A woman who had suffered for twelve years reached out and touched Jesus, and everything changed. Her story shows us what it means to receive by faith what God has already provided.
There is a woman in the Gospel of Mark whose story has strengthened the faith of countless people. She had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years. She had spent everything she had on many physicians, and instead of getting better she had only grown worse. And then she heard about Jesus.
For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
Mark 5:28
She pressed through the crowd, reached out, and touched the hem of his garment, and immediately she felt in her body that she was healed. Jesus turned and said to her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. Her story unfolds in a few simple steps that we can follow too.
It matters what you hear about Jesus
Everything began when she heard about Jesus. And it is worth asking: what exactly do we hear about him? Is it his will to heal? Is he the one allowing our suffering? Is he trying to teach us a lesson through sickness? What we hear about Jesus is enormously important, because you can only touch Jesus by faith, not by physically reaching for him, and faith comes by hearing the word of God.
So what does the Bible actually say about Jesus and healing? Over and over the Gospels tell us the same thing. Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and disease among the people. His fame spread, and they brought to him all who were sick, taken with various diseases and torments, and he healed them. In another place we read that he went through all the cities and villages, healing every sickness and every disease. He healed Peter's mother-in-law of her fever, and when evening came they brought him many who were suffering, and he healed them all.
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
Matthew 8:17
When you fill your heart with what the Bible actually says about him, faith has something solid to stand on. You stop wondering whether it is his will and start resting in what he has already revealed about himself. The picture the Gospels paint is not of a reluctant healer to be talked into it, but of a Savior whose compassion moved him to heal, again and again, everywhere he went.
Be determined to see God's word come to pass
This woman was determined. She had made up her mind to see the word of God come to pass in her life. The Bible calls this the good fight of faith. Paul told Timothy to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold of eternal life, and near the end of his own life he could say, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
We do battle to possess what God has promised. That does not mean we despise wisdom or refuse help. We will pray, we will fast, we will stand our ground, and we will also see the doctors and use every good gift God provides. Whatever it takes, we press on, because we believe that Jesus has borne our sicknesses. We will not live in these bodies forever, but in his atonement he has promised us a real taste, even now, of the heavenly health that is ours in Christ.
This kind of determination is not tension or striving; it is confidence. It is the settled decision to keep agreeing with God until what he has said becomes what you experience. Let God be true, the Bible says, though every voice around you says otherwise. The woman with the issue of blood had every reason to give up. Twelve years of disappointment, empty pockets, and a condition that only worsened could have hardened her into unbelief. Instead, when she heard about Jesus, she decided that this time would be different.
You must speak
Look again at the woman: for she said, if I may but touch his clothes, I shall be whole. She spoke before she saw. A faith that does not speak is not yet faith. Paul wrote that we have the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.
But what does it actually mean to confess or to speak? The Greek word behind confession means to say the same thing, to agree with God and say what he says. It does not mean pretending the sickness is not there. It means that you refuse to let the sickness have the last word, and you say instead what God has already said about it.
That is exactly what this woman did. She had read the promise in Isaiah: surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; he was wounded for our transgressions, and with his stripes we are healed. She made up her mind that this word must come to pass in her life, and finally she opened her mouth and agreed with God.
God has already provided
There is a great misconception in the church today, and it is the idea that God will heal us, or save us, or deliver us, sometime later if we can just persuade him. So Christians gather and wail and cry out, God come, God come, come and heal us, come and save us. And this is part of why we struggle to experience the healing God has provided.
The righteousness we have in Christ does not say, God, come and do it. Rather it says, God has done it, and because of Jesus, in his name, I receive it today. This woman knew it. She had heard about Jesus, she read her Bible, she made up her mind that the word must come to pass, and she opened her mouth and agreed with God. Her wholeness came not by begging God to begin, but by receiving what he had already accomplished.
Trace her path once more, because it is a path you can walk. First, she read her Bible and let it tell her who Jesus is. Second, she made up her mind that his word must come to pass in her life, refusing to be talked out of it. Third, she opened her mouth and agreed with God. Three simple movements, and each one is available to you today. Notice that not one of them depended on her feelings, her worthiness, or her track record. They depended only on the goodness of God and the truth of his word.
The place of forgiveness
When Jesus taught on this kind of mountain-moving faith in Mark 11, he ended with something surprising. He told his disciples that whatever they desired when they prayed, they should believe they received it, and then he added: and when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have anything against anyone.
Why would Jesus tie faith for healing and breakthrough to forgiveness? Because forgiveness is one of the clearest actions that proves you truly believe God has already provided everything for you in the atonement. If God has been that generous to you, you can afford to release others. Forgiveness is grace flowing out of a heart that has received grace.
So here is the good news, plainly. God does not heal you because you prayed the longest, or fasted the hardest, or earned it by anything in you. He heals because Jesus has already borne it upon his own body, just as he bore your sins. If you will believe it today, if you will make up your mind that his word must come true in your life, and if you will open your mouth and agree with God rather than with your fear, then hear his gentle word to you, as to that trembling woman long ago: Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.