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When I was a young adult, the term "healing" brought to mind images of men like Oral Roberts and other evangelists who claimed to be able to "lay hands" on the sick and heal them in God's name. It was just one of those words we didn't use... and if we did, we used it sarcastically "Hallelujah! He/she has been healed!" In those days before video and personal computers, we listened to a lot of radio, and I remember one of the jokes was to "put your hands on the radio (while listing to Oral Roberts or another preacher) and be healed!"

As my relationship with the Holy Spirit has deepened... and even more recently as I have followed the story of Job McCully (www.caringbridge.org/ar/jog), I have come to fully embrace and believe in the power of God to heal us... of any and all afflictions. So now, when I have a cold, God is my healer. When there is conflict between two people, I call on God to heal the situation. When someone loses a loved one and is brokenhearted, I ask God to heal them and restore their joy. When someone is struggling with depression, anxiety, or mental confusion, I pray that God will give them mental clarity.

In Numbers 12:13, we read "And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee." (Scripture taken from the King James Version, 1987 printing. The KJV is public domain in the United States. To read this passage from The Message, go to www.biblegateway.com and do a passage lookup.)

In order to get the full impact of this scripture, we must explore the background. Moses had married a Cushite woman - someone not of his tribe. His brother Aaron and his sister Miriam were openly critical of this decision AND of God for talking directly to someone who would marry "outside of his race," so to speak. God loved Moses. While God spoke to others in visions and dreams, He spoke to Moses directly. God was really angry that Aaron and Miriam would be so critical of His chosen servant Moses, so He struck Miriam with leprosy.

If you have ever seen pictures of someone with leprosy, you know that it is a horrible, disgusting condition that blisters and disfigures, and I'm sure it is very painful. When Moses saw his sister suffering, he pleaded with God to heal her. And God did just that - after a period of "quarantine" for about seven days.

It would be great if you could go to Numbers 12 and read the whole story yourself. But there are two things I want us to take away from this passage: 1) Moses prayed for healing for someone who had mistreated

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