Jehovah Rapha, God is our Healer! That is one of God’s names too.
When I was pushed into the operating theatre, my thoughts and trepidations were many. Fears within me were equally insurmountable. I remembered I was praying desperately for God’s help. Knowing, I may or may not make it out alive.
I rewind back two month to the time when I was told by the ward doctor that there was a growth on the upper end of my right ureter. That moment of disclosure of the bad news by my attending doctor was unforgettable. Tears still welled up in my eyes as I relate it. Overwhelmed by the news, my troubled mind as I recalled, asking the physician how much time do I had left. Next, I was in a session of inexhaustible rationalisation with the doctor on my medical problem. Subsequently then, I was referred to the Urology department for further investigation. I guessed the ward doctor just wants this difficult patient off her ward as soon as possible.
My visit to the urologist confirmed my greatest fears; it is cancer that needed immediate surgery. The prognosis was to have the ailing ureter surgically removed along with the kidney. I would have cried uncontrollably if not for the presence of my accompanied family members. My fate was sealed after I did an ureteroscopy and a biopsy to confirm and determine the cancer type. Honestly, those two procedures were not necessary; the urologist’s professional recommendation was immediate removal of the ailing organ. But I was trying to delay the date of my surgery. Hopefully, God will miraculously intervene and restored my ailing body during the period of the delay. That did not happen.
During the 2 months before my surgery, i was in an intensive self-indulged programme of doing the expected requirements for God to heal me. Pray i did, nearly everything and anything within the scope of my belief in God and His Holy Words, short of the “tribal dance” that would implore God to let me be healed. Just teasing! I would trust and believe that my God was able to heal me by removing the growth completely. He did not.
So, a week into the New Year, I went for the actual surgery. After the successful operation, my urologist and surgeon referred me to the oncology department for followed up treatments. I went for the chemotherapy treatment to ensure that there are no aggressive cancer cells surviving out of the “ground zero”
Now, I am eight months after my surgery. You will ask, do I still believe in God as my healer? Do I waver at God’s promises now and His abilities to heal the sick? Relevant questions indeed! I should, after all, He did not do as He claimed He is my healer. The answers to all the inquisitive questions are yes to the former question and no, to the latter. It is still yes for me, beyond the shadow of doubts, that our God is Jehovah Rapha. He is the Lord that heals!
Why? Would be the consecutive question I presumed. My answer is simply yes because; He did the most astonishing miracles while He was on earth. I was taught in Sunday school that Jesus restored sight to the blind, healed the leper, the sick, casting out demons and raising people from the dead. In all, Jesus did 37 miracles while He was on earth. He can still do it. In fact, He is still doing miracles of healing today as shared by countless testimonies of people healed. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever as stated in Hebrews 13:8. That is an age-old truth!
The million-dollar question that you will be” itching” to ask is, since, if He is so great, why didn’t He heal you then? I do not blame you for that question. My reply is the same, yesterday, today and will be forever that, that is His Prerogative. He is God, the Almighty and Giver of Eternal Life.
The key point here to ponder has to be the word prerogative. Indeed, it is God’s prerogatives, His Sovereign rights as God Almighty. He can choose His desire within His privileges as God to do something or not. Therefore, there should not be any qualms or reservations here. Next, we look at the secondary reasons why He allowed some believers not to be healed, if He is the mighty Jehovah Rapha? He claimed that He is the healer in Exodus 15: 26. Upon self-reflection and investigations, I endeavor to suggest that our treatment of God in our life has to do with His non-intervention into our personal crisis. Incidentally, as humans, we too have our own set of prerogatives. God gave us the absolute ability to makes choices in life. This free will is the ability to choose good or evil, right or wrong and God or eternal damnation. That is our prerogative which God will never interfere into our choices, just as with our salvation. The most gross and blatant fault that we all shared is our treatment of our God. Our lukewarm and lackluster love affair with God in our daily lives; He has become no more than an Automated Teller Machine. When we only need cash, we will approach the machine to withdraw the cash. After that, the thought of the machine is remotely far away. That is exactly how our God is being treated. He will not be in our daily thoughts or happenings, nope, never until disaster or crisis strikes. We are all guilty of this heinous sin. Only when a major crisis happened, our desperation will turn us to the source of our help that is GOD. How sad! Can we expect anything to happen or change in these moments of need and desperation? Not quite possible! This factor can, and sometimes do, lead us to a situation where healing is withheld. However, what about situations where none of the above reasons are present?
For the sake of this discussion, let’s say we did not behave likewise. We did not treat our God like a Teller Machine or genie in the bottle; will that guaranteed God involvement into our crisis. He is God! He has His own prerogative to do what He deems fit. Consider Apostle Paul as an illustration. This man of God was considered a mighty warrior in the ministry of Grace to the gentiles. Apparently, he did not have problem walking in the Spirit, doing wondrous miracles and healings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. On the ministry of healing, he did thrice in his “tour of duty” as a missionary stated in Acts 3: 6, Acts 14: 8 – 10 & in Acts 28: 7 – 10. Did he doubt God’s ability to heal? Definitely not! But he was denied healing when he sought the Lord thrice to remove his “thorn-in-flesh”. Perhaps, is God’s refusal to Apostle Paul’s request for healing because of sin in Paul’s life or lack of faith? Neither is true! In 2 Corinthians 12: 9, Jesus our healer replied Paul with His answer that “My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak.” Paul, instead of feeling bitter glorified God by saying, “I am most happy, then to be proud of my weakness, in order to feel the protection of Christ’s power over me. I am content with weakness, insults, hardship, persecutions and difficulties for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
As for me, He had chosen and allowed it that I should go through this experience, but spared my life. He has His reason which I do not know nor understand now. Perhaps, I might ask Him when I see Him in glory. Until then, I will still continue to trust Him. Maybe, the bible verse that sum up my belief is found in Job 13: 15; “Though He slays me, yet I will still trust Him.” Apostle Paul echoed Job’s belief and faith in God in Philippians 1:20, “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. Note that when Apostle Paul said those words, he was in the midst of an impending trial. He did not know the outcome of this trial which had a potential for his death. Regardless of the outcome of his trial, either through his continued life and ministry or death awaited him in Rome, Christ is preached. That was his measure of faith and desire to see God glorified. He did not seek God to bid to his ways but rather, he allows God, in His sovereignty and authority, to work His plan. Like Job and Apostle Paul, we simply too have to trust the Lord. He always has a perfect plan in place, maybe not as what we wanted, and “by life or by death” may our Lord Jesus be exalted.
Come on, fellow believers, we are after all, His earthen vessels created by Him for a special purpose. As a piece of clay, we do not tell the Potter what to do, or how to shape us into the type of usable earthen vessels. We simply commit ourselves to His Excellency of power, the power which is from God and not from us.
This testimony should have been posted earlier as I had already composed the content. I was hesitant to share this testimony. Why? I always thought my personal matters, be it medical or others, should be kept within the family’s circle. So, today is 7 Jan of 2023. It is the 1st anniversary of my operation, or rather; it could have been my 1st anniversary of my demise. But God in His great mercy and grace sustained me. I can celebrate my eldest son ‘s birthday today. I am eternally grateful to God, the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and God Holy Spirit for their mercy which endured forever and ever. Amen!