Tell God the Place You Need Healed

In today’s devotion, Dianna Hobbs shares how God’s healing reaches beyond the physical body into every broken, barren, dry, and bitter place of our lives. Take the limits off your faith and watch what Jehovah Rapha, the Lord your Healer, will do.

Just as God touched the bitter waters at Marah and made them sweet, He is reaching into the bitter places of your life today. (Exodus 15:25)

Last year, after one plumbing repair seemed to lead to another, we finally had someone test the water running through our home.

By then, we already knew something was off.

The water pressure had gotten weaker. Sediment kept building up in the faucets. Mineral deposits were causing trouble with the fixtures, and it felt like we were fixing the same problems over and over again. Even after the repairs, the water still did not seem right. It had a strong chlorine smell that was hard to ignore.

I could feel the effects on my skin.

Because my immune system is compromised, what might have caused mild irritation for someone else led to painful flare-ups and recurring infections for me. My husband, Kenya, had also developed eczema on his arms.

The plumber tested the water for hardness, chlorine, pH, total dissolved solids, iron, and copper. As the test strip changed color, the result was clear.

Our water needed help.

The plumber was actually excited to find the source of the problem. He explained that the water had unusually high levels of chlorine and other minerals. The buildup was clogging our faucets and contributing to the low water pressure. It also helped explain what had been happening to our skin and why my immune system was reacting so badly.

All that time, we thought we had a bunch of separate plumbing issues. But the fixtures were only showing us what was wrong with the water itself. The water needed to be treated. We needed a new filtration system.

***

That experience came back to me during my personal Bible study time as I read Exodus 15.

The children of Israel had just watched the Red Sea part and crossed over on dry land. They had seen an entire army swallowed by the same waters that once threatened their lives. But three days later, their jubilation gave way to frustration. They were thirsty, and there was no water to drink.

They needed another miracle.

Scripture says they came to a place called Marah, but "they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter" (Exodus 15:23 KJV).

In Hebrew, the name Marah itself means “bitter.”

So, God led His people to a place whose very name defined and described the circumstances they would encounter. Yet the bitter place was also where He chose to meet them and reveal Himself.

The people asked Moses, "What shall we drink?"

Moses did not have an answer for them, but he had access to a God who did. When he cried out to the Lord, God showed him a tree. Moses cast it into the water, and "the waters were made sweet" (Exodus 15:25 KJV).

God's supernatural filtration system healed the water and made it drinkable.

It was there that God revealed Himself as Jehovah Rapha: "I am the LORD that healeth thee" (Exodus 15:26 KJV).

The Hebrew phrase is YHWH ropheka. Ropheka comes from the verb rapha, meaning to heal, restore, repair, or make whole. The ending means "your," making the declaration personal: I am the Lord, your healer.

The word rapha already existed in Hebrew long before this moment. It was used to describe healing and repair throughout the Old Testament. Elijah used it to describe rebuilding the broken altar on Mount Carmel, stone by stone (1 Kings 18:30). God even used it when He promised to heal the land of a nation being restored (2 Chronicles 7:14).

What happened at Marah, though, was new. For the first time in Scripture, God spoke that word as His own name, revealing Himself as Jehovah Rapha.

I could not help but notice what God was doing when He revealed Himself as a healer in this passage.

He was healing water.

Not a person but a place.

Water.

***

As God downloaded this revelation to me, He said too many of us have limited Jehovah Rapha to the physical body. We call on that name over a diagnosis, a chronic condition, or a body that will not cooperate anymore. And He is able to heal those things. I know that for myself.

But when He first revealed Himself as Jehovah Rapha in Scripture, He was healing a place. Somewhere along the way, we narrowed Jehovah Rapha down to a hospital room. Scripture never did.

As I pondered this, I wondered why God revealed Himself as Jehovah Rapha, the Lord your healer, at the site of bitter waters.

He could have done that somewhere else.

At the Red Sea, Pharaoh's army drowned and Israel sang on the shore, but He did not speak that name there. Later, Israel reached Elim, where twelve springs and seventy palm trees waited, representing abundance after the wilderness. But He did not speak it there either.

He spoke it at Marah, where they were thirsty, weary, and discouraged, standing over water that no one could drink. Into that place of drought and bitterness, He spoke His name.

Let me tell you why this is significant.

Scripture opens with the Spirit of God moving over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2). Every living thing depends on water to survive. So when Israel stood at Marah before water they could not drink, they were cut off from the very thing that sustains life.

It was there that God used a tree to heal the water and revealed Himself as Healer.

So, what of the tree?

Scripture never tells us what kind of tree God showed Moses. It simply calls it an etz, the Hebrew word for tree, wood, or timber.

The same word, etz, appears in Deuteronomy for the tree on which a cursed man was hung (Deuteronomy 21:23). Paul uses the word too when he writes that Christ became a curse for us, "for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Galatians 3:13 KJV).

Peter uses the exact same image: Christ "bare our sins in his own body on the tree... by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Peter 2:24 KJV).

At Marah, an unnamed tree was cast into bitter water, and the water became fit to drink. At Calvary, Christ hung on a tree, and by His wounds, we are healed.

The bitter water became sweet when the tree entered it. Every bitter place in our lives must be brought to Calvary's cross, where healing flows through what Christ bore in His body.

Because Christ took the curse and bore our sins, He became Living Water for a thirsty world, drawing near to us in the wounds He carried and the life He now gives freely. The God who revealed Himself as Jehovah Rapha at Marah revealed the fullness of His healing love at Calvary.

For every bitter place, there is a tree.

***

God told me to tell somebody that by His stripes, every broken place, every desolate place, every dry place, every place of shortage and drought, every bitter place is healed.

Whether the bitterness is in your soul or in your circumstances, Jehovah Rapha has the power to heal it.

That's why He sent you here today to receive this word.

God is saying, "Don't limit Me to just your physical ailments. Tell Me every place you want Me to heal, and I will do it according to your faith and My will."

The same Jehovah Rapha who heals sick bodies and wounded souls also heals finances. He heals relationships. He heals deep places of psychological trauma. He heals every circumstance that has left you bitter, thirsty, discouraged, weary, and unable to move forward in the purpose He has called you to fulfill.

Call on His name.

Jehovah Rapha.

God is saying, I will make every bitter place sweet.

Ah, I sense a breakthrough for somebody reading this!

Hear this, friend.

The God who made the bitter waters sweet at Marah later spoke through the prophet Elisha over another poisoned source: "I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land" (2 Kings 2:21 KJV).

The same Hebrew word for healing at Marah, rapha, is the word behind Elisha's declaration at Jericho.

One God, one name, spoken over two different waters, generations apart.

That is the verse I am stirring into your cup of inspiration today.

As you drink down the contents of your cup, know this. Jehovah Rapha does not merely help you cope with what has been producing bitterness. He heals the source and breaks its power to keep producing death, drought, and barrenness in your life.

That's what He's doing right now.

If you believe it, touch and agree with me through prayer.

Father, thank You for supernatural healing, for turning the bitter places sweet, for turning my sorrow into joy and my mourning into dancing.

Thank You for reminding me that by Your stripes, Jehovah Rapha, I am healed everywhere I hurt. Forgive me for limiting Your healing power.

Today, I take the restrictions off my faith and trust You to infiltrate every place of bitterness, filter out what has contaminated it, heal and sweeten it by Your power.

I declare that it is done.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

As always, thanks for reading and until next time... may today's cup of inspiration uplift, encourage, and empower you!

If you need prayer, don't hesitate to request it. I would be honored to stand in faith with You. I know that prayer works. CLICK HERE to learn how to submit your prayer request.

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