Why does God only "heal" invisible health problems?  I mean, people pray for recovery and healing for underlying, invisible, systemic diseases, but God doesn't make the blind whole, restore lost limbs, cure diseased teeth, or reverse genetic mutations.  Why would we think God is working behind the scenes on "quick recovery" or spontaneous healing of unseen health conditions if we know for a fact He doesn't heal physical ailments for which there is no modern cure?

Sincerely,
Give Me A Doctor

Dear Give Me A Doctor,

What do you mean by “unseen”?  There are plenty of cases when people have had diagnosable forms of cancer that are physically seen through scans, and God has healed the person through prayer.  There have also been many cases when people have been blinded, made lame, paralyzed, etc., and modern science has said that they won’t see, walk, or move again… only to have those people prove them wrong.  The news is constantly sprinkled with human interest stories about people being healed from diseases and unimaginable physical trauma in unseen ways… the news talks about how baffled the doctors are, but it leaves out God.  However, within those stories, you often find very prayerful people who give credit to Him whom deserves it.
It is true that God doesn’t work in miracles (‘miracles’ being defined as ‘visible, supernatural events’) the way He has at other times in history, but that doesn’t mean He isn’t at work.  If you’d like to know why God works in unseen versus visible ways, read our post “Three Cheers For Miracles”.

Is seeing a person's aura of the devil?  The reason I am asking is because there was a young boy at our church who told us in his testimony that God had given him the gift of seeing a person's aura.  Thank you.

Sincerely,
Wigged Out

Dear Wigged Out,

That young boy has either been coerced into delusion, or he was purposefully lying.  The Lord teaches that the devil uses lying wonders and false signs (2 Thess 2:9).  For centuries, false teachers have professed that they could perform miracles… and they have always been wrong.  The miracles that were performed by the apostles in the first century were verifiable, visible, and obvious.  The ability to see someone’s “aura” is invisible, unverifiable, and mysterious.  This young man isn’t telling the truth.

     TV is associated with a lot of sin, and it's addictive.  Do those two things make it wrong?

Sincerely,
Power Off?

Dear Power Off,

Television can be associated with bad things, and it can be associated with good things – it all comes down to how you use it.  Television is just a means of communication and gaining information.  Before television, it was radio, and before radio, it was books.  There is bad music to listen to and good music; there are bad books to read and good books.  It all comes down to wisdom.  God tells us to fill our minds with things that are good and true (Php 4:8).  Use that principle in the television shows you choose to watch.

I was asked if demonic spirits can be transferred through clothing, objects, etc.  I know that a spirit needs a body to operate through, but what about things?  Doesn't it say in the Bible that Paul's handkerchiefs were laid on people for healing?  Please provide Scripture references.

Sincerely,
Can’t Touch That

Dear Can’t Touch That,

We have absolutely no idea how demons transferred between bodies because the Bible never tells us, but you don’t need to worry about it because demons don’t possess people anymore.  There are lots of things about the spiritual realm (what God looks like, how heaven will operate, etc.) that God doesn’t explain to us… the secret things belong to God (Deu 29:29).  The details of demon possession are one of those secret things.

However, Jesus does tell us that demonic possession has been done away with.  When Jesus’ disciples were sent out to preach and perform miracles, they came back ecstatic that they were casting out demons (Lk 10:17).  Jesus told them that they were vanquishing Satan and his demons, and Satan was being cast down because of what they were doing (Lk 10:18).  Jesus and His disciples permanently destroyed Satan’s minions’ ability to possess people.  Once the demons were cast out – they were cast out for good (see the case of the demons cast into pigs as an example – Mk 5:11-13).  Thanks to Christ, we don’t have to worry about this issue today.

     When does true physical death occur?  I read a study recently where given the proper treatment, a person can technically be revived up to 90 minutes after they are pronounced "dead" because many brain cells do not lose function until about 8 hours after a person dies.  Is death the point when all cells lose function?  Some have used such evidence to deny resurrection events in the Bible as miraculous.  What does the Bible say on the subject?

Sincerely,
Morbid Curiosity

Dear Morbid Curiosity,

The Bible says that the death happens when the spirit leaves the body (Jas 2:26), but that doesn’t answer your question because we don’t exactly know when that is.  We once thought people were dead when they stopped breathing, but we’ve since learned that isn’t always true.  We then said it was when the heart stopped… except we now use defibrillators to restart people’s hearts.  The exact moment of death is the unanswerable question – but everybody agrees that there is a point of death; we just can’t precisely pinpoint it.

However, the arguments that resurrection events in the Bible weren’t miraculous are easy to handle.  Jesus was in the tomb – THREE days.  Everyone agrees that after three days, the person is really dead.  When Lazarus was raised from the dead, the people didn’t want to open the tomb because the body would have begun to decompose (Jhn 11:49).  Decomposing bodies definitely have crossed the threshold of death.  These are at least two resurrection events that cannot be rationalized away by saying they weren’t actually “dead”.