Yahweh Rophe

The Hebrew word rophe (ra-FEH) means "heal," "cure," "restore" or "make whole." God made himself known to his people as Yahweh Rophe- "the God who heals you" (Exodus 15:26), but the entire scope means more than just healing our physical bodies. It includes the emotions (mind) and spirit as well- the entire person. Yahweh Rophe is the entire answer to all our ills.

Recently, while hanging out with the people in our Soup Kitchen, one of my soldiers came to me and said something like: "Would you go pray with that person? They want prayer for healing and I can't do that." My immediate response was "why not?" which went ignored, because they weren't really interested in hearing the truth, they just wanted to get out of an uncomfortable situation. Knowing that part of the reason "I" was needed, was because I was the "professional minister," I pointed out two other soldiers who would be more than happy to pray for healing for anyone. I then went about my ministry while the others gathered to pray for the person.

Two things were going on in this situation: 1) Laity felt unqualified because they weren't "ordained" (what garbage! Pish-tosh to all that!) and 2) Someone couldn't pray for healing for another, because they didn't really believe Yahweh Rophe was good for his word (Yeowch! The facts are sometimes hard to swallow).

Okay, maybe we haven't seen results much after prayer for healing. So what? Scripture plainly tells us to pray for each other's healing, so the results are not the issue at all. We are to do it. Period. Yahweh Rophe will take care of the results- they're not for us to worry over or, worse yet, not pray because we haven't see results before.

I believe if we keep praying in faith, despite not seeing results, we will get there one day.

I don't see immediate results every time I pray for people's healing. In fact, if I knew the percentages, mine would probably be terrible! But there have been times when Yahweh Rophe has answered in powerful and miraculous ways! Each one of those times was worth praying 1000 times without getting any known results!

God is Yahweh Rophe. He told us so. I believe him. Do you? Will that change your actions? It should.