Healing Still Happens

"...and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them." Luke 4:40

I want to share something with you all today that I wrote and shared as a Facebook post somewhere near the beginning of December 2011.  It's a real moment I experienced while going about my ordinary every day life, and all the sudden God broke in.  In the fullness of that moment He was Immanuel - God with us; He was Jehovah-Rapha - The Lord Our Healer; He was a friend and healer in this moment.  And I share it openly with you because He wants to be those things for you as well, even today, right here in the middle of your ordinary everyday life.  I don't know what those healing moments need to look like for you, probably different than mine, but He does - and as we walk with Him daily, trusting Him to be exactly who He reveals Himself in the Bible to be, He will lay His hands on you and heal you.  Your story could be every bit as dramatic as the beggar healed by the Beautiful Gate of the Temple in Acts 3 where Peter and John told the man "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."  Or as subtle and private as the woman who had simply determined to touch the hem of Jesus' robe as he was passing by as recorded in Mark 5:25-34.  I'm not saying that every ailment you ever experience will be dramatically removed, I'm simply sharing the experience that many have had in their real, normal, mundane, every day life.  Healing still happens and miracles surround you every day, if you only open your eyes to see...  that's the Jesus I know, walking with me in the everyday ordinary and in the fullness of time bringing out the extraordinary joy filled moments that glorify Him and heal our wounded hearts - and beloved friends we all have wounds that need the Balm of Gilead available from the Great Physician.

I want to share a joyful moment I just experienced with my little family. It's really a moment of healing by the loving hand of Jesus in our life, and I hope it will encourage you as it has me. Before I married Shonda and we were blessed with Ashley and Kira, God promised me that the deepest emotional and spiritual healings in my life would come through my family - which of course takes longer than my original five year plan.

I worked late tonight resolving a service call that started much earlier in the day. My 10yo daughter was still up with mom chattering away on the phone with Grandma when I got home, well after her normal bed time. In the short time it took me to get changed and relax a few minutes before going upstairs mom tucked in Ashley and I figured we'd get a few bedside minutes to talk about her day. I went up to kiss her goodnight and thought she was playing 'possum so I jiggled her loft bed as I clumped up the ladder and didn't get a single giggle out of the child. Not to be thwarted so easily, I grabbed the side rail and rattled it harder - not even a twitchy smile to give away the game - she was truly asleep, with her 'love tank' full as her mommy pointed out when I shared the import of this moment with her. I stood there looking at her and realized how different her life is from mine. She's grown up loved and secure and can sleep peacefully even with daddy jiggling her whole loft bed. Kira too. On my late nights I still faithfully climb up their ladders and kiss them, place my hand on their head or back, pray over them briefly, sometimes not so briefly - but never do they do more than stir a little. Not so with me, even after almost 22 years of living a healthy, Holy Spirit filled life, I still sleep in a state of awareness, not true rest. Full wakefulness for me is rarely further than an out of place noise or a neighbor off their routine. When the girls were newborn I didn't really sleep at even my normal level for 3-6 months (though they both slept through the night around 6-8 weeks) until I became fully immersed in their noises and tendencies. People who know these things call it hyper-vigilance, and mine was learned in an insecure dangerous childhood. I was moved to something approaching awe tonight as I stood there looking at my daughter peacefully sleeping, and heard something like the whisper of God saying "you've done well with this child, and the other as well, they have no need to fear sleeping in your watchful care." What a difference Jesus makes in a parent's life, that He can redeem you and work through you to be more than you ever would be otherwise - and while you think you spend all your time investing in your kids and their needs and wants - they move you to tears just by sleeping peacefully and you feel the healing hand of Jesus touch you yet one more time.

I told you all that to tell you this: since that night I wrote about, my sleep for the first time in decades has become more peaceful, less vigilant.  Something I never thought possible has come to pass.  I shared the word, the testimony of this moment, and He blessed me with healing from the night I made that post.  The centurion in Matthew 8:8 was unwilling to bother Jesus to come beneath his Gentile roof, and he spoke with great faith that Jesus need only speak the word and his servant would be healed.  What words of faith, of healing, do you need to speak today?  Could it be that sharing it would unwrap the gift of healing in your own life?

Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you."  And his servant was healed that same hour.
Matthew 8:13