In Mark chapter 5 we see a story of a woman who was sick for 12 years.  Sickness is at times one of the most challenging things to use your faith on because it is constantly beating you over the head.  

This woman had a blood disorder for 12 years!  That is a long time to have an issue with something. 

Today, I just want to encourage you that being sick doesn’t mean that you are in sin.  In fact, you can be exactly where God has called you to be and still the devil will try to make you accept something that isn’t yours.  

In Jeremiah 30:17, God is prophesying about Jesus the first to be born again. He says,

17 For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

Jeremiah 30:17 KJV

Because of what Jesus has done on the cross, our health is restored to us. If God took the broken spirit, soul and body of Jesus and raised Him up from the grave, what is our infirmity by comparison?

11 For there is no respect of persons with God.

Romans 2:11 KJV

God doesn’t look at status, time spent suffering, or anything else to determine when you are to be healed.  You were ALREADY healed on the cross of Jesus.  

Our Own Ability Won’t Work

It’s tempting today in the 21st century to think that science can cure everything that physically ailes us.  We end up putting our faith in pills and doctor visits just as the woman in this story did. 

But you have to remember that these doctors own a “practice”.  In truth, they don’t really know how to heal anything.  They are just helping your own body heal itself.  There is only one man who has the power to heal and that is Jesus. 

The doctors took her money, time, health…

25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,

26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,

Mark 5:25-26 KJV

See the only thing these doctors were actually able to do for her was make her poorer, more desperate, and less healthy.  Isn’t that the way of it sometimes?  You go to the doctor and they charge you hundreds of dollars to run tests to find out that they don’t know what’s wrong with you!  

As we will see, it is far better to chase after God with all we have.

The Woman’s Breakdown

Back in those days according to the law, when you were found to have an issue with your blood like this, you would be shunned and kept away from everyone else. 

25 And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean.

Leviticus 15:25 KJV

This woman was to be cut off from the living.  God in Leviticus was telling them how to make sure that you too didn’t get infected with whatever problem someone had.  (Of course in those days, no one understood anything about these microscopic things we call germs.  They didn’t understand that the things outlined in the Law actually have a scientific basis. )  

Can you imagine being shunned as a social pariah for 12 years? 

You can imagine this woman is at the end of her rope.  She has no money, no time, no health, and no friends. She is at a loss and the only thing that can help is Jesus. 

Isn’t it sad? Do we do the same thing?

Isn’t it sad that we do the same thing every time we get sick? Instead of immediately turning to Jesus and chasing after Him, we turn to medicine.  The truth is that one might make you healthy but only one of them can make you WHOLE.

The Woman’s Breakthrough

27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.

28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.

Mark 5:27-28 KJV

See the woman applied her faith and ran toward Jesus.  She heard with her ear, said with her mouth and then finally reached out with her hand.  

It took all three for faith to be released and to get her miracle.

Touching His garment = releasing faith.

The fact that she said, “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” is important. See according to the law if you touched the garments of another person and you were unclean then that person had to wash themselves and their clothes to ensure you didn’t give them anything.

11 And whomsoever he toucheth that hath the issue, and hath not rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

Leviticus 15:11 KJV

See in her mind she must have been thinking, I’m not allowed to touch his clothes because I might give him something.

BUT when I touch HIS garments He’s about to give me something. 

Faith was released in that moment, and Jesus recognized it when He said…

30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?

Mark 5:30 KJV

Translation: Who just received their healing??

When you get up close and personal with God, he takes notice of you! 

Pursue Jesus and Become Whole

See when Jesus came to people, they became healed.  They received a miracle on the faith of Jesus, but when you pursue Jesus with your own faith, you become whole.  

When you receive your miracle and health for yourself and not from the faith of another, you get total and complete wholeness. 

34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

Mark 5:34 KJV

Seek God First

17 For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

Jeremiah 30:17 KJV

God has made a promise to you.  This promise was fulfilled when Jesus went to the cross of our sins and sicknesses.  It is time to seek God first and be made whole by His anointing.  

The anointing is what breaks the yoke of bondage and sickness.  It is His anointing that opens the blind eyes, heals the deaf and makes the lame to walk.  

He does the big things and he does the small things.  He will even heal up the sinuses from Oklahoma allergies. 

But it starts by pursuing Him.

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