Clothes that Heal? Or...

Mark 5:28 "If I may but touch the hem of His garment, I shall be made whole."

This woman understood. This woman believed. She knew that if only she could get low enough, reach in far enough, and merely even brush against the hem of His garment with her hand that she would be healed. PROFOUND illustration! Crowds were pressing in on Jesus. Some called it a mob of people. Yet this woman touched the very hem of His clothes and was immediately healed and He immediately KNEW He had been touched. Imagine being in a crowded place, people pressing in on you from all sides, bumping into you, knocking you off center. For you to notice at all that someone in particular touched your clothing is amusing. They are all touching you, they are all bumping into you and into each other. It is a crowd, a mob of people. But Jesus knew immediately that this woman had reached out in faith and received healing. He FELT it.

It is a pattern with Jesus--telling people that it is their FAITH that has healed them. He didn't go to her. He didn't take the initiative to place His hands on her in a purposeful act to heal her. She came to Him. She believed. She was CERTAIN. If only she could touch just the HEM of just what He was wearing, she just KNEW she could be healed (or made whole). THAT is faith, illustrated in crystal clarity. It was what SHE did, what SHE believed, the effort SHE made to get to Him that PROVED her faith in who and what He was and the POWER He had even in the mere hem of His garment to change her life FOREVER. She had been battling with an ailment for 12 long years! She was desperate. She knew NOTHING else had worked and she sought Him out. She wasn't proud. She didn't care what on earth she had to do. She just knew she had to touch Him or even just something He was wearing to receive FULL healing and to be made WHOLE. With a mob of people around Him, what she needed to do was not an easy task. In fact, to get to the hem where did she have to be? LOW. On the ground. On her knees in the dirt, a dangerous place to be in a mob. She was probably getting stepped on and certainly bumped around. Her arms had to be searching, stretching, straining, reaching hard in toward Him. This was someone who didn't care how lowly, how "in the way", or dirty and dusty she had to become to get to Him. She knew she needed Him and nothing else mattered. That is FAITH. It couldn't be more clear. It couldn't be illustrated any better.

What are you battling with? How long have you been battling with it? What all else have you tried? Your own strength, your own will-power? Prayer, even? Reading scripture? More prayer? Books? Counseling? Sermons? Tried "everything"? How about getting low? How about about reaching out your arms so hard and so far that it hurts? How about knowing in your heart that nothing you can do on your own will work? How about getting your knees filthy? How about subjecting yourself to the lowest place, just to barely skim the hem of His garment with your hands? How about knowing that He is the only one who can heal what is hurting you? How about believing that He will? How about real FAITH? What if you took it all to Him? What if you surrendered all control? If you have EVER reached out to Him in true faith, faith like the woman in this story, and if you've ever touched even just His hem, you will NEVER be the same. There is earth shaking, unfathomable power in just His hem! But belief and faith is required, otherwise it is just fabric (or just empty words in a prayer). He knows when He has encountered great faith. It changes everything. If your heart, if your struggles, if your battles haven't changed GREATLY--look to this woman for your lead. She is the illustration of what FAITH really looks like. It is not just her outward actions, it is what she knew in her heart about His power.

Today, we cannot physically touch His garment. But when He ascended back into heaven, leaving this earth, He did not leave us alone. We have the Holy Spirit. Equal. One third of the trinity. Not the red-headed step child of the trinity. An equal. Equal in all ways with God and Christ. Yet, we don't truly call upon the Spirit and utilize that power through our faith and belief as we could...and SHOULD. The Spirit's whole purpose here is to help us, guide us, guard us, etc.... It is just as powerful as having Christ Himself here with His garment within our reach. But our trust, belief and FAITH have to be real. Like the woman above. We have the same LIFE CHANGING, ETERNITY-SHAKING POWER available to us, as she did.

What are you doing to touch it?