Does God Heal Today? - Alpha Course 13

The Question That Does Not Have a Simple Answer

Does God heal today? It is one of those questions that sounds straightforward but is anything but. For some people, the answer is an emphatic yes — they have seen it happen. For others, the question brings up painful memories of prayers that seemed to go unanswered. And for many, it sits somewhere in the uncomfortable middle.

In this episode of Crowd Church, Matt Edmundson is joined by Sue to hear Anna Kettle tackle this subject head-on. This is part 13 of the Alpha Course series, and Anna brings a perspective that is both deeply personal and remarkably balanced.

Starting With Gratitude for Medicine

Anna begins in an unexpected place — not with miracles, but with the NHS. She works in the healthcare system herself and has seen first-hand the incredible work that medical staff do every day, particularly during the pandemic.

"This talk on healing is not about undermining that hard work," she says. "On the contrary, I believe that God actually directs people into the medical profession."

Her view is that all healing ultimately comes from God, whether it arrives through the hands of a surgeon or through prayer. Doctors and nurses are using their God-given abilities to support a healing process that is itself part of God's design. She points out that life expectancy in the UK has doubled in the last hundred years — and the speed at which life-saving vaccines were developed during the pandemic is remarkable.

But she is equally honest about the limits of medicine. "Despite all of those advances in medical science, I think many of us have also found that there are times where medicine just can't heal."

Speaking From the Tension

Anna's honesty about her own experience gives this talk a weight that a purely theoretical treatment could never achieve. She has walked through recurrent miscarriage and has been unable to have more than one child as a result.

"I'm painfully aware of the fact that although God does heal, sometimes healing doesn't happen," she says. "I've seen many people healed physically with my own eyes, and yet at the same time myself and my own family are living with the reality that God doesn't always seem to heal us when we want him to and when we ask. And that's really hard."

She is not trying to resolve this tension neatly. She is living in it, and she invites us to sit in it with her.

What the Bible Actually Says About Healing

When Anna turns to scripture, the evidence is striking. She points out that 25 percent of the Gospel accounts of Jesus's life are taken up with examples of healing. That is an enormous proportion of the narrative dedicated to physical restoration.

She quotes Exodus 15:26 — "I am the Lord your God who heals you" — and notes that healing in the Bible is not limited to emotional or spiritual restoration. It includes very physical forms of healing too.

Perhaps most significantly, Jesus did not keep healing as his own exclusive activity. He told his followers — ordinary people who believed in him — that they too could pray for the sick and see them made well. "Healing isn't just for special people who are called to be healers," Anna says. "It's for every Christian."

A Story From a Living Room

The talk includes a remarkable story from a woman named June, who felt prompted by God to bless a neighbour — a young mother — with a bag of groceries. That simple act of kindness opened the door to a friendship, and eventually the neighbour made a decision to follow Jesus.

Some time later, the neighbour woke up with severe back pain. She could not stand or sit. June went over, prayed for her, and — in front of the woman's two sons — she was instantly healed. She jumped off the couch and moved around the room in disbelief.

"I must confess I thought, okay, I'll lay hands and pray and let's see what happens," June admits. It was not a moment of dramatic faith. It was an ordinary person praying an ordinary prayer, and something extraordinary happened.

Healing Beyond the Physical

Anna is careful to point out that God's healing is not limited to physical ailments. The talk also features Ben's story — a man who grew up surrounded by Christianity but was deeply hurting as a child. His father's harsh anger, persistent bullying at school, and a deep sense of not fitting in left him riddled with anxiety, depression, and feelings of worthlessness by the age of eight.

Ben's story is one of emotional and psychological healing — the kind that does not show up on an X-ray but is every bit as real and every bit as needed.

Sitting in the Tension

What makes Anna's talk so compelling is that she refuses to land on a neat conclusion. She does not say "God always heals if you have enough faith" — a claim that has caused enormous damage in some church contexts. Nor does she say "healing was just for Bible times." She holds both realities together.

God heals. She has seen it. And God does not always heal. She has lived it.

This is not a contradiction to be resolved but a tension to be held. And Anna holds it with remarkable grace.

The Practical Side

Matt and Sue pick up these threads in the conversation afterwards. Sue, who has known Anna for years, reflects on the honesty and thought-provoking nature of the talk. Matt notes that this is one of the fundamental questions people have about the Christian faith, especially those who are newer to it.

The encouragement from this episode is not to have all the answers, but to be willing to pray anyway — even when the outcome is uncertain. June did not pray with dramatic confidence. She prayed and waited to see what would happen. And something did.

A Question to Take Away

If healing is part of God's character — and the Bible makes a strong case that it is — then what stops us from asking? Perhaps it is the fear of disappointment. Perhaps it is the memory of a prayer that was not answered the way we hoped.

Anna's example suggests that the honest approach is not to pretend those fears do not exist, but to bring them to God alongside the request.

What would it look like to pray for healing — for yourself or for someone else — without needing to know the outcome in advance?