Dealing with Healing and Gaining from Pain

Dealing with Healing and Pain “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?” Jeremiah 8 v 22 Gilead was a mount on the west side of the Jordan river where a particular type of bush grew that secreted a resin that was then processed to form the balm of Gilead. The balm of Gilead had healing properties and was greatly valued. In this uni-verse, Jeremiah asks three rhetorical questions. He was upset and angry that the people of Israel who had access to the miraculous Balm should complain of brokenness, pain and disease. The Lord answered these questions in a vision in a time of prayer: He illustrated using the five fingers of His right hand that He is the Shepherd, the Redeemer, the Saviour, the Physician and the Balm of Gilead. He is the One who binds our wounds- both the physical as well as the deeper psychological, the intellectual, the social and the spiritual wounds. He is both the Physician and the medicine. The ordinary physician diagnoses based on his knowledge and experience. Jesus decrees our healing based on our faith and His authority to heal as the “Balm of Gilead. “ He is the super specialist and can remove our deepest pain and cure all our diseases. Though we consult doctors periodically and take medicines when required, our ultimate and complete dependence for our total health and healing must be on the Lord Himself. As a Shepherd, Jesus guards and guides us in practical ways from day to day and hour to hour. As Redeemer, He pays our bill –the payment for our souls to live forever. As Saviour, He heals us of our sin or our separation from God forever. He brings us peace with God or reconciliation. This leads to peace with ourselves and peace with others or social reconciliation as we then seek peace on similar terms with all people as an expression of our gratitude and faithfulness to the redemption and salvation we have experienced. No physician can heal or diagnose unless we go to him and describe our symptoms. We need to go to Jesus in prayer and describe our symptoms- the areas where we are experiencing pain or discomfort. He will communicate the diagnosis through the Holy Spirit and pronounce the healing. Doctors say that there is a Substance P (pain) that causes pain but we have a Process P( Prayer) that gives us release and healing of pain. We need not wait till we have exhausted all other means of pain alleviation and healing before we approach the Lord. We need to show the persistence of the woman who suffered for 12 years in pushing through the crowd but we need not show her patience in waiting so long. In a sense our situation is similar to hers as we too are surrounded or crowded with activities and issues that block our view and access to the Lord. But, we need to push through to reach Jesus, the Physician. Even if we are not suffering any ailment, we can go to Him for a Master check up. As a Physician, He can see areas in which things are beginning to go wrong in our lives and set it right before further damage is done. Like Jabez, we can pray the prophylactic prayer, “ Lord, keep me from pain.” As someone said-“pain is God’s megaphone to get our attention”. If we are giving attention to our prayer life and getting the attention of God, why should we suffer pain? We must also deal with old festering wounds of unforgiveness that we show to others, bitterness and guilt of old sins. Jeremiah is referring not just to the wounds of an individual but the wounds of a people. We need to pray persistently for the nations’ wounds. He in His role as Shepherd, Redeemer and Saviour is able to heal nations of both their ancient wounds or hurting traditions as well as present issues and challenges. The words “ my people” implies that Jesus the Physician is” on call “ and available round the clock and round the globe. He is just a prayer away. The Balm of Gilead is like a spiritual panacea, a cure-all for all and a holistic medicine for spirit,mind and body. When we store the Word of God in our hearts and minds, Jesus like the Balm of Gilead will begin to operate from within us. Our pains, be it physical, psychological, emotional, social or spiritual, will be steadily and surely removed by the secretions of the anointing balm inside us. It will reach the deep recesses of our hearts and minds where no surgeon’s scalpel or probe or remedy can reach. Bitterness, despair and depression will be replaced by health, healing and the joy of the Lord. Our strength will be renewed and our health will be restored as we intertwine our five hurting fingers with the five healing fingers of the right hand of Jesus. There is no fly in the ointment but we should fly with the anointing that we receive. In the past month, my wife was suffering intense back pain that made it difficult to move but the Lord true to His being the Balm of Gilead has completely healed her of the pain and renewed her strength. When I lay injured in Sriperumbudur, I literally kept crying out “Jesus, Jesus. Heal me. Save me.” He heard my cry and healed me. While in hospital, the intense bone-crushing pain of steel pellets embedded in my feet made me cry out in pain for pain killers several nights in a row. The pain killers gave me temporary relief but when I kept saying and praying, “ Jesus, remove the pain”, the pain disappeared in a few days, never to return. My wounds and recovery was rapid and miraculous for I was discharged in just 17 days when doctors said, “ Your injuries should keep you in hospital for a minimum of six weeks.” The divine Balm of Gilead healed me of the post- traumatic stress disorder too in quick time. Indeed, Jesus provides us Any Time Medicine, All the Time Healing and Health. Prateep V Philip