God bless you in the amazing name of Jesus Christ, who spoke to the world the things which he heard from his heavenly Father (John 8:26).
The greatest healing power in the world is the Word of God spoken on lips of believing. In all of his healings with the exception of the woman with the issue of blood, Jesus used spoken words to execute God’s will. Even then, Jesus spoke words to her after she received the healing from her issue of blood to heal her heart from any sense of condemnation. God’s Word spoken on lips of believing is the greatest healing I know.
During my over 12 years at a Bible college, I saw people healed from physical sicknesses (headaches, allergies, sprained ankles, upset stomachs, and many other things) while listening to the Word being taught. Of course, we taught them to expect the Word to heal them, and we spoke the Word with authority when we taught it. During one of my first teaching trips to Colorado, a man was healed sitting in the audience as I taught this very thing.
Isaiah 55:10-12:
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. 12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
God’s Word never returns “void.” “Void” is the Hebrew, reqam, meaning “in an empty condition, in vain, or without effect.” It is an adverb used 16 times in the Old Testament.
Its first occurrence is in the story of Laban and Jacob. Jacob confronts Laban saying had not God interceded for me you would have cheated me and sent me away empty, reqam, with no blessing or reward for working for you for 20 years. In Exodus 3:21 God told His people that they would not leave Egypt empty, reqam, He would bless them with great wealth. Deuteronomy 15:13 documents that when a Hebrew slave was set free he was not to go empty, reqam. His master was to bless him and provide for him when he left. Three times in the law, God told His people to not appear before Him empty, reqam. They were supposed to bring an offering of blessing. In Deuteronomy 16:16 God required that all males appear before the LORD God three times a year, during the feast of unleavened bread, and the feast of weeks, and the feast of tabernacles. They were not to appear before the LORD empty.
Both shub, “return,” and reqam, “void” or “empty” appear in Ruth 1. Naomi returns to Bethlehem empty, without the blessing of her husband and two sons. Later in Ruth 3:17 Boaz refuses to let Ruth return to Naomi empty; he sends with her a blessing.
I Samuel 6: 2-4:
And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the LORD? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place. 3 And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty [reqam]; but in any wise return [shub] him a trespass offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you. 4 Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return [shub] to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.
II Samuel 1:22 says that “the sword of Saul returned [shub] not empty [reqam].” It accomplished what it needed to; it shed blood.
Jeremiah 14:3:
And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned [shub] with their vessels empty [reqam]; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.
Jeremiah 50:9:
For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return [shub] in vain [reqam]. [The army would accomplish what it was sent there to do.]
Reqam is used in the sense of “not fulfilled” or “unsuccessfully,” but also less commonly of “without reason” (Psalms 7:5), or “without cause” (Psalms 7:4; 25:3).
This beautiful, figurative language in Isaiah 55 draws from the rain and the snow. Rain and snow accomplished the purpose of their descent. And so, with the Word of Jehovah, which goes forth out of His mouth; it will not return without having effected its object. . . without having accomplished God’s will, or His “good pleasure”. . . without having attained the end for which it was sent.
Psalms 107:20:
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
God sent His Word to accomplish what His will was. It does the same thing today. We know the will of God because we know the Word of God. When we read it in the Word, then we know what His will is. As we read it, we can be assured of it. We never take it for granted, and we speak it boldly.