In her new book, 605 Everyday Miracles, Alpha UK director Chloe Swart challenges the perception that miraculous healing is reserved for extraordinary people or church events.
Drawing on her doctoral research, which collected 605 accounts of healing from ordinary Christians across a wide range of everyday situations, Swart explores how faith, prayer and unexpected encounters continue to shape people's lives today.
Christian Today spoke with Chloe to hear common misconceptions about healing, the stories that stayed with her, and the conversations she hopes the book will generate in churches.
How do you define an “everyday miracle”?
During my theology PhD research, I collected 605 healing stories, and four major themes emerged throughout them: everyday locations, everyday people, everyday ailments, and everyday language.
An “everyday miracle” is essentially ordinary Christians, people like you and me, praying for healing in ordinary, everyday settings. A lot of the time, these moments happened outside church buildings, in normal daily life, and in very natural ways.
Have you ever wrestled with doubt while praying for healing?
I think every time I offer to pray for healing, even though I’ve seen God heal many times, there’s always a faith moment of asking, “Lord, please heal this person”, before then administering healing to that person in Jesus’ name.
I do not doubt that God can heal, though. I believe He wants to heal and that He is able to heal. But obviously, we don’t always see everyone we pray for healed immediately, so there can still be moments of uncertainty about what will happen.
What misconceptions about miracles would you most like to challenge?
One major misconception is that only certain Christians can pray for healing. People often say, “I can’t pray for healing, I’m not good enough,” or, “I don’t have the gift of healing.”
But I believe all Christians are called to pray for the sick. When someone becomes a Christian and is filled with the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit lives within them. It’s the power of Jesus that heals.
I do believe some people have a specific gift of healing, but I think that gift is meant not only to heal the sick but also to encourage the wider Church to step out and pray for healing too.
I often compare it to evangelism. Some people are especially gifted evangelists, but that doesn’t mean they are the only ones called to share the gospel. We are all called to witness and share our faith. In the same way, we are all called to pray for the sick.
In the book, you share many stories of miraculous healing. Are there any that stand out most to you?
There are two stories I especially love.
One is about a man in his early twenties who was serving in the army. He broke his femur, but the bone never properly realigned. In the gap where the bone should have healed, a tumour grew. He underwent numerous operations to remove it, but it kept returning, and he lived with constant pain.
One day at church, shortly before a pre-operation scan, someone felt prompted to pray generally for healing. He simply stood at the back of the church and prayed quietly with his wife. Nobody specifically prayed for him.
When he later went for his scan, not only had the tumour completely disappeared, but the bone had also fully realigned. I think it’s an incredible story because both the tumour vanished and the bone was restored.
The second story is about a man helping friends landscape a garden. The machinery fell and crushed his foot. He was in agony, his bones were broken and they called an ambulance.
Then the children of the family he was helping came over and prayed for him. Immediately, the pain and swelling disappeared, and his foot was completely healed. They cancelled the ambulance.
I love that story because it wasn’t in a church setting, and it wasn’t a pastor with a healing ministry praying for him. It was children simply praying in faith.
While conducting research on healing, you write in the book that modern-day Christian physical healing is a seriously understudied phenomenon. Why do you think that is?
I think healing is difficult to study scientifically. My research focused on collecting healing stories rather than conducting a medical study. I didn’t require people to provide medical evidence, although some did voluntarily send scans and documentation, which was wonderful.
The challenge is that many healings happen outside formal medical settings. For example, I recently read a story about a woman who had twenty verrucas on her foot. Someone prayed for her, and they all disappeared. She probably didn’t have medical documentation proving they had been there, but she knew they were causing discomfort and that they vanished after prayer.
Academic research often focuses heavily on measurable evidence and established literature, so studying something supernatural can be difficult within those frameworks.
What surprised me during my own research was the sheer volume of stories. I initially thought I might collect eight to 10 accounts, but I ended up gathering 605 stories from people describing remarkably similar experiences. In itself, that consistency became significant evidence from a sociological perspective.
What advice would you give individuals who feel nervous about praying for others?
First, remember that Jesus calls us to heal the sick. It’s something He explicitly instructed His followers to do.
Second, remember that He has equipped us through the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus lives in us. Jesus even says in the New Testament that we will do the works He did, and even greater things.
Sometimes we feel nervous because we fear rejection or worry about what will happen if someone isn’t healed. But in my experience, very few people refuse prayer. Non-Christians are often surprisingly open to it.
I remember praying for someone at work who wasn’t healed in that moment, but later they came back and told me how deeply moved and emotional they felt afterwards. Even when physical healing doesn’t happen immediately, God can still touch people’s hearts.
It’s important to remember that it’s not our job to make something happen, that’s God’s responsibility. Our role is simply to offer prayer and trust Him with the outcome.
So take the pressure off yourself. Jesus has called you, equipped you, and empowered you. Our job is simply to step out in faith and see what God might do.
Has writing the book changed your own prayer life?
It has definitely encouraged me to keep praying for healing regularly.
When you write a book and begin speaking publicly about healing, it challenges you not just to tell stories from years ago, but to continue living it out yourself.
Even two weeks ago, I was at the gym when a man my dad knows mentioned he was struggling with arthritic pain in his wrist. I was in a rush and wanted to continue my workout, but I felt prompted to pray for him.
So I asked, “I’m a Christian, would you mind if I prayed for you?” He said yes, so I prayed briefly.
About 10 minutes later, he came back over, tapped me on the shoulder, and said, “Almost all the pain has gone apart from this one small spot, would you pray again?”
He isn’t a Christian, but he recognised that something had changed. Experiences like that continue to encourage me to keep stepping out in prayer.
What conversations do you hope this book sparks within the Church?
I hope it encourages ordinary Christians to have confidence to pray for friends, family, colleagues, and even strangers.
For me, healing is deeply missional. Of course it’s wonderful to pray for people within the Church, but healing can also powerfully demonstrate the reality of Jesus to people outside the Church.
You can pray for someone at a supermarket checkout or at a bus stop, and through that moment they may encounter the love and reality of God in a personal way.
My hope is that the book helps Christians realise they are empowered and equipped to pray for healing themselves, and that through these moments, more people come to know Jesus
