As we've seen, in First Corinthians 12:29, Paul asks, "Are all apostles? ..." Of course not. ". . .
are all teachers? . . ." The answer is no. Everyone doesn't have a teaching ministry. I didn't for
years. I would teach when I had to, but I didn't have that ministry. Then Paul asks, ". . . are all
workers of miracles?" Well, it is quite obvious that all are not workers of miracles.
Then in verse 30 it says, "Have all the gifts of healing? . . ." No, all people do not have the gifts
of healings. This scripture refutes the idea that if a person receives healing, he has also
automatically received the impartation of the supernatural gifts of healings — a gift of the Spirit
to minister healing to others. And this scripture refutes the idea that a person is necessarily
always healed by gifts of healings; he could be healed on his own faith in God's Word.
So First Corinthians 12:28 isn't referring to a healing that is given to a person to bless him; it is
a ministry of healing given to bless others.
Any healing from God is a gift, of course. In fact, anything we receive from God — any
blessing — would be a gift. But these gifts of the Spirit are supernatural manifestations of the
Spirit, and gifts of healings are one such operation manifested to someone through another.
Gifts of healings are one way of receiving healing. But as I've said, there are ways of receiving
divine healing other than by the manifestation of the gifts of healings.
As a Baptist boy preacher, I would preach on faith and prayer. I wasn't conscious of any kind of
anointing or any manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit in operation as I ministered to people. I
would just pray for people in faith and God would honor faith because God honors faith in His
Word. Therefore, people were healed.
Later I learned that there were others preaching divine healing besides me. They called
themselves "Full Gospel." I would fellowship with them, and soon afterwards, I got the baptism
of the Holy Ghost and spoke with other tongues.
I continued to pray for the sick by the laying on of hands and by the anointing with oil. In 1938 I
accepted the pastorate of a little Full Gospel church in the blackland of north central Texas.
While in prayer late one night, the Lord said to me through the Spirit, "I have given thee gifts of
healings and have sent you to minister to the sick."
As a pastor, I had been anointing people with oil and praying for them in faith for healing by the
laying on of hands. Up to that time, there had been no manifestation of the gifts of healings
through me. Many times people would be healed because they got in agreement with me, and
we were acting in faith on God's Word.
But after the Lord spoke to me concerning my ministry to the sick, I became conscious of this
other "something" working in my ministry, and there would be a manifestation to other people
through me. And I really didn't do anything about it except to yield to the Spirit. Then I saw the
difference
between healing by simply believing God's promises and by the operation of the gifts of
healings.
People can be healed directly by believing God for themselves. Many are healed as I was,
simply by believing God. But when it comes to the gifts of healings, there is a special
manifestation of the Spirit through one person to another person who is in need.