10 years ago, in an all black outfit at the tender age of 21, I lowered myself down into the old-fashioned bath-tub of my minister’s house and made the decision to make Jesus Lord of my life. I wanted to follow Jesus and live a life pleasing to God by obeying His word through the Bible. Yet, as the years have gone by, I am realizing that I am not thriving in the faith as much as I desire. My temper is too short, my fears too big, and my insecurities still present. 

I am learning to tell myself the truth, while remaining grounded in God’s love for me. 

As I am unlearning the faithless habit of focusing too closely on my weaknesses and sin, God is revealing to me the problem. The problem is I haven’t been allowing Jesus to heal me. God is also revealing the solution to me–to allow and trust Jesus to heal me.

I’m a pilgrim on the path to wholeness, health, and righteousness. I have not arrived, friend! But I, by God’s goodness and grace, am locked in on the journey with Christ. God is offering me breadcrumbs to show me the path.

In previous posts, I’ve written about how Jesus is life itself and how true fulfillment can only come through Him. You can find those posts here, here, and here. 

In this post, I want to get even more specific by focusing on how to practically allow Jesus to heal us by knowing and meditating on different aspects of his character.

The part of His character that I’m currently focusing on is Jesus as The Great Physician. 

In my healing journey, I am learning that true healing does not come by simply changing our behaviors; it comes from having our core–the very essence of who we are–changed. Our beliefs are what leads to the formation of our identity. Our identity transforms when our beliefs shift. This transformation is what is referred to in Romans 12:2. So if I want to live a healed life in Christ, I need to allow Jesus through the Holy Spirit to inform and transform my beliefs. 

So what do we believe about Jesus? Do we believe that Jesus is The Great Physician and that he can heal us? For a very long time, I have not believed this, but I am starting to. How do I know that Jesus can heal me as The Great Physician? Holy Spirit says it in His written word according to Mark 5, the story of the bleeding woman whom Christ healed. 

“So Jesus went with him, and a large crowd followed and pressed around Him. And a woman was there who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had borne much agony under the care of many physicians and had spent all she had, but to no avail. Instead, her condition had only grown worse.”

Mark 5:24-27

People knew Jesus had the ability to heal, hence the crowds pressing him and being extra. We see a woman who was suffering, who had borne great pain, had spent all she had, and was still not healed, only getting worse!

I can relate to her. With the amount of emotional neglect and verbal abuse I’ve experienced and the unhealthy ways I tend to relate to others, I can often feel great pain and like I have nothing.

“When the woman heard about Jesus, she came up through the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she kept saying, “If only I touch His garments, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction.”

Mark 5:27-29

In the midst of her suffering, she heard about Jesus. Heard that Jesus could heal and not only did she hear that he could heal, she believed that he could heal. She TRUSTED that he could heal. She was CONFIDENT that he could heal. When she touched Him, she was healed of her affliction. When she touched Him, she was healed of her affliction. The word that is used here for healing is iáomai which means, “healing, particularly as supernatural and bringing attention to the Lord Himself as the Great Physician”. She experienced a supernatural healing, but the focus was not on the healing but on the person who did the healing.

Jesus is the Great Physician. That’s what I want to share with you and to share with myself. Jesus can and does heal because He is the Great Physician. He is the remedy. He has life within himself so he can restore and redeem you and me.

“At once Jesus was aware that power had gone out from Him. Turning to the crowd, He asked, “Who touched My garments?” His disciples answered, “You can see the crowd pressing in on You, and yet You ask, ‘Who touched Me?’” But He kept looking around to see who had done this. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him trembling in fear, and she told Him the whole truth. “Daughter,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction.”

Mark 5:30-34

I love Jesus’ tender response and how sensitive He was. He perceived that healing power had gone out from him. In order for healing power to have gone out from him it needed a place to go. It needed a wound to tend to and flow toward. Jesus sought after the wound that needed his power. He wanted to know the person who he healed. I just love this. Of course Jesus knew who he healed, but I believe the woman needed the connection, encouragement, and affirmation that came from Jesus. He wanted to be personally involved in her healing; he didn’t want to keep her at the fringes of his cloak.

One of the wounds Jesus’ is healing is my wound of rejection. I am learning to believe that God loves me to my core. He accepts me. He wants to have a relationship with me, which is why He sent Jesus to die. So if my Creator desires me that means I am desirable. Now of course God doesn’t want me to sin, He can’t be around sin but that doesn’t mean He doesn’t want me. And because God wants me and because He loves me, this inspires me to turn away from my sin because of His great and marvelous love and acceptance.

And as my mind, therefore my beliefs, are trained to focus on God’s love through Christ, I am healed, I am healing, I will be healed. And not only healed, but transformed. Changed. 

The difficulty lies in overcoming the lies that challenge the truth. The lies that challenge the truth of God’s love for me through Christ come from how I’ve been treated in the past. If humans have treated me unlovingly, then I am unlovable and I can project that belief onto God. I love the example of the “healed, bleeding woman”. She didn’t allow her past experiences with human failure keep her from her healing and I’m learning to walk in this same posture.

Humans may have rejected me and still do, but God doesn’t. The cross proves it. The word proves it. And I am pressing on into the reality of my healing through Christ, The Great Physician. 

Jesus is the Great Physician because he has living, healing power. This is not a disputable fact. When we trust who Jesus is we are healed because He wants to heal us and be intimately involved in our wholeness.

Do we perceive it?

Love and Light,

Kourtney Naomi