DID THE POWER TO HEAL BELONG TO PETER?

“What Acts 3 Actually Says About Apostolic Healing”

By Akin Ojumu

In Acts 3, Luke records one of the most dramatic healing miracles in the early Church.

Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. At the temple gate called Beautiful, they encountered a man who had been lame from birth. Every day, this man was carried there and laid at the gate so that he could beg for alms from those entering the temple.

When he saw Peter and John approaching, he asked them for money. Peter fixed his attention on him and said:

Acts 3:6

“I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

Peter then took him by the right hand and raised him up. Immediately, the man’s feet and ankles were strengthened. The man who had never walked suddenly began walking, leaping, and praising God.

That raises an important theological question:

When Peter said, “What I do have I give to you,” did he mean that he personally possessed the power to heal? Did healing power belong to Peter like some people claim to have healing power or healing anointing today?

The answer requires an important distinction.

Peter certainly possessed something. He had been given divine authority and an apostolic gift through which Christ performed extraordinary miracles.

But the power that actually healed the man did not belong to Peter inherently, independently, or autonomously. Peter was the authorized instrument. Christ was the source and effective agent of the healing.

That distinction is not something imposed upon the passage from outside. Peter himself makes it.

1. Peter Explicitly Denies That the Miracle Came from His Own Power

If Acts 3:6 were isolated from the rest of the chapter, someone might seize upon the words “what I have” and argue that Peter possessed supernatural healing power within himself.

But Luke does not permit us to stop at verse 6.

When the crowd saw the formerly lame man walking and leaping, they were astonished. They began staring at Peter and John as though these apostles possessed some extraordinary supernatural ability.

Peter immediately corrected them:

Acts 3:12

“Why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?”

That statement is devastating to the idea that Peter was claiming autonomous possession of healing power.

Peter essentially tells the crowd:

“Do not look at us as though some supernatural power residing in us produced this miracle.”

Whatever Peter meant by “what I have I give to you,” he plainly did not mean:

“I possess healing power in myself.”

Peter expressly denies that conclusion only six verses later.

2. Peter Identifies the True Source of the Healing

Peter does not merely tell the crowd where the power did not come from. He tells them where it did come from.

In Acts 3:16 he says:

“And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know.”

Peter relentlessly redirects attention away from himself and toward Jesus Christ. 

The expression “in the name of Jesus Christ” is not a magical formula. Peter was acting under the authority of the risen Christ, and Christ Himself was the divine agent at work.

The sequence is therefore:

Peter speaks. Peter acts under Christ’s authority. Christ heals the man.

It is not:

Peter possesses supernatural healing energy. Peter stores that energy within himself. Peter transfers some of that power into the crippled man.

Nothing in Acts 3 teaches such a doctrine.

3. Acts 4 Answers the Question Directly

The religious authorities themselves later ask Peter and John essentially the same question:

Acts 4:7

“By what power or by what name did you do this?”

That is exactly the issue. Whose power was responsible for the miracle?

Peter answers:

Acts 4:10

“By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth…by Him this man is standing before you well.”

Notice Peter’s words carefully:

“By Him.”

By Christ. 

Not by Peter. Not by Peter’s personal healing power. Not by some supernatural substance deposited inside Peter’s body. Not by an autonomous “healing anointing” that Peter could activate whenever he pleased.

“By Him this man is standing before you well.”

Luke could hardly make the theological point clearer.

4. The Apostles Prayed as Though God Possessed the Healing Power

Acts 4 gives us another important piece of evidence.

After Peter and John were released, the believers gathered together and prayed:

Acts 4:29-30

“And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Notice whose hand heals.

God’s hand.

They did not pray: 

“Lord, help Peter release the healing power stored within him.”

They prayed: 

“Stretch out your hand to heal.”

The apostles were instruments. God was the healer.

The signs and wonders occurred through the name and authority of Jesus Christ. That prayer provides an inspired interpretation of how the early Church understood apostolic miracles.

5. Then What Did Peter Mean by “What I Have”?

Peter’s words should not be emptied of their natural meaning. He did possess something.

He contrasts two realities:

What I do not have: silver and gold.

What I do have: Christ-given authority to minister healing in Jesus’ name.

Jesus had already given the Apostles remarkable authority.

Luke 9:1 says:

“He…gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases.”

So, Peter possessed genuine, delegated authority.

But there is a crucial difference between delegated authority and inherent divine power.

A police officer possesses authority to act on behalf of the government, but that does not make the officer the source of governmental authority itself.

Likewise, Peter had been authorized by Christ to act in Christ’s name.

Therefore, the most careful formulation is:

Peter possessed the gift and commission; Christ remained the source of the power.

Or, more precisely:

Peter had Christ-given authority to act, while Christ remained the divine source and effective agent of the healing.

6. Peter Himself Makes the Distinction Explicit in Acts 9

Acts 9 provides the clearest commentary on how Peter personally understood his healing ministry.

Peter encountered a man named Aeneas who had been bedridden for eight years because he was paralyzed.

Peter said to him:

Acts 9:34

“Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.”

That statement deserves careful attention.

Peter does not say: 

“Aeneas, I heal you.”

He does not say: 

“I release my healing power into you.”

He does not say: 

“Receive the healing anointing that I carry.”

Peter identifies the healer plainly: 

“Jesus Christ heals you.”

That tells us exactly how Peter understood his own ministry.

Peter was the messenger. Peter was the instrument. Peter possessed delegated apostolic authority. But Jesus Christ was the healer.

7. The Whole Passage Must Interpret Acts 3:6

This is why Acts 3:6 cannot responsibly be isolated from everything Peter says immediately afterward.

Consider the cumulative testimony:

Acts 3:6

“What I have I give you.”

Acts 3:12

“Not by our own power.”

Acts 3:16

“His name…has made this man strong.”

Acts 4:10

“By him this man is standing before you well.”

Acts 4:30

“Stretch out your hand to heal.”

Acts 9:34

“Jesus Christ heals you.”

Put those statements together and Peter’s theology becomes unmistakable.

Yes, Peter possessed a divinely bestowed apostolic gift and authority through which miraculous healings occurred.

But no, Peter did not regard himself as a reservoir of autonomous supernatural healing power.

The authority was delegated. The instrument was Peter. The power belonged to God. The healer was Jesus Christ.

In fact, Acts 3:12 functions almost like Luke’s built-in safeguard against precisely the misunderstanding that sometimes arises from Acts 3:6.

The very moment the crowd begins staring at Peter and John as though some extraordinary supernatural power resided within them, Peter rejects the inference:

Acts 3:12

“Why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?”

Peter refuses to allow the miracle to become a testimony about Peter. He turns the crowd’s attention immediately to Christ.

8. Why This Matters Today

This distinction becomes especially important when Acts 3:6 is used to justify modern claims such as:

“I carry healing power.”

“I have the healing anointing.”

“I release healing power.”

“The power of God is stored inside my body.”

“People can receive the anointing that I carry.”

Acts 3:6, ripped from its context, can be made to sound as though Peter is teaching something along those lines. 

But Acts 3:12–16 immediately closes that door. Peter will not permit the crowd to imagine that healing power resides autonomously in him. His message is essentially:

“Do not look at me. Do not attribute this to my power. Do not attribute it to my spirituality. Look to Jesus Christ.”

That is the theology of apostolic healing in Acts.

Peter could truthfully say, “What I have I give you,” because Christ had genuinely entrusted him with apostolic authority.

But Peter could say with equal truth, “Not by our own power,” because the miraculous power itself was never his independent or autonomous possession.

There is no contradiction. There is only the distinction between the servant whom Christ authorized and the Lord whose power actually healed.

And Peter himself was determined that nobody confuse the two.