The Lord Jesus said to Ananias about Apostle Paul at the beginning of his ministry: “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim My name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for My name.” (Ac 9:15, 16)

This applies to all who desire to follow Jesus. The word ‘suffer’ here is experiential pain, not just imagination. There is a cross that kills the flesh; not all at once, but little by little, daily… For every drop of the revelation of God’s name, I had to suffer; so that I should desire to know it desperately…The knowledge of God’s name is for them that pay the price. The door of God’s intimate treasures is never found by them that just pass by…
I had to be sick, really sick, with no desire to go to see a doctor…for me to press on to know who Jehovah Rapha is, how He operates and delivers and heals…in the quietness of my spirit, there came a knowing…that my sickness is not ‘a sickness’, not a dead end… but a pathway, a road…who could have believed that…a pain that could not go away, forcing me to come closer to the throne and receive a testimony, not just healing, but so much more…

The healing baptized me…never the same, much more hungry to know the Healer and not just His touch of the moment…I became the apprentice to Jehovah Rapha…what a privilege…how can I ever describe in words the class rooms in the clouds…the surgery on top of the mountain…all my friends dwell in the same atmosphere and they too have lost the desire to be ordinary…

The first test expected by Jehovah Rapha is to praise Him in all situations, not because I feel like praising, not because my pain is gone, not because I know not what else to do…but just because the praise belongs to Him and can never be retained by men or idols…so if you look for healing, praise God with all the strength you have…do not imitate others, do not compare with others…just go on and think of God, think of His power and glory and willingness to touch and heal you… the presence of the infirmity, of the sickness, of the pain, is just the pulpit from where the praise must go up to the Owner…

Like a miracle flower in the desert, no water, no shade, but still blooms by the power within, I will rejoice and praise God, my Savior, my Lord and yes, my Healer!

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines; though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food; though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls… Yet! I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in God my Savior!” (Habakkuk 3:17, 18)

(In the picture, red poopy flowers growing from under the ruins of ‘the dead church in Sardis’ -Rev 3:1- They look like the blood of the martyrs. I took this picture during a trip to Turkey)