Jehovah Rapha – The God Who Heals
by Kelly Williams
It has been many months since I have written a blog post for the National WMA. You see, I’ve had quite a journey starting at the end of June of 2025. But I serve and love a great God! A God who heals – Jehovah Rapha. “Jehovah,” which is derived from the Hebrew word Havah can be translated as “to be,” “to exist,” or “to become known.” The Hebraic translation of Rapha (râpâ) means “to restore” or “to heal.” (I got this from Google).
We ended our VBS on Thursday night, June 26th, with the winners of the contest (boys against girls) that was to see which side could collect the most money for the Zambia missions trip that Valerie and Dale Fish, and Sharon and John Carter and Ken and I were scheduled to take the end of August. The boys won so they got to throw water balloons at the teachers first then at the girls. I had a great time trying not to be drowned by our three grandsons (Grayson, aged 9, JD, aged 7, and Andrew, aged 5.) We came home exhausted but happy. I wrote earlier about one young man who was saved during our VBS this year.
The next morning I was awakened by Andrew telling me he was hungry. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was 8:15 am. I have been a very early riser for the last few years (5:00 am) so I was startled to see the clock. Then I began to wonder what day is this? What am I supposed to do today? I could not come up with answers. My husband was summoned to the bedroom and told me I had been violently ill during the night about seven different times. I have no recollection to this day about that, but that began a series of events I would not have believed possible. The violence of the night led to back spasms beyond anything I have ever experienced. Those spasms eventually led to nine different vertebrae in my back collapsing with compression fractures. Not all of that occurred at once, which might have been better, but one to three at a time, which took a period of about three months. I had five procedures to fill my vertebrae with cement, the last one happening on October 1st. It was determined I had a UTI that started all this.
Of course, we were not able to go to Zambia and as I lay in my bed the day the others left, I asked Ken not to let the group come into my bedroom because my heart was shattered. I had prepared and prayed and looked so forward to my first foreign missions trip. Why had God allowed this to happen now? I’m still not sure this side of heaven that I have an answer, but I know God was in control.
BUT GOD! As Mrs. Diane Spriggs says often! God is a healing God. As I sit here in my home in McNeil, Arkansas, writing this blog post, I am almost healed. I wondered many days if this would ever happen. It seemed a never ending breaking and surgery, then start all over again. Many of you have prayed for me and checked on me, but this season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I am so very thankful that God is a healing God. Perhaps He doesn’t always heal like we pray He will; I prayed for healing much faster than I received it. And I even wondered if I would be able to walk by Christmas. I started physical therapy yesterday and will be working to strengthen my body over the next few months.
I don’t tell you all this for sympathy or attention. Perhaps God allowed all this to happen to me to be a testimony of His great grace and love. You see, sometimes, when I was sitting on the toilet in the middle of the night crying from pain, I felt like the only person on the planet who had ever experienced what I was going through. Of course, I can be a bit dramatic at times! But I never was truly alone. My God is also the same one that old hymn speaks about that says,
“And He walks with me and He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there;
None other has ever known.”
So when I daily prayed for healing, I wasn’t certain if I would be healed here or in heaven, but God saw fit to bring me this far and I know He will never leave me or forsake me. Revelation 5:8 says, “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having everyone of them harps, and golden vials (bowls) full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints.” I love the thought of God keeping our prayers in bowls in heaven. No matter what you are going through in this season of your life, God is standing ready to answer your prayers. We may not get the answer we want, but we always get the answer that is best for our journey.
God bless and Merry Christmas!
