The Rapha Journey is a process of ongoing personal change, in which you are empowered to grow into more of the person you are created to be, one step at a time. The change has two dimensions to it:
- personal wholeness and/or
- a deepening relationship with God
The journey is taught from a Christian perspective, but is available to those who have no current experience of faith, as long as they are relatively comfortable with a Biblical framework.
On this journey we provide a number of tools that can support the transformative process. Each person takes personal responsibility to choose the tools that will be most helpful and to learn how to use them them well.
We encourage everyone to share their journey with others, either in person or through our online community. Much of the damage in our life has come from other people and we need other people to help us grow.
If you would like to explore this journey then continue reading as we introduce you to the Rapha principle in Scripture…
Introducing the Rapha Principle
The two verses, Ex 15.25-26 close with the phrase ‘I am Yahweh, your healer’ , that is Jehovah Rapha. These verses are a unique self-description of Yahweh as ‘physician of Israel’. He is the one who cares for Israel’s health – ‘I am the Lord your physician’. This is a profound declaration of the type of God Yahweh wants to be to His people.
Verses 25-26 read: He said, If you will listen: Listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give heed to His commandments and keep all His statutes – of the diseases that I inflicted in Egypt, none will I lay upon you. For I am the Lord, the one who heals you (is your physician). (Lohfink’s translation, 1994:44)
The word ‘Rapha’ can be translated literally as ‘to stitch together’. This passage can be interpreted as God’s promise that He wants to ‘sew us back into Him’, into our selves, and into one another.
We seek to equip people with a relevant and effective faith in Christ, but also will guide people of no faith toward an ongoing journey into greater personal and relational wholeness. This is a process whereby we are made whole, stitched together. This can include a deepening relationship with Christ, journeying toward Christian maturity, and/or the healing of our emotional damage. This is the ‘Rapha Journey’.
More information
For more information please take a look at the following documents that outline specific areas of the Rapha Journey.