By Tony V. Hammack
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God often will deposit a passion or intense compassion for a situation before He uses a person in that area. People who are indifferent about something usually don’t move toward it. I believe that each one of us individually should pray and receive from God the passion He wants to deposit into our hearts. When He fills us with that passion we should plan a way to release the kingdom of God to others and then ultimately, simply, get to work.
Faith
Faith is a huge factor in deciding to move forward. I’ve come to understand that there’s nothing God can’t do through a man or woman who’s in faith. I believe this because of what I read in the Bible.
I don’t think faith that Jesus CAN heal is such a problem for most of us. I think where we may disconnect from the manifestation of the healing is believing that he WILL heal for you because you’re standing in faith.
We have to decide, do we really, deep inside, believe what the Bible teaches the Christian about healing. I know some of the things there will stretch your natural thinking but, never the less, those scriptural realities exist.
1 Cor. 2:14
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
When I was praying this week I saw a young man, around 10 years old battling Cancer. I again, began to feel what it must feel like to be the boys parents and compassion mixed with anger came over me. This should not be happening.
If we’re to make a change in situations like this one, we will have to believe for a miracle when others may not have the revelation that God heals.
Mark 5:22-34
22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. 30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
The woman with the issue of blood, by natural, understood the situation was hopeless She was broke and suffering. The doctors couldn’t help her. Her thoughts conceived faith which led to action.
Lev. 15:25 25 “‘When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period.
Immediately she felt a change in her body and concluded that the bleeding had stopped and she was healed.
In v. 30 Jesus also felt power going out from him and asked, “Who touched my clothes” In v. 31 The large crowd pressing against Jesus causes the disciples to question Jesus when he says, “Who touched me?”
The woman had been discovered and here we see her desire to be hidden due to the uncleanness she’s had for 12 years. Now she’s “Trembling with fear”. And she spills it, telling the whole truth. In v. 34 Jesus tells her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
When we’ve come to the end of our rope, when we’ve exhausted all options we tend to turn to God. Unfortunately for the woman with the issue of Blood, she perhaps could’ve done this sooner and preserved her estate. Even though she’s received a great miracle, her stubborn refusal or inability to turn to God early on in the situation has cost her everything.
Ideas or thoughts that conceive faith which lead to action cause God to move. This pattern is played out over and over again in the ministry of Jesus and the ministry of the disciples.
James 2:26b
faith without deeds is dead.
When there has been a move of God in our midst, often times, people can feel it. Now I realize this can be intangible, however, in this story the feeling occurred simultaneously with the healing. Sometimes we can be a little “hyper” spiritual feeling things here and there but in this story a feeling is consistent with a natural fact. The bleeding stopped! Jesus also feels something and mentions it to His disciples who are amazed at His question.
Here we catch a glimpse into the inner thought life of the woman in v. 33 She had to press through her own fears before she could begin to press through the crowd.
I’m sure she had bumped into people in the past by mistake and made them unclean. I’m sure they gave it to her verbally and maybe even physically for putting them through the process to become ceremonially clean again.
She trembles with fear signifying she does not want to be discovered. She openly and honestly tells the whole truth about the situation and Jesus declares over her, after the healing had already taken place, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
What are we afraid of? What will people think? What if God doesn’t heal me? I don’t want to be embarrassed?
Fear must be dealt with if you and I are to operate in healing. Would the woman have been healed if she would’ve concluded that “I don’t want to touch anyone.”?
No! Action must accompany thoughts that conceive faith. Action can be as small as talking about what God is saying or it could be as assertive as reaching out and grabbing someone.
Conclusion: There are many people around us suffering with sickness and disease. We need to receive compassion and passion from God. God wants to use us to help bring them healing.
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