Are the sensational cures of our day performed in the same way as the miraculous cures of Jesus and his early disciples?

Cost of services: “Cure sick people, raise up dead persons, make lepers clean, expel demons. You received free, give free.” (Matt. 10:8) (Are healers today doing that—giving free, as Jesus commanded?)

Rate of success: “All the crowd were seeking to touch him [Jesus], because power was going out of him and healing them all.” (Luke 6:19) “They brought the sick out even into the broad ways and laid them there upon little beds and cots, in order that, as Peter would go by, at least his shadow might fall upon some one of them. Also, the multitude from the cities around Jerusalem kept coming together, bearing sick people and those troubled with unclean spirits, and they would one and all be cured.” (Acts 5:15, 16) (In our day, do all who go to religious practitioners or to religious shrines seeking a cure get healed?)

Does the way of life of members of the organizations of which “healers” are a part give evidence that they have God’s spirit?

As a group do they outstandingly manifest such fruits of the spirit as love, long-suffering, mildness, and self-control?—Gal. 5:22, 23.

Are they truly “no part of the world,” shunning all involvement in the world’s political affairs? Have they remained clean of bloodguilt during wartime? Do they have a fine reputation because of avoiding the world’s immoral conduct?—John 17:16; Isa. 2:4; 1 Thess. 4:3-8.

Why were such gifts as the ability to do miraculous healing given to first-century Christians?

Heb. 2:3, 4: “How shall we escape if we have neglected a salvation of such greatness in that it began to be spoken through our Lord and was verified for us by those who heard him, while God joined in bearing witness with signs as well as portents and various powerful works and with distributions of holy spirit according to his will?” (Here was convincing evidence, indeed, that the Christian congregation, which was then new, was truly of God. But once that was fully established, would it be necessary to prove it again and again?)

1 Cor. 12:29, 30; 13:8, 13: “Not all are prophets, are they? . . . Not all have gifts of healings, do they? Not all speak in tongues, do they? . . . Love never fails. But whether there are gifts of prophesying, they will be done away with; whether there are tongues, they will cease . . . Now, however, there remain faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (When they had accomplished their purpose, those miraculous gifts would cease. But priceless qualities that are the fruitage of God’s spirit would still be manifest in the lives of true Christians.)