Last week we focused on one thing from the story of the woman with the issue of blood. We looked at what ‘receive’ ment for her.

Remember the two examples – a passive reception – like when granny gives you that gift on Christmas morning and the active – go after it with all you have receive – ‘take hold’ like the football receiver who pulls the sprialling football out of the air and pulls it in and holds on with all him might as the plows down the field.

Tonight we’re going to look at another impertive aspect of faith.

I’ve combined the three tellings of our dear bleeding woman into one narative, using all the peices from the three texts.

A woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse–and could not be healed by anyone, after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak. For she thought and for she was saying to herself, “If I just (only) touch His garments, I will get well.” Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. 

Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments? Who is the one who touched Me? And while they were all denying it, Peter said, (And His disciples said) to Him, “Master, You see the people are crowding and pressing in on You. and You say, ‘Who touched Me?'” 

But Jesus said, “Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me.” And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before Him, and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately healed. 

The woman told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.” 

Last week we talked at length about the fact that this woman took hold by faith of her healing. We noticed that Jesus supplied the healing even though He was not the initiator of this encounter.

As we look at the miracles of Jesus we’ll see that many, at least half, are not initiated by Jesus, but rather are initiated by someone’s faith.

I catagorize these miracles in three groups.

There are miracles that Jesus just does – I think of these as inspired by the Father. Jesus only does what He sees the Father do, and no one asked Him for them. There are like the woman who was bent over for eighteen years. She was just minding her own business and Jesus healed her.

The next category would be Spirit initiated, but faith plays a part. God has the Lord start the process, but then the healing doesn’t come until faith comes alive. Like the man with the withered hand, He never came to Jesus or approached Him, but when Jesus gave him something to do, “Stretch forth your hand,” he obeyed and received.

Finally, in the majority of cases, we see faith as the main cause for the healing. This is a prime example, I want to take a line by line look at the faith in this woman, and see what we can learn.

So let’s take this story step by step.

First – her condition

She’d been bleeding for 12 years. She’d been to many physicians and spent all her money. She could not be healed by anyone She wasn’t sitting around wishing. She was actively pursuing a solution to her ailment.

She heard about Jesus – 

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word (Rhema) of Christ, (the anointed). (Rom 10:17)

She thought and said – 

Don’t miss this step. Our mouth is the key to our victory. Look at what she said, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” She spoke the desired result.

She learned over the last 12 years that going to the Doctor and talking about the problem did not work for her. Today, she was not speaking the problem, she was speaking the solution. She was not magnifying the bloody disease, but she was focused on Jesus, her solution.

This may be the hardest part of turning your situation around. We live in a culture where words are often meaningless, and deadly words are literally a part of our culture. Sometimes we simply use a turn of phrase that we have picked up from the world, like “You’re killing me,” or it’s first-cousin, “You’re going to be the death of me.” With this kind of thing, you’re probably not putting real strong faith behind it, and saying this three times will not necessarily put you in the hospital with a terminal disease. But even this light sayings have a huge compounding influence in our lives. Paul tells us to take every thought captive and into the obedience of Jesus. If Jesus is the life, how can we joke about death so lightly?

But there are worse things we say, and they can have real power in our lives to keep us from the will of God.

Any thing that is hopeless is Godless.

When we take ownership of a sickness or disease, we give it power.

This still comes under the category of taking every thought captive. When we say the words, I have, I am, I always, I never, My, in regard to our current state we step away from victory. Whether we’re talking about a disease, our finances, even our own ability to overcome sin these phrases give our enemy place. For example, here are some things we say without thinking, and it reinforces our problem, and undermines our victory.

I feel like with every step forward I take two steps back.
This time of year my allergies always flair up.
I feel a cold coming on.
I can’s afford…

Never use this phrase – substitute, I choose not to spend my money on… “I can’t afford,” demonstrates that your money–or your lack–has the control. When you change it up with “I choose…” then you are the controlling actor in your financial drama.

I always carry my inhaler in case my asthma flares up.
I don’t see how I’m ever going to get out of debt.
I have the same problem with my temper that my father did.
I can’t control my impulsive buying habits.
I’ve tried every diet and I never can keep the weight off.
All the good men are taken.
My husband never shows me any affection.
My wife never shows me any respect.

In some cases, we speak these things out of frustration, but sometimes they come from deep within our hearts. These words spoken in frustration are soon spoken in despair. 

If you have been snared with the words of your mouth, Have been caught with the words of your mouth, – Proverbs 6:2 NASB

Hope is the seedbed for faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. (Hebrews 11:1)

Let’s look at a few verses about our words and how important they are.

“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. “The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” – Matthew 12:34-37 NASB

With the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach will be satisfied; He will be satisfied with the product of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit. – Proverbs 18:20-21 NASB

He who guards his mouth and his tongue, Guards his soul from troubles. – Proverbs 21:23 NASB

There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, But the tongue of the wise brings healing. – Proverbs 12:18 NASB

For they are life to those who find them And health to all their body. – Proverbs 4:22 NASB

and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ – Acts 11:14 NASB

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; – Hebrews 10:23 NASB

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. – Romans 10:9-10 NASB

But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. – Luke 5:15 NASB

Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place; and there was a large crowd of His disciples, and a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, – Luke 6:17 NASB

“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. – Luke 6:45 NASB

God’s ordinary way to heal people if for them to hear words. (Kenneth E Haggen)

(as it is written, “A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. – Romans 4:17 NASB

This last one is really important. We want to tell our story. Maybe we want sympathy. Maybe we want pity. Maybe we’re hoping for some sort of agreement that we’re in real trouble. But God (and by example, Jesus did this too) speaks the things that don’t exist, as though they do.

Jesus did this all the time.

When He was out on the boat in a storm, He didn’t cry out to God – “look at this horrible storm we’re in. Don’t you see we’re dying here, Lord (that’s what the disciples did)

No – He spoke to the sea, and He spoke the desired result.

“Peace, be still”

Most of you know, my heart took at attack over a year ago, and after a few rounds back and forth with the insurance company, they finally sent me a bill about a month ago, 14 months after the service.

As I make partial payments toward it, I speak over it, “Paid in full.”

I speak to my mailbox and tell it to get ready because there are checks coming in. I lay hands on my bills and call them paid in full.

I tell Corinne on a regular basis, we have extra coming in.

When I hear a really good testimony, about healing or finances, or anything else that I desire in my life, rather than be moved with jealosy, I simply confess, “That happens to me all the time.” Every time I see a car model that I would like to own, I say, there goes my car.

Is this just goofy? Is it just some mind trick, wishful thinking? Not at all. It’s not just the power of positive thinking. 

It’s how faith works.

Do you realize that Abraham spent nearly 25 years introducing himself as the father of many nations before Isaac, the son of promise, was born?

Jesus looked at a fig tree, and spoke to it, and used its reaction to his words as the greatest faith lesson in His ministry.

Let’s go to one of the clearest texts on faith in the Bible, Mark 11:22-24.

And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. – Mark 11:22-24 NASB

Wycliff and Youngs say “Have (the) faith of God.” It’s the faith God gives you, but it’s also the same faith that God himself uses.

Step one for faith is whoever says…

Faith is released by words.

We want to have what we pray for before we say it. But Jesus says we must say we have it before we receive it. So when folks say – how are you feeling, should we say what we feel or what the Bible says? When people ask for our status, should we quote the Bible?

We need to do this in all areas, salvation, healing, provision. 

The Bible says I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, so I’ll never say I’m just a sinner saved by grace. 

Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice,” so I will never say, I just can’t hear from God. 

Peter says, “By His stripes I am healed,” so I’ll never say I am sick. 

The Bible tells me Jesus became poor so that I could become rich, so I’ll never say, I’m broke. 

In fact the Bible says let the poor say I am rich, and so … 

I am rich.
I am healed.
I am righteous.
I hear God’s voice.
I am forgiven.
I am anointed.
I am holy.
I am sharp and quick.
Everything I put my hand to prospers.
I am under the protective covering of His wings.
His angels have been charged with my protection.

The words precede the possession.

Let’s start using our mouths to speak life.

Thanks for coming by.

Give the class a listen. There are some great testimonies and lots of good truth.

See you soon.

Ben

We spoke about a book in the video – here’s a amazon affiliate link:

Seven Longings of the Human Heart, by Mike Bickle and Deborah Hiebert.

Origianl Texts:

A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse– after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?'” And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came 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 affliction.” – Mark 5:25-34 NASB

And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak; for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will get well.” But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” At once the woman was made well. – Matthew 9:20-22 NASB

And a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. And Jesus said, “Who is the one who touched Me?” And while they were all denying it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on You.” But Jesus said, “Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me.” When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before Him, and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately healed. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” – Luke 8:43-48 NASB