We've been talking about the names of God, and we've gone through Elohim. Matter of fact, this is why I'm wearing this shirt today, the names of God. We're going to go through all of these names. We went through some of them, but we've been talking about the names of God this summer. Our goal is to get through about 12 names, amen, and really show you.
The purpose is to show you who he is, to reveal to you what he desires, to increase your prayer life, to come in communion with him when you know him by his name. And so today we're going to talk about another name. And I told y'all before that I've asked Jeannie to come help me. Come on, Jeannie, come on up here. Give her a hand. To help me teach some of the names of God. And so today we're going to talk
about Jehovah Rapha. Amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Jeannie, have fun. Well, thank you. Thank you, everybody. As the pastor already introduced, my name is Jeannie Burgess. I minister here under Pastor Devon and Stacey Alexander, and I count it as an honor to be able to come before you to share the Word of God to you that are in the building and also those that are watching online. I feel that the same anointing is flowing through the airways to you, even the replay.
There is an anointing, and I'm prepared this morning. I am full of the Word of God. I am ready. I was like, I'm ready to cut loose. I'm ready to do this. Because I just feel so strong that Jehovah Rapha, I feel like, has gotten a bad reputation in a way with the world. I feel like people, you know, they question, does God really, is it really his will to heal, to heal me? And so today I want to leave you with that question. It's not a question you
have to answer out loud. I want you to answer it in your heart, and I really want you to be honest about it. Do you believe that it's God's will to heal you? Do you believe that God still heals? And so this morning we are going to discuss deeper Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that heals. So let's pray one more time and then we'll get started. Father, we come before you this morning and we honor you. We love you.
I ask, Father, right now that you give me the words to honor your precious name, Jehovah Rapha. I thank you, Lord, right now that healing power will be released here in this building as we worship you this morning. Healing power through the airways on those that are watching virtually and those that watch the replay, Lord. I just thank you that same anointing is there. Holy Spirit, I ask that you touch your people and you give them a deeper revelation of who you are.
And we thank you for it. And Satan, we bind you in the name of Jesus. We bind any type of lies or tricks that you would bring in Jesus' name. Amen. So as Pastor said, this summer we have been teaching on a series of the names of God. And we went through so many different names already. And so today we're going deeper with Jehovah Rapha. And we're really wanting to highlight the character and the nature of God.
When we say Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals, it's not just that he has healing that he might give to you. It's who he is. He is the healer. That is what he does. And while we were worshiping, the whole time that we were worshiping, I kept hearing, I'm so willing. I'm so willing. I'm so willing. And so I am challenging you this morning, release your faith. The power of God is here. Anytime you open this word of God and you speak forth life, that anointing is there.
And I believe that he is releasing his healing power today. And he's saying, I'm so willing if my people would just believe. And so we're going to go through scriptures in the Old Testament and the New Testament this morning. We're going to go through a lot of scripture because this is word. This word is his will. The word of God is the will of God. So if you're ever questioning, what is the will of God for my life? Open your Bible.
It's right here. And this word is life and medicine to your flesh this morning. So open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 15. And meet me in verse 26. It says, And if you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you. Right here in Exodus 15 is where we're introduced to Jehovah Rapha.
Now he has introduced himself to his children as the Lord who heals you. He is telling his people, I will heal you. I'm able and I am willing if you will listen to my words and obey them. You set yourself up for healing. Let's also take a look at Psalms 103. I love this. In verses 2 and 3, it says, Let all that I am praise the Lord. May I never forget the good things that he does for me.
For he forgives all my sins and he heals all my diseases. I want to stay there for a moment because this is your benefits package. Pastor has talked about this as if you were on a job and you wanted to look through a benefits package.
Right here we see that the Lord is saying that he forgives all of our sins praise God because that's the first step we have to be in right standing with the Lord and we're in right standing because of Jesus and right here he says I forgive all of your sins and I heal all of your diseases and I want to put an emphasis on the word all that's not something that I made up that's not something that pastor made up that's not something
that the The world may call those preachers and teachers that all confess and confess and confess healing. The Lord said this. The Lord said all. He didn't leave anything out. And this is your benefits package. And it's interesting because it tells you that you need to remind yourself. You need to take time to praise the Lord who heals you. And you need to take time to remember all the good things that he's done before. And he forgives all of your sins and heals all of your diseases.
Healing isn't just something that God does. It's who he is. And we're going to move into the New Testament because Jesus put on flesh. It said that he was the word, made flesh, and he came and dwelt among us. And he walked with us. Jesus is the living expression of Jehovah Rapha. And so today we are going to focus on that. When we are talking about Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that heals, I want you to focus on Jesus. He is the living expression of Jehovah Rapha. So let's turn to Acts 10.
Here we see the purpose of Jesus. In verse 38 it says, And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. And then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Jesus knew his purpose. He was coming to set us free from the curse of the law.
He was going to be made that curse for us so that we could partake of the freedom and we see that jesus when he was anointed by the holy spirit and with power he went about doing good that's our savior if the purpose of the lord was to keep us sick and defeated his son would not have been walking around with the power of God healing people but he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him turn to Matthew chapter 4 and meet
me in 23 we're going to look at 23 and 24 excuse me Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee teaching in the synagogues and announcing the good news about the kingdom and as he's announcing the good news he healed every kind of disease and illness news about him spread far and people would soon be bringing to him all who were sick and whatever their sickness or disease or if they were demon possessed or epileptic or paralyzed he healed them all there
is not a time in the bible that I have found where someone came to Jesus and said. Can you heal me or are you willing to heal me? And he told them, no, depart from me. I don't find that in the word of God. I open up this love letter and every single time when I see somebody come in honor and humble themselves before the Lord. He provides for them, whatever they're coming to him for. He healed each and every one of them. The only time that they're in the scripture, it says that Jesus was limited.
It was limited because of his hometown in Nazareth. It was because of their unbelief. It was their unbelief that stopped him. Oftentimes when we see where he's healed someone, he says, your faith has made you whole. And so that question I asked you this morning, I really want you to examine your heart. Do you believe that it is God's will to heal you? And I'm also going to ask, do you still believe that it's God's will to heal
you? because there's some people sitting here or maybe listening online and you were on fire believing that God was a healer or is a healer, was a healer. And the enemy can come in and experiences can make you question, is it really God's will to heal me? Because we're going to talk about the elephant in the room. What about so-and-so? I prayed for them and I stood for them and they died. Do you still believe that it's God's will to heal?
Because what happens, we sang about it, you know, Jesus is our firm foundation where I stand. Jesus doesn't move. He doesn't change. But experiences in our life and things that we start taking our eyes off of Jesus and putting our eyes on other things, that foundation begins to crack sometimes and shift. It's not because of Jesus. It's because we've taken our eyes off of him. and we've began to listen to lies. Maybe some disappointments have came in and we begin to question.
So I'm asking you, do you still believe that it's God's will to heal you? Let's take a look at Matthew 8. Here we see in verse 16, it says, when evening had come, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed. People are still demon-possessed today. I hope you guys know that. And he cast out the spirits with a word, and he healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, He himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.
Again, people came with sickness not just in their body but in their mind. They came with sickness in their spirit, demon possession, and it didn't stop Jesus. It doesn't stop Jehovah Rapha. He is the healer. He is healing. And when he spoke the word. Everyone was delivered and set free. In Luke 6, 19, it says, The whole multitude sought to touch him, for power went out from him, and he healed them all. Again, Jesus is willing. And it took one touch, one touch of the power of Christ.
And what's so amazing is now, when you are a believer, and you believe Jesus Christ and you have that Holy Spirit in you, you open up your Bible. It's the same power that if Jesus was standing right here and I was touching him. Your word, you have to believe that it's powerful. It shouldn't just be sitting on a shelf at home and sometimes you carry it to church as an accessory.
This is powerful. We have to open it. And we really have no excuse because we have access to so many apps and audio Bibles and teachings, the Word of God is life to you. It goes on in John chapter 9 in verse 6 and 7. It says, and then he spit on the ground, Jesus. He spit on the ground. He made mud with the saliva and he spread the mud over the blind man's eyes.
You don't have to try to figure out how how God's going to heal that's not our job it's not how he's going to do it I know he's going to do it and we have to stand firm on that and he told the man he gave him instructions to go wash himself and as the man went and washed he came back seeing in this chapter of John 9, we see that Jesus, Jehovah Rapha, is now starting to give wisdom and instruction. And as the person took that wisdom and took that instruction and obeyed,
Mixed in the obedience, healing took place. So there are times that God is telling you to do something. And it's your choice to obey or not. This man, I don't know what may have happened. If he had mud on his eyes and he thought, why did Jesus put mud on my eyes? I'm not going to wash. And he's just wiping it off. But he obeyed. He trusted. And he was healed. And so there's many times when we are praying for someone else that we have to remember they have a free will.
You cannot change their free will. And you don't know. I know we think we know a lot. But you do not know what the Lord has been telling them. And you don't know if they've obeyed it. And I'm just going to say the Lord may say hey I need you to start eating a certain way I need you to stop eating a certain way I need you to exercise some more I need you to stop this habit it's not good for your temple your physical body but do we obey or not that's between us and God.
And so you don't know what God has spoken to me in my private time, and I don't know what God's spoken to you. And so you have to remember that when you are praying for someone, do not let the enemy come in and shake your faith, because it seems that a prayer was not answered. You do not know what their free will was. And that's how a lot of times foundations can get shaken.
Here we see in John 9, Jesus gave this man wisdom and instruction, and he went and obeyed, and when he obeyed those steps that the Lord was telling him, freedom and healing came to him. Let's take a look at Mark chapter 1, in verse 40 and 42. It says, a man with leprosy came, and he knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean, he said. And moved with compassion, not anger.
We don't see Jesus angry that this man was questioning him. He was moved with compassion. Jesus reached out and touched him. I am willing. That settles everything for me. If I can open the word of God and I see Jesus himself saying, I am willing, then I'm going to stand my whole life saying, I know that Jehovah Rapha is willing to heal me. Jesus said, I am willing, be healed. And instantly the leprosy disappeared and the man was healed.
Here we see Jesus is like, I am able. This man knew that Jesus was able.
He had seen experiences with other people and he knew he was able but was he willing to touch someone so unclean as this man with leprosy and Jesus said I'm willing right here in the word I'm not going to read all of Mark 5 we have the verses Mark 5 1 through 20 I'm just going to kind of paraphrase this one here we see that Jesus is traveling to the other side of the lake and when he climbs out of the lake, there's a man that's possessed with a demon, with evil spirits.
And this man is tormented. If you do not know what tormented looks like, it's highlighted right here in the word. This man lived among the tombs and people would come and they would try to chain him with chains and shackles, but he would snap them and he would cut himself. I don't know about you, but that sounds like some things that other people right now are dealing with. That's not of God. That's torment.
Any time that you have a voice that's telling you to harm your body, this flesh that was never supposed to die, that's why the body in the end of life, your body will fight. Because your body was not created to die. We were created to live. And so our body will fight. So if you have a voice that's telling you to harm yourself, to hurt your body, that's torment. That is not of God. And here we see, it says in verse 5.
That's torment. That's mental anguish. And it says in verse 6, when Jesus was still some distance away, this man saw him. Now, sometimes I question, did the man really see him or did that spirit sense that healing was coming on the scene? Jehovah Rapha was about to be in his presence. And it goes on to say, he ran to meet him and he bowed low before him. Demons have to bow at Jesus. When it says that the name of Jesus is so powerful that everything that has a name has to bow at Jesus.
I challenge you, whether it is diabetes, heart disease, anything with a name, it has to bow at Jesus. We release power through the name of Jesus. It says that this evil spirit in this man, it caused him to bow before him. And he was screaming, it says in verse 7, Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? He knew, he knew who Jesus was. And isn't it interesting? Jesus just got off the boat.
He wasn't interfering with anything. But he knew that that presence, in the presence of healing, that evil spirit couldn't torment the man anymore. It says in verse 8, for Jesus had already said to the Spirit, come out of the man, you evil spirit. And then we go further. I'm going to paraphrase that. He asked the Spirit what his name was, and we know he said, for we are many. And so we do know that Jesus gave permission. He cast out the evil spirits into
the pigs, and they went off the cliff. But what I want to focus in on is verse, let me see, verse 15. Let's go to verse 15. It says, A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and when they saw the man who had been possessed by the lesion of demons, He was sitting there, fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid. They seen a mighty work that day. This was a man they could not contain. They couldn't chain him. They couldn't lock him up. He would break free.
He would cut himself with stones. He was howling at the moon. Like, he was just crazy. And now this man had freedom. Jesus has compassion You know when we see people that are That are crazy They're insane They have a mental illness, Sometimes we shy away from people like that And we say they should be locked up But what if we Gave them Jesus, What if we gave them freedom What if we called upon Jehovah Rapha And said you need freedom. This man was then fully clothed.
He was sane in his right mind. He ended up going back home to his family, shared the good news of what Jesus did for him that day. I'm sure that man is just like in Psalms 103. He said, I will praise the Lord with all that's in me and remember all that the Lord has done for me. I can't just imagine his testimony of telling people, 20 years ago, guess what I was doing? And now I'm free. This man, Jesus, came upon the scene.
Jehovah Rapha not only heals bodies, he heals your physical body, but he will heal your broken heart. He will restore relationships. He will heal tormented minds, and he'll heal damaged identities. We are in an identity crisis right now. You have to know who you are. And who you are, if you believe in Christ, you are a child of God. And you walk around with the power of God in you. And that's, as we were worshiping and I kept hearing the Lord say, I am willing, I am willing.
It was almost like a stirring in me that angers me when people are like, God heals sometimes. But that was for the, you know, that was for the early church. And it's almost like just an offense, you know? Jesus doesn't change. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So where did we get out of the Bible that things have stopped? People that say, well, the early disciples had tongues. You know, that's in the book of Acts. Where did the Lord say that that stops?
And why would he take his Holy Spirit away from us as we are approaching closer and closer to the end times when the Antichrist will be revealed? Why would he take his Holy Spirit away from us when we need it more now than ever? We have to know who we are. You have to know your identity and not allow yourself to be deceived.
It talks about that in the end times. You have to know what you believe so that you are not deceived And you are not going to know what you believe if you don't open your Bible and read it. And we have the power of the Holy Spirit in us. So we need to be walking around like we have the Holy Spirit in us. And when you know that someone is sick or needs prayer, stop fearing man. And if the Lord is leading you to lay hands on someone or to pray for them, to do it. Not let fear hold you back.
Jehovah Rapha is always present to heal. As I was studying, I came across Proverbs 4, 22. And you can put the New King James Version up. And you can leave that for just a minute. Because it says, for they are life to those who find them.
Talking about the word. this word right here they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh listen to that it is health to all their flesh if you'll leave that on the screen for me as I was studying I went a little bit deeper now I do not study Hebrew and a lot of times I can't pronounce half the things in the Bible but I was studying and I came across a word it's a Hebrew word and I hope I'm pronouncing it correctly. I looked it up.
It's called Marpeh. And Marpeh is a Hebrew word that was in place of right here where it says they are life. So the word is Marpeh, and it means health, medicine, a cure, a remedy. So think of that. whatever you're standing and believing for, if you're standing for someone else and you're wanting to take them knowledge, the word of God is. It is health to you. It is medicine to you. It is a cure for you. If you are standing there and you are standing for your
true life, the Word of God is a cure for you. It's a remedy. Let's take a look at it in the New Living Translation, Proverbs 4, 20 through 22. It says, My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don't lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them and healing to their whole body. God's word is his will. It is God's will to heal you. His word is medicine to us.
It's a remedy to us. And that is why you hear pastor, myself, other members at True Life stating life and death is in the power of the tongue. And we do confess a lot in this church. And people may say, why do you do so many confessions? You have to believe your words have power. And if you don't believe speaking the word of God has power, then just look at the world and the people around you that always speak negative about themselves, negative about their circumstances.
They're always complaining and talking negative. It's working in their life. They stay in the same exact condition day, week, month, and year after year. It's going to work, period. The Word of God is powerful. It's effective. That is what it says. So it's going to work for you either in the right direction or in the wrong direction. And you get to choose yourself. The Lord said today, you get to choose, life or death, blessing or curses. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
We get to choose. And so with Jehovah Rapha, I want you to take this word as truth. You know, as I was studying, it was very interesting because, you know, I have always, I've always in this area been very on fire for I know God heals. I know God heals. I know it's his will to heal. I have seen him heal. I've seen miracles take place. I've experienced miracles. So I usually do not get shaken by this, and that's not to brag on me.
However as I was studying and preparing this word I have been preparing this this lesson for probably about two months when you know pastor's like I really want to do the names of God so I was preparing that and in the middle of preparing Jehovah Rapha and declaring the word of God and healing, our family went through a situation. And so during that time, as studying this and preparing this lesson, Josh's dad became ill and was in the hospital. And he did pass away.
And he passed away in the same month that my mom passed away the very year before. And so I went before the Lord. And if I'm honest, the enemy, he comes to tempt. You know, he took Jesus, you know, Jesus was led out into the wilderness to be tempted. And it was like the enemy saying, do you really believe now? Almost happy, you know, almost like taunting. Do you really believe now? So I had a choice. And I said, yes, I do believe.
I do believe. I can't control everything. and I don't have to figure everything out. My job is to believe. And I would rather continue living my life believing that I do serve a loving God who is willing and able to heal and continue to declare that on a firm foundation. And like I said, you don't know everything. You don't know someone else's will. You don't know the conversations that they've had with the Lord, if they're satisfied.
But you have to choose for yourself because there's going to come a time where your faith. You have to decide, am I going to believe this time? Am I going to believe that God can heal me? And in that moment, just like the word of God says, I had to say, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that's within me.
I will bless his holy name and I will remember I will remember all the times that he has healed us all the times that he has forgiven our sins and that's what you have to do I look back and I remember I had to tell the enemy no I remember when the doctor gave me a report that I would never have children and for five years we stood on exactly what I'm telling you to do today I I got scriptures out of this Bible that said that I would be able to have a child.
I stood on it. I confessed it. I would host every baby shower I could when I heard someone was going to have a baby. I sowed seed believing because, not just because my own will, like I just want to have a child. Prior, I had already prayed and the Lord had already told me, you're going to have a daughter and her name is Rachel. Now, I would have never picked the name Rachel. That was not a name that I would have picked. But he said her name's Rachel.
And then the doctor said, no, you're not able to. And so I respected what he said, but I knew I had truth. I knew I had help. I knew I had medicine. I knew I had a cure. I knew I had a remedy for what the Lord already told me. I wasn't making up what I wanted. God said I was going to have a daughter named Rachel. So I was going to have that daughter if I was 100 years old. So I kept confessing and confessing. And on Mother's Day, almost 16 years ago, I was like, I'm really sick.
And I found out that I was pregnant with Rachel at that point. So I knew God can create miracles. He can give you new body parts. I have seen this take place in the medical field. I have seen people receive new hearts. I've seen people go into procedures and come out, and the doctor said, we didn't have to do it. I don't know why, but I don't have to do this procedure. This person's healed. I'm healed.
I have stood in a doctor's office with one of my children and them say, we have to do all this blood work because we need to test for leukemia. I know how it feels to stand there and say, am I really going to believe what the word of God says? I don't just come up here and teach anything that I've not been through. I know that feeling when fear hits you in the face.
And I did the exact same thing that I always do. We went home, we got communion, because there's power in the blood, there's life in the blood. We took this medicine and we confessed it. We opened up our mouth. I didn't just read it, I confessed it. I was in a battle. This was my sword. I opened my mouth and I confessed the word of God over that child. And I said, that child's going to live and not die and declare the works of the Lord.
And this child is strong and not weak and sure enough we got that report back all clear and healthy and strong and you know what they're like but but what was it well I don't care what it was I don't have to know what it was because it's not there now it is not there now we don't have to figure it out so in the name of Jesus today we are declaring the Word of God I want you to open up your mouth and get into a habit of speaking the Word of God when you get a
negative report so stand to your feet I want to pray for you today if you will. Take this same word and you will open your mouth and apply it and you will begin to declare the Word of God over your life that is how you will begin to experience true life.