It is as if she speaks to herself to encourage herself, ‘Am I exercising faith?’ The devil says, ‘Go back to your ways.’ But faith says, ‘I need him. Only he can give me life. There is an enemy of souls and he is standing in my way and trying to prevent me coming to Christ. I must press on through all this discouragement. I must not let what the devil says put me off. Once I find the Lord, all things will become clear to me.’ Tell it to yourself if necessary. She felt the need in her body. We feel it deep in our souls. You know that your sins have been forgiven. The burden of guilt rolls off, and you see that the only one who could condemn you has pardoned you, and is now on your side defending you. Life is changed and what a change it is! You recoil from your former way of life now. Christians are not sinless – they still fall – but sin is not their friend any longer.
Straightaway she was healed. It was a radical change. Her bodily system was made sound immediately. So it is with conversion. It is the greatest possible change, a change that we will look back on for all eternity. Don’t let anyone say, I cannot believe. You are surrounded by many people have already had this wonderful change. It is not so hard then for you, who have never had this change, to believe you too can experience it.
Just as this woman knew she had been healed deep within her, so conversion is a conscious experience. We are aware of changes deep within our souls. New understanding dawns, which is like a light that lightens the landscape of life. We now live in a world where death does not reign supreme, because Christ has risen from the dead and overcome the world. Guilt is no longer the inevitable backdrop to all our conscious experience, because God can cancel the debt we owe him and assure us that we are accepted in Christ. Instead of shrinking back from eternity, we now look forward to it, for it has become filled with hope and untold wonders which beckon us forward.
Although the first application is to the lost, there is also an application for Christian people. Please note that all she had wrong with her was an issue of blood. If we were being foolish, we would say, What is she worried about? Her heart is all right; her lungs are all right; her kidneys are all right; her legs and her arms are all right. Yes, but that one thing affects her totally. She is a poor suffering exhausted woman. She can't function properly. As a Christian you have found the Lord, but there may be something the matter with you. It may only be one thing, but it affects everything and it pulls you down and really it's made your heart cold, and it’s separated you from God. Time is haemorrhaging away, and spiritual opportunity, and spiritual assurance and happiness are haemorrhaging away. It may be that your problem is an evil eye. Perhaps you are looking at things, unclean images. It has ruined your spiritual life. Or perhaps you’ve become covetous. ‘Oh, I would like that new suite. My car is rattling and breaking down. I want a strong car. I want a car people will admire. Perhaps you used to have an evil eye before you were converted. If the devil has anything he loves to do, it is to ensnare a Christian back in the pre-conversion sin. An evil ear, perhaps. Something’s the matter; something's gone wrong. An evil mouth! One thing wrong – your temper, your bad reactions to people, or to provocations, or irritations, or difficulties. You’re not dealing with it; you're learning to live with it, and everyone around you was got to learn to put up with it. It cuts you off from God, and if you did but know it you can't be used in his service. If so, go to Christ. Touch him by faith. ‘Lord, look what I've done. Look what's happened to me. Look where I am. Lord, help me, help me to get a hold of this. Help me to resist it. Lord, forgive me, visit me, renew me, strengthen me. Don't let this happen and ensnare me.’ Trust him and he will. If you mean business, he will, and you’ll hear his voice, ‘Son, daughter, go in peace. Your faith has saved you. Be whole, be healed of your plague.’