Does God still heal through prayer? Yes!

Can God heal without prayer? Also yes!

In January 2025 I had started in earnest on a new fitness program. It was difficult, and I was getting small, nagging injuries along the way. Fast forward to September 2025 and I am trying to work on pull ups. My weight was up and my strength was down; a bad recipe for a good pull up. But with some momentum I was hoping to wiggle my way up the bar. I did a couple reps and pulled a muscle in my back, just below my right shoulder blade. It doesn’t feel great. And after a couple weeks the pain isn’t going away. What now?

During this time I had left my home church in search of some new experiences, and something of a break. I had served continuously since I started four years prior and I needed a rest. The other churches I visited were great but I couldn’t get it to stick. And I didn’t want to take another couple of years to build new friends and relationships. It was time to go home.

Sunday, November 9, 2025. I walked into church and sat with a group of friends. At my church they sing a few songs, watch a 2 minute hype video and then the pastor comes out to preach. The pastor is speaking about announcements but hasn’t gotten into his sermon yet. Suddenly I feel this low-grade, dull pain in my back where I had pulled the muscle. I lean forward, thinking maybe my position is just putting strain on it. Even after changing positions, it persists. Then I think:

Am I getting healed?

The dull pain persists for a couple more seconds and slowly fades.

Then I was healed!

I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t pray about it. No one laid hands on me. Yet I was healed. What is to be made of this? This is evidence to me that it is within God’s nature to heal. Jesus gives us power and authority to pray for the sick, lay hands on the sick and they will be healed (Mark 16:18).

But God can also heal us without us asking for it. You see this in the story of the window of Nain:

Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Luke 7:11-15

No one in the story asked Jesus to raise the boy from the dead. But it was from His compassion that He did so! And He can still do it today, and do it for you too.