YAHWEH RAPHA – Does God Heal?
“I am Yahweh who heals you” (Exodus 15:26). This is the meaning of the name Yahweh Rapha that God revealed to Israel soon after He brought them out of Egypt and across the Red Sea. But what does that mean for us? Does God heal people today?
One view held by some believers is known as ‘cessationism.’ Cessation comes from the word ‘cease’ and this view says that God has ceased from doing miracles in our time. This view is based on a few factors:
We don’t tend to see legitimate miracles as described in the time of Jesus and the early church, or at least not in our part of the world.
It is a reaction against fake ‘miracles’ in some extreme charismatic churches.
It points to 1 Corinthians 13:8 that states that ‘prophecies,’ ‘tongues’ and ‘knowledge’ will cease.
Another view in the Christian world is the view that God not only still does miracles, but that He intends to prosper us and has promised to heal us if we would only ask in faith. Some of the Biblical arguments used to support this view include:
Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and so He must still intend to heal people today as He did in the past.
Jesus taught that we should pray that God’s will “be done on earth as it is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10) so we should pray for and expect that God will heal disease on earth today since there is no disease in Heaven.
Sickness is believed to be caused by the Devil, so believers need only to resist Him (James 4:7) which will cause Him to flee and will allow healing to come.
There are problems with both of these views. The problem with cessationism is:
It is a view that is rooted in western Christianity where the church has been established and healthcare has been widely available. Stories of legitimate miracles are more common in places where the church is just getting established. This fits with the pattern of miracles in the Book of Acts when God used miracles to confirm the Gospel and establish His church.
Even here in our western culture, there are believers who have experienced legitimate miracles of one kind or another, including miracles of healing.
The Biblical support for cessationism is quite weak. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul is referring to the culmination of redemption at the return of Christ “when completeness comes” (1 Corinthians 13:10), not to a period of time before Christ returns when miracles stop happening.
In James 5:14-16, the Bible instructs those who are ill to call for their church Elders to pray for their healing.
On the other hand, God doesn’t heal every sickness or physical ailment among believers in our day, and here’s why:
The basic story line of the Bible is that:
a. God made a perfect world with no sickness or disease (Genesis 1:31).
b. When human beings sinned against God, they brought a curse upon themselves and this world that included physical disease (Genesis 3:17-19).
c. This curse will not be lifted until the return of Christ (Romans 8:19-23; Revelation 21:4; 22:3) and so we can’t expect the full eradication of sickness until that time.
God allowed some New Testament believers to experience illness (2 Corinthians 12:7-10; 2 Timothy 4:20).
We know from experience that God often does not heal believers of sickness in our day and in fact all believers are still aging and dying until the return of Christ.
God has promised to use trials of various kinds to mature us and grow our faith (James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:6-7).
So what should our attitude be toward sickness and healing? When a believer becomes sick, it is right to do exactly what the Scripture instructs us to do in James 5:14-16, to “call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.” In keeping with the passage, the believer, along with the Elders should:
Prayerfully consider whether there is a sin that God wants to address in the believer’s life, and if so, confess it openly and repent. (We should not assume that a believer’s sickness is because of a secret sin! Remember, we all experience health issues because we are under the curse until Christ returns.)
Anoint with oil, lay hands upon the sick believer and boldly pray for healing, believing that God can do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).
Remember that we pray humbly before the throne of God. Our prayers do not place us on the throne and God as our servant. We will trust His goodness and plan whether He chooses to heal or not.
We should pursue whatever healthcare opportunities are available to treat any physical condition that we are experiencing. While our healthcare system isn’t perfect, we can be grateful for scientific discoveries that have been made and those who are trained to treat our health concerns.
So if God doesn’t always choose to heal His people, is He really Yahweh Rapha, our healing God? The answer of course is yes! We must always remember that God’s primary healing ministry to His people is the healing of their souls. He heals us of our sins (Isaiah 53:5) and He is transforming our broken lives into the likeness of Christ Himself (Romans 8:28-29). He intends to root out our bad habits and flawed character and make us holy as He is. Many believers can attest to the fact that it was through suffering (including sickness) that God did His greatest healing work, not in their body but in their hearts! It is right for us to seek this soul healing and invite God to do His good work in us, even when it is painful. And let us look forward to the day when we stand before Christ fully healed, both physically and spiritually. The curse will be gone, and we will be like Jesus!