John Blackah is my son in law and today he got to speak on the covenant name of God, Jehovah-Rapha. This word is so personal to me because my relationship with Jesus grew roots through this very name. He came alive to me through the scriptures in Isaiah when I read that,
"...He was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on Him,
and by His wounds we are (I am) healed." Is. 53:5
Jehovah Rapha brought healing to my life and peace to my mind.
He's still keeping me in peace because His word says, He keeps in perfect peace those who trust in Him! In his preaching, John spoke from the scriptures of Exodus 15:22-27 where Moses took action based on what the Lord had showed him. In Exodus 15:25 "Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink."
There were so many great points that stood out to me and one of them I loved is how he shared the log can be seen as "representative of the cross." John shares about how healing and restoration; "It's our inheritance today." However, just like God showed Moses the log and Moses took action to throw it into the water and the water became fit to drink, so God has showed us in His word it's up to us to take action to believe to receive His healing and restoration through Jesus!
John spoke of the need for intention and perseverance... these words require us to take action. We must believe to receive. We don’t get to receive before we believe we've received it. He stated that "there is a journey for us to take, for us to be whole" if we want to live a life of freedom and his words took me back to all that Jesus has done in my life through His word. Nonetheless, there is so much more "to experience."
At the end of it John spoke of Psalm 51:10 where the Psalmist prays for a clean heart and a steadfast Spirit. I remember praying this over my life over and over years ago. I prayed to God while declaring healing and freedom from the medications that kept my creative mind numbed, but much like the Israelites, we often forget what God has done and we become complacent. Complacency can sometimes cause issues in our lives.
Recently, I struggled with a series of bouts of anger which hasn’t been a big issue for years. It’s not that I hadn’t gotten upset rather that recently I got waaaaay too upset about issues that weren’t mine to fight for. (I did not realize I had become complacent until after the fact) Often times we witness things that aren’t right and we make the mistake to think that we can fix them but more often they belong to God! The best way to fight many issues is to bring them to the feet of Jesus. These issues made me see that ugly side of me I thought I had overcome. I felt as if all that Jesus had done in my life was in vain. I spoke up when I should have knelt down so I had to take a step back and cry out to God. I had lost my will to create, to inspire, to write. I felt like a fake and a hypocrite. While I was crying out to God in my guilt and suffering, I was reading about anger and I became even more sad and felt even more shame. But God, slowly and surely, through Jesus and His Holy Spirit within me reminded me of His love and forgiveness. Although, it came to be that...
it was my own forgiveness I was having a difficulty with.
How can I let myself self get this angry?
But God, again!, through John's word of God today...
finally delivered me yet again and restored from that shame
where I can sit and write about it!
John's preaching today reminded me that
I have a Rapha who restores me.
I needed His restoring power from complacency. I became complacent when I didn’t consider to continually ask God to create in me a clean heart and a steadfast Spirit within me. I was reminded today of this prayer, like all the word of God, isn’t a once and for all but rather a constant prayer we ought to have. There are way too many things in this world that can damage, embitter and harden our hearts and because of that we cannot afford to ever become complacent and think that we got life all together and figured out. There will always be reason for us to be angry, sad or anxious because of the injustice we see but the way to respond to it is first and foremost on our knees, seeking divine guidance on how to move and speak.
Just because we have taken action in the past doesn’t mean we no longer take action again. We take action again and again and refuse the "attitude of reluctancy." As John stated "we don't get to have it all and do nothing with it." With great blessings come great responsibility to be stewards of what God has given us. We must continually persevere with intention for all that God has for us to experience.
"It is God's desire to see us healed and restored." JB
"We have to take the responsibility to
become what God has created us to be." JB
As long as we are living we've not reach the top... There is always another mountain top ahead! There is another soul to inspire, to save, to disciple (including our very own) and it must be done through a clean heart and steadfast Spirit.
This, Psalm 51:10, "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." is prayer that should continually be on our lips so as not to ever let issues of this world embitter or harden our hearts. While you are there, the whole Psalm is a great prayer!
I invite you to be blessed by the full worship service from beginning to end including wonderful the testimony of Leah Povey. Never underestimate the power children can have on adults and John Blackah's full message starting at the hour into it 1:27.
From a proud mama of an inherited son!
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