“And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 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? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”
Mark 5:24-34 KJV
What the woman with the issue of blood said in our opening scripture; “ If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole” must have been based on what she had heard about Jesus.
One major reason why as Christians we do not enter into and experience the power of God in our lives is because of our religious mindset which tells us that the reason why Jesus did all the miracles he did and the reason why He healed people, raised the dead and cast our devils was because of His deity. We believe Jesus healed all that came to Him (Matt 12:15) because of that power He had as the son of God.
However, if we think deeply, we’ll realize that multitudes were following him and thronging him in Mk 5: 31 but it was only the woman with the issue of blood that drew power. What Jesus was telling His disciples was that one person out of all the people that were thronging Him, had pulled power out of Him. But there was something that activated that power that was present.
If it was only because of the deity of Jesus and the fact that Jesus was all powerful, that He did all that He did, then what happened in Mk 6:5 would not have happened. We are told in Mk 6:5 that “And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.” Here we see that Jesus wanted to heal the people, but he COULD NOT except heal minor ailments and diseases. And verse 6 goes on to tell us why he could not do it; “And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.” The people’s unbelief short-circuited the power of God from healing them and performing mighty miracles.
In other words, what caused the power of God to move and heal the woman with the issue of blood was her faith and what hindered the power of God from moving to heal the people in Mk 6:5 was unbelief. This implies that where there is unbelief on the part of a person that needs to receive a touch from God, their unbelief will hinder the power of God from coming into operation.
The Bible says in Acts 6:8 that Stephen was a man full of faith and of power. So the determining factor here was FAITH. Stephen was full of power because he was full of faith. So in Mk 6:5 Jesus could not do mighty works because of their lack of faith while in our opening verse, the reason the woman got healed was because of her faith that was in operation.
Where the power of God is present, faith has got to be put into operation in order to activate that power.
We are told in Lk5:17-25 “And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judæa, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.” Luke 5:17-25 KJV.
The scripture in Lk 5:17-25 shows that the reason none of them (the Pharisees, doctors of the law and others who were present) were not healed even though the power of God was present to heal, was because they had offense in their hearts (unbelief). However, the man who was brought in on a bed received his healing (V 25) because he had faith. The others were listening but there was something wrong in their hearts. While the Pharisees and doctors of the law were hearing Jesus teach, the offense which they had in their hearts prevented them from receiving the power of God, but the man and his friends were in faith and that was why the healing power of God worked for them.
In Lk 4:40 we are told that “Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them , and healed them.” Every single person got healed because they accepted his teaching and believed (see Lk4:30-39). We see that everywhere Jesus went to and laid a foundation of teaching there, everyone got healed because they accepted his message and believed (had faith). The bible says in Rm 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
The woman with the issue of blood got her healing because she had heard about Jesus before she went to meet him while the other folks had not heard but were just interacting with him casually. Although the power of God was present to heal them all, because they had heard nothing, that power was not released to heal them. The way to get into God’s power is found in Rms 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” And then when a believer has heard and faith comes into their heart, then they can make contact with the power of God. We do not receive things from God because of our desperation, but rather we receive from God when we act on His word that we have heard and then the word will produce faith in our hearts to receive just like the woman with the issue of blood.
One of the works of the Spirit of God inside the believer is to bring us into the knowledge of God and that knowledge becomes that basis upon which we are going to touch the hem of the garment of Jesus to receive our miracle. It is the knowledge of God that we have that generates faith to act on the word which then produces the miraculous in our lives.
