Push Through

In Mark 5:25 we see a wonderful example of tenacity, in the face of religious doctrine there is a woman with an issue of blood. The religious teachings of the day said that she was unclean and as such was forced to stay in the confines of her home. We know she was a woman of means, because in verse 25 it says she had spent all she had. She had money, and like most modern day thinking, sh had thrown money at her problem, and was not getting any better, in fact she was worse off than before.

How many times have you consulted a medical practitioner at his/her 'practise' and the treatment has left you worse off than before? Interestingly enough, a 'practise' is some place where people practise, and despite that this is the first place we run to to receive a healing? The side effects of most medicine will kill you just as fast as heal you, but conventional wisdom is that is the first avenue you go down when something is out of kilter in your body.

This woman complied with modern medical practise and had spent all she had. She had complied with contemporary teaching from the religious crowd, and now it was time to do something different. She decided to seek Jesus and try a different approach.

The first obstacle she was faced with was to go against all logic. She had to leave her home, despite what the religious teachers had said. Then she had to believe the scriptures, in a literal sense. The word says in Isaiah 61:1 that the Son of man will appear with healing in His wings. Now modern day theologians are quick to point out that you cannot read and believe the literal Bible...and yet that is exactly what this woman did. She had read the verse in Isaiah ,and realized that this was a literal instruction.

You see, Jesus would have worn a prayer shawl (Tallit) and when he gave the benediction, he would have grabbed the edges and held them up. This looks like a set of wings. She knew from the literal word that if He was the Son of God, then their would be a healing in the ends of the Tallit, and this is what she was aiming for when she approached Him in the crowds.

The second obstacle she faced was the very crowds. She had to push through the crowds to get to the ends of His tallit. She had to push beyond her own teachings, ( in verse 28 she said :"If only I may touch His clothes I will be made whole"), she had to push beyond her embarrassment of being out in public while bleeding. She was facing many obstacles, but despite the challenges, she pushed beyond the obstacles to go get what she knew was hers to get. Did you get that? She knew without a doubt that if she touched His tallit, she would be healed. Praise God - she took the Scriptures literally, despite conventional theologians teachings, despite physical limitations, despite human logic.

Beloved, healing is for today. You may have to push through some things to get it, but the Word of God is meant to be taken literally. Push through means to Pray Until Something Happens. Push through means to go beyond conventional logic. Go beyond human understanding. Go beyond what the world tells you to do, and expect. Think beyond the limits of human understanding.

In Luke 1:37 " For with God nothing is impossible". God said in Malachi 3:6 For I am the Lord, I change not" God has not changed, and neither has man. We still define what God can and cannot do through conventional wisdom, human logic and our small minded thinking! How can we possible define and limit a limitless God? How arrogant man is...to think we can define a limitless God through conventional understanding, interpretation and translation. 

Personally, I take the Word literally, teach the literal Word, and live by the literal word. For without faith it is impossible to please God.  It takes faith to believe the literal Word of God, the same faith that is required to please God...go figure.