The book of Luke tells the story of the woman who had a blood issue for 12 years. I’ve probably shared something with you about this scripture before. But today I want to share more because it is more than a story about miracle healing. It is a story of restoration.
Here is what the scripture says in Luke 8:43-48. “And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind Him, and touched the border of His garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, ‘Who touched Me?’ When all denied, Peter and they that were with Him said, ‘Master, the multitude throng Thee and press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me?’And Jesus said, ‘Somebody hath touched Me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me.’”
Twelve years is a long time. Since this was a woman, we can know that there probably was a time she did not have this sickness. She knew what it meant to be whole, and she knew what it meant to be sick. With a blood issue, the woman was probably scorned by others. She was probably ridiculed by others. She was probably treated like she was unclean. Others would not have wanted to be around her, nor would they have wanted her to be around them. Doctors probably treated her from a distance.
So, after twelve years, she had tried all she could. She came to Jesus because she knew a pill could not do what she needed to have done. She wanted to be restored to who she was before her sickness began. She wanted to belong again. She wanted to be accepted again. She wanted to be whole and clean again. She wanted to be a child again among people again. She wanted to be restored.
Man had done her more harm than good. We’ve probably all lived through a time where someone has made a bad situation worse for us. When we need them to help us with encouragement, they hinder us with criticism. When we need them to encourage us with support, they discourage us with guilt. You know what I mean.
I decided to use the King James Version of scripture for this message because of the deep meaning of the words it uses. Jesus’ Words makes it clear that He knew full well what she had been going through. In one simple act of Love, He tells everyone around Him that He perceived virtue had gone out from Him.
Jesus didn’t rub her eyes with anything. He didn’t touch her with His healing hands. He didn’t ask her to wash herself in the local river. He sent into her the one thing she needed most, virtue. Jesus sent to her all the things man kept from her.
Virtue is a sense of the highest standards of good. It is the highest moral state that can be. It is the right thing being done in the right way for all the right reasons. It is the standard of good for all things good.
Something more powerful than healing went out from Jesus to that lady that day. He restored to her all that man kept from her. And this is what healed the issue of her blood.
Sometimes, we may find ourselves in similar places of bondage with the people around us. And no matter what we do, we cannot seem to find a way to escape. After many years we may feel hopeless because we have unknowingly begun to hope for what we want from the people who are holding us down.
But, like this lady, we must come to the end of our twelve years. We do this by realizing that all we need is just a little faith in Jesus to do for us what all the hope in man will never do. We must realize there are times when we need restoration more than we need anything else.
So, let this be the day you realize how a little faith is all that is needed to do in your life what 12 years of hope in man can never do. If you want the things around you to change, ask the Lord to change some things within you. Believe that He will meet you with His virtue and you too shall be made whole and restored and loved.
Live a Delivered Life. Love you.
Live Delivered 