His Healing Touch, Part 3

Leslie Basham: Chronic pain can lead to depression and a lack of hope. This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss for Wednesday, March 6. Has a lingering illness or trial discouraged you to the point of depression? Have you, like the woman with the issue of blood, started to give up hope that your situation would ever change? Today we'll hear how one timid woman found help when she exercised her faith in God. Let's join Nancy as she speaks about the healing power of Jesus.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: It's always a joy for me to hear from women who have been set free by the power of God's truth. I rejoice when I receive letters like these.

A woman said, "God set me free from (the) hatred I've had in my heart since I was nine years old. I'm forty now. He set me free." From nine to forty--that's a long time to live with hatred in your heart. But aren't you glad that we have a God who, whether at nine or forty, can get us to the truth? His name is Jesus. He can set us free.

Well, we're talking about a woman this week who had a long-term issue. It was a physical issue, but it affected her in her relationships. Emotionally she had lost hope. She is not unlike many of us in this room perhaps, and those that we know and love who have lived with perhaps a chronic physical illness that affects us then in realms of our spirit and our emotions. You can't separate all that. If you feel sick for twelve years, that's going to affect you in your emotions and in your relationship with the Lord and with others.

But then there are others of us who--maybe it has not been a chronic physical illness; but it's been a chronic heart illness, a sin issue, an issue of bitterness or unforgiveness or anger that we've held onto perhaps for years. We've come to be identified by that illness. We find that we've lost hope. There is no solution. We see that this woman in Mark 5 had been to many doctors. She had suffered many things at the hands of those doctors. They had taken all her money. She had no resources left. She was no better. She was only worse. Then we saw yesterday that she heard about Jesus.

Let me say, by the way, that there may be someone in your life who is this woman. It may not be you at this moment, but it may be somebody that you know and love. It may be that you're the one who can tell them about Jesus and help point them to One who can do for them what Jesus does for this woman in Mark 5.

We're picking up in verse 27 of Mark's Gospel, chapter 5. The Scripture says that when the woman heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. She came behind Him. We've seen that there is a crowd pressing in on Jesus. It's interesting to me--this little detail that she came behind Him in the crowd. Why?

Well, Scripture doesn't tell us; but maybe we can put ourselves in that woman's sandals and get a sense of what she may have been feeling. I wonder if she felt unworthy to look Jesus in the face. Maybe she believed all those lies all those years that other people had told her about herself: "You're not worth anything." Maybe she assumed Jesus would feel the same way. Maybe she was ashamed to face Him--afraid that if He saw her and knew about her condition that He would reject her as some of the others had and send her away. She was unclean.

I wonder if she was afraid that He would be angry if she touched Him. Here is the pure Son of God, and now this unclean woman is going to touch Him. She didn't really know Him, and she may have had some doubts or some questions about how He would treat her. It is apparent that she had a sense of unworthiness to approach Him. She came behind Him in the crowd, and she touched His garment.

She said in verse 28, "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well." That's a statement of faith coming from a woman who has been so disappointed over so many years by so many other so-called professionals. Now the parallel passage in Matthew 9 tells us that not only did she touch His clothes, but that she touched the hem of His garment. Why the hem? How did this woman get through that crowd? When she got to Jesus, was she crawling? I don't know. The Scripture doesn't tell us. But I get a picture of a woman who is desperate--so desperate that she would crawl just to reach out in a humbling position to touch the hem of His garment.

For this woman who had tried everything, she had nothing to lose. What did it matter? She was willing to risk the rejection in this act of desperation. She knew she had no money. She knew she had nothing to pay Him. What she may or may not have known about Jesus is that our inability to pay is what makes us candidates for His grace. When we have nothing to offer Him--Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.

She needed to be reminded that Jesus gives His grace to those who have nothing to offer Him in return. In faith she said, "If I can just touch His garment, I will be made well." That word well is the word from which we get our word hygiene. It means whole, clean. Somehow in her heart, faith had been ignited. And it's God who puts that faith in our hearts--to believe that if she could just get to Jesus, she would be made clean.

Then verse 29 tells us about the miracle. "Immediately"--I love that word--"Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction." Immediately. That's a miracle! After twelve years of going to doctor after doctor, counselor after counselor, therapist after therapist, drug after drug, treatment after treatment, remedy after remedy, and now immediately the fountain of her blood is dried up and she is whole.

How long did this encounter take? Not long. I can just picture in today's way of thinking someone thinking, "Well, she can get help, but she'll have to come to Jesus every week for a year or so." Jesus wants us to come to Him not only every week, but every day and moment by moment. But there are moments in our lives when Jesus touches us, and we reach out and touch Him. By faith in His Word and faith in His power, He sometimes does and He certainly can render an immediate transformation.

That isn't to say that there wasn't a process still needed in this woman's life. There were years of baggage she was going to have to deal with. As we come to Jesus and we reach out and we touch Him and we're transformed by His grace, there may still be a process needed in our lives. The Bible calls that process sanctification. It's a process by which we learn how to live out the healing and the wholeness that Jesus has brought to our spirits.

But I want us to be reminded--and we need to hear today--that Jesus has the ability and the power to do in a moment of time what everyone else says will take a lifetime. In touching Him, in reaching out to Him and His Word and His truth, there is power to set us free from issues that have been in our lives for years.

What was it that happened immediately? The Scripture says, "The fountain of her blood was dried up." Jesus didn't just give this woman a Band-Aid as we so often do. Sometimes that's all we know how to do for people who are really hurting. He didn't give her a temporary solution--"Go home and take this pill and come back and see me in six months and tell me if it's better." Jesus went to the root of her issue, to the heart of her problem, to the source of her bleeding--where the fountain of her blood is. It speaks of being the origin of a spring--the starting place, the root, the heart of the matter. That's what Jesus does that other people cannot do for us, no matter how professional they may be. Jesus gets at the root of the matter. He gets at the heart of the issue.

We tend to deal with symptoms, and that's why we have to keep going back for more of the world's answers and more of the world's solutions. If they don't get to the heart of the matter, if they don't get to the root of the issue that's caused that bleeding internally in our soul, then they're not going to be of lasting help.

Jesus cares more about getting to the source of our wounds than just bandaging them up. Today many people are just helping people feel better. My question is, "What good is it if I help somebody feel better if that person isn't better--if there's not been a change in their life?" Jesus knows that the core issue of my life and of yours is not those symptoms of woundedness as real as they are. Jesus knows that the core issue is my sinfulness, my separation from God. When that issue is addressed, there will be healing in other areas of my life.

The Scripture says she knew that she was healed. She knew it experientially. She was sure in herself that having touched Jesus, now she was healed. I think of women who have written to tell me about how they've had this kind of life-changing encounter with Jesus.

One woman said, "I was able to let go of a lifetime of hatred and forgive my uncle who molested me as a very young child. I'm now 53 years old." A touch in the presence of Christ and a lifetime of hatred released. That flow of blood that this woman experienced pictures in our lives so many of the internal issues caused by that heart issue of sin.

In many cases, it has isolated us. It has separated us from God and from others. We find ourselves in a situation like that and we really have three options. We can keep running around looking for another treatment. Some of us, by the way, would rather keep going to the world's professionals because maybe we don't really want to get well.

When you've lived with this kind of issue for twelve years or maybe longer, that becomes your identity. Perhaps there are those who have found security in being a sick person. They're content to just keep running around, looking for one more treatment. There are others--and perhaps I'm looking into the eyes of some in this room--who have given up. You're just resolved to live with the problem.

Well, this woman didn't do either. She took the third option. It's the option that is offered to you today. She said, "I'm going to get to Jesus."

Leslie Basham: That's Nancy DeMoss reminding us of Jesus' ability to offer complete and thorough healing. Nancy will be right back with a few final words.

Maybe you know someone who needs the kind of healing Nancy has been talking about today. If you'd like to share today's program with a friend, you can order a copy from our resource center. Today's broadcast is part of a series called His Healing Touch. It comes on two cassettes for a suggested donation of $8. To order a copy, you can visit our Web site, ReviveOurHearts.com.You can also give us a call at 1-800-569-5959.

There's another way you can share the biblical teaching you've heard on Revive Our Hearts. When you partner with us financially, you're helping us reach more women with the message of hope. If this program has encouraged you, would you consider what you can give? You can send your gift to Revive Our Hearts.

What is it about Jesus that makes Him the best source of comfort and care? Find out on tomorrow's broadcast. I hope you'll join us then. Now here's Nancy with some closing thoughts.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: So exercise faith in His power. Reach out and say, "Jesus, You are my only hope. I need You. I have no hope, no solution, nowhere to turn but to You. I've tried everything else, but now I'm asking You. Will You heal me?"

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.