A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26and 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— 27after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. 28For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.” 29Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Mark 5:25-29 NASB
Scripture tells us that she thought to herself "If I just touch His garments, I will get well." Where had she heard that this was possible? We do not see anywhere before this time where people were healed by touching Jesus' clothes. We also do not see people sharing stories of this taking place. Where did this revelation come from? This thought must have come to this woman as a whisper from the Spirit of God. This was an amazing revelation from God which seems to only be given to this suffering woman who had lost everything and had endured much from the works of men. But what would have happened if she received this revelation and then never reached out to touch Christ? This revelation (as awesome as it was) would have remained a revelation but would have never manifested in reality. Her faith and obedience took the revelation from remaining a spiritual truth into becoming a reality that touched the physical world. Specifically in the American the church today, we have a tendency to receive new revelations but never see those revelations manifest. On a weekly or even daily basis, most of us receive numerous new revelations from God's word, or through His people. This can be a great blessing but it can also become what we constantly seek instead of seeing those revelations come into reality. Paul addressed this exact issue when discussing the last days in his letter written to Timothy. Paul says that in the last days there will be people who are: always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:7 NASB What Paul is addressing here is people who are constantly learning new things about God but are never coming to know those things through experiential knowledge. The word that Paul uses for knowledge here means: contact-knowledge; first-hand, experiential knowing. So Paul is letting us know that in the last days there will be many people learning new things but everything they are learning is only head knowledge. They never come to the point of actually experiencing what they are learning. This woman in Mark 5 was faced with the same decision: "take what I heard and reach out and experience healing or learn something new but never receive healing." She could have remained a suffering woman who possibly knew something that others didn't; but what good would that have been? Our steps of faith and obedience are the conduit that bring the revelations from God down to earth. In these last days in which we are living we must not become the people that Paul warns us about in 2 Timothy 3:7. We must be people who are doers of the word and not just hearers. People who take risky steps of faith like this woman did and see God move in ways we have never seen before. Questions to Consider: 1. What are some areas in your life where God is asking you to take a step of faith? 2. What are some new things you are learning about God today? How do those things relate to your everyday life?
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On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. 37And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Mark 4:35-37 NASB
After one of the greatest teachings of Christ in the Sower of the Seeds, Jesus calls His disciples to get into a boat with Him and head to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. As they are obeying this simple request of Jesus, they find themselves in a life-threatening storm. Jesus, being all-knowing, has just led His disciples into an extremely dangerous situation. To make matters even more perplexing, we find out in verse 38 that Jesus is actually asleep in the midst of this storm! Get the picture, they obeyed and followed Jesus, and then suddenly, without warning, found themselves facing an impossible, fearful situation. How could this have happened? Why would Jesus lead His disciples who had obeyed His command into this situation? One of the reasons for the storms of life is so we can see the mighty hand of God at work. To see a miracle take place is one of the greatest experiences that God uses of opening up our eyes to see Him rightly in all of His majesty. This is why the ministry and life of Jesus was marked by miraculous signs. But for a miracle to occur, something must go wrong or go against the natural order of things. If our desire is to have everything go perfect in our life and for us to never face any storms or trials, we are not only delusional but we are also asking for a life in which we will never see God move. These disciples (some who were fishermen) are about to experience something that they have never seen. Jesus is going to get up from sleeping and with these three words “Hush, be still” the powerful storm will cease. Without the storm, they would have never experienced this amazing revelation of Jesus as the Son of God who had authority over even the wind and waves. They had obeyed Christ to get into the boat; Jesus led them into the storm which revealed the grip that fear had on them; but there was no safer place to be on earth than in the boat with Christ in the midst of a stormy sea. I am certain that those same disciples would have chosen to go through a thousand storms to have that same experience of seeing the power of Jesus once again. This is the joy of obeying Jesus and abiding in the boat of life with Him, we consistently gain new revelations of the power and love of Jesus; and we are never the same. Questions to Consider: 1. Have you ever experienced a legitimate miracle in your life? Will you comment or share here your experience? 2. Are you facing some sort of storm in your life right now that you feel has come upon you out of nowhere? What is God trying to show you about Himself through that storm? |
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