Having established the idea of the act of healing and the power behind it, which is no less than the 'dunamous' power of the HOly Spirit, we also see that healing is part and parcel of Salvation, and that the Laying on of Hands is a foundational doctrine which must not be ignored, even in the modern Church. In the last section, we considered that the Laying on of Hands, in both the Old and New Testament conferred:1. Authority & Sanctification [setting apart]
2. Blessing and Comfort
3. Anointing Purpose or Gifting and
4. Healing
Before we move into the Types of Healing, though, it must first and foremost be noted that the First and Greatest, and utterly pre-eminent Healing, is that of Salvation, of the healing of man to God. Since the Fall of Adam, there has been what one author called a 'crack in Creation', a wounding, a separation so great from God that man began to die. (Gn 3) We have since that time, been insufficient in our sin condition to heal that breach or stop that separation or the curses which have attended it since: instead of a Garden Paradise, we have made of the world a sorrow and heartache of every suffering, of fruitless labor, of tearing, enslavement and death. In our need, God saw since before the Fall a need we would have which we could never repair or heal, and since the beginning, when a Son of Adam was promised who would come to bruise the serpent, sin and death, putting the curse we brought on ourselves, forever under His divine foot.
Man in his separated condition, usually never gets close enough to God to obey Him even in the smaller things---and in our lost state, it was impossible even if we could to obey Him to a point of repairing our broken Covenant with Him. More than that though, the painful truth was that even if we could have obeyed, even if we could have listened and heard, it was not within our nature, purpose or ability to heal that sad abyss between man and God. Those of us who know Messiah, understand immediately, that the obedience required, and the Blood Atonement, required a divine son, not just 'of' God, but God himself, 'with God', of God, God". [Isaiah 9:6; John 1]
The greatest Healing then, took place in Salvation, the Salvation of the Jews, when our Messiah took upon himself the task, or indeed the War against the destroyer, to bring about our Salvation and healing to God, to heal the breach between Man and God, to destroy the curse of Sin which before redemption is a hard and impossible taskmaster, and to restore God's plan and Paradise, the Heaven of God and the New Jerusalem, to those who would believe.
Jesus, or Y'shua was about healing and Deliverance: He came to buy back the Bride of Israel, in an act of divine obedience only He and no one else could accomplish. His very Name carried the connotation of healing and salvation:
"and she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His Name JESUS for He shall
SAVE his people from their sins"
The word 'save' in Greek is 'Soza' and means to save, rescue, deliver and heal. This name chosen not by man but by God, showed the Savior's healing purpose, and He became the unsung King of Israel that day, Israel's Deliverer, the Meschiach, the rescuer of the Bride of Israel and all who would believe and be grafted on to her vine, and the great Healer of Israel, restoring His Bride to what her God-Given Glory demanded, to who she was, who she would be and to the purpose chosen before time at the foundation of the World, to bear His glory. So the first lesson regarding Divine healing, must always begin with Israel's healer, 'Jehovah Rapha', in the person of Yshua, or Jesus.
Indeed, most of His ministry before the Cross, was one of healing disease, pain, deformity, spiritual problems, and ultimately souls: He turned Israel back to their God, and away from the disease of mistrust and hardheartedness that the corruption of big business religion had caused, which even back then, had sold Israel to her enemies.
The Healing of His Stripes
The Word teaches in both the Old and New Testament:
"by His Stripes we are healed" Isaiah 53:5 and
"By whose stripes we are healed "I Peter 21:24
I used to wonder at this passage and one other:
"It pleased the LORD to bruise him",
The words for 'stripe' and bruising are similar: in the Old Testament, 'habbura' means a bruise welt, wound , injury, stripe or hurt, as used in Isaiah 53% and the greek word in I Peter 21:24 is 'molops' which means the same: wound, welt, bruise.
The ways of God though are not the ways of man: we think in far too limited a fashion regarding how far Love can go, especially the Love of God. Our momentary sufferings, even the cruel and bitter and unbearable, in God's hands often accomplish a major HEALING. The ultimate healing, our salvation was brought about not in a King's Palace or cool comfort, but on a brutal darkening day with the horror of crucifixion, nails, spears, beating, stripping and humiliation. The purposes of man though were forcefully overturned by God that day, and our healing became real.
The Old Testament word used in the Isaiah passage is 'rapa' or 'rapha', which carries the connotation not only of physical healing but of 'making whole', curing and recovering. This idea of restoration and making something perfect and complete, restoring 'wholeness' carries throughout scripture: we are told of the healing of nations, the healing of bodies, the healing of spirits, and lives. The New Testament word used in I Peter, is iaoma, which means healing and making whole, and 'freeing'. With healing comes freedom in some form or another, whether it be freedom from oppression, pain, the tyranny of another, a binding circumstance, or emotional pain and suffering. We become free to do God's will and purpose. We feel upon healing, a renewed vigor, outlook, strength and meaning in our lives.
The Wounding of the Cross
His woundings on the Cross led to our healing:
1. Within ourselves- psychological [whatever that is], spiritual and physical
2. Without: between us and others
3. Made whole and healed to God.
These great divine accomplishments were why it 'pleased the LORD' to bruise Messiah for our sake, and though the treatment He received in this diseased world was unbearable to even consider, the healing he wrought was everlasting. Our healing with God is the starting place of all healing: it is our 'soterion' our Salvation.
The King of Israel's accomplished purpose was noted even before his coming, when it was noted that He was risen with healing in His Wings.
Salvation, or soteria carries also the same purposes and connotations as that of its author: deliverance, safety, rescue and healing. Blueletterbible.com defines it thusly:
1) deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation
a) deliverance from the molestation of enemies
b) in an ethical sense, that which concludes to the souls safety or salvation
1) of Messianic salvation
2) salvation as the present possession of all true Christians
3) future salvation, the sum of benefits and blessings which the Christians, redeemed from all earthly ills, will enjoy after the visible return of Christ from heaven in the consummated and eternal kingdom of God.
Strong's describes it as "the State of believers being safe from Righteous Wrath in proper relationship with God, and deliverance, a state of 'not being in grave danger'. This first and great healing, makes the other 'wonders' of healing seem small and comparitively incidental.
Three Shades of Healing
I have noticed in my readings of the Word four 'categories' or broad aspects of healing:
1. Being Made Whole [to God, others and self]
2. Deliverance [from disease, and mafunction, and spiritual infrimity, from others, from darkness and the demonic, and from death, and
3. Rescue and
4. Freedom
These will be discussed in the next segment.
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