If you are following Our Heavenly Father's calendar, then you are well into the season known as The Counting of the Omer.
Leviticus 23:15 ISR98 "‘And from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you shall count for yourselves: seven completed Sabbaths. ‘Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you count fifty days, then you shall bring a new grain offering to יהוה."
We know that this was the season that Yeshua's disciples were in following His resurrection of which He spoke in Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Set-apart Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Yerushalayim, and in all Yehuḏah and Shomeron, and to the end of the earth.”
As we count the Omer toward Shavuot/Pentecost, I want to meditate on the gifts of the Spirit found in I Corinthians 12. Last week, we looked at the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. This week, I'd like to look at faith and healing.
4 Now there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit gives them. 5 Also there are different ways of serving, but it is the same Lord being served. 6 And there are different modes of working, but it is the same God working them all in everyone. 7 Moreover, to each person is given the particular manifestation of the Spirit that will be for the common good. 8 To one, through the Spirit, is given a word of wisdom; to another, a word of knowledge, in accordance with the same Spirit; 9 to another, faith, by the same Spirit; and to another, gifts of healing, by the one Spirit; 10 to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, the ability to judge between spirits; to another, the ability to speak in different kinds of tongues; and to yet another, the ability to interpret tongues. 11 One and the same Spirit is at work in all these things, distributing to each person as he chooses. 12 For just as the body is one but has many parts; and all the parts of the body, though many, constitute one body; so it is with the Messiah. 13 For it was by one Spirit that we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free; and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14 For indeed the body is not one part but many. (CJB)The Hebrew word for faith is "emun." The first time it is mentioned in Scripture is in Deuteronomy 32:20 ISR98, "“And He said, ‘Let Me hide My face from them, Let Me see what their end is, For they are a perverse generation, Children in whom there is no trusting."
The Mechanical Translation of the Torah: Lexicon of Hebrew Roots and Words, edited by Jeff A. Benner, defines this word as "Securely fixed in place. The root word is derived from the firmness of the plant that comes out from the seed. Something that grabs hold or supports something else. the passing of strength or skill to the next generation." HalleluYah! I can see evidence of that in the full Shema.
"“Sh’ma, Yisra’el! Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, Isra’el! Adonai our God, Adonai is one]; and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources. These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead, and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates."
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 CJB. This is why it is so important for our children to see us act out our faith. They can't see faith as mental ascent. They can only see faith by our actions.
James 2:17 ISR98 "So also belief, if it does not have works, is in itself dead."
*** The next is the gift of healing. The Hebrew word for heal is "rapha."
The first time it is mentioned in Scripture is in Genesis 20:17 ISR98, "And Aḇraham prayed to Elohim, and Elohim healed Aḇimeleḵ, and his wife, and his female servants, so they bore children, "
The above mentioned lexicon defines this word as "To restore to health or wholeness. In the definition of the Hebrew root, it says that wounds, sickness and illnesses are cured with medicines made from plan materials which were pulverized into a medicinal powder."
For me, this indicates that healing does not only come through the laying on of hands and prayer, but also through the use of medicinal herbs and plants. We typically only think of a faith healer as one who prays, but apparently this gift is extended to the knowledge of knowing how to heal as well. Interesting!
Look at some of what the Bible has to say about healing!
Ezekiel 47:12 ESV "And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”
Isaiah 38:21 ESV "Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.”
Proverbs 17:22 ESV "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."
1 Timothy 5:23 ESV "(No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)"
Matthew 9:12 ESV "But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick."
Luke 10:34 ESV "He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him."
Jeremiah 8:22 ESV "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?"
Psalm 103:3 ESV "Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,"
James 5:15 ESV "And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven."
Revelation 22:2 ESV "Through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
These were just the first 10 verses on this list. There are many, many more!
This coming week, I am going to be looking to increase my faith visibility to my children and looking for ways to be open to His using me for healing. I think my job as a medical transcriptionist puts me in the hot seat because friends and family always come to me with questions. "I tell them, I'm not a doctor, I just play one on the computer." :-)
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