Do You Need a Miracle? Part 2

[soso]

Do You Need a Miracle? Part 2

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

“At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. 

He turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’” (Mark 5:30 NIV)

The woman with the issue of blood, who was desperate for a touch from Jesus, knew that she couldn’t talk to him about her hemorrhaging problem, because it was shameful and because she was considered unclean /in the community //in which she lived.  She had this problem, and she couldn’t talk about it.  She was ashamed, had [no money left], and was weary from having had to go from doctor to doctor for twelve years; but in her desperation, she somehow got it in her head, “If I just come up behind him and touch his cloak, I will be healed!”  Where did she get that from?  That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in.  The Holy Spirit creates faith /in amazing ways in us.  That’s why we can’t make someone conform to the way () we may have received something from God.

She thought, “If I just touch him…”  Oh, think of the power of faith!  “If I just touch him – not talk to him, not have him lay hands on me, not have him anoint me with oil.  I don’t need any of that.  I just need to touch him.”  And she comes up to him while all the people are pushing and bumping him and calling out to him.  She fights her way /through the crowd and she just touches the hem of his garment and the power of God is released; and immediately the bleeding stops and she knows, “I’ve been healed!”

The amazing part of this story is how Jesus was almost bewildered when this happened.  He immediately stopped and looked at the crowd and said, “Who touched me?” to which the disciples answered, “There are hundreds of people /pushing and shoving /to get near you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?’”  Jesus answered, “No, somebody touched me; somebody had faith; somebody drew something from me.” 

When the woman realized () she had been found out, she came and threw herself in front of Jesus, and whether she whispered it to him, or told him some other way, she shared with him her story.  Notice the answer Jesus gave her: “Daughter, your faith has healed you.”  He was saying to her, in essence, “I never met you, and I never touched you as I did so many others; but you have such amazing faith, that while I was walking down the road, you just stole a blessing from me.”

Notice that all kinds of people were making contact /with Jesus /that day, but only one woman touched him.  You and I could be in a meeting /with a choir singing and good preaching, yet we can go home and never really touch him.  Oh sure, we could bump into him /as many people did //who were surrounding the woman /in the story; we might even feel his presence; but touch him /purposely /with a focus /on the thing //that we need?  Having that kind of desperation, that kind of faith?

  I’m here to tell you that if you touch Jesus, a miracle will happen in your life.  God answers prayer, and there is nothing impossible for God.  No mountain is too high, and no door is shut against the prayers of God’s people in Jesus’ name!

Read Mark 5:30-34.