The God Who Heals Series

INTRODUCTION

Larry Miley grew up in the northeast corner of the Ivory Coast, where his father was a missionary physician. When he was 14, he was laid low by a bout of malaria, and his father gave him an injection. All seemed well at first, and Dr. Miley returned to his hospital, not knowing the injection would produce a severe reaction that would take Larry to the edge of the grave.

Mrs. Miley was preparing for her sewing and Bible class on the verandah when a blood-curdling scream filled the house. Rushing through the door, she saw her daughter Lynette standing in near hysteria before Larry, who seemed disoriented, confused, his twitching eyes recessing deeply into their sockets.

“There’s something wrong with my eyes,” Larry gasped. “Help me!”

As Lynette ran for her father, Mrs. Miley ushered Larry to the bed and covered his eyes with a washcloth. Just as the doctor arrived, Larry’s body arched in a violent spasm. Like a woman in the throes of birth pains, regular contractions wracked him, sending him convulsing this way and that, threatening to cut off his respiration. Larry’s heart grew fainter. Hours passed. The spasms grew stronger, and Larry became weaker. Dr. Miley knew well that Larry’s survival in that remote outpost was unlikely.

Suddenly he remembered that James 5:14 says, “Call for the elders of the church.” The only “elders” were fellow missionaries living nearby, and they were summoned at once. Eddie and Sandra Payne, Howard and Willie Gage, Lynette and her brother Lynn. As they knelt by the bed and prayed, Dr. Miley anointed Larry with the anointing oil.

Mrs. Miley recalls: Slowly, like oil being poured over troubled waters, a deep calm replaced the suffocating fear. We sensed before we even raised our eyes that the crisis had passed. Larry was asleep and slept peacefully through the night.

Next day as I prepared the noon meal, Larry came bouncing into the kitchen. “I’m all well now,” he announced brightly, “so I think I’ll go hunting! God is good!”

God be praised. He is still in the healing business and His door is open to you.

Welcome back to our 10th week of our biblical foundation series today we're talking specifically about divine healing and how we serve a healing God.

WE BELIEVE that the work of Christ on the Cross provides healing of the human body (Isaiah 53:4–5; James 5:14–16; 1 Peter 2:24).

BODY

Sickness and its inevitable consequence of death is a clear consequence of sin on humanity. And so, when Jesus came into the world he came to bring an end to death and therefore sickness as well but we're living in the in-between in which sickness and death still prevails and yet Christ has that victory.

In the gospel there are 51 individual accounts of healings aside from the times when it said that Jesus healed the multitudes. These stories take the time to zoom in to the individual accounts of these people so that we can learn from their healings. And what in such case there was a man who was born blind the disciples ask a very important question turn with me to

John 9:1-7

Jesus made it clear that Sickness and disease is not a direct result of a person’s personal sin but rather the result of the curse of sin on mankind. And if you keep reading on this story you would see that the neighbors and people around this young man that was healed that could now see recognize that Christ must be acting on behalf of God if not be God himself because the healing happened. In the Old Testament one of the names of God is ‘Hani Yahweh Roph’eka—I am the Lord who heals you.

Exodus 15:2 He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the LORD who heals you.”

You may have heard his name as Jehovah Roph’e—just A quick side note, the name Jehovah is synonymous with the name Yahweh it's just the Latin variant of what scholars believe the Hebrew YHWH would have been pronounced and since YHWH was so holy that the priests would not read the word but instead substitute Adonai--the Hebrew word for Lord the Latin variant became a popular substance for Yahweh but Yahweh is what most scholars agree is the most appropriate pronunciation for the Hebrew word. So, whether you say Jehovah Roph’e or Yahweh Roph’e, it doesn't really matter as we are pointing to God regardless.

The Old Testament refers to God as both Yahweh Roph’eka and Yahweh Roph’e, Which could both be translated as I am the Lord your physician but in the Hebrew the suffix KA delineates a singular action drawing the attention to the individual in a personal relationship. We see throughout scripture that he is the Lord who heals and not just in general, but he heals you.