The Lord Who Heals, Yahweh Rophe

The LORD is our healer. He heals hearts, minds, and bodies. He heals marriages, broken friendships, and divided families. The Lord is in the healing, restoring, rebuilding business. That’s why He is such a good God. Have you experienced the Healer? I have.

The past month has been a difficult one for me. A trusted friend crushed my spirit. I attended a meeting expecting one thing not prepared for the onslaught coming my way. I was blindsided. Yet, in this person’s defense, they had been hurt badly unintentionally by mwah (me). Miscommunication and misunderstandings ran rampant, and there I sat under attack.

Andy Lee does not do well under attack. I usually cry even when I’m not guilty. I don’t get stronger but crumble like my mom’s sugar cookies. When the meeting was over, I grieved for weeks.

But God.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in Spirit.

Psalm 34:18

God Healed My Heart

He healed my heart. But before I tell you how, I want to dig into the scripture above, because some of you reading this need to put Psalm 34:18 on your bathroom mirror. Meditate on this verse day and night. Say it over and over. This verse holds an amazing promise and a special nugget that ties our healing and “salvation” together.

[Nerd alert: This word study will blow your mind.]

Word Study- Yasa

“Save” was translated from Yasa. It means “to be open, wide, or free”. Of course the further implications of this word are safety and defense. But the heart of the word means freedom!

I had been walking around this week chained by my hurt, oppressed under a dark cloud of grief. I wrestled with God, asked my closest prayer warring friends to go to the mat for me. This was affecting my marriage, my work, and my heart. It was tearing me in two. But God freed me when He healed my crushed spirit.

The Lord will Fight Your Battles to bring Healing

On this painful crushed-spirit journey, I came across an old post about God fighting your battles. We want to control. We want to fight for what’s right, but sometimes- most of the time, we need to let God win the battle.

This preaches! Amen? We know the powerful stories in the Bible where God fought for the armies of Israel. We remember how he would throw the enemy into confusion to slaughter themselves even before Israel arrived to the battle. It was freakin’ amazing! BUT I sat reading my own post the other day wondering what does it really mean for God to fight our 21st century battles? What does that look like today? I knew I was in the middle of a battle, but I didn’t know how God would get the victory to heal my heart.

Yahweh Rophe Heals Through Prayer, Worship, and Trust

At one point I thought God was going to win the battle for me through my husband, but that didn’t happen. In fact, I just told you this battle was affecting my marriage. I was so disappointed when it became clear my soldier man was not going to be my knight in shining armor. My friends had already been praying, but when my marriage began to be affected I texted this SOS to my strongest prayer warriors:

Please pray for my marriage. Can’t text or talk.

And that’s all they got.

And they went to battle on their knees.

I wish I could say I was praying too, but I just couldn’t. I hurt too bad.

But I was able to turn my favorite worship playlist on, and I worshiped. Worship and prayer must come before the victorious healing because the battle we fight is not on this planet.

The Battle for Our Healing is Fought in the Heavenlies

Remember, the battle we fight is not against flesh and blood. Ephesians tells us our struggle is a spiritual one. We fight powers of darkness and “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” When we pray for our healing or someone else’s, whether physical or emotional, keep in mind who the real enemy is. It’s not the person who hurt you. That’s not a ‘get out of jail free card’, but it helps us in the fight for healing. Hurt people hurt people. We live in a fallen world where disease and death still have their reign.

But God.

But Yahweh Rophe, the healer can and will heal.

Yahweh Rophe Heals Bitter Waters

God introduced Himself as Yahweh Rophe, the LORD who heals, in Exodus 15. The Israelites had just escaped from slavery, walked on dry ground as God held back the sea, and witnessed Pharaoh’s army drown in the very waters they had passed through safely. Yet, they really didn’t understand the goodness of God. When they were thirsty and the water was not drinkable because it was bitter, they grumbled and whined, but God made the water drinkable, and he gave them this very important promise:

He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

Exodus 15:26-27

He’s a healing God. He healed the waters, and then he led them to twelve springs and seventy palm trees! A place of beautiful abundance. They just needed to trust and obey.

Yaweh Rophe healed my bitter waters too. As quickly as he healed the woman with the issue of blood, (one of my favorite stories in the Bible) Jesus healed my crushed spirit. I can’t explain it anymore than the bleeding woman could explain her healing. Her bleeding had stopped. She just knew. And Jesus did too.

Just as that woman experienced new freedom in her healing, I was freed too. The grief, fear, and bitterness disappeared in only a way the Healer’s amazing grace can do.

What Do You Need Healed?

What do you need healed? In the introduction to this month’s reading plan with prompts I wrote: Healing is a hard thing. Some have experienced answered prayers for healing, and it’s wonderful! Yet, I’m sure all of us have experienced the disappointment of an unhealed body, whether it’s our own or a loved one’s. Some of us have cried out for mental healing and not witnessed a restored mind. Wherever you find yourself on this journey with YHWH Rophe, the Lord who heals, I pray this month of scriptures will strengthen your faith and fortify your resolve in prayer. Keep crying out to the Healer. He is still in the healing business.

I have no doubt in my mind my healing this week came also through the healing power of the Word. All week I’ve been poring over these beautiful scriptures about healing, digging deep in order to write the prompts for each one. Imagine spending 30 days meditating on the healing power of God and story after story of all who were healed by Jesus, Yahweh Rophe in flesh.

Grab the 8-page reading plan with scriptures and prompts or simply print the list of the verses below. I have reformatted the reading plan with prompts. This month I left off the lines so you can journal your response in your own notebook or journal.

Join Me For Faith Friday on IG

Friday morning grab your coffee, Bible, and journal and join me for Faith Friday! We’ll be digging into scriptures about Yahweh Rophe this month. I’m Live every Friday at 9:00 AM ET. Just follow @wordsbyandylee and you’ll see me go live at the top of the feed.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. And may he heal you. Amen.

XO

Andy