Christ My Healer

I was just a child, my daughter’s age, about three or four. I don’t even know the date because I was alone in my room and told no one. I spoke only a simple phrase, "Jesus, please come into my heart." I didn’t begin to fully understand my decision until years later. But I know something happened inside me, something changed and in that moment, my deepest core, my spirit, was reborn. I became a new creation. At family devotions, I suddenly felt interested in prayer, this mysterious process of soul communion with Someone of whose reality I was just as certain as of my own parents’, although I could not see or touch Him.

If you count Jesus as your Savior, like I do, what was your salvation experience like? Was it sudden and impulsive, or did it come slowly, after years of doubt and careful investigation of Christ’s claims to be God? Did the moment hit you with intense emotion, or did it feel anti-climactic?

The process – or event – of healing may be more similar than you expect. Romans 10:9, 10 The words you speak, the beliefs you hold in your heart. They work together.

Paul’s encounter featured blinding lights, perhaps his horse reared and neighed in terror, his traveling companions heard thunder, he fell on the ground: lights, sound, action to match the powerful, stubborn personality of this man. To penetrate the darkness of his soul, he needed to be overwhelmed, ravished by the Lover of his being.

Most of us don’t need such forceful persuasion and in fact cringe at the thought. God comes to us softly in a quiet moment, a peaceful warmth like honey spreading through our innermost places, like a mug of cocoa in the intimacy of firelight, soft embers’ crackling. Or we may feel nothing at all, except perhaps the awareness of a new friend, like having a brother for the first time in your life. Someone in your corner.

Still others need to know God first with their minds, no army could invade the castle until logic lowers the drawbridge. C.S. Lewis, Josh McDowell . . . hundreds of others.

Receiving healing is much the same. We receive Him as the individuals He created us to be, each person waiting to be loved. God is enough for each of us. He can come to you through Benny Hinn
or Billy Graham, through as many ways as there are people in this world.

But He is here. He is real. He waits for you in the stillness of your soul. Except for those few who beg for blitzkrieg, His summons is quiet and can always be refused, unlike the king who divorced his queen because she would not appear before him. He respects your dignity, your choice. He is a gentleman who waits for you to invite him to enter your garden.

Receiving Jesus as your Healer is much like receiving Him as your Savior. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever. Yahweh Raphah, the One who heals you.

I know my husband, in the Biblical and in the ordinary sense of the word. But every life season brings new aspects of Mitch for me to learn. I whimsically refer to my Summer Husband and my Winter Husband as the beard grows and is shaved in its time. There’s Mitch the Porsche Man, Mitch the Childbirth Coach, Mitch the Church Planting Pastor, Mitch the Caregiver as he and his Mom have traded
places in the circle of life.

There’s always more to know of Mitch. And because he is created in the image of a limitless God, there always will be. Two people cannot run out of conversation in a lifetime, except as walls come . . .

Jesus is the same way.

If you only know Christ as the Savior who with His blood wiped your slate clean and purchased your ticket to Heaven, would you like to also receive Jesus as your Healer? He’s available for that too.

Healing may be an event, it may be a process, but mostly it is communion with the Healer. Everything important in life isn’t based on what you do; it’s who you know. It’s all about relationship. No striving. No performance. No formulas.

As Joyce Meyer has said, “You are not a human doing. You are a human being.”

Healing is a gift. An act of love already purchased. It’s not about what I do; it’s about what Jesus did.

Because in all of the ways we receive healing – through antidepressants, chiropractic, surgery, chemotherapy, the laying on of hands, nutritional therapy, exercise, anointing oil, counseling, faith confessions, conversations with a friend, prayer alone or in a healing service – however we seek healing, and however healing comes, Jesus is the Healer.

God sent His Word, the living Word, and healed us.