Mark 5:29 – Part 1: Immediately

Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and
she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.

Now we get to see the results of her faith. I am trying to picture what is happening here. The lady has reached out and touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. Immediately she is made well. You can be assured that she is crouching down when reaching for the garment. I think that as she felt the healing power of God going through her she almost became suspended in time, looking at her hand. The crowd around her kept moving, and quickly – she was hidden by them, so when Jesus looked around – He couldn’t see her, she had to come forth.
Imagine it – imagine immediately. You have spent ages dreaming, building your faith. You take action, push through and do all you know how to do – and then what you have spent 12 years dreaming for happens immediately. Not only does it happen immediately, but you feel it immediately.

What does that say about the grace of our God? I am all for miracles that occur over a period of time, but sometimes it is OK to see things immediately! I serve the God of the immediately! We need to build our faith and start believing for things to happen immediately. When you are in a lot of pain, you want out immediately, you don’t want to wait!

If you look at all the miracles that were conducted under the ministry of Jesus – you’ll see how many of them were immediately. Peter and John pulled up the lame man, and he walked immediately.

God is the God of the immediately.

I don’t know about you, but my mind has a hard time coping with this word immediately, especially when I think about God acting on my behalf immediately. I can imagine God doing things for me in the future and over a period of time. I can cope with that. If I dare to let my mind think immediately, fear comes and says, “yeah, but what if it doesn’t happen immediately?” And that fear in failure can, for me, often be greater than the faith of success.

The thing of it is, why should I worry about whether or not it happens immediately? That really is not my problem. I don’t have to make sure that it happens – that’s God’s job. Besides if I am always questioning what will happen if God doesn’t answer – that is a sure sign that I am not in faith for it to happen immediately anyway – so therefore it will not happen immediately.

There is an overriding law that governs human existence that I am totally convinced works all the time, and that is the law of you will have whatever you believe for. If you believe for immediately, you can have immediately – this woman proved that. If you believe for the future, that is when you will receive: in the future.

Let’s dare to believe that we can see the immediately happen – and see it happen for us. God is for you, immediately.

Mark 5:28 – Part 3- Shall

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.

Mark 5:28. Part 2- A Brief Encounter With a Covenant

… a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. For she said to herself, “If I only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.”

I want to look at the particular area of clothing that this woman touched. The Bible is quite careful to tell us what it was – the hem, so what is the reason for this?

Before we go further with this though – I want you to pay attention to the word touch. This implies gentleness – she didn’t pull or grab, she touched. It only takes the gentlest of touches with the Master for miracles to happen. The woman knew there would be enough power in that one touch to get what she needed. She didn’t want attention. She didn’t want the sermon. She didn’t want forcefulness. She just wanted to touch because that would be enough. This woman’s faith was very simple. It had simple needs.

People in the crowd were brushing against Jesus, even knocking Him. They were certainly “touching” Him. It was certainly a lot stronger than this lady. But a gentle touch of faith on the clothing of Jesus did more than all the much “stronger” touching of the others. Sometimes the delicacy of faith is the strongest thing that there is!

Sometime the gentlest of touches can be the strongest connection you can make.

You know when you have connected with the living God, because something happens, even if you are only in contact for a brief second, and it just seems as though you have touched His clothing and that is as close as you have got. For that split second, faith will cause cataclysmic changes to happen.

God is not holding back. He will respond to a gentle and speedy touch if it is in faith.

There is something about this gentle touch though that we need to note. It didn’t touch blindly. It knew where to go. If you only have a split second that you can be in contact with the power of God, you had better know where the best place to make that connection is.

This lady knew exactly where to get her brief contact. It was very specific – the hem of His garment. We can easily see that. But why?

At the hem of Jesus’ garment were hanging tassels. These tassels were put on the Jewish cloak to remind them of the Torah.

Numbers 15:37-41

37 Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

38 “Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners.

39 “And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined,

40 “And that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God.

41 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.”

Matthew, who recorded the fact that the woman touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, also mentions this two other times:

Matt 14:36

36 and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well,

Matt 23:5

5 “But all their works they (the scribes and the Pharisees) do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.

It is always interesting to do these side studies in the Scriptures. Now we have discovered that it wasn’t only the woman with the issue of blood that wanted to touch this particular part of the clothing, but many people did. And all those that touched the hem with made well, or perfectly well.

We can also ascertain that the teachers at the time ascribe great importance to this part of the garment, and they made theirs larger – to show men their “spirituality”.

We see from the passage in Numbers that the hem (or tassels) was to remind men of the commandments of God, and that God had delivered them from Egypt. I guess the scribes and Pharisees thought by making this part of the garment bigger, they were giving themselves a “bigger” reminder. They are like the Christians that by a huge Bible just to carry to church to show that they are a great Bible scholar – only they never read it. The hem of the garment was a symbol of the covenant that man had with God, and to remind them to do the will and commandments of God. It also seems that is serves as a public display of the covenant man has with God.

It not only reminded them to do the commandments of God, but also to avoid harlotry and to be holy unto God.

The word “holy” is an interesting word, and it is a wonderful subject to study. Holiness is a whole book in itself. To be holy is to be separated unto God. It is about giving your whole life over to God. This is easy to say, but much more difficult to do.

I can imagine that this lady with the issue of blood has finally made a decision that she was going to get healed by God, and not spend more money on doctors, or try any other way. She had decided that God was her route. She had consecrated her decision and her faith toward God and she became Holy.

It is an obvious extension to reach for the hem of the garment because them hem represented physically what she had decided spiritually.

The hem also represented that Jesus was a man who had dedicated to the will of God. Reaching for the hem of Jesus’ garment was a great point of contact to release her faith. It was the perfect thing to reach for.

This could also explain why many other people reached for the same hem and got healed. They reached for something that symbolised holiness and covenant with God.

It is always interesting to study these things out and not just read over them. I think that there was a real reason why the woman decided to touch this part. Everything this lady did had a reason and a purpose.

Faith is not aimless; it is very focused in on what it wants.

Neither is faith without reason. Touching the hem of the garment had a reason and purpose.

When you believe God for your miracle, don’t reach aimlessly. Don’t be unfocused. Be specific, because faith is.

And the best place to start? Remember the covenant that you have with Almighty God.

Mark 5:28 – Part 1: Different Ways of Worshipping

For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”

For she said… The word for used here carries on from the previous verse. It will explain to us something, in this case, the particular action of touching His garment. So the reason she touched Jesus’ garment is because she said if only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.

This is an important point. Don’t miss it!

It sounds really simple, but do you remember earlier where we looked at how your mouth indicates what level of faith is in your heart. Here we see exactly what the woman is believing, because of what she said. That faith caused her to do something. Her action was driven by her faith. Her faith caused her to press in and go beyond everyone else in the crowd.

Maybe no-one else thought about sneaking up behind Jesus. I am sure that everyone wanted to be around the front. This meant it may have been slightly easier to get behind Him. Still, her faith caused her to do something that no-one else had done (with the exception of Jairus). No-one else may have thought of approaching Jesus in the same way. But so what? She got there!

People worship in different ways to me. I may want to be a little more direct when it comes to entering into the presence of God. Others may be a little different; they may come up “from behind” as it were. It really doesn’t matter. I am always amazed how people want to mock the way other Christians worship just because they are different to them. So what? What does it matter? Their faith takes them a different route to you, but they still get there. Their faith still gets them in the presence of God, and if you watch them closely, it won’t be too long before you’ll see a miracle!

Mark 5:27 – Part 2: Being Right v’s Being Weird

When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him
in the crowd and touched His garment.

She came behind him… why? Why not to His face like Jairus did? As I mentioned to you before, under Levitical law, this woman could have been killed for coming out. She didn’t want Jesus to see her for fear of her life.

Isn’t that interesting?

This woman, at this point in her life has enough faith to believe that Jesus will heal her. But notice the method she is believing for. She will sneak up behind, touch his clothes and sneak off again without anyone knowing. Why would she come up with such a plan as this?

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Mark 5:27 – Part 1: Hearing about Jesus

When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him
in the crowd and touched His garment.

Can you imagine what this lady felt like when she heard about Jesus? In the previous verses, we looked at what this lady went through. We looked at some of the possible emotions, fears and disappointments she went through. If there is one thing we have learned so far it is that this lady has had the most horrendous time for the last 12 years. Then she begins to hear about Jesus. She begins to learn that in an instant He can reverse the last 12 years of her life. Things won’t get worse. She won’t suffer anymore. She doesn’t need any money. It would almost seem too good to be true!

But she kept hearing. When she kept hearing, faith kept coming. When faith kept coming, there came a point when deliverance was inevitable.

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Mark 5:26 – Part 3: 4 Nightmares

and she had suffered many things from many physicians.
She had spent all the she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.

This verse shows four distinct events:

1. She suffered many things
2. From many physicians
3. She had spent all that she had
4. She got worse.

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Mark 5:26 – Part 2: Disappointment

and she had suffered many things from many physicians.
She had spent all the she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.

I know that I have mentioned this a few times already – but I think it is worth repeating – how bad is your problem compared to this lady?

One of the things that I am picking up from this verse is the amount of times that she would have been disappointed.

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Mark 5:26 – Part 1: God knows your probelms

and she had suffered many things from many physicians.
She had spent all the she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.

Again, the Bible shows, in a little more detail, some of what this woman has been through. God is very aware of your problem, He is very aware of what you have been through and even what you are going through.

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Mark 5:25 – Part 3: “Put your life on the line” faith

I have heard messages preached on this particular event many times in my Christian years, and it never ceases to amaze me what this woman actually did, because according to Levitical law, she could have been stoned to death for being out like this and being “unclean”. The amazing thing is that Jairus is the man that has this authority, because as we have already noticed, the Bible drew our attention to that fact that he was the Ruler of the Synagogue.

Her faith literally causes he to put her life on the line. Is this a reckless gamble? Or is it a desparation for God to move in her life?

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