Making A Faith Demand

Let's get our Bibles and let's pick them up now and wave them around.

That's our custom around here.

We like to wave around, wave our Bibles around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad, and say this together Say, heavenly Father, I've tuned in tonight on purpose, because I'm hungry for the Word of God and I'm thirsty for the Holy Ghost.

It's the Word and the Spirit working together that gives me victory in life.

You've created me to rule and reign in my domain and I do it by faith in your Holy Word and by the power of your Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's look at Mark, chapter five, please, and we'll read a very familiar passage of Scripture, starting with verse 25.

At least it's familiar to me.

I don't know how many times I've preached out of this particular passage.

My high school geometry teacher used to say 40, 11 times when he wanted to exaggerate.

So at least 40, 11 times I've preached on it.

Verse 25, it says and a certain woman which had an issue of blood 12 years and had suffered many things of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was nothing better but rather grew worse when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and touched his garment.

For she said, if I may touch buddy's clothes, I shall be whole and straight way.

The fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

And Jesus, immediately, knowing in himself that virtue or power had gone out of him, turned him about in the press and said who touched my clothes?

And his disciples said unto him Thou seest the multitude thronging thee and sayest thou who touched me?

And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.

But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him and told him all the truth.

And he said unto her Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.

Go in peace and be whole of thy plague.

And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled Make a Faith Demand.

Making a Faith Demand.

Making a Faith Demand.

You know faith makes demands.

Her faith made her whole and you know it's great for the bleeding to stop.

But that's not what she believed for.

She believed for it to be made whole, not just the cessation of the hemorrhaging but being restored to perfect health, healed of all the underlying health issues that must have plagued her.

You know Jesus called you know the Bible calls it a plague and she was healed, not only of that plague, but she was restored, and so she made her.

Her faith made a demand.

Her faith made a demand on the anointing on Jesus.

Her faith made a demand.

I want you to see that.

You know, when we write a check used to be that the check would be printed, it would say pay to the order of and you put the pay there, or it would say pay on demand.

So let's say, I'm going to write you a check, I put your name in the, in the blank, and the checks used to say pay on demand, joe blow.

And when you went to the bank and you presented the check, then you made a demand on my account to either cash that check or convert that check to your account or whatever it is that you wanted to do.

That was making a demand, see, so you could say it this way Jesus cashed the check.

She wrote, she wrote a faith check and she was completely made whole.

You know this wonderful testimony.

It's a certain woman, so it's not a parable.

It happened to a particular person and when brother Hagen was a teenager and it was sick in bed, I think 14 or 18 months.

He was paralyzed.

He had a malformed heart, he had seven or eight blood diseases, he couldn't walk and he was reading his Bible one day, and he was reading this particular version of the Bible, and the Holy Ghost spoke to him and says you know, this woman's faith made her whole.

Your faith can make you whole.

And that was the beginning of brother Hagen receiving his miracle.

I mean, he was raised up out of the bed of sickness when all the doctors had given up on him, all the preachers had given up on him.

Everybody gave up on him, but he wouldn't give up on himself.

He wanted to live.

I tell you, your faith, if you'll make a demand, your faith can make you whole or your faith can make your situation totally transformed.

So let's look at the verses here.

We can see a certain pattern, and I've preached again and preached on it many times.

But it's good for us to go over this, because we need to remind ourselves that our faith has to make a demand.

And we're not demanding of God, we're not slamming our fist on the table and being disrespectful, but essentially our faith is making a demand on God's power to meet our need.

That's exactly what happened.

He said your faith has made you whole.

Go in peace, go in shalom, be whole of that plague.

And so to think about the fact that she had spent all of her money, guess what?

Somehow God provided her the money that she'd spent on all those doctors, and so it had more to do with her whole life than it did just with that one thing, when she was made whole of that plague.

You know, that's what Jesus called it a plague.

So all right.

So what's the first thing?

Well, the first thing that I see in verse 27 is that she heard, when she heard of Jesus, when she had heard of Jesus and I've asked the question, what must she have heard that Jesus healed some and not everybody.

I'm sure the devil would have come immediately and say, yeah, he healed some people, but he won't heal you.

You're not one of the ones.

That's what they told Brother Hagin.

It's exactly what they said to Brother Hagin.

A preacher told him yeah, god heals today, but you've got to have you know, you can't know who it is.

He heals some and he doesn't heal others.

If you're the one that he wants to heal, well, of course the devil told him he wasn't one eligible.

No, she heard, and you know I like Romans.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

Chapter 10 says how can they call on him who they've not believed and how they believe in him on whom they've not heard?

And how shall they hear about him without a preacher?

And how can they preach unless they beat sin?

So there's a whole line of things that have to happen.

But someone came to her and told her something about Jesus that made her finally realize that he was the answer.

I wonder if somebody witnessed what happened in Mark six, the next chapter over.

Let's look at Mark six 56.

It says and with us.

Wherever he entered into villages or cities or country, they laid the sick in the streets and besought him that they might touch if it were, but the border of his garment, and as many as touch him, were made whole.

I wonder if someone testified to her and says you know, I was in a meeting with and you know people were touching his garment and they were being made whole.

I mean, where did she get the idea that she could just touch his garment and be made whole?

Could have been there, could have been someone.

But someone told her she heard about the Jesus who heals everyone that comes to him.

He didn't turn anyone away.

He didn't turn anyone away.

And so she heard.

The good news had to be good news.

If she had heard something else, she wouldn't have tried to take her life in her hands and go to him.

No, she heard the gospel, the good news of Jesus.

So he's the healer, not maybe, not would not, might, not, could, but that he is the healer.

Oh, she heard.

She heard.

We need to hear, we need to put ourselves in position to hear.

Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God, it's not by having heard.

That's why I teach on the same thing over and over, because it builds our faith over and over.

And when we, when we want to build our faith, we need faith food.

This is faith food tonight, All right.

So she heard, number one, and you must hear, you've got to hear from God about your situation.

What does God, what does God's Word say about my situation I'm facing?

Find out what the Word says, all right.

The second thing was in verse 28,.

It says for.

She said for.

She said the amplified says she kept on saying.

She kept on saying if I can just touch his, him of his garment, I shall behold, I shall behold, and we'll get to that if in a moment.

But I want you to focus on I shall behold.

That is the strongest language in the Greek.

In other words, it leaves no alternative I shall.

If I touch his garment, I shall behold.

Well, why did she say if?

Well, I'll give you several reasons.

Number one she was weak.

She didn't even know if she could live long enough to see Jesus, and that's exactly how far it was that he was down the road she had to travel.

And she's weak.

For 12 years of hemorrhaging and all the underlying health issues, she's very weak.

Number two if she's a Jewish woman, in that society it's not safe for her to travel alone, and sometimes women, you know, were looked down upon if they were found without a man accompanying them.

Number three she's hemorrhaging.

If anyone found out that she was actually bleeding, she's unclean and is not able to even be in public.

If they found out that she was, in that case they could stone her.

So, yeah, the if.

The if was not a lack of faith, the if was.

She couldn't know whether she could last until she saw him, but she said if, I can touch his clothes.

So it was all about touching the hem of his garment.

I shall.

If I can just touch his clothes, I shall behold.

And so it's so powerful what she said and she kept on saying it.

And you know, brother Hagin one time was preaching in a church and he took all afternoon to pray in other tongues and he was tired and he was on his knees and finally he just leaned back and laid down on the floor looking up with his hands under his head, and the Holy Spirit spoke to him.

He says if you ever noticed in Mark 11, 23 that it says believe only one time, and it says say or some form of say, three times.

And he rose up, you know, out of a laying position into the sitting position.

He says no, lord, I never have noticed that.

And the Lord began to speak to him, says well, you know, my people are not missing it primarily on what they believe.

They believe right, but they're missing it on what they're saying.

They're not speaking right, and you're gonna have to teach people three times, as much as what to say as what to believe.

And so that was one of the things that Jesus gave Brother Hagin to do, his mission.

If you really wanna find a mission that he had in life.

The center of his ministry was to teach my people faith.

That's what God told him to do teach my people faith.

And so what we say about something is so important.

She said I shall be whole.

What if she said I might be whole, I'm gonna take a chance, maybe he'll heal?

No, there was no, maybe I shall be.

That's, that's say she had faith to say, based on what she had heard.

See, it's so important for us, number one, to hear.

And secondly, what we say, we have to say it, we have to believe it in our heart and we have to say it with our mouth.

And she kept on saying it all the way there.

I'm sure there were times when she felt like feigning.

I'm sure there were times when she looked at people and people looked at her and she thought, well, this might be the end of the line, but she just kept on walking.

I mean that woman, she, she said.

She kept on saying All right.

And then, in verse 27, when she'd heard of Jesus, she came in the press behind.

So, number three, she heard, she said she came, she came, she got into his presence and you know that's not exactly an easy thing to do.

There was a crowd, there was a multitude that were thronging him.

Just get the picture in your mind.

I mean, this is a massive crowd and they're pressing in upon Jesus.

So close to him you can't get next to him because people are surrounding him.

They're pressing next to him, trying to touch him, trying to get to him.

And here she is.

And for her to touch the him of his garment, she must have gotten down on all fours and crawled through that crowd until she saw those very specific kinds of him, of his garment.

He had, you know, a rabbi's robe on it, had little, you know, blue in it, and all that she knew when she got to him by the robe that she saw.

So she had to crawl on her hands and knees through this crowd.

She came into his manifested presence.

She didn't care about religious rules, she didn't think about herself.

Oh, I'm unclean, they might stone me.

Oh, this, oh that.

Nothing could keep her away.

You know that's a picture of violent faith.

Matthew 11, 12,.

You know, the kingdom of God suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

This woman took her healing by force.

I mean, she would not be denied.

Now I've seen people that just live just down the street from the church and they're suffering and they're having all kind of trouble.

They won't even get in their car and drive the church to through blocks and come up to the front and get hands laid on them.

There's, there's help available here in the church.

There's an anointing available for them.

If they can't get it on their own, they can always get here and an agreement will come and they can be helped into their miracle.

But they won't come.

But they won't come and my guess is they don't believe much of anything and they certainly don't say much of anything.

So then they don't come.

But I tell you we have to come, we have to make.

You know, she pressed, she came in the press behind him, she came.

Nothing could stop her, nothing could keep her away.

No fear, no religious rules could stop her.

She heard, she said and she kept on saying she came.

And then the last one was she touched his garment.

She completed the circuit.

She did what she said she was gonna do.

Just, I think about coming all that way and if for some reason, she lost courage or if for some reason, she just didn't actually touch the hem of his garment, well, I mean, you know that's an open circuit, see, I believe.

I believe that the anointing is kind of like electricity, I mean you have to complete the circuit.

The anointing is transferred through contact and transmission.

She had the switch of faith turned on, but she still had to make contact.

She had to make contact and so when she contacted Jesus, when she touched the hem of his garment, the law of contact and transmission took over and her faith was the switch that turned on that power and she felt in her body that she had been healed of that plague.

She felt God's power come into her.

And then Jesus, simultaneous to that, turned around and said who touched me?

And you know, as a disciples, a little bit disrespectful, they were pretty, you know that wasn't very nice for them to say you see the crowds, you know, pressing upon you and you say who touched me?

Come on, get a grip.

You know what do you mean, you know being smart alec.

He said I felt virtue go out of me.

I felt power go out of me.

So just look at that.

He felt the power leave.

She felt the power come in.

He felt she felt.

Oh, I tell you, god's power many times is tangible enough to feel just like electricity's felt.

It's not always that way, but I know you can always perceive when power is released and when power comes into you, whether you feel it as strong as electricity or not.

I've heard people say it was like electricity.

Well, that's what happened in this case.

But that's not what's necessary for you to be healed.

What's necessary for you to be healed is for you to hear and to keep on saying and to come and to make contact.

And when you make contact, god's power will flow.

And so, thank you, the dunamis.

Power of God flowed into her and healed her and made her whole.

That's the thing that she so what was it exactly?

She made a demand on his anointing.

She made a demand by faith on the anointing.

Now we don't have to go to heaven to touch Jesus.

Jesus is up there.

Where is the anointing?

Well, actually, the anointing lives on the inside.

Every believer has the anointing that abides within them.

So you have presence of God living inside of you and on top of that, when you're baptized in the Holy Ghost, you've got the spirit of God upon you, the anointing upon you.

So you don't have to go anywhere to make a contact.

But you still need to make contact by faith.

You need to make it a man by faith.

On that anointing.

Now, you know, in Matthew Mark eight, there's a testimony about the Centurion, and a Roman Centurion had a servant that was grievously affected.

He had palsy, which is a sentence of death, and he came to Jesus and said you know, jesus, if you will, you can make him whole.

He said I will, I'll come and I'll come to your hands.

Oh Jesus, I'm not worthy.

You come under my roof, just speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed, because I understand authority.

When I speak to one man, he comes.

Tell him to come.

He comes to another go and he goes into another.

Do this and he does it.

I understand authority.

In other words, I believe that all you have to do is speak and my servant will be healed.

And Jesus marveled at his faith.

So his faith was not so much in touching Jesus or having Jesus come and contact his, his servant, but he just wanted Jesus to release the word of faith, which is exactly what Jesus did.

Go your way, cause as you have believed, so it shall be done under thee, and his servant was healed that self same hour.

And so there's a lot of ways to make a faith demand.

But this is one way she touched.

You're gonna, somehow.

You've got to make contact with the God of heaven.

You've got to make contact through prayer.

You've got to make contact through worship.

You've got to make contact.

There's got to be a, there's got to be a contact so that the circuit is completed.

Are you with me now?

And so the the woman with the issue of blood.

She switched on God's power by her faith switch.

She had that faith switch on.

She never kept, she never turned it off till the moment she touched the hem of his garment.

She was not just healed, that's what I want you to see.

She's not just healed, but she was made whole.

When are we gonna start lifting up our eyes and making a demand on everything that Jesus has bought and paid for?

Why do we want to settle for partial results?

Why do we want to settle for partial results?

Why do we want just one thing to happen?

And and all the other things, just keep on living with them.

You know, whether it's finances, whether it's health, whatever it is.

Well, I got healed of COVID, but now I've got arthritis.

No, let's just get.

Let's get, let's be made whole.

Let's be made whole of everything.

Let's, let's, let's make sure that that we're blessed financially.

Let's not, let's not be living under, underachieving what Jesus has already bought and paid for.

Let's, let's find out what he said and what, and let's make that contact, praise God, and to make a demand on the covenant.

You have a covenant with God.

Make a demand.

See again, don't, don't feel.

When I make the, when I say these words, I can tell that people think, ooh, that's, that's dangerous.

No, it's not.

It's not any more dangerous than writing a check.

It's not disrespectful to write a check.

That's all this is.

You're not making a demand on God and saying, god, I demand of you.

No, you're making a demand on your covenant.

You're making a demand on the anointing.

So make a faith demand.

Amen, praise God.

Let's lift our hands.

Father, we thank you.

Tonight, we're reminded that God, you're a faith God and we're faith beings.

There's no other way to receive except by faith.

Amen, hallelujah.