Pick Up Your Son

“Who touched me?” Jesus asked as He and His disciples waded through the crowd at the marketplace. Not the most reasonable question to ask at that point in time. Jesus and His disciples were surrounded by hordes of people and suddenly, Jesus asks, “Who touched me?” “Master, you are surrounded by people pressing in on you, someone is bound to touch you.” But Peter was mistaken, he overlooked the difference between casual contact and intentional contact. Jesus knew the difference and this was no accident, someone had deliberately touched Him. “No, someone touched me on purpose,” Jesus answered, He could feel it. Someone had gone out of their way to touch Jesus for His healing power, and He definitely noticed (2 Peter 1:4-7).

There was a woman with an issue of blood who had endured her affliction for twelve years. She had been shamed and isolated by others and considered unclean. She had seen every doctor, every specialist and spent all that she had on finding a cure, but to no avail. She sought after Jesus because she believed in His healing power. The woman went out of her way to be near Jesus. She purposely sought after Him to touch Him and when she did, she was instantly healed (Luke 8:43-48). This woman had been disappointed numerous times, she had become accustomed to being let down, and yet she still believed in Jesus! She was not seeking consultation from Him, a therapy session, a prescription, or a healing elixir she believed that just being in proximity to Jesus, making physical contact with Him, touching the hem of His garment would heal and…she was healed.

Do we seek Jesus like that? Do we believe wholeheartedly in His healing power? Do we believe that just being next to Him, touching the hem of His garment will bring miracles into our lives? Do we go out of our way to make contact with Him or do we just brush by Him? The answer to these questions will determine what type of believer you are. Do you have an empty knowledge of God or do you have a faith that makes things happen? The woman with the issue of blood was a true believer, she believed enough to cause her to take action. She demonstrated her faith by seeking and touching Jesus.

James 2:26 says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Even demons have faith (Jas. 2:19). Even demons believe, surely, we would not want to share anything in common with demons so we have to do more than believe, we have to do something with our faith! How do we know what to do with our faith? There are over three thousand promises in the Word of God. Stand with your faith on these promises.

Consider another woman, the Shunammite woman who was kind to the prophet Elisha. Whenever the prophet would come through town, she would invite him to eat with her and her husband. Eventually, she asked her husband if they could prepare one of their vacant rooms for the prophet. Elisha sought to do something for the woman who had been so kind to him so, he asked her what she would want. He offered to speak to the king or the commander of the army on her behalf but she did not want anything, that which she did for the prophet was out of the goodness of her heart.

“She has no son,” said the servant of the prophet. Elisha called the woman in and told her, “About this time next year you shall embrace a son.” This was something the woman had always wanted but she would never ask for a child, her time for that was over. “No, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your maidservant!” she said but, indeed the woman conceived and had a son just as Elisha had said (2 Kgs 4:8-17). Sometime later, after the child had grown, he became ill and suddenly died. The woman laid her son on the bed and summoned for her horses. Her husband asked where she was going, “It is well,” she said as she left to see the prophet. “Did I ask a son of my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me’?” she said confronting Elisha with the news of her son’s death. Her faith had brought her to the Man of God. She was expecting a miracle, so sure of God’s promises that she hadn’t even told her husband their son was dead. This was the son God gave her, not even at her own request (2 Kgs. 4:18-37). Her faith told her he would be healed.

The prophet visited with her son, prayed to God, then called the woman in, “Pick up your son.” She picked up her son, he was alive!

Have the kind of faith that saves, have the kind of faith that heals. Read, study, and believe on God’s Word, trust in His promises, and have the kind of faith that brings the dead, to life.