God is doing a new thing. A new wave is coming – and I want to catch that wave. I want our whole church to catch that wave. I want all of Burt and Kossuth County to catch that wave.
It means we need to prepare ourselves even more faithfully for God’s service. We need to get rid of any pettiness or jealousy or hatred. We need to reject racism and greed and immorality. We need to hate sin and love God. We need to trust and obey our Jesus Christ and make Him both our Lord and Savior. Getting lined up and ready for the spiritual battle ahead is our duty. Get in the Word and get out of the world. The last days are here. Get yourself in gear.
And God wants to make us strong, to make us whole. He offers us healing and wholeness in Jesus Christ. The promises of the Bible are ours as children of the living God. But we must stand on those promises.
The word sozo, in the Greek, means salvation, but in a total sense – mind body and soul – total healing, complete wholeness. That is what God has for you. Because our Father desires that we be whole spirit, soul, and body, understanding our covenant is the answer to being able to appropriate the blessing of Divine Health. Indeed, our healing, both spiritual and physical, comes from looking to and identifying with the crucified and resurrected Christ “by whose stripes we were healed.” Have faith in that! Have faith in God!
In Exodus 15:26, Scripture records, "If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord 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 the Lord who heals you."
“Heals” means to cure, heal, repair, mend, and restore health. Its participial form rophe, one who heals, is the Hebrew word for a doctor. The main idea of the word rapha is physical healing
Healing is a beautiful word. Our health is a gift from God – and our returning to health from sickness is also a gift from God. In our day we have been given doctors and nurses and the science of medicine to help us to have health.
We are reminded of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the many miracles of healing he performed during his ministry here on earth. Jesus is always the healer, no matter how we are healed.
Do you think of the loved ones and friends you've known -- perhaps people of strong faith -- who nevertheless succumbed to some dreadful sickness which claimed their lives? Do you remember praying for those loved ones, and wondering why those prayers seemed to go unanswered? It is when our wants seem to come against the larger plan of God that we do not completely understand. But it happens.
Still, we are encouraged to pray for healing and trust that God knows what is best for us. Often – and I think much more often in coming months and years – we will find that healing is the will of God for us!
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