When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” – Mk. 5:27-28 NIV
Avoid The Crowd Effect 26092020
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Jesus Christ was by a lake teaching and preaching as he always does when one of the rulers of the synagogue named Jairus approached him for help. His daughter was sick and he wanted Jesus to help heal her – Mk. 5:21-24. Jesus decided to grant his request and on his way to doing this was accompanied by the usual large crowd who the Bible says were pressing on him – Mk. 5:25. In the middle of this crowd was a woman who the Bible noted had a medical condition that was similar to menorrhagia for 12 years. According to that scripture, she had suffered a great deal in the hands of doctors and had exhausted all her finances but still did not get healing.
This was the woman who found herself in the middle of that crowd with only one thought in her mind, she wanted to touch Jesus Christ because she was convinced that in doing this, she will receive healing. She eventually succeeded in her mission and her faith was equally rewarded as she was healed instantly.
That event, many years after seems like a story from Tales by Moonlight as such events are very rare amongst Christians today. Where they do occur, lots of doubts are expressed because of the frequency of surreal or outrightly pre-arranged miracles which has resulted in loss of faith amongst Christians today. Something needs to be established as a foundation in the case of this biblical event which is that the event was real and not just a story by Jesus Christ. It was not a parable either but a clear record of an event.
Some may want to argue that it is no longer a common occurrence or is actually not happening now because Jesus is no longer physically present with us. That will not be a valid argument because if the dry bones of Elisha can bring a dead body back to life, then there can be no limiting of what the name of Jesus Christ can do – 2Kgs. 13:21. The Bible says at the mention of his name, every knee bows and every tongue confesses his lordship – Phil. 2:9-11.
So why do we have few or no such occurrences again? The answer to the question is in the reason why the woman got healed in the first place.
1. She had a belief and conviction that Jesus can do it – Mk. 5:27. Despite the fact that all the people known to be associated with such medical fêtes have failed, she was convinced that this person who does not have such a record of achievement will succeed.
2. She had an implementation plan. For a woman of that social status to be able to get that close to Jesus Christ would have required days of diligent planning. Such personalities, either then or now will have so many position seeking and power drunk people who will want to be seen to be very relevant to the personality, in this case Jesus Christ and they are usually very uncompromising. The woman could only have reached him because she had a very effective plan.
3. She focused on her plan. This is the stage at which most plans of many fail. Most people actually have good plans mapped out, which if reviewed will be found to be apt but failure is still recorded because;
a. So many issues come up during implementation that requires instant reaction to tweak with the plan by the person implementing it, but which lack or inappropriate reaction makes the plan suddenly become a wrong one.
b. Thinking and acting out plans are two huge acts with a very wide gulf between them. Whereas the thinking process which indeed is very critical is mainly abstract, implementation requires a physical ability to lift the ideas out of the abstract to the real and this in itself requires some level of skill.
c. There is usually the crowd effect. This comes in the form of:
i. Advise by supposed friends and well wishers who do not share the faith level of the planner.
ii. The effect of competition from people who have similar ambition.
iii. The outright action of those opposed to the planner achieving success with the project.
iv. The sudden loss of concentration by the planner due to issues that are not central to the mission.
Noteworthy is the simple fact that she got healing even when Christ was not aware of her presence but the woman was aware of the presence and ability of Jesus Christ. She eventually got noticed by Jesus Christ because of what her faith had done in her life. Her testimony brought her recognition.
The Christian today who plans to enjoy the kind of miracle healing or any other type of miracle for that matter that the woman received must use the above stated acts of the woman as a guide as anything short of that will leave the expectant person in a dream land.
So many Christians are in church today and are proud to announce how long they have been in Church, but do not have any testimony to justify their presence in Church. It is not because they have no challenge, if anything they have mountains of challenges, but they only think about those challenges when they experience the limitations that those challenges cause them, which is mostly when they are outside of church . The result is that they are never able to have a plan or a conviction on how to implement the plan. They are carried away by the activities of the crowd. The crowd here refers to anyone outside the individual whose activity does not in anyway address the central intention of the person for coming to church, with the goal of helping to achieve such intentions. Being active in church is not the solution, it is being active with a focus. The woman was active and not stagnant but she remained focused on her goal. Your delay or not receiving that long awaited request in prayer may just be because of the above reasons. Resolve today to use the approach of this woman as a standard for being in church and there is no doubt that your story will change positively in Jesus name. Amen.
