As I thought about this last night, I remembered I witnessed a healing (1992 or so?) when I lived in California. Of course this is anecdotal and not empirical, but the physician involved explained what he saw.
A young man in our congregation was in an auto accident. His femur was definitely broke. X-rays before showed the break as a clean break. The accident was severe and the young man had other internal injuries. The church went to prayer not knowing the situation. Many prayed for healing. A few days later they x-rayed the fracture again before putting on a plaster cast. The x-ray showed the break was healed, with the usual bone scar. The physician said it appeared the break had occurred about two months prior.
He showed it around the hospital, and his fellow physicians who were not Christians (and even some of them) said they thought it was just the fact that the bone was healing faster on the outside than usual. They recommended the plaster cast be put on for the usual time.
The physician explained this to David. He chose to NOT wear the cast, feeling God had healed him. Never had a problem.
He had internal injuries that were not healed and took a few months to recover from. His mother insisted he did not go back to playing football that season. But he had no trouble running, working out and so forth.
The question we all had, was why was David’s leg healed and not his internal injuries? What purpose in that? I suspect we’ll never know until after.
Given this, I think the “natural” explanation in this case was “accelerated healing”. Yet Elohim could heal in any multiple ways. How are we to distinguish the various ways one from another?
I know this question is serious, but I think we might be tilting at windmills here. There are just too many ways Elohim works according to the needs of the individual involved, as well as the broader purpose of his will.
Ray