The miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit were restricted to the era of the apostles. These gifts were given specifically for the confirmation of the the apostles as God’s messengers of His gospel. The miracles recorded in the New Testament were the Divine certification that Jesus is the promised Savior. Since that purpose has been accomplished the miraculous gifts are no longer in operation. Certain preachers claim to be able to perform miracles. Some evangelists and televangelists have ministries of healing. Others claim to be able to a variety of miracles. If there are no miraculous gifts today how do these individuals perform such feats?

The miraculous gifts were those spiritual gifts given to men enabling them to perform miracles as a regular and frequent part of their ministry. Mmiraculous gifting by its very nature requires the regular performance of miracles. If a miracle happened through the prayers of a person that does not mean the person has the gift of miracles. “Miraculous gifts” is not a reference to God’s healing of the sick, sunsets, the birth of babies or answered prayer. God still miraculously intervenes in the affairs of the world but He no longer gifts men to perform miracles.

Many of the healings performed by faith healers are of an entirely different quality than the healings of the Bible. The miraculous healings in the Bible included restoring the paralyzed to full strength and mobility, giving the blind normal vision, and healing completely those with gruesome or painful diseases like leprosy and epilepsy. Many modern day examples of healings claim to heal from pain, general ailments (as in, “I feel like I’m dying”), cancer and other vague or internal sicknesses. The claims of these kind of healings have been investigated and found to be temporary, untestable or just plain frauds.

A minority of those who claim to have the gift of healings have made Biblical-level claims to have the ability to raise the dead and heal the lame. Investigations into the claims of these ministries have authenticated none of the miracles and proven many to be be untrue. The reality of modern day miracle workers is no sound evidence has ever been given that proves their claims. The Biblical accounts of healing are of ailments with profound, visible physical effects which provide cases of clear, unmistakable and undisputable healings of people. Even the fiercest opponents of Jesus and the apostles could not deny the miracles they performed.

Possibly the most despicable teaching of many so-called miracle workers is any failures to heal is blamed on the sick person. If a person is not healed, then he did not have enough faith. Jesus and the apostles never blamed a misfired miracle on the one in need. The Bible does not teach that healing is dependent on the faith of the one being healed. The closest hint to this is found in Mark 9 where Jesus tells the father of a demon possessed child, “If thou believest, all things are possible.” The father responds, “Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.” The father knew his faith was mixed with doubt. His faith was not full and complete, yet Jesus healed fully and completely. The same story recounts an earlier failure to heal the afflicted child. Jesus gives a rebuke for lack of faith, but the rebuke is not directed to the father or the child. The rebuke is directed to His disciples. The disciples were responsible for the failure to heal, not the ones seeking healing. Faith healers have no business blaming their failures upon their victims.

Like prophecies, tongues and Divine revelation the other miraculous gifts faded out with the apostles. The claims of modern day miracle workers are a poor imitation of the glorious power of God displayed through His apostles and prophets. Their healings are often nothing more than the effects of emotional manipulation that causes a person to briefly feel better without accomplishing any actual healing. At times they are willful frauds preying upon the desperation of hurting people.