YHWH Rophe-ka / YHWH Your Healer
"If you diligently heed the voice of YHWH your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am YHWH Your Healer."
~ Exodus 15:26 (author)
Zodhiates Hebrew Dictionary defines the Hebrew verb rapha "to heal, to make fresh ... describes the process ... of physical and spiritual healing ... being [made] wholesome ... it describes the restoring of a person's soul, life."
Like the word shalom, meaning "peace," rapha addresses wholeness of body, mind, heart and soul. The components of a person are not separated. If one part of the person is not well, the person is not well.
In The Word on Health*, Dr. Michael D. Jacobson identifies six reasons given in Scripture for physical illness related to the whole person:
• Sickness unto death
• Sickness to glorify God through healing
• Sickness to test or develop character
• Sickness due to a broken spirit (depression)
• Sickness due to purely physical causes
• Sickness due to chastisement [/consequences] for sin
Among reasons for sickness due to chastisement, Dr. Jacobson mentions specific sins for which the Bible describes that one might suffer illness, including immorality, lying, rebellion, bitterness (unforgiveness), a violated conscience (guilt), and taking communion unworthily. It is noteworthy that consequences may be chastisement from God as Father, from the devil (by sin giving him an opening in our lives), or the physical affects on the body from sin itself (e.g., alcoholism).
There is a time and place for physicians and counselors of various kinds. But the Lord is our foremost Healer, of body, mind, heart, and soul. When we turn to Him for healing, He does not isolate a physical problem from the whole person, and His process of healing is likely to involve more than the body. He may choose to heal upon repentance or through medicine. He may release from sickness upon death, or He may choose to perform a miraculous healing at once (to which numerous credible testimonies attest, and which I have personally witnessed).
When we seek His healing, we do well to ask Him how we might cooperate with it. When we see another suffering affliction, we must use utmost caution to not evaluate the why of sickness unless God is providing direction to enable us to assist the healing process. We should remain ready to offer comfort to the afflicted.
The greatest and most important healing God desires to do is the eternal healing of our spirits from sin. It is a healing available only through the blood of His Son. The most important healing God might use one of His servants to perform is speaking words of freedom from sin and guilt.
God promises to heal His children. The why, how and when are subject to His will—as it is bent by our prayers.
* Above excerpts taken from The Word on Health by Dr. Michael D. Jacobson, Moody Press, © 2000. Used with written permission of the publisher, 2001.
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I praise God for being my healer.
ReplyDeleteThank you Anne, this blessed me.
ReplyDeleteI've prayed often to the name of our healer for my sisters who deal with some of the things listed above.
ReplyDelete"The greatest and most important healing God desires to do is the eternal healing of our spirits from sin." -- I love the truth you share!
~ Wendy
Denise, I love watching the continual healing God does in you, and wait with you to see its completion.
ReplyDeleteT. Anne, you continually bless me.
Wendy, the truth of healing is so manifest and so denied because people look for only one kind of healing.