AMFBeM Newsletter

June 2, 2020

Faith makes you well / According to your faith

Luke 8:43-48; John 4:46-53

After you have first turned to self-sufficiency to accomplish and or provide the needs that you have and nothing has changed. Is it then that you begin to think about asking the LORD GOD for help or do you ask for HIS help first? This is not a trick question but rather it is a reflection of where we are in our faith walk in CHRIST JESUS.

In the scripture of Matt., Mrk., and Lk., we find a dear woman who may have possibly been wealthy because for twelve long years she hemorrhaged blood from her body and paid physicians their fee to help her recover. This to me is the miracle that she lived that long because the human body only has nine to twelve pints of blood and if the hemorrhage is not stopped within five minutes the body will die. So, let us take a look at the facts here.

1. She was a woman [women were considered property rather than equals to men]
2. She was most likely unmarried [this is only a guess because no mention of a husband or children has been recorded]
3. She was wealthy [she may have been a widowed or the only heir from her parents for her to have wealth]
4. She became poor
5. She was alone and lonely [the law forbids women to be out in public when menstruating]
6. She was noticeably exhausted, foul-smelling, pale, and weak
7. She was talked about [most likely unfavorably]

Now, we can either close our eyes and imagine what it had to be like for this darling woman then or we can visualize through remembrance of how actions took place either in your personal life or information that you have about another regardless of who they may be in your life. If you are a biological woman how would you like to be considered the property of your father or husband? You are not the equal of males but rather a second class citizen where women have their own place in life. You are not allowed to speak without being spoken to, you are not allowed to have open communication with men without the witness of others, you are not allowed to be alone with a man for any reason unless he is your father, husband, brother, or maybe the physician. Your entire being is to serve your father, assist your mother, serve your husband, take care of the home and the children. You have never been married for whatever those reasons may be. You have no income to call your own. As an adult woman who is unmarried, you will remain in the household of your parents until they die before the possibility of living alone in your own home and if a widowed woman with children [under aged kids or adult] you may then be the custodian of whatever wealth or debt your husband had. If your husband left debt the woman and or the children will be placed in debtors prison until the debt is completed. If the woman has been left wealthy with adult sons, then they will incur the wealth and take responsibility for their mum but if left without children then the woman becomes respected due to her wealth. All humans require human contact through conversations, being among others, and touching. Without it, the person becomes miserable, alone, and lonely. Most often if a person is found to be one who is not being fulfilled through natural human contact and the person becomes ill, the illness will accelerate and cause death. If a person is not dying they will have an accelerated aging process that will cause them to die prematurely. Imagine this woman being married and having under-aged children in the home. Because of the law, she is not allowed to be in the same room with her family.  She must sleep in a separate room from her husband, she cannot touch her husband or children, no hugs, or affectionate kisses. When speaking to one another it must be done from a separate area where hearing one another can be accomplished. She can not go outside of the home. She is void of all human contact which has caused her human starvation of affection and socializing. When she dared to leave her home it was because she had become poor after spending all of her finances on various doctors and possibly doctors who specialized in the needs of women only to never receive relief from the disorder that she had. So, now, being poor; broken from being alone and lonely; extremely physically weak; pale from lack of blood flowing throughout her arteries, corpuscles and veins; and smelly. She dares to do the unthinkable and that is to go to the Healer that she has heard about. She gets herself up and she goes, I am certain that she was completely shrouded so as not to be recognized by others, I’m certain that from wherever her blood flow was pouring from {most likely from her vaginal area} she was wrapped with so many cloth bandages to soak up the blood it may have been difficult for her to move even the more since she was so very weak. The tenacity of her faith was driven by having that spirit of “I do not care about the law and the people”, I am certain that going out in public caused her a wee bit of fear but she refused to allow the fear of being stoned to stop her in her desperation. She finally had reached the place where JESUS is but she cannot see HIM but she knows that HE is there in the midst of all the people because people are calling out to HIM and the disciples are keeping the throng of people from touching HIM. So, she drops to her knees and begins to crawl over the asphalt, the rocks, the dust of the ground. Of all the disciples we have big, loudmouth Peter who had great intentions but had a tendency to speak before thinking. I believe that it was Peter who tried to keep people from JESUS by words such as “send him/her away they are asking, begging, coming after us”. I believe that in her crawling to get to JESUS that she may have even crawled between the legs of Peter because had she not Peter would have been the one to prevent her from her ability to touch JESUS. She kept saying with each crawl that “if I can only touch the fringe/hem/tassel of HIS garment then I will be healed”. Now, here are more amazing facts, there were thousands of people among JESUS, a few may have been able to touch HIM and many more were trying to touch HIM. But for those who were able to touch HIM they were not operating in faith. If they had, why would JESUS say “who touched ME”? Understand that JESUS already knew about this woman, JESUS already knew that she would be there in her desperation come to HIM, and JESUS already knew where she was and who had touched HIM. The reason HE asked the question is that she was the only one who touched HIM out of the faith to be healed and she did not have to ask of HIM from face to face conversation, or the asking of prayer directly or indirectly through others. JESUS saw her faith and felt her faith which caused HIS anointing/HIS power/HIS virtue to rush out of HIM into her. And then HE turned around and spoke to her “your faith has made you well”. Then she became accepted by the public, she was able to communicate and touch others for the remainder of her life.

Some people give up much too easily regarding themselves and others regardless of the relationship they have with them. Just because you or another are ill and from this illness, your demise is approaching, does not give us a license to give up. And most definitely illness is not a punishment or the will of GOD from HIM to us. Sometimes we may not consciously say that we want to see signs and wonders are other names for miracles but if we are being honest with ourselves subconsciously that is what we are hoping/looking for. I think out of the disappointment and broken heart that JESUS had regarding the father whose son was dying, JESUS healed the boy anyway. Do any of us think that the father may have been disappointed that JESUS did not accompany the father back to where the boy was in order that the child will be made well and live? I do. But then as I continued to read, the father believed the Word that JESUS spoke to him as he was sent away and he went away. I believe on his journey back home that he kept reminding himself through confessing verbally with his mouth that his son lives, I will find my son alive and well when I get back home. Now, before the father got home his servants saw him from a long way off and ran to him proclaiming that his son was alive and well. The father inquired of them what time his son had become well. Now, to me, being a loving mother to my children regardless of the fact that they are adults and going in the direction of becoming middle-aged, that question is irrelevant to me and I would have broken off running at top speed to see my child/children for myself. But for this father, the answer that he received was to reflect on the time that JESUS told him to go back home because his son lives. The seventh hour equals one of two time periods depending on which clock by who had control of that region. Because it was Capernaum the time was approximately 1 PM Jewish time. The father realized that it was that time that JESUS told him to return home because his son lives. And, it also is a revelation to his household that because they saw and knew what the father had done and the reply that he received everyone living in that house began to believe in JESUS and trusting in HIM to be the Savior/MESSIAH.

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