Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the NET, netbible.org, all rights reserved)

With what can I equate you? To what can I compare you, O Daughter Jerusalem? To what can I liken you so that I might comfort you, O Virgin Daughter Zion? Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you?
Lamentations 2:13 (emphasis added)

Who can heal us indeed? Will teachers? Prophets? Doctors? Herbalists? Surgeons? Our enemies? Those who pass by us on the road? Will the Lord? That is the question to answer. It is THE question. WHO can heal us?
We need to decide what we mean by healing. You might think that obvious, but it doesn’t have an easy answer because everyone’s idea of what healing is varies. For example, so much of modern medicine is about managing symptoms, treating symptoms, and quality of life. There are often major obstacles at curing the underlying disease. Most doctors won’t see themselves as ‘healers’ but helpers. Those who work with patients as the patient goes on a journey toward health – which will either be successful or not. They WANT to relieve suffering, but are often unable to do so. The reality is that even if the underlying disease is eliminated, it is often only a matter of time before something else shows up. Science will tell us this is an inescapable circle. That this is the reality of LIFE.

Luke 17:11-19 is one of the most fascinating of Jesus’ miracles. “Now on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance, raised their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went along, they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He fell with his face to the ground at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. (Now he was a Samaritan.) Then Jesus said, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to turn back and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to the man, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has made you well.”“

Interesting, isn’t it? All ten were cleansed. They no longer had leprosy. Only ONE saw it, considered it healing, and turned back to worship Jesus. The other nine were satisfied with symptoms gone. They were no longer going to be considered lepers. Goal achieved. They were content. The Word doesn’t say if they were the kind of lepers who were losing body parts – the word for leprosy in the New Testament speaks of scales or scaly skin, often thrown off the body. It can mean more than what we think of as a modern leprous condition and covers quite a few not-nice skin conditions. But whatever condition they were, not having the leprosy itself seems to have been enough.

That is where the medical profession is. Not because they don’t WANT to eradicate things, but because they on the whole, can’t. But look at a success. Look at smallpox. It was officially eradicated in 1980. The last naturally occurring case was 1977. In 2022 there was a monkey pox outbreak that hit North and South America with almost 60,000 cases and 58 deaths. The two poxes are in the same ‘family’ of virus. One thing was ‘wiped out’, but another is potentially raising its head. That is how the world works. They do their best, but aware that there is always something else.

What about Jesus? Didn’t He tell someone not to sin so something worse might happen? Yes He did. In John 5:14. He was NOT saying that sin CAUSED the sickness. He was saying that if you are intentionally sinning and not living a life of repentance, you are removing yourself from ready help from the Lord. You give OPPORTUNITY for sickness. You are throwing yourself on the mercies of the world. That is not a smart thing to do. Not because the world isn’t capable of compassion. But because the world is always help, patch, maintain, manage, and hope for the best – that’s oh-I-hope-it-doesn’t-go-bad hoping instead of Word-based hope.

There was a woman with a problem. She relied on doctors. For twelve years. She suffered a LOT during that time and all they did for her was maybe temporary relief and definitely cost her money. There was no cure. No cease from suffering. Only temporary lessening – and that is a hopeful stretch of the text (Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48). Over a decade. That’s a long time to live with a chronic disease of ANY kind. The world has changed a LOT since then – thank the Lord – and the medical community has advanced leaps and bounds. But we are still patching holes, managing symptoms, and crossing fingers that nothing worse comes along.

I am not against doctors. They have worked on me, they have worked on members of my family, and I have heard of more than one medical triumph that really saved lives. In a world that rejects the God Who Heals, it is His mercy that has given such knowledge and advancement to the medical practitioners. It is the mercy and goodness of God that is keeping the people of the world going. As in an Olympic race, if you can’t be in the Gold Medal slot you’re happy to be in silver.

What about bronze? What of all that healing elsewhere in the world. The other religions that manage to have it evidenced. The occult rituals and such. Well, if I was punching you in the face and you paid me to stop and I did, it could hardly be said that you or I ‘intervened’. No. In that case the one causing the issue stopped causing the issue. It is the same way with ‘healing’ from occult, religious, or other supernatural events. It is not true healing. It is the cause of sickness not actively causing sickness anymore. That’s a thief giving you back your stuff and you calling them a hero. They are not. They are not even nice. They are using you to advance their agenda because now you see them as good. The Lord warned of that kind of healing in Revelation 13:3. It is NOT to be trifled with. It is ALWAYS deception. It is ALWAYS a gateway. It is ALWAYS bondage disguised as a present.

What about TRUE healing? What about symptoms disappearing because the underlying cause is gone and never to return? What about not being in remission but in total and absolute deliverance? Positive thinking won’t get you there. Positive declarations won’t get you there. ONLY Yahweh God can get you there. That’s it. Nothing and no one else. If you don’t believe that you are wrong. “Jesus answered them, “You are deceived because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29).

Yahweh is the One with the power. “Your right hand, O Lord, was majestic in power; your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy” (Exodus 15:6). We declare the WORD OF GOD. We agree with HIS promises. We pray HIS words. “I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3). God is the HEALER. God is the RESTORER. Yahweh is the MIGHTY ONE full of Grace and Mercy. Who can heal us? Yahweh can heal us.

Jesus looked on the one that returned and asked where were the others who were cleansed? Ceremonially and literally made clean. Clean means to free from dirt or stain. Jesus looked at the man who was acknowledging Him in worship and told him he was saved. That he was rescued from the penalty and power of sin. That he was delivered out of danger and into the provision of His safety. Jesus RESTORED that man. Made Him WHOLE, not just clean. It is a HUGE difference.

It is STILL a huge difference. If you are sick, diseased, virused up, or anything else – mental, emotional, or physical; then you need more than a wipe down. You need more than no pain. You need more than cleansing. You need REDEEMING. You need WHOLENESS. Totally and completely. ONLY YAHWEH has that. He IS the SOURCE. Who can heal you? Yahweh God Almighty, the one with healing in His WINGS! Let Him gather you in as a mother hen does with her chicks. Let Him secure you. Let Him love you. Let Him BE God. To you and to those around you.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Genesis 49:10

“The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; the nations will obey him.” Why do the nations have to obey Messiah? Because He is KING of the Universe. He will come to redeem the lost. He will restore identity. He will restore the nations – and especially HIS BELOVED NATION OF ISRAEL. He will gather the Jews into their homeland. He will gather in the grafted Gentile children too. Jesus IS Messiah. John 11:49-52 “Then one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is more to your advantage to have one man die for the people than for the whole nation to perish.” (Now he did not say this on his own, but because he was high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the Jewish nation, and not for the Jewish nation only, but to gather together into one the children of God who are scattered.)“. Jesus is the ONE WHO DIED. Jesus is the ONE WHO WILL GATHER. Jesus IS Messiah.

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b