In the Gospel of Matthew 14:34-36, we see that the people of Gennesaret recognized Jesus, when He crossed over the Sea of Galilee. They went all over that region and collected up people that were sick. Then they went to Jesus and begged Him that they could just touch the very hem of His garment, and as they touched His Garment The Bible says they were made perfectly well.
We see the exact same story happening in Mark 5:24-34, where the woman with the issue of blood had been bleeding for 12 years. She had spent all her money and had nothing left. She said to herself, "If I could just touch the hem of his garment, I will be made well." She pushed through the crowd, undeterred by people pushing her from every side and eventually got to the Lord Jesus Christ. She then touched the hem of His garment and the issue of blood dried up immediately. Jesus stopped in His tracks and even though people had been pushing Him from all over, He said to His disciples "Who touched Me?" His disciples said, "Lord people are pushing You from all over." The Lord said, "No there is one particular person." Of course, the little lady's face must have been red with embarrassment and said, "It was me, Lord." He said to the woman, "Go in peace, your faith has made you well."
On the other side of the coin, we see when Jesus went back to Nazareth He could perform very few miracles, because of the lack of faith in His own hometown. Matthew 13:53-58, "...Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief." We know that it is the power of God that heals, but Jesus makes it very clear that we need to have a measure of faith in order for the Lord to perform His miracles in our lives. By faith we cry out to God like Peter did, when he was in the boat and then through obedience he got out of the boat and walked on the water. When we take our eyes off the Lord for a moment and we look at the waves, we will start to sink, but if we call out, He will be quick to take a hold of us and restore us. Faith really honors God and Jesus is so happy with us when we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
I really want to encourage you to extend your faith and of course we all know where it comes from. Romans 10:17 (NKJV) clearly states, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." We need to spend more time reading God's Word, and spending time with men and women of great faith, because faith is definitely contagious. Can you imagine how the other people roundabout felt when they saw the sick merely touching the hem of the Masters garment and were completely healed from paralysis, from blindness, delivered from demons and set free? We have always said at Shalom "One genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons." That is the absolute truth.
Give Jesus your two fishes and your five barley loaves of bread, and He will multiply them to feed thousands of others. We have actually seen it happen tangibly in front of our eyes here at Shalom during the Mighty Men Conference which took place in 2007.
Operating by faith, also pleases our Heavily Father, because it shows Him how much we trust His Son.
The Bible tells a story of a centurion who was not even a Jew, but a Gentile (a foreigner) and furthermore an officer in the Roman army, which was oppressing Israel at that time, and the least qualified candidate to receive the gift from Jesus. But because of his faith, which Jesus had never seen in all of Israel, said to the Master, "You don't even have to come to my house, just say the Word and my servant will be healed." We read that at that very hour his servant was completely restored back at the centurion's house.
My dear friend, let us trust God and continually walk with expectation in Jesus alone. Psalm 62:5 (NKJV), "My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him."
God bless,
Angus Buchan
