Jehovah Rapha.
Among many other things, God reveals and refers to Himself as the Lord our Healer.
So Moses cried out in prayer to God. God pointed him to a stick of wood. Moses threw it into the water and the water turned sweet.
That’s the place where God set up rules and procedures; that’s where he started testing them.
God said, “If you listen, listen obediently to how God tells you to live in his presence, obeying his commandments and keeping all his laws, then I won’t strike you with all the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians; I am God your healer.”
– Exodus 15:25-26 (The Message)
You hear the stories every once in a while. They’re the stories that defy medical explanation, and seem to show the hand of God intervening in people’s lives to bring healing and restoration to the physical body.
The testimonies of God’s healing power can be pretty amazing. They encourage other believers, and offer a strong witness to those who don’t yet believe in God. For everyone involved, the certainly have the ability to increase faith.
I’ve been studying Christian history recently, and have come across some pretty amazing stories of people who God worked through to minister miraculous healing.
One of those people, a forerunner in the practice of faith healing, was John Alexander Dowie. In the end, the dude did some pretty whacked-out stuff. For example, pride seemed to get the best of him as he eventually referred to himself as ‘Elijah the Restorer’ and attempted to build a faith-based Utopian city. But well before the craziness, he was a very accomplished healer.
In fact, he was so successful in healing people of their diseases that he was arrested several times for practicing medicine without a license!
One of the things he did that I thought was really cool was hanging the ‘trophies’ of these healings on the wall as a testimony of God’s power for all to see.
That got me thinking…
Why don’t we see more of these ‘trophies’ today? We know they exist. Are they not ‘newsworthy’ enough? And I’m not talking about the simple (yet still valid) verbal testimony of, “my back hurt and now it doesn’t.” I’m talking about having a doctor’s report showing evidence of a condition, with a follow-up doctor’s report showing that the condition doesn’t exist anymore. I’ve seen some of those kinds of reports, and then after a little time goes by we all forget about them.
I’m wondering if it would be worthwhile to create a virtual trophy wall where people can scan and post images of these kinds of legitimate, documented testimonies.
What do you think? Would something like this build your faith?
That sounds like a great visual. I know the rocks that the Israelites erected, signifying God’s victory in their lives. We need reminders of his provision. Why not a wall of mercy?
I love the idea of setting up the Israelites setting up rocks to remember God’s victories! It’s a powerful testimony of what God has done. I think that whatever kinds of testimonies there are, we need to find more ways to share the stories of what God is doing. I think it would be cool to have a blog devoted only to testimonies… I might have to think about that…
Any way we can tell the story of God at work, we should. This looks like a winning idea to me, and well worth trying. I think we can trust God to ensure the truth rises to the top of all the foolishness that might come along with the attempt.
anywhere there is an open platform, there’s an opportunity for foolishness to rise up. but with a little moderation, it could be really cool to see the really good stuff that comes out of something like this…
thanks for the thoughts Karen!
Love Dowie! In fact, named my son John Alexander in his honor. It’s very unfortunate that so many of our father’s of the faith have fallen into pride before the end…Have you ever been to Zion? Really cool place! They still have a healing room. I love the words legitimate and documented. I would love to see a place like this. DO IT!
john alexander dowie’s impact is certainly undeniable. and his example of public testimony has an important lesson for us today. the crutches on the wall meant that there was no need for them anymore… meaning that the healing was legitimate! i look at the image of the wall, and i’m inspired by how God works! i can’t wait to build a wall of God’s goodness online too… powerful!
Sounds interesting. Would take a lot of follow up though. But I have heard of healing that happens. They are amazing stories.
totally agree that it would take a lot of follow-up. but imagine looking at scanned images of doctors reports showing the evidence… THAT would be totally worth the work!
I see a lot of prayers for healing prayer requests at the site I run. Every once in a while, we’ll get a follow up where the poster will describe miraculous events that have unfolded. I would be interested in contributing these testimonies to such a project…
that would be awesome! i’m thinking about just starting with this page on Facebook…
http://www.facebook.com/thetrophywall
if you come across something that you think is legitimate and well documented, then let’s get it on the wall. but feel free to email me if you have any questions…