Life is demanding. People are demanding.

You are demanding, and what you are demanding is in God’s

Word. If what you are demanding is in God’s Word – then all you need to do is to reach out and claim
God’s promises for your life, because the Bible says that, what you receive from God will come as a result
of you actively reaching out and claiming His promises. Today, we want to look at the case of a great
Biblical character who reached out and claimed God’s promises. We take our reading from the book of
Mark 5:25-29. It is all about the woman with the issue of blood:

“25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a
great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she
grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,
28 because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’ 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped
and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.”

The case of the woman with the issue of blood is a typical example of someone who has active faith. You
know, there are two types of faith: Active faith and Passive faith. Active faith believes that it is not all up
to God, man has a role to play as well. Whereas passive faith believes that it is all up to God and man has
no role to play.

Assume the woman with the issue of blood had passive faith; she would have stayed at home believing
that it is all up to God, she would not have bothered to run after Jesus and she would have asked herself
the following questions:
1. Why can God not heal me?
2. Is He not omnipresent?
3. Why must I run after the man of God to receive my healing?

Like many of us today, we believe that it is all up to God and we don’t bother to find out what God says
concerning our situation. Whereas God is busy telling you, “This is not the time to sit on the fence; it is
time to act faith.” But you are busy praying, “God, do it for me, heal me, deliver me, bless me!” And God
is telling you again, “Why should you continue to pray? I have heard you! Now, act faith!”

In Mark 11:23, Jesus did not say "pray" if you encounter a mountain that it might be removed No! He
said "have faith in God and then tell the mountain aloud to be removed. We often hear that prayer
changes things but this is not entirely true. Prayer changes us, faith changes things. I mean, prayer
changes our focus and faith causes things to happen.
Why are we not delivered from our bad habits in spite of our prayer?
Why are our souls not completely healed in spite of our prayer?
Prayer is not right if it does not spring from faith. One is rewarded when one prays in faith.

The woman with the issue of blood had active faith and because she had active faith, the Bible says, she
came up behind Him in the crowd with the kind of faith that says, “If I could only touch the hem of
Jesus’ garment, I shall be made well”. By her attitude, she makes us to understand that trusting God does
not consist in prayers alone; there are times to pray in faith and times to act faith.

In Mark 5:27, the Bible says there was a big crowd following Jesus. Can you imagine how difficult it
might have been for her to come close to Jesus, let alone touching Him. But because she had equipped
herself with the thoughts of God - I mean, because her focus was on Jesus Christ, she was able to remain
calm, calculated and determined, even when everything around her was unquiet.

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Another characteristic of the woman with the issue of blood was that she had lost confidence in man. The
Bible says that she had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, and in her attempt to get well, she
moved from one doctor to another; from one physician to another; from one spiritualist to another and
though she had spent all she had and rather grew worse. That alone, was enough to make her lose
confidence in man and at the same time that was what enabled her to reach Jesus Christ.

Faith is the confidence in the greatness of God. People of God, hold fast to your confidence in God's
word when your faith is tested. What is your confidence in God's word? Jesus is my healer, whether He
heals me or not .T.Y.N -Jesus is my healer, whether He heals me or not. Jesus is my deliverer, whether He
delivers me or not. Jesus is my saviour, whether He saves me or not. That is my confidence in God's
word.

To appropriate faith, simply believe God’s Word that God will do exactly as He promised. Be fully
persuaded by the word of God alone, not what you hear, what you see, or what your situation looks like.
When we doubt our Heavenly Father, we doubt His word and when we doubt His word it is because we
believe something else that is contrary to that word. Our confidence maybe in institutions, in medicine, in
the arm of flesh but if it contradicts the word, it destroys our prayer life, it destroys our faith life, it
brings us into bondage.

Whichever way you express yourself, if you are under the check and conduct of the Holy Spirit, He hears
you. Faith is the transformative power of the universe - I mean the power of change. A change from what
you are now to what you want to become, a change from sickness to good health, a change from a
faithless generation to a faithful generation.