Jehovah Rapha

Yesterday I had the privilege of hearing pastor Brian Smith speak a message on God's healing. 

In the message he explained that one of God's names is "Jehovah Rapha" which can be translated: "I am healing you". 

"I am healing you....."

I love this name of God.  It tells me that He is not just a divine being waiting in some distant place to be worshipped, but is instead a powerful, caring God who is actively involved in my life. He is at work healing me, healing those who are his children. 

But there are many reasons why we do not really believe that God heals, and the biggest one is our experience. 

Our experience tells us that people often do not get healed, that the ones we pray for do not receive that special touch from Jehovah Rapha. 

Our experience is a powerful teacher and it trains us what to think about God. In this case it teaches us to think that if we pray and healing doesn't happen, then we understand our experience as the 'fact' (no healing), and God is the 'mystery' (I don't know why he didn't heal).

I heard something different from God yesterday- I heard his word tell me that when Jesus died on the cross, everything necessary for healing was made available. I also heard that Jesus always wants to heal. And something changed in my heart:  instead of holding experience as the 'fact' and God as the 'mystery' I began to think about holding God as the 'fact' and my experiences as the 'mystery'.

If I pray for someone to be healed and they aren't then I can hold on to the firm understanding that God really is who he says he is- the healer who wants to heal. And my experience? Well I hold that in question!  I become suspicious of what is happening and don't think of it as unquestionable. My experience is now the mystery and God becomes the fact.  My experience becomes the unknown, changeable element and God becomes the anchored and solid truth that I know clearly because he told me clearly. 

Psalm 103:1-3 NIV

Praise the Lord , my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord , my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.

Heals all your diseases....

What is the foundation you stand on?  Is it God and what He declares about himself in his word, or is it your experiences?

Faith. Faith takes on whole new meaning when we begin to see God as the unmoving center and experience becomes the big question mark. 

I think the door of heaven just opened up a little bit....hope some of the light shines on you today. 

BT

Pastor Brian Tysdal

Rock of Ages Church

Saskatoon, Sask.