All of the apostles, including Paul had the power of healing, but not merely for the sake of healing.  Paul also included the gift of healing in the lists of spiritual gifts he outlined for the saints in Corinth (1 Cor. 12.9, 28, 30). However, the healing was performed for the purpose of confirming the word (Mark 16:20, Heb. 2:3-4).  For this reason, no mention of a healing aspect of his work is recorded.  This will become more obvious a little further into our study.
Paul, himself, asks God to heal him in 2 Corinthians 12:7-ff. Despite the fact that God could and did heal, Paul did not claim that that healing was necessarily the norm. As he sought relief from his “thorn in the flesh,” God did not heal him as it was allowed for Paul’s spiritual benefit to keep him from becoming conceited because of the great revelations. He pleaded three times for the Lord to take it away but God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12.7-10).
Another example of the fact that God does not always heal was Paul’s co-worker, Trophimus, who he left at Miletus too ill to travel (2 Tim. 4:20). We might ask why Paul would not have healed Trophimus if he had that power to heal him. Did not God want Paul and Trophimus healed? If we advocate that he did, then why were not these two men healed? Epaphroditus of Philippi was very ill but recovered to be able to travel to Philippi (Phil. 2:25-30).  Strangely, Epaphroditus does not appear to have been healed miraculously but had gone through a lengthy recovery period.  This same set of circumstances happened to Paul in Galatia. He was sick and had to be cared for by the brethren from Galatia (Gal. 4:13-15).  Healing occurred, but time played a factor in his recovery, too. Again, this points us to the conclusion that the gift of healing was not merely for the purpose of being healed, but for the bigger purpose of confirming their teaching as being from God.
Furthermore, Paul speaks of Luke, the doctor (Col. 4.14; 2 Tim. 4.11; Phm. 24), never disparaging his coworker’s professional training. Doctors and medicinal methods were apparently useful and did not contradict his teaching of miraculous healing. He suggests a medicinal remedy to Timothy to treat a chronic illness, rather than advising him to seek a miraculous cure ( 1 Tim.5.23).
Therefore, healing may come through a miracle if a greater purpose is served. Second, it may come through time and medicine; and third, it may not come at all.  Physical care for one’s own body is a normal human function (cf. Eph. 5.28f.) but it was not given a high priority. Some are teaching that God wants us healed. We must ask in response to that proposition, “Why, then, did he not heal all saints who were sick?” It appears that it was not a priority and focusing on the here and now is not the most important thing. For example, Paul recognizes some value in bodily exercise but compares it to godliness which is more valuable since it focuses on the eternal reward. “Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (I Tim. 4.8).
Finally, we can note that Paul presents this life as a spiritual battle. In that battle against “principalities and powers,” fake miracles propagated by Satan and his messengers play a role in leading people astray (2 Thess. 2:9-12). Also, sickness can have spiritual causes (1 Cor.11:29-32, James 5:13-15).
We can now briefly summarize Paul’s revelation on health, sickness, and healing in the NT:
- Â Healing itself as well as the spiritual gift of healing were real and had their source in the power of God.
- Counterfeit miracles also come from Satan.
- God can and does heal any disease or sickness, but He does not always heal which means that in his sovereignty, He finds a greater purpose to be served.
- Normal physical and medical care of the human body is natural and advised but one’s spiritual care is of greater value.
- One’s spiritual life needs to take precedence over the physical aspects of life. For this reason, some sickness may actually keep that perspective in check.
- Sickness and suffering can be part of the normal difficulties of life in this sinful world, or they may represent God’s discipline or Satan’s buffeting.