The Gifts of Healings
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In verse 12 we are told that from Paul’s body, those handkerchiefs or aprons were taken and put
on the sick, “And the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.”
Did you know evil spirits don’t always have to be discerned to be dealt with? The power of God
can just come in and they go out. You know, you don’t have to understand what was wrong if
it’s gone. You may never have known what it was, and now it’s gone. You don’t have to know
everything. You don’t have to know all of the answers.
Look at a contrast in Acts 28. Paul had been shipwrecked, snake bit, rained on, and experienced
numerous other things, but he didn’t quit. He didn’t quit because knowing the Scriptures, he had
read passages like 2 Kings 6, and he knew it could change in a day. He was standing there
drenched, tired, exhausted, snake bit, shipwrecked, and every other thing, but he didn’t quit.
When he didn’t die from the snake bite, the Bible says of the people on the island, “They
changed their mind about him” (Acts 28:6). Get some miracles in your life, and people will
change their mind about you, too. They’ll go from just thinking you’re nuts and fruity to
thinking, “Well, there really is something to that.” All it takes is a miracle.
These people changed their minds about him. Acts 28:7 says, “In the same quarters were
possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius; who received us, and
lodged us three days courteously.” This is the richest man on the island, and Paul is staying at his
house, being treated well. A few hours earlier, Paul was drenched, shipwrecked, and snake bit.
The next day, he was in the nicest house on the island, eating the best food on the island, wearing
the best clothes on the island... in just a few hours.
“And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever…” Does it pay to honor God’s
people? Do you remember when the woman and her husband built a room on their house for the
prophet of God? He hadn’t been staying there very long before the Lord spoke to him and said,
“Call them in here.” Why? “And ask them what they need? What do they want?” The Bible says
when you honor God, He is going to honor you. (1 Samuel 2:30) It happens every time.
So I’m sure Publius didn’t have this in mind, but something about Paul impressed him. He took
him into his house, with no guarantee of anything, and the next thing you know, God has Paul
ministering to Publius’ daddy, who was very, very sick. He had a fever, “sick of a fever and of a
bloody flux,” dysentery, he’s in a bad way, “to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his
hands on him, and healed him.”
Notice the language here. Nothing is said about Publius’ father’s faith. Nothing is said about
Paul preaching to Publius’ father. It only tells you Paul’s side of it, that he went in there and got
to praying, and then he put his hands on this man and healed him. Actually the understood
subject there is Paul—Paul healed him. Now, that doesn’t sound right to our ears, but it’s
because sometimes we don’t know what it’s talking about. It is right. Another way of saying this
is that Paul ministered healing to this man. Nothing is said about the man’s faith. For all we
know, he was delirious and didn’t half know what was going on.
Verse 9 continues, “So when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came,
and were healed.” Paul healed them? No. They what? They were healed. It’s different language.
