Stop The Bleeding

Luke 8:48 “and He said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace”.

The first thing you want to do when someone is hemorrhaging is the stop the bleeding. As a nurse who has worked in trauma situations, I’ve placed my gloved hands in many places. I have memories of extreme situations working in the Intensive Care Unit where people were bleeding faster than you could infuse blood back into their bodies. Often when this situation occurs there is little chance in the medical realm to get the blood loss under control as a process starts called DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulation).

One of my saddest memories is about a young pregnant mama, just 24 years old who was 5 months pregnant with her first baby. She had developed a condition called HELLP syndrome where a series of events causes a rapid decline and once set into motion it can be deadly. This syndrome causes hemolysis (blood cell destruction), elevated liver enzymes, and a low platelet count. I was in the room as she delivered her perfect stillborn baby. The process I mentioned earlier, DIC, was developing and the blood loss was tremendous. I left my shift early that morning. I hugged my little ones extra tight that day in gratitude for all three of them.

When I returned to the intensive care unit that night, I was told the mama was airlifted to a hospital a few hours away to prepare for a liver transplant but she died en route. That was so many years ago now. I’m in awe that God brought the memory back in such crystal clear detail as He awakened me in the middle of the night to write this. I feel like I just left the shift. I remember the room, the baby, and the mama’s face as if were yesterday.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all write about the woman with the issue of blood. This problem had plagued her for 12 years. The Bible doesn’t say how old she was when this started. This issue could have started in early puberty so she would have been very young. This could have started in her young adult years or even after she was a mother and had delivered children. Each age brings on different issues. One thing is for sure, she was a broken woman when she sought Jesus.

To summarize her plight, she had a bleeding issue for 12 years. It is recorded that she had seen many physicians for years and none had been able to help her. She had spent all her money and had nothing left. Jesus was for her was the last resort. You can read the different accounts of this story at Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34; and Luke 8:43-48.

The woman was trying to be discreet. The Bible doesn’t say whether she was a Jew or a Gentile. At that time due to Levitical law, if she were a Jew, she would have been an outcast. She may have been an outcast even if she were a Gentile. Women according to Levitical law were unclean for 7 days after their monthly cycle. She was in a perpetual state of bleeding, so she was basically deemed unclean for 12 years. You can see how this unclean state would have affected her socially, financially, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. She would have not been able to work. If she were old enough to be married and this started after childbirth you can see how this would have a deeply negative impact on her marriage and even motherhood, especially if she were Jewish.

You can now understand why after understanding Leviticus 15:19-20 that this woman would have wanted to be discreet. Even if she weren’t following Levitical law, the crowd of the day would have cried out that she was known to be unclean and she would have been asked to leave. She was most likely treated the way lepers were in Biblical days.

As she approached Jesus I can see her moving quickly and had probably covered her face so that she wouldn’t be recognized. Word travels when there is possibly hope for your situation and desperate people will try anything. The medical system had no answers for her. She felt her only hope now was to get close enough just to touch His garment. She was able to get close enough and then she would leave as quickly as she came. That was not to be, however. As soon as she touched His garment He knew something had occurred. He felt the transference of healing.

Jesus turned around and wanted to know who touched Him. No one answered. I’m sure the woman was trembling in fear to be found out. However, her bleeding had stopped. After 12 years her issue was GONE! Jesus saw her. He knew it was her. He called out to her. He said that her faith had made her whole. WHOLE! That’s better than just the bleeding stopped. Healing is awesome! A miracle! WHOLE is everything! Whole is ALL your parts!

Whole touches every part of you. Remember by this time the woman with the issue of blood would have been suffering physically, emotionally, financially, socially, and spiritually. This is important to understand because when one area is broken it affects all other areas in your life. To be healed in one area only will leave the baggage left behind from the years of whatever infirmity you have. Your infirmity (issue) doesn’t have to be physical. Your issue of blood is the hemorrhaging of your own emotional, physical, or spiritual pain.

God longs to heal you not only of your issue but to make you whole. His desire is for you to experience and prosper in every area of your life. Reach out to me at info@joycelynnharrell.com and I will send you a Wellness Workbook. I’ve created this assessment as a simple self-evaluation of areas I believe make up our “whole”. We have an inheritance of whole-ness as believers in God’s Kingdom. I’d love to walk alongside you as you discover how to live whole in the Kingdom of God.

Be Whole,

Pastor Joycelynn