Wellness is a state of being that denotes soundness; wholeness; strength. It is a totality of being in which nothing is missing or broken. An occurrence of such wellness is in Luke 17:19 when Jesus said to a Samaritan man, who was suffering from leprosy, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

The word well in this verse is translated from a Greek word that is from the root word sozo, which most often translates in its various forms as save, salvation, savior, etc. [1] The wellness conveyed by the word sozo is one of complete rescue:  deliverance from all harm and into total safety. The physical healing that Jesus gave to the man with leprosy rescued the man from the ravages of a disease that was destroying both his body and his life. Cleansing the man’s body of physical decay made the man physically well again.

But physical wellness was not what caused Jesus to declare the man well/saved, for the man was but one of ten lepers who had all been healed by Jesus that day. Instead, Jesus made the declaration after that man returned alone to praise God for the healing that he had been given. Throwing himself at Jesus’ feet, the man gratefully submitted the new life that he had received back to the One who had made it his reality. Jesus did not cleanse the lepers that day with the intention that they would return to their former ways of living. But He did so to give them an opportunity if they would so choose to accept it, to go as He sent them into new lives, promoting God’s kind of wellness in others by testifying with thanksgiving to the goodness of God that Jesus manifests.

To witness the power of God’s goodness at work, restoring wellness that undoes seemingly irreparable brokenness, makes believing the incredible reality of Jesus as being the Son of God and Savior more readily accepted by people who might otherwise pay Him little heed. Jesus told a group of Galileans, “Unless you people see miracles, signs, and wonders… you will never believe.” (John 4:48) The Greek word translating as see in this verse is horao and is often used to refer to spiritual perception. The insight gained from witnessing miracles would indeed be needed by many people to enable them to be fully persuaded of the Truth of God’s grace in Jesus.

In Mark 2, teachers of the law heard Jesus forgive a paralyzed man of his sins. Rightly, they recognized that no one but God could accomplish such a feat. So to substantiate both His identity and His ability to forgive what mankind cannot, Jesus restored the man’s physical freedom, enabling the man to rise up and walk. Not a person present who witnessed the event would ever be able to deny the reality of the restoration that supported the words of forgiveness that Jesus had spoken.

Every act of Jesus throughout His ministry affirmed not only His words but also His identity. In essence, His actions said, “This is who I AM. This is what I do. I AM the One who restores all, both the spiritual and the physical.”

Jesus’ very name means “YAHWEH saves” or “YAHWEH is salvation.” [2] Expanded, the name is the sum totality of YAHWEH rescues, YAHWEH delivers, YAHWEH makes well, YAHWEH preserves, YAHWEH restores.

The totality of wellness that is wrapped up in the word sozo is all unveiled in the revelation of Jesus. Not once did Jesus leave any individual to whom He ministered with an only partially restored debilitation. In Mark 8, Jesus laid His hands a second time on a blind man whose vision was only partly restored the first time that Jesus did so. Jesus remained committed to the man’s wholeness by remaining present with the man until the restoration was complete. But beyond that surface message, the event also symbolizes the two-part total spiritual and physical restoration that Jesus was on earth to provide.

In addressing people’s physical needs, Jesus also simultaneously addressed their beliefs of God. Typically Jesus would first teach and preach the Truth of God before He would then begin to heal the sick —those who knew that they were not well.

The New Testament’s use of the Greek word hugies, which most often translates in the Bible into the English word well, is derived from the root word auzano, the meaning of which corroborates two-part wellness. Auzano means “healthy, i.e. Well (in the body); figuratively, true (in doctrine) – sound, whole” [3].

Wellness is wholeness that manifests in this world as the soundness of both body and soul (mind, will, and emotions). As the communication center between the body and the spirit, the soul is where input is received and decisions are made. The soul’s wellness is vital, for decisions made in this temporal world, in addition to either enhancing or degrading life here and now, can also lead to either everlasting spiritual life or death. Jesus Himself stated the need for complete restoration, saying, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17b)

Healthy in this verse is translated from isxyo, meaning “…embodied strength that ‘gets into the fray (action), i.e. engaging the resistance.” It “refers to the Lord strengthening them with combative, confronting force to achieve all he gives strength for.” [4] Similarly, auzano, the word stated above as corroborating two-part wellness, means to grow, increase or mature in any manner of size or strength. [5] In combining definitions, a healthy being—a body or soul that is able to overcome attacks against its well-being—is indicated as being one who has God-given strength to stand against (defy) all that opposes wellness. Strength, health, and wellness are from God, giving life.

And the prayer characterized by faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins with present effects, it will be forgiven him. Therefore, openly confess these sins to one another, and pray for the benefit of one another, for the purpose of being supernaturally healed. Very combative (engaging, overcoming) is the specific (urgent) request of a divinely-approved person who is energized (by God). (James 5:15-16—Greek text) [6]

Healing is addressed as being more than a natural event. The word healing is translated from ioamai, defined as “healing, particularly as supernatural and bringing attention to the Lord Himself as the Great Physician.” [7]

This is what occurred in Luke 17:19 when the one leper of the ten whom Jesus had healed returned in right thinking to worship God after witnessing his own supernatural physical healing take place. The man rightly glorified Jesus, not the healing, giving the man what the other nine lacked:  two-part restoration. Both the man’s body and his doctrine—the Truth of God that Jesus reveals—were made right.

When a right believing heart and mind connect body and spirit, as a whole in alignment with God, praise comes forth as faith that expresses itself through prayer (dialogue with God). Such prayer contains an expectation of a response from God that best builds up that which is lacking in any given situation, giving strength where needed.

When the sick and sinners are lifted up to God in prayer, strengthening occurs in various ways through right (righteous) relationships with God that depend fully upon Jesus’ own right standing with His Father. Jesus is the only pathway through which both our lack of strength is acknowledged to God, confessing our right need of God; and strength in any form is delivered back from the Father, through Jesus, in response to the prayer. Through Jesus alone are the weak made strong and the debilitated enabled to fully stand. In the Name of Jesus, right prayer praises God in gratitude for God’s forthcoming response before it is received. Such prayer is that which, when offered, is received as worshipful faith, for it trusts God to deliver on His given Word.

On the other hand, a wrong believing heart and mind concerning God can be counter-productive to overall health and wellness. In failing to believe and depend upon the Truth of God, doubt can conceive sin in the form of words and actions that are void of faith. Then once born, those words and actions can themselves produce debilitating kin, such as guilt, shame, fear, sickness, etc. The destruction that is wreaked, adding to debilitation can then, in turn, generate even more wrong thinking about God, self, and others in a self-propelling downward spiral of misgivings and despair.

Such was the condition of the-woman-at-the-well (and the world as a whole) when Jesus met the woman. Though the-woman-at-the-well is not known to have been sick physically, she was not well. Indeed, she was suffering in multiple ways from debilitating isolation that had been produced by much wrong thinking:  her own and that of others.

 

 [2] STRONGS]   [3] STRONGS   [4&6] Strong’s and HELPS   [5]Strong’s    [7] Helps

[PART III – Acceptance]

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Our neighbor of more than ten years moved away from our community to be closer to her family. Her husband had passed away the year before, and though she wanted to stay put, God put everything in place for her to go. As she was departing, she stopped by to give me a special memento of our time together as neighbors. The gift was one of her figurines, one that depicts Jesus and the Samaritan woman meeting at the well. My neighbor had no earthly way of knowing the story’s significance to me. But in knowing the One who does, she knew enough to follow His prompting to give me the gift that, on multiple levels, was an honor to receive.

When Jesus met the-woman-at-the-well in Samaria (See John 4), she was a broken person. But then, so too was every other person in Jesus’ life, whether they knew so or not. So too have we all been broken, to one degree or another by many of the downturns that occur in this world. But then into our broken lives comes Jesus, and suddenly, like the-woman-at-the-well, we find ourselves in the Presence of the One who transforms lives to the glory of God and for mankind’s well-being. In His Presence we receive new insight, new perspective, new understanding, and new identity that redefine who we are, giving new purpose and direction to our lives. Newfound hope promises a better future. Freed from carrying the weight of past burdens, we move forward, overcoming current hindrances. Each and every step along the way, life is regenerated (rekindled, refreshed). Life begins anew, each and every present moment that we are with Jesus.

The benefits of simply conversing with Jesus were quickly realized by the-woman-at-the-well, who learned that in hearing and accepting what Jesus has to say, the incredible occurs. Brokenness is undone by the grace of God that is in Jesus, bringing an end to debilitations in a process of renewal that is known as restoration.

Restoration is a returning to wholeness:  a state of being that meets or exceeds the original condition that existed before brokenness occurred. The New Testament Greek equivalency is apokathistemi. The compound word’s two root words are apistía, meaning “separated from,” and kathístēmi, meaning “have a definite standing.” Together their meaning becomes “restore back to original standing… to enjoy again, i.e. what was taken away by a destructive or life-dominating power.” The emphasis is on a separation occurring “from a former, negative influence to enjoy what is forward (the restoration).”[1]

Restoration involves a renewing, a new beginning that replaces a lesser state of being in a process of building up to perfection. When David cried out to God in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me,” he was asking God for an opportunity to begin again. He was asking for a way to put his sinful existence behind him in order to continue living with God in the present and the future. In fact, David wanted the errors of his way completely blotted out, expunged, washed away for good. He realized that not even a single sin could be left standing between him and God. He needed a fresh start.

Apparent in the first nine verses of Psalm 51 is the deep awareness that David had of his guilt in having broken his relationship with God. But right from the beginning, in verse one, as well as again in verse ten, David made his plea to Elohim —the Hebrew word meaning God(s) that is used throughout the first chapter of Genesis to refer to the One who had made all Creation. David knew that only the God who had created could recreate, restoring life as it once had been, if not better. David knew that only God could give him another chance to live as God intended. Acknowledging his deep need for a personal relationship with God, David confessed his fear of losing that relationship permanently as he cried out in verse eleven, “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”

Though David feared the worst, he still hoped for the best for one reason:  he personally knew both the compassionate mercy and the immeasurable power of God (God’s goodness and greatness). David hoped that God not only could but would, do for him that which he could not:  make right all that was wrong between them. In verse twelve, David pleads, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant to me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”

The plea was twofold. First, David needed to be saved in the present from his past. Secondly, he needed a way to continue moving forward with God, such that God would always be in his future.

In effect, David’s plea was no less than prophecy, for his need confessed the provision that God would deliver to all mankind in Jesus Christ, God’s Son. Through God’s finished work of the Cross and the Empty Tomb, forgiveness of sin and Holy Spirit Presence would both be available to all who would personally accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Jesus would safely deliver every person receiving salvation in Him from sin and into God’s Holy Presence, meeting each one’s deepest need to be recreated and sustained forever, accomplishing an all-around restorative do-over of immeasurable value.

Restoration is God’s creative power continually producing new life from the fullness of God that Jesus embodies. But within that restoration process, God has placed a switch, so to speak, that must be decisively flipped in order to complete the personal connection with God that Jesus makes possible. To accomplish the flipping, individuals must accept and acknowledge two core truths:  (1) Jesus is the Christ—the One sent by God to return the whole world to right standing with Him, and (2) Jesus has come to restore each individual to a personal relationship with God, whom we cannot live without. The Presence of Jesus affirms two facts:  God knows our brokenness, and God wants us well.

[1] HELPS Word-studies

[PART II – Wellness]

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