This time I will quote passages (excerpts only) from some books that the Lord has led me and my brethren in Christ to re-read lately.
Vine’s complete expository dictionary of Old and New Testament Words
To Heal: rapa (7495), “to heal.” This word si common to both modern and ancient Hebrew. It occurs approximately 65 times in the Hebrew Old Testament, appearing first in Genesis 20:17: “ God healed Abimelech.”
“To heal” may be described as “restoring to normal,” an act which God typically performs. Thus, appeals to God for healing are common: “O Lord, heal me for my bones are vexed” (Ps. 6:2); “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed” (Jer. 17:14). not only are human diseases “healed”, but bad water is restored to normal or “healed” (2 Kings 2:22)…
False prophets are condemned because they deal only with the symptoms and not with the deep spiritual hurts of the people: “They have healed also the hurts of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14; also 8:11).
New Spirit Filled Life Bible – New King James Version
Kingdom Dynamics (topical articles on spiritual truth)
Exodus 15:26 The Old Testament Healing Covenant, DIVINE HEALING. This verse is widely referred to as the OT Divine Healing Covenant. It is called a “covenant”, because in it God promises He will keep His people free from diseases and conditions the promise upon their diligent obedience.
The words used here for “diseases” (Hebrew makhaleh) and “heals” (Hebrew rapha) are regularly used for physical sickness and bodily healing. This is not only a spiritual concept, but also an intensive physical one. The covenant is made absolutely certain by the fact that God joins His mighty name to the promise, calling Himself “Yahweh-Rapha”, meaning “the LORD who heals.”
Power in the Name (Revealing the God Who Provides and Heals) by Derek Prince
Exodus 15:22-26 “…for I, the LORD [Jehovah], am your healer.” (NASB)
The second covenant name of God is given at the very end of the passage: “the LORD…you healer.”
The word that is translated “healer” is the basic Hebrew word for “physical healing”. In modern Hebrew, it is the word used for “doctor”. In face, it would be perfectly correct to translate this as “I am Jehovah, your doctor.” That is exactly what it would be in contemporary Hebrew, “the LORD (Jehovah, or Yahweh) is directly connected to the word for one who heals. Alternatively, we could say, “The Lord who heals.”
Requirement for healing -wholehearted faith in God
The basic requirement for healing is stated clearly: “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God…” (Exodus 15:26). In the original Hebrew, it is literally, “If listening you will listen to the voice of the LORD.” The word listen is repeated twice.
Once, as I lay sick in a hospital, desperately needing healing and seeking God for it in the Scriptures, this verse came to me. I said, “What does it mean to ‘listen’, ‘listening’?” And it seemed God gave me this answer: “…To ‘listen’, ‘listening’ is to listen to Me with both ears. But if you listen to Me with one ear and to somebody else with the other ear, all you get is confusion and not faith.” So, I stopped up my ear to the sinister whisper of the devil and listened to God with both ears. Sure enough, I received my healing!Jesus was the final fulfillment of the healing covenant of God for His people. On the cross, Jesus not only bore our sin, but He also took our infirmities and carried away our diseases. He not only provided forgiveness, but He also provided healing.
Remember that God is still the healer of His people. The blessings of the covenant are now available to both Jews and Gentiles-to all those who come in faith, through Jesus, to God the Father, on the basis of His covenantal name: The One Who Heals. (Exodus 15:26)
Healing The Sick – A living Classic, by T.L Osborn
Chapter 1 How Many Will God Heal?
I will take sicknesses away from you. The number of your days I will fulfill. (Exodus 23:25-26)
I am the Lord who heals you. (Exodus 15:26)
The purpose of this chapter is to acquaint you with what the Bible teaches: If you are sick, God wants to heal you.
Until you are fully convinced that God wants you to be well, there will always be a doubt in your mind as to whether or not you will be healed. As long as there is that doubt in your mind, perfect faith cannot exist, and until faith is exercised, without doubt or wavering, you may never be healed.
Without faith, it is impossible to please Him; for they that come to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. (Hebrew 11:6)
But let them ask in faith, nothing wavering. For they that waver are like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not those [who waver] think they shall receive any thing of the Lord. (James 1:6-7)
Once people are fully convinced that God wants to heal them and that it is not God’s will for them to be sick, they almost always receive healing when prayed for, if not before. Knowing God’s will concerning sickness provides the ground on which perfect faith can act.
God is honest
There has not failed one word of all His good promise. 1 Kings 8:56
For ever O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119:89
I will hasten My word to perform it. Jeremiah 1:12 That word hasten means: “to watch over”, “to look after”, “to protect”, or “to stand behind.” In all of His unlimited power, God is standing behind His word to accomplish it. Believe that.
There is no reason for doubting God.
Three Million Healed
God announced Himself to be the healer of His people (Ex. 15:26). He spoke those words to about three million people. (Ex. 12:37) Everyone of them believed god’s words were true. The result: Everyone of them who needed healing was made perfectly whole.
We are told: He brought them forth…and there was not one feeble person among their tribes (Ps. 105:37). Can you imagine three million people all well and strong? Not one feeble, not one weak, and not one sick?
If that was true in Israel, under the law, it is much more true for you, who have been redeemed by the blood of God’s Lamb and are living under grace, mercy and truth.
Let this be a settle truth that you know, as well as you know two plus two are four: Healing is for you -all may be healed.
The only reason disease takes such a toll among Christians today is that many do not believe what God has spoken. They know God said, I am the Lord who heals you. Somehow they have failed to believe He meant what He said, which is basically what Satan said to Adam and Eve: God did not mean what He said. Influenced by tradition (Mark 7:13), people have changed God’s I am to “I was.”
Chapter Two Healing is for All
There is no better way to know the will of God than by reading the Gospels, which record the teachings and the works of Christ. Jesus was the physical expression of the Father’s will. His life was both a revelation and a manifestation of the unchanging love and will of God. He acted out the will of God for us.
Uncertainty corrected
The leper said: If You will, You can. Jesus answered, I will (Mark1:41).
Let that settle forever with you: God will heal the sick. If He wills to heal one, then He wills to heal all.
James asks: Is any sick among you? (James 5:14). Any included you if you are sick.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8
Great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. Matthew 12:15
As many as touched [Him] were made perfectly whole. Matthew 14:36
The whole multitude sought to touch Him: [and He] healed them all. Luke 6:19
When the evening came, they brought to
Him many that were possessed with devils: and He cast out the spirits
with His word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our
infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.
Christ is still healing the sick, in order to fulfill the prophet’s words: Himself took our infirmities [weaknesses], and bore our sicknesses [diseases].
Always remember: you are included in the our in Matthew 8:17, and God
is bound by His covenant to continue to heal all who are sick and weak,
in order to fulfill Isaiah’s words.Healing is for all and should be preached to all
Philip preached Christ at Samaria (Acts 8:6-8). Jesus proved to be exactly the same when Philip told the people about Him.
Peter preached Christ to the cripple (Acts 3:6), to the multitudes (Acts 5:14-16), to Aeneas (Acts 9:34). All were healed. Jesus was the same for Peter.
Wherever and whenever Jesus Christ is proclaimed as our sacrifices for sin and sickness, physical healing as well as spiritual salvation will result.
Paul preached Christ (Acts 14:8-9). Paul must have preached the gospel of healing, because the lame man received faith to be healed while listening to Paul’s message.
Let it be a settle fact: It is God’s will to heal you. You have a right to healing as well as forgiveness when you believe.
Healing is part of the gospel and is to be preached throughout all the world and to every creature, to the end of the world (Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:20).
Being part of the gospel, the divine blessing of physical healing is for all.
