“And
a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a
woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had
suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had,
and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports
about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his
garment. For she said ‘If I touch even his garments, I will be made
well.’ And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her
body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in
himself that power had gone out from him, immediatly turned about in
the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my garments?’ And his disciples said
to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, Who
touched me?’ And he looked around to see who had done it. But the
woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and
fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her,
‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of
your disease.”
She reached out and touched
Jesus. She knew the power that he held- she knew it would be enough
just to touch him- She had faith.
WE went to the hospital to spend time
praying with those who were there sick. I was with Joyce and we had
been going around for a while by the time we came to this woman. She
started talking about the surgery she had in the beginning of January
and about how the incision had not stopped bleeding since then. Right
away God put this story on my heart and spoke to me about how it was
the woman who reached out with expectancy that she would be healed. I
shared with her about the Mark 5 woman and encouraged her to reach out
and to touch Jesus. It was as though Jesus was speaking straight to my
heart saying, “I don’t want her to bleed anymore. I want her to reach
out. I want her to touch me.”
Usually when we go to visit the
hospital they want us to pray for them and I was more than willing but
I also just knew that SHE needed to reach out for him in complete
faith. I asked her to pray and she did.
After I prayed for her and Joyce prayed too. And we left.
The next morning I was out back
behind the pastors house washing my laundry with Tara. She was telling
me about the previous day and hw she had experienced some pretty
intense/exciting stuff and I was saying how I know that God is doing a
lot more than we ever see. We both stopped talking after that and just
kept washing away. My mind kept considering these words that I had
spoken… I kept considering this idea of these miracles happening
behind us as we go and wondering if my faith was strong enough to
really believe what I had said. We were planning on going back to the
hospital that afternoon and as I washed my laundry I felt like God just
whispered straight into my heart, “Go back to her and see. She is well.”
I knew she was… and I knew that out
of all the people we had met with that she was the one I was suppose to
go back and see. But to be honest there was a part of me that was
afraid. What if I went back with full expectancy and faith and she was
still bleeding? I thought it might be easier to just not know and
believe that she is well. But no, this time that wasn’t enough. God
kept telling me to go back and see her, her faith has made her well.
I was with Paul that afternoon at the
hospital and he told me to wait until the end to see if there was time
to go and see her. We were about to approach the last man before
leaving when Joyce and Jess were walking towards the door. I asked Jess
if she would stay with Paul so I could go with Joyce- and they both
agreed.
Joyce and I headed to the ward and walked straight to her. Her incision was uncovered and looked clean.
Ask her! Ask her! I almost wanted to shout. I had to hear it but I already knew.
She said that she had stopped
bleeding that morning. Joyce and I just smiled. I could NOT stop
smiling. Joyce asked me if I remembered how the Lord had told her that
this woman would not be in the hospital by the end of the month and at
that same time the woman told the translator that she was leaving in
the morning. She was healed and was going home.
Her faith had made her well.
We prayed together with her, thanking God for his healing touch and for allowing us to see what he had done.
