Rabbi Schneider - Can God Heal Me?

TOPICS: The Covenant Names of God, Names of God, Healing

We are in the midst of a very important series on The Covenant Names of God. We're looking in the Hebrew Bible. We're looking in the Old Testament, or what Jewish people call the Tanakh. And we're looking to when God attached his personal covenant name, Yahweh, with a saving function that he does in the lives of his chosen ones. The reason this is so important is when we know how Yahweh has connected his name to certain activities that he does in the lives of the remnant that are his, we can trust him to do these things in our life. Now last week we looked at the term Yahweh Yireh. It's not actually a term. It's actually a covenant name. It's when Yahweh takes his personal name, his memorial name, Yahweh, and connected it to a saving function Yireh, he there reveals himself as the Lord who Provides. We looked into that. And I left off last week by introducing to you the next covenant name of our Savior, Yahweh Rophe, or Yahweh Ropheka, in Exodus, 15:26.

Now let me say here at the onset, I really want to encourage you to get this entire series, The Covenant Names of God, because this is really rich material. And you missed a lot if you're just joining us today for the first time as we began to trace how the Lord first revealed himself simply as Elohim, our Creator, and how over time he revealed himself by his personal name in Exodus, 3, and Exodus, 6, Yahweh. And now today we're showing as we continue in this journey how Yahweh connected his name with certain activities once again that he does in the lives of all those that are his. As I've been challenging us, I want you to take ahold of every time Yahweh connects his name to a saving activity, he wants you to trust him to perform this saving activity in your life. So with that said, we're reading Exodus, 15:26, where Yahweh reveals himself in the lives of his people, get it now, church, as their healer. We're talking about the healer of our bodies, the healing of our souls, the healing of our minds.

I want you to know there is balm in Gilead for you. I don't care what you're struggling with right now, God's grace is sufficient. He revealed himself, listen now, as Yahweh Ropheka, or Yahweh Rophe, the Lord, listen now, your healer. Hear me as I read Exodus, 15, verse 26. It's the only place in the entire Word of God where the Lord actually says I am Yahweh Ropheka. I am the Lord that healeth thee. Listen to this. Now there's many places in Scripture where we see that the Lord is our healer. But this is the only place that he actually reveals himself as our healer by name. I am the Lord, your healer. I am Yahweh Rophe. Hear the Word of God: And He said, If you will give earnest heed to the voice of Yahweh your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians, for I, Yahweh, am your healer, Yahweh Ropheka, or Yahweh Rophe. I am the Lord, your healer.

I want you to understand, there are questions revolving around supernatural healing. Why does it appear that some are healed and some are not healed? And I could go on. I'm gonna talk about some of this right now. But here's what I want you to get. The revelation of both the Old and the New Testament is clear; that our God is the God that healeth thee. Right now in Exodus, 15:26, we actually see God revealing this to us through a covenant name. I am the Lord your healer. As we look into the New Testament we see Jesus. He comes down from the Sermon on the Mount. He gets down from the mountain, the end of, the end of Matthew, chapter 7, the beginning of Matthew, chapter 8. And as soon as he gets done preaching his longest sermon in the entire New Testament what does he do? He heals this person. He heals this person. Next he heals this person. And finally he heals all those that came to him.

And then Matthew says that the reason that he healed all these people right after he preached his longest sermon, Matthew said the reason that he healed all these people was to fulfill, Matthew said, what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. And then Matthew quotes Isaiah, 53, where we read there that when Jesus died on the cross, he was pierced through our, for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, we read there, beloved ones, that in addition to being pierced through for our sin, he also on the cross, listen, was, was, was, was wounded and, and pierced and lashed so that we could be made well. In other words, Matthew says there that he healed all these people, and it was in connection, get it now, with his death on the cross for us; that when Jesus died on the cross for you and for me, it, yes absolutely, it was first to forgive our sin, but included in his atonement for us, included in his atonement was the fact that there was provision made for the healing of our bodies. And it's because of this, Matthew said, that Jesus healed all those that were ill that came to him in the Book of Matthew, chapter 8.

And so God is our healer. And even though we don't understand why some people seem to get healed and other people don't seem to get healed, let's not let what we don't understand keep us from taking ahold of and from believing what we do understand. And what we can clearly understand from the Word of God is that our God that heals. Our God is a God that heals. In fact, every place that Jesus went, he did three things. He preached the Gospel. He healed the sick. And he delivered those that were oppressed by demons. When he sent out the disciples two by two, he sent them out with the instructions to do those three things; preach the Gospel, heal the sick, right on, the Lord that healeth thee. That's his nature. And drive out the demons. When he sent out the 70 in the New Testament, what did he instruct them to do? Preach the Gospel, get is now, church, heal the sick, and drive out the demons.

You see, our God by nature is a God that heals. The Bible says if he that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he would give life to your mortal bodies. In other words, that the Spirit of God himself within us is giving life to our flesh. The Bible says, though the out man is decaying... In other words, our bodies, they get old. Though the outer man is decaying, the inner man is being renewed day by day, and through the Spirit of God within us, there's life that's being ministered even to our flesh to keep us healthy. And so in Exodus, 15:26, the Lord actually says, I am the Lord that healeth thee. And he was speaking here, beloved ones, about physical healing. I want to encourage you to trust in God to sustain you physically, to be life to your flesh; that you can be healthy even when you're old. Yes, we're still gonna age. Yes, the natural body is still gonna degenerate. But we can be healthy and have health even when we're old because the Healer is in us, and living through us, and sustaining us, and carrying us.

I want to point something out to you in Exodus, 15:26. Hear the Word of God: And he said, the Lord speaks here, he says, if you will give earnest heed to the voice of Yahweh your God, to the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statues, I will put none of the diseases on you which I put on the Egyptians, for I am Yahweh Ropheka, I am the Lord that healeth thee. A couple of things I want to point out here, church. Stay with me now. I want you to really focus with me. The first concept, the first point I want to make known here, the first thing I want to stress is this; that the Lord said to the children of Israel, in order to experience me as your healer, you have to walk in my ways. You can't be belligerent of my ways. You can't walk in your own ways. The Lord said, if you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, and give ear to his commandments, then, the Lord said, you're going to experience me as the Lord that healeth thee. But notice that they had to be walking in his ways. They had to be hearing his voice, and yielding to his voice, to his Word, to his will and his Spirit.

Why do I point that out? Because many Christians today that want to be healed, even many of those that believe in divine healing, they continue to live irresponsibly in regards to their health. And yet they're asking God to heal them. In other words, God cares about every aspect of our life. Did you know that, that in the Torah, in the Old Testament, the Lord gave Israel instructions about every area of their life? He told them even how to dress. He told them what to eat. And as Gentiles you're not under the law. You don't have to keep kosher as Gentiles, but listen, what you do have to understand is the principle that God cares, the Lord cares, beloved, what you and I eat. And someone that's struggling with high cholesterol, and high blood sugar, and you know, is 5'10" and weighs 250 pounds and is obese, and they're continuing to, you know, eat Hostess Twinkies all the time, and candy, and cookies, and pop, and not take care of themselves, and not exercise, and not be responsible with what they're eating, and then expecting God to heal them.

Beloved I think that this is irresponsible and it needs to be challenged because the Lord said, if you will give earnest heed to my voice and do what is right in my sight, then you'll know me as Yahweh Ropheka, the Lord that healeth thee. You see, so many of the things that Yahweh, and when I say Father God's sacred name, if there's anybody that is offended by this, I want you to know, beloved ones, I don't say it tritely. I say it in love and in reverence. But Father God gave us his name because he wants us to use it. He wouldn't have given us his personal name if he didn't expect or want us to know him by his personal name, and to call upon him by his personal name; as over, and it's used over 7,000 times as I continue to, to point out here in the Hebrew Bible. When I call upon God's name it's because he's given me, beloved, the privilege of calling on him by his name.

You see, I experienced for myself the truth of what I'm sharing with you right now, that it's not just enough to expect Father God to be our healer. We also have to cooperate with him. And as I was saying, so many things that he does for us, he doesn't do independent of our cooperation, he does with our cooperation. Let's get back on focus here. The Lord said, if you'll walk in my ways, if you'll do what's right, if you'll heed my voice, if you'll obey my commandments, you'll know me as Yahweh Ropheka, as the Lord that healeth thee. But once again, Israel had to play a part in this by walking in his ways. You and I, beloved, have so many things that we can walk in in terms of the grace of God, but we have to do our part to walk in the fullness of his grace. And so as its results, as it speaks once again to physical healing, we have to pay attention to taking care of our bodies. If we choose to be responsible because our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we're conscious of that when we're choosing what foods to eat, that we're making conscious decisions to eat what's healthy, then, and we're looking to God, loving God, then we should trust God to be our healer and to keep us in health.

I remember a personal example of how clearly Father God revealed himself to me as Yahweh Ropheka, as the Lord your healer. It was a year ago. I was, I was, I was in the States, but I was leaving in a few days to go to Gulu, Uganda, to minister. And as I was getting close to leaving, I started noticing that my blood pressure was getting really high, and I also had pain in my heart, and it wasn't going away. I was monitoring my blood pressure. It was high. I had pain in my heart. So I'm supposed to leave for Gulu on Monday, and now it's the Friday before that Monday, and I'm actually leaving that Friday to go to minister in Toledo, Ohio, and then I was gonna minister in Toledo that weekend, and then on Monday I was gonna leave from Toledo to go to Detroit and then fly to Gulu. So you know, as the day is going on on Friday, I'm thinking, wow, this is really concerning. I'm getting ready to go out of the country. The hospitals aren't too good where I was going.

I was very concerned. So I said, you know, I should go to the doctor just to get this checked out. So I go to the doctor on Friday. They do an EKG. They take some tests. I go home. I go back home. I'm packing, and it's about a couple hours after the doctor appointment. I'm getting ready to leave, as I said, for Toledo. And all of a sudden my phone rings. It's my doctor. And she says to me, she said, you know what, the results of the EKG came back. They're not normal. I need you to go in for an EKG. And I said, oh, I said, you know, I'm getting, I'm packing right now. I'm getting ready to go to Toledo and I'm leaving on Monday for Uganda. You know, I'm not gonna be able to do that. And she said to me, you need to take your health seriously.

Well I was in the midst at that time of actually preaching to my congregation about how God is our healer. And I was sharing with them we can't fear evil reports from doctors. We have to trust God. Now I believe, beloved, there is balance in this and I believe that God uses doctors. But I wanted to challenge myself with the truth that I was preaching. I wanted to believe God to be my healer. So I just said, God, I'm gonna trust you in this. So I didn't go to the doctor. I went to Toledo. I'm in Toledo. I'm praying over the course of the weekend there. My blood pressure's still, it's high. The pain in my heart hurts. I'm really getting concerned. I'm lying in bed on Saturday night and, and it was either Saturday or Sunday night, and I'm, the pain is still even lying in my bed I'm feeling the pain. And I'm really getting scared. And I'm thinking, you know what, it's irresponsible for me to go to Gulu with what's going on. The doctor told me that something's not right. I've got this pain. I can't cut my blood pressure down.

You know, I really want to believe you, God, to be my healer, but it just feels like it's not right. My wife needs me. My children need me. So I wake up my, my wife sleeping next to me in the middle of the night. She said, I said, Honey, I said, you know, I don't think I can go to Gulu. I think, you know, it's not the right decision. It's irresponsible of me. And my wife, faith rose up in her, faith rose up in Cynthia. She began to declare over me and pray how many people were gonna get saved, and how many lives were gonna be changed when I was ministering in Gulu. Now some of you might wonder, well maybe Rabbi's wife wanted him to go to Gulu, that he might have a heart attack over there, so she can marry somebody else. But I can assure you, that's not at all what was going on.

My wife loves me so much, and it's not like her 'cause she's so protective. But it was just truly the inspiration and the boldness of God that rose up in her. And when I heard her praying over me with that faith, I knew that it was coming from God because it was so unlike my wife in the natural to be praying like that for me, when I was in the natural in a dangerous situation that I knew that God was launching me forth in faith to go. So I went back to sleep. But when I woke up the next morning, again I had fear. And I thought, wow, you know, I really need to hear from you, Lord, if you want me to go to Gulu. And so I had my Bible in my hands as I was sitting in my bed doing my devotional that morning. And it happened to be a brand new Bible 'cause I had just traded in my old Bible 'cause I was having a hard time reading it anymore 'cause, you know, the print was so small. I just had turned, had traded it in for a brand new Bible with the giant print.

So I wasn't even familiar with where certain books were, you know, because the whole thing was, you know, a different kind of a format for me now that it was large print. So I had the Bible, and I said, "Lord, I really need to hear from you if you want me to go to Gulu. Father, please speak to me". And I just opened up the Bible, not even knowing where it was gonna open up, and I looked down, beloved ones, and you know what? My eyes landed exactly on Exodus, 15:26, that we just read. If you will walk in my ways, and keep my commandments, and give heed to my voice, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee.

And I want you to know, when that happened, I needed to hear from God so bad, and when that happened and I opened the Bible up one time and looked down, and my eye falls exactly on Exodus, 15:26, which is the only verse in the entire Word of God where the Lord reveals himself as Yahweh Ropheka, the Lord your healer. It's only one time in the entire Bible and my eyes land right on it, first verse. I knew that God had spoken to me. My heart was pierced with a sword. I began to weep. And you know what? My weeping was twofold. Number one, it was the weeping of thankfulness for having been touched by Father God so incredibly. But my heart was also weeping in repentance because the Lord said if you'll walk in my ways, and do what is right.

And I was deeply convicted that some of the pain that I was feeling in my heart was as a result of stress that I had allowed into my life, because of wrong thoughts that I was allowing in, and that what I was experiencing, beloved, was a result of allowing myself to be more stressed than I should have been. And I was so grieved that I had allowed stress in; that it was my fault, that it was my responsibility, that I had to make decisions to keep myself from being stressed. I was so grieved by that in repentance I turned to the Lord. I gave my heart to him. I said, "Father, forgive me. I'm gonna trust in you. I'm gonna rest in you. I'm not gonna allow toxic stress in".

Well, beloved ones, the good news is I went to Gulu. I took authority over that pain in my heart. I was completely healed. I came back. The pain has never returned since because Father God is Yahweh Ropheka. He is the Lord our healer and he will be faithful to you. Don't let what you don't understand keep you from what you do understand. God's Word is consistent and true. God is the healer of his people. I'm going to speak more about this next week. Don't forget to tune in for a very important broadcast. Until then, this is Rabbi Schneider saying to you, I love you and Shalom from all the staff here at Discovering the Jewish Jesus.