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Written by Michelle J. Goff, Director and Founder of Iron Rose Sister Ministries
For twelve years I have been visiting doctors, healers, anyone who thought they could help. There isn’t a treatment I haven’t tried. I’ve changed my diet. I’ve tried herbal remedies, essential oils. Nothing has worked.
For twelve years I have been bleeding.
You know how you feel when you’re on the worst day of your period? Depleted, cramping, cranky, no energy, angry at Eve, no appetite, or eating everything in sight? I’ve felt that way for the past twelve years with no reprieve.
Women in menopause—you’ve got nothing on me. Not to minimize anyone else’s pain, but I am at a loss and the isolation and rejection are worst of all.
You see, I’m a Jew. And blood is an unclean thing. For the first few months, I didn’t go anywhere because I would make others unclean. When I finally gathered the courage and energy to get out of the house, it almost made things worse.
I was forced to yell “unclean,” wherever I went so that no one accidentally touched me and became unclean as well. Literally like hanging your dirty laundry out for all to see.
And a very lonely existence. No physical contact for twelve years—not a hug, a gentle touch, or warm embrace. I feel unloved, forgotten, and broken.
It may be uncomfortable to talk about, but the events of this past week have inspired me to shout from the mountain tops, and it’s nothing about the word, “unclean.”
A Teacher with great healing power was in town. And while it took everything in me to find hope for healing, I had heard so many wonderful things about this man of God that I cried out to God and ventured to take a risk one more time.
Crowds surrounded the Teacher and pressed up against Him so closely that I knew there was no way I could get close to Him. His disciples stayed nearby and would’ve risked their own uncleanliness before I approached the Rabbi.
But I had no choice. My final hope of healing was with that man. If only I could touch the hem of His garment… So, I covered my face and defied the Jewish rules. In a strange combination of terror of discovery and hope of healing, under cover of my cloak, I weaved my way through the crowd.
Finally, I had reached the Teacher and my fingers were able to graze the edge of his garment. Immediately, relief flooded me. Breath returned to my lungs. Life was restored to my body. I was healed!
However, my relief was short-lived and my breath became a frozen gasp as the Teacher spoke out. “Who touched my clothes?”
His disciples tried to convince Him that it was the crowd pressing around Him, but when He persisted, my greatest fear was realized. Rebuke, rejection, isolation, and a reversal of His healing were imminent. I was sure of it.
Yet this Teacher was like none other. As I trembled at His feet, completely unveiled, confessed my actions, and shared my story, His eyes were filled, not with condemnation, but rather with compassion… love, acceptance, and sympathy.
My own tears of fear transformed into tears of deep, heart-felt gratitude for the tremendous gift I had been given. Yes, I was grateful for the physical healing of my bleeding. Still more powerful than the physical healing though was the emotional healing. For the first time in twelve years, I was welcomed back into the family. I was brought back into the community. I was redeemed.
“Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Yes, the Teacher, Jesus Christ Messiah, had called me “Daughter.”
For the full story, read Matthew 9, Mark 5, and Luke 8.
P.S. I later learned that it was the shedding of His redeeming blood that made us all clean—He offered everyone the opportunity to be welcomed back into His family. I invite you to also let him call you “Daughter.”
#IronRoseSister #HIStories #healing #daughterofGod #emotionalhealth #womanwithissueofblood #MichelleJGoff #blog
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Written by Lisanka Martinez, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Venezuela
To rejoice in good health is a blessing that few people actually get to enjoy. Between contamination, inadequate nutrition, stress, and emotional conditions, we tend to suffer with some physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual illness.
The majority of women experience many of these interrelated conditions at the same time. Among them is PMS (premenstrual syndrome). These disorders are very common among the women in my family, and for many years, for that very reason, I suffered from intense pain and discomfort for more than a week every month. For this reason, the Bible story about the ill woman or the woman who touched Jesus’ robe (that we see in the gospels of Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, and Luke 8:43-45), has always seemed extremely extraordinary—to think of a woman who was bleeding for twelve years, in the health and hygiene conditions of that time. And the part to most highlight is that she was considered impure or unclean (as some traditions say) and what the laws of the Jewish people stated, as we see in Leviticus 15:25. With no remedy for such a lengthy time, her physical, mental, and emotional strength must have diminished.
However, the story, although brief, gives us an excellent example of the love of God, shown through His Son, for someone who dared to risk this step with a humble act of faith, which brought about her desired healing.
I read one perspective about this woman that showed that she was someone who had lost all of her money on doctors who couldn’t heal her. She had nothing to lose and might gain everything. The only thing she could receive was to be rejected and she had already faced rejection. Even still, to avoid this risk, she sought the blessing by trying to sneak by. Impossible! God always notices us. Even though she was invisible to the multitude, in this way, she was able to touch our Savior’s robe in spite of all the people that separated her from Him. That didn’t stop her. She was able to approach Him. In her mind, she knew that one touch would heal her and that it wouldn’t hurt anyone.
There are some who see this from Jairo’s perspective and reason that this desperate father that begged for healing for his daughter, could have thought that this woman, in her act of desperation and faith, had detained the Teacher, that time and the possibility of healing for his daughter had been taken away. Yet we know that it was not like that. Quite the opposite. Jairo witnessed a miracle even greater than healing. When it comes to blessings of healing, there are always enough for everyone.
The woman who touched Jesus’ robe knew that the minimal contact with Him would be a blessing in her life, just as many of us have experienced in our own lives. She did it and immediately felt the healing power in her body. Jesus noticed it, stopped, and asked who had touched Him. Even though His disciples tried to explain the obvious, that it could’ve been anyone who touched Him, Jesus awaited the faith-filled response to His spiritual question. The healed woman, still trembling, is seen as a testimony of the reach of God’s power for those who have faith and, through that faith, receive the greatest blessing. Jesus speaks to her directly and tells her that she is healed from her physical illness, along with the valuable addition that she has also been saved by her faith. What a wonderful reward! She was seeking physical healing and also received salvation, declared from Jesus’ own lips.
Can we say that we will ask for and await our own healing miracle? Or, like the woman in the story, will we, through faith, touch Jesus’ robe and obtain the marvelous blessing of first spiritual healing, and also physical healing? In what ways are we seeking healing?
#IronRoseSister #HIStories #healing #healingmiracle #spiritualhealth #physicalhealth #guestwriter #blog