Focus: Does God Want Me Healed? (Pt.2)

Text: Ex.15:26

"I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee."

Our God is YHVH-Rapha! Our God had healed in the past, and still heals in the present, and will heal in the future. And speaking of the future, John writes, "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the HEALING of the nations" (Rev.22:2). The word 'healing' is therapeia in the Greek, and our words 'therapy' and 'therapeutics' are derived from it. 

Our God ever heals. He wants us healed. He restores our souls. He is our Eternal Therapist.

The psalmist says, "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds" (Ps.147:3).

He heals us in different ways. Mark writes, "And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them" (Mk.6:13). The disciples healed the sick by means of the anointing. Back in the Old Testament, we read, "And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" (Num.21:9). This is symbolic of the cross, for the Lord Jesus Christ said, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up" (Jh.3:14). The stripes He received and the blood He shed on the cross have taken care of sins and sicknesses.

Prayer is another means of healing. The psalmist says, "O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me" (Ps.30:2). James says, "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up…" (Jam.5:14-15). God heals by means of prayer and the anointing. The anointing breaks the yokes.

God also heals by means of His word. The psalmist says, "He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions" (Ps.107:20). A centurion said to Christ, "Speak the WORD only, and my servant shall be HEALED" (Mt.8:8). There is creative power and curative properties in the word of God.

We also have Spirit-directed remedies. Moses turned a bitter water into a sweet one by applying the tree which the Lord revealed to him (Ex.15:25). We are informed of Elisha, "And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake" (2Kgs.2:21,22). For Moses, it was a tree, and for Elisha, it was salt.

Ezekiel tells us, "And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for MEDICINE" (Ezk.47:12). Leaves serve as medicine. 

Jeremiah asks, "Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" (Jer.8:22). We have in Christ a medicinal leaf and a medicinal balm. Christ is our Physician, and He heals by His word, by a leaf, and by a balm. Solomon says that God's wisdom "shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones" (Prov.3:8). Again, he says, "Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones" (Prov.16:24). 

God heals in different ways, and He delights in healing us. According to Mt.4:23 and 9:35, Jesus Christ was involved in teaching, preaching and healing, and He has not stopped.

I pray for God to deliver and heal you completely in Jesus' name. Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter