“How do you define healing?” Sigh. Sitting in my neurologists office just over a month ago now I was hearing the reality of my condition, the questions lingering in my dr., and the wisdom that comes from dealing with epilepsy day in and day out. I had just had an eeg (measure of brain activity) and explained God’s message of healing to our doctor.
The news from the eeg was good. Usually there are spikes all over my brain. This time there was one at the front of my brain. This was exciting to me, but a warning to her – she would not recommend moving off meds. That was the reality she could see right now. Still, God was bigger than man’s wisdom. I couldn’t help smiling!
Another factor entered in … I’d been pregnant. Sometimes pregnant women will experience a lull in seizure activity for a time, due to the hormones present in the body. Eventually they return to their previous state. The change is typically not a permanent thing. According to her, pregnancy could NOT heal this condition. I was more excited … I wasn’t expecting to be healed by pregnancy, but by the almighty hand of God!
In addition, there was a possibility that my sickness “with production” hadn’t affected anything since I had not been throwing up. All arguments about meds not being delivered effectively were being thrown out the window. It seemed as if everything I could look to as “evidence” was being pulled out from under me. But, this was not about evidence … this was about trusting the word of the Lord.
From the patient perspective I want all the information a dr. can give me. On this particular day, however, I just wanted someone to believe me. But, once again, the argument I’d heard many times over entered in … there are many ways to be healed, one of those being medication. I’d always dismissed it. BELIEVING God would heal me I’d not questioned the very definition, but this time was different. I felt I needed to ask him … what was his real plan here? Was there a healing he was bringing that didn’t look like what I understood it to be?
Jesus is beautiful! Before I even asked, he showed up … Matthew 4 was the chapter for the day and as I read verse 24 I longed to understand this word, healed.
… “So they brought to Him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. And He healed them.”
Searching healed, I found it meant to serve, do service, to heal, cure and restore to health. This was not a partial “healing” with medication, not something that required up-keep, nor future detriment to the body. No, this was a cure. This healing was complete and utterly beautiful. I found this was not only a cure, but a love note. In greek the word was yerapeuw (pronounced ther-ap-yoo-o … makes me think of therapy) and was from the same word as yerapwn (pronounced therapon), meaning: a voluntary performer of services, whether as a freeman or a slave. The word is a noble and tender one, relating a desire to serve instead of a compulsion to. These were synonyms.
I had never asked this question of definition before … now, that I was here I’d been given an answer. God was in the business of a cure. He was choosing to heal my body, to restore me to health. I’d read over and over these pages before, yet God had chosen this day to reveal his heart in this way.
I long to know more of Jesus. More of who he is, more of who he made me to be. For I know, though I’m healed, my body will one day fail and I will truly be in His presence. Healing here on earth … it’s but a glimpse.