For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”
Have you ever thought about this word shall? It is a simple word that we use often. I think we use this word a little too casually these days. The reason I think this is because it is the strongest word we have in the English language to describe doing something – ie. I shall do…means that you will do something. There is no way out of this word – it carries no negativity.
When you use the word shall, it will happen. There is no doubt. No way out. No possibility of failure. This even is very definitely going to happen.
Maybe we don’t hold this meaning in our minds when we use it, but nevertheless it does mean this.
So this lady, even though she seems to “sneak” up to Jesus, is completely and utterly sure of what is going to happen to her when she gets there. She, like Jairus, has shown us what she is believing for through the words that she said. We see that at a certain point in time, she will get healed. No ifs. No buts. No maybes. Just a shall.
When you have been determind enough to get into the presence of the Saviour, you have to be convinced that God will do what He said He will do. This is what faith is all about. It is a question that I ask myself when I am believing God for something – can I honestly say that what I am believing for shall happen?
Am I at the point where I know that?
Or am I still trying to second guess God?
I don’t read this account of this lady and come away with the impression that she has made a provision for failure. She doesn’t seem to have a backup plan. In fact, there was really nothing else she could do. She had spent all her money. She was not getting better at the hands of the doctors. She has no back up plan because she can’t.
Do you remember the story of the guitar that I mentioned earlier? I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what God had spoken about this guitar. I didn’t casually believe for it. I knew God’s word to me. So even though it was sold to someone else – I still kept believing. I didn’t try and help out God. I didn’t try to come up with another explaination. I just believed.
I got the guitar too.
I rememeber when I first got hold of the fact that faith comes by hearing and by hearing the Word of God. I did what any normal person my age would do - I purchased for myself a walkman (my logic was that it would increase my “hearing” by listening to teaching tapes). Foolishly though, I forgot to purchase batteries. So I thought I would practice some of these principles of faith that I had been learning, I decided to believe God for some new batteries for the walkman.
This was late one night when I prayed about this, and after praying, I went about the rest of my business. The next morning, I still didn’t have any batteries, but I know what I was believing for. I took my walkman, put in a tape, put the headphones on my head and left the house.
Now you may think this is stupid, walking down the street with a walkman and no batteries. The interesting thing is, as I walked out of my house, there – on the front wall, was a pack of Duracell batteries. Well, I say a pack, there was half a pack – it was a pack of four and there were two in it. These batteries were brand new. I only needed two, and these two batteries “happened” to be the right size.
I put them in my walkman, and praised God whilst listening to my tape!
I may have been stupid according to some people, but I got what I was believing for. I had no back up plan. I had no alternatives in my mind, I just figured that God would deliver – and He did.
I shall have my guitar.
I shall have my batteries.
I shall.
It is a strong statement. It is, infact, an ultimate statement. Can you say that when you release your faith, when you touch your point of contact, I shall…?
“Keep On Saying It”
If you read the Amplified Bible on this particular verse, you find out something quite interesting about the expression she said. This is a continuous verb, and the way the Amplified writes it is, she said, and kept on saying…
It is essential that once you have released your faith, that you do not allow your confession to slip. Keep on saying what shall happen. The reason that you do this is because you do not want to talk yourself out of what you are believing for. You will eventually listen to your mouth, and you will start to believe it – as we have already mentioned, you will have whatever you say.
I have found that many people will go to different church meetings and crusades. They will get excited and begin to shout. They begin to believe what the preacher is saying and during the meeting will make a decision to apply what is being spoken about to their own life.
But when they come out of the security of that meeting, and take themselves back into the real world, they will back out of their decision that they had made at the meeting. As we saw earlier, this is due to the ground in which the Word (seed) was sown. One way to prevent this from happening is to keep your eyes and heart in the Word of God, and to keep the Word of God coming out of your mouth. This will help keep you consistent, and focused in
For she said, and kept on saying – I SHALL BE MADE WELL! In the midst of her trial and hardship she was declaring as hard as she could, and as often as she needed – I SHALL BE MADE WELL! What an awesome statement. What courage this lady had. What a lesson of faith we can learn here.
We can come up with a million excuses as to why this scripture doesn’t apply to us. We can focus our energy and time into persuading ourselves that although this could happen to this woman, it couldn’t happen to us because we are different.
Because our background is all wrong.
Because it doesn’t agree with the theology of my denomination.
Because I don’t have this kind of faith.
Because my husband would never understand.
Because…
Because…
You and I have a very real choice to face. We can dedicate time proving how this couldn’t work for us – and blend in with the rest of the crowd and watch it happen to someone else.
Or we can spend that same time digging into God’s word and building our faith. We can put into practice these principles and instead of blending in, we can stand out. Instead of watching it happen to someone else, we can have it happen to us.
There is no middle ground for us. If we try to enter the middle ground, we end up in the crowd, and very quickly get pushed to the back and our lives and hopes become insignificant.
But if we dare to dream.
If we dare to stand out, and do what no one else is doing…
If we quit making excuses…
If we put aside our alibi making abilities
If we dare to believe God can and will do the extraordinary for us
We will also have a story to tell, and what a story it will be!
Don’t wait a moment longer – begin writing it now.
