Have you ever wondered to yourself; "How can everyone else seem to be so
happy and full of joy when my life is so miserable?"
How is it that other people can worship with unrestrained enthusiasm and
I always feel so restricted?
How is it that my friends are always "hearing from God" on something in
their lives, yet I seem to be praying to a brass heaven?
Others are getting healed
Others are getting blessed
Others are getting excited
Others are getting used of God
Others are winning souls
Others are prospering
Others seem to have an insatiable thirst for truth and a ravenous desire
for His presence
Where am I missing it? (And) How can I get what I see others getting?
Have you ever felt like just another face in the crowd?
..like you were not making any difference to anyone
..like you were not needed or necessary
..like you were just passing time and taking up space
Yet all the while you were doing everything within your power to muster up
the desire and the revelation of God in your life to elevate you to that
place where it seemed that everyone else seemed to so easily attain.
Does the grass always look greener on the other side of the fence.
The feeling of being just another face in the crowd can be the loneliest
and most helpless situation that one can ever imagine.
(Q) If you have ever been to a large city such as New York City- downtown
or even New Orleans during the height if the Mardi Gras, you can easily
find yourself swept into the flow of the crowd.
Before you know it, you are surrounded by hundreds and thousands of
unfamiliar faces. Even though there are multitudes around you- all
seemingly content and completely comfortable in their surrounding- you
feel isolated and alone and totally out of place.
There is something about being lost in the crowd that is the most horrific
experience that one can imagine. If you have every been separated from a
child in a crowded department store or have found yourself taking the
wrong exit into a bad area of a large city, you know the knot that appears
in your gut, that chokes all hope and optimism right out of your mind.
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. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came
trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all
the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed
immediately. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith
hath made thee whole; go in peace." (KJV)
Much has been said and much has been preached concerning the woman with
the issue of blood.
The visual image invoked by the thought of this woman pressing through to
Christ makes for a challenging pattern for the believer in Christ Jesus.
I have often looked at the fact that she had suffered 12 years
That she had spent all that she had to find a remedy
She abandoned all customs and rules to get to Jesus
But this time as I read the text, it was verses 45 & 46 that jumped from
this passage
45 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?
46 And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is
gone out of me.
In our focus upon the women with the issue of blood, who had suffered with
this affliction for 12 long years.
In our focus upon the miraculous faith that it took to get her to seek out
Christ for her healing.
In our focus upon the divine healing that took place long that road.
We have lost focus upon the most glaring fact of this whole matter:
It wasn't that Jesus healed- He had done so many times.
It wasn't even that He had healed someone who had been afflicted for a
long period of time:
No- he had healed another woman who had been sick for 18 years
And another who had been blind since birth!
It wasn't even the fact that she should not have been there
It wasn't even that she had to persevere to even get through to Him
THE TRUE FOCUS OUGHT TO REALLY BE UPON THE QUESTION ASKED BY JESUS-
"Who touched Me?"
AND THE RESPONSE OF THE CROWD-
"They all denied it."
We probably all would have responded much like Peter did by saying,
"What do you mean who touched you, everyone here is touching you?'
Yet the word translated "touched" doesn't mean what we commonly would
define it to mean- we think it means to "feel".
Yet, many in the crowded multitude "felt Him." Many of you come to church
and you "feel" something.
You may sense the presence of the Lord
You are aware of what He is doing
You are excited about what you see
You may even have a desire to partake of that "feeling"
Yet, you walk away from the experience- just as lonely, just as broken,
just as jealous, just as wicked, just as miserable and just as sick as you
came.
Because you never TOUCHED Him!
The word "touched" can actually be translated "to fasten oneself to"
It connotes getting a "death grip" on something. Like a pitbull locking
onto something, it implies grabbing hold without the intention of ever
letting go!
It says that "They all denied it."
sure they could all say "we were there"
we were a part of the crowd
we were all witnesses as to what took place
we can testify as to what transpired
yeah, we felt something
it was a really good service
it really got me thinking
But the question of Jesus remains the same "Who touched me!"
I have shared previously about a vision that I had a year or so ago
relating to hell-
In it I saw a multitude who appeared like rats on a ledge. They were
huddled together in a desperate attempt at preservation. They were so
closely grouped that they swayed together like wheat standing in a field.
The whole scene was engulfed in darkness and the atmosphere was that of
utter despair.
Yet, what stirred me was not the faceless throngs huddled together. It was
not the tragic consequences that awaited them. No, it was when in the
vision- the perspective zoomed in from a wide shot of the multitude to a
single solitary face within the crowd.
It wasn't the face of a murderer or a madman, but that of a young girl
who's eyes were filled with the horror of being within the confines of the
masses, yet realizing that she was all alone.
Eyes of desperation and a look of total hopelessness and unbelief as to
what was transpiring. Her life was probably a life of just fitting int
with the crowd. Just going with the flow. Just not making waves. Not
hurting anyone and not expecting to get hurt. Minding her own business.
Now the crowd that she had embraced was the crowd dragging her towards an
eternal demise!
I still look for that face when I am out on the streets, when we minister
at Mardi Gras or Biker Rallies or in churches or just walking around in
shopping centers.
Who touched me?
What separates the "faces in the crowd" from the "woman with the issue of
blood?"
The crowd still sees Jesus as just another option:
She saw Jesus as her ONLY option!
2 Chr 16:9 says "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the
whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is
perfect toward him..."
He is surveying the crowd looking for that one who would touch Him- that
one who would "fasten them self to Him."
