure there must be some who have it, as the church in the earth would be a crippled church operating without one of its parts without this gift. I urge that more of us would earnestly seek this gift as well as the others also. This is a gift of the Spirit given to the church and whoever will earnestly seek it and qualify for it may have it.
