Women of the Bible Video Series: Woman with the Issue of Blood
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WELCOME
Welcome to the Women of the Bible video series: Woman with the Issue of Blood. Each video in this 6 week series lasts 15 minutes and covers one woman of the Bible to whom we can relate today. This video is the last one in the current series to be released and one of my favorites. At the end of this post, you’ll find the links for all the videos in the series. Below is a transcription of the video. Enjoy!
Rachel Wojo: 00:00 Hey there, my name is Rachel Wojo and I’m so glad that you’ve joined us again today. This is my dear friend Jennifer Jackson. We are teaching the Bible for women of the Bible who simply came to Jesus. This is, I forget what number of video in our series, so if you’re watching you’ll just have to go back and look for the other videos. We have total of six at this point that we have included in this video series. Today’s woman is the woman with the issue of blood and I am just so excited to be able to talk about her. Before I do though, let me turn off the volume on this laptop. Sorry about that folks. Um, there we go and we’ll begin with the reading and Luke Eight. If you have your Bible and you want to pull it open or just listen carefully.
Rachel Wojo: 00:52 Luke eight, 43, verse 43 is wearing the beginning and there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment and immediately her discharge of blood ceased and Jesus said, who was it that touched me? When all denied it, Peter said, master the crowd surrounds you and are pressing in on you, but Jesus said, someone touched me. I perceive the power has gone out from me, and when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people, why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. Imagine the desperation of this woman. She was only ever known as the woman with the issue of blood.
Rachel Wojo: 01:50 That’s how we know her. We don’t know her name. We don’t know really any pieces of her identity whatsoever. We don’t even know what region or where she was from and when I was preparing this lesson, my husband is a nurse practitioner, so I wanted to get a medical opinion on what he believed was really wrong with this woman because it’s just an issue of blood. You know? Was it cancer? Was it hemophilia? But, you know, what was it that really was wrong with her and both of us kind of came to the conclusion, of course, where we’re merely, you know, we have no biblical proof for this, but we are both kind of the opinion that she probably had menstruation problem, something with her cycle, something that was female that was causing her to have this continual bleeding issue. You know, maybe it was any one of the technical diagnosis we might have nowadays, you know, endometriosis, Adenomyosis, you know, there’s a whole category of those, of those technical names of diseases that cause this problem.
Rachel Wojo: 02:55 But here she was, she spent all her money going to the doctor, every penny of it. That’s how desperate she was. A lot of people do that. And you can imagine the social desperation, once again, that she had, you know, we’ve talked about social issues with some of the other women of the Bible we’ve discussed and you know, there were laws that governed exactly how we would dictate cleanliness in regards to, you know, a woman’s issue of this nature. I mean, they had laws that they had to follow with cleaning and Ah, they were to wash and how ready they were to remain separated from other people and there were just laws governing how they had to deal with this because otherwise it would be a health concern for the people. And so she was, you know, ostracized to some degree because of this problem.
Rachel Wojo: 03:47 It was, it was severe. And can you imagine trying to maintain the issue just so much desperation in her. And um, maybe, you know, it was the clotting disorder. Maybe there was some other type of complication, but she spent every penny she had trying to be cured. And Luke tells us in that verse though, she spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She was completely desperate. And so this is how she appears before Jesus. You know, and I think what’s interesting about this part of her description, to me, her desperation is that many times we avoid coming to Jesus because we’re desperate. And so we think, oh, you know, I’ll wait till I’m in a better place than I am right now before I go to Jesus. And yet desperate is exactly the way he wants us. He wants us just as we are and he would, he would never have turned her away.
Rachel Wojo: 04:52 And her most desperate moment, I’m sure she was physically spent, but I know she was emotionally spent as well because if you’re financially depleted and you’re physically depleted and then, you know, she was desperate but depleted in every way emotionally, socially, yes. Um, this past summer I kind of hit a wall of exhaustion because I had been dealing with a problem for so long that I wound up anemic and I just hit this wall, like, felt like I couldn’t do anything, couldn’t step out of the house. It was very disabling. And it had been a problem that was a downhill battle for about two years. But at this point, this was my low point, you know, to the point to where my doctor said, girl, you need to get some iron in your system and we can’t keep trying to, you know, treat this with over the counter, you know, solutions you really need to get some higher end.
Rachel Wojo: 05:54 And I think that you would just, it would benefit you greatly if you go get iron infusions. So that was his diagnosis and that was his recommendation and I kind of weighed everything out, you know, and even ask for some additional advice aside from, from, um, the doctor asked for, you know, other friends who had gone through some low iron problems and finally said, OK, we’re going to do these infusions. Now, the funny thing about the infusions with I thought, oh, well after I get the infusions, like within one day I should be starting to go. It took about 10 days, you know, in the course of the full infusions, you know, to over the two weeks before I really started to feel the effects. But then, then that about two weeks later and then into the fall, oh my goodness, my energy returned like no other.
Rachel Wojo: 06:46 I was so excited. I was back to running a few miles. Can you imagine this woman and her desperate state going before Jesus and she’s at the end of her rope. She’s desperate, she’s depleted, she has no physical energy. She has no mental energy, completely gone. And she had been dealing with this for 12 years, long, long time, as well as the shame that went along with that. The fact that she was unclean, that she was trying to maintain this, um, and for 12 years totality for her though, for me, it took 10 days in treatments. In a few months for her, she was instantaneously healed. Awesome. Can you imagine like the flood of joy that must have overcome her just by touch. And she didn’t even ask Jesus for healing. Her faith was so large that she said, he is so powerful. I believe he’s God. All I need to do is to touch him.
Rachel Wojo: 07:55 Just got to get their touch him. And that’s what she did. And I just, I’m so excited over her healing, but then comes this very critical moment, this very critical moment after her healing, imagined the joy, but she’s still in this critical stage. And Jesus says, who touched me? Right? And then Peter says, well, you know, the crowds are big, uh, could’ve been anybody, God, you know, and he says, no, no, the power went out for me. Now he knew who touched him. He was all-knowing. He knew the woman touched him, but he was using this moment to show the miracle that had happened in her because I’m not so sure you know, when you have a bleeding disorder, although you’re ostracized. And although you’re, you know, feeling alone, is that something visible that people really saw? Maybe not, you know, maybe it wasn’t a very visible.
Rachel Wojo: 08:54 Cancer is not always, you know, you don’t know you have that diagnosis until it’s discovered because you look healthy on the outside. And so it’s perhaps the same way with her, an issue she was dealing with where nobody could see that change. But she knew the change and Jesus was using this moment to call his attention to the miracle. I think it’s interesting to me in that moment, her decision, what she, how she chose what she sleeps, slink off. She’s like, ah, I don’t want to be called out in front of Jesus. You know, all I wanted to do was touch him. I didn’t really even mean that I was going to talk to him face to face, you know, and she was immediately healed. But I just look at this and say to myself, she had a moment, one single moment where she could choose, am I going to build up and you and be honest and step forward.
Rachel Wojo: 09:59 Where am I going to shy away? You know, one little moment. That’s all she has for this pivotal turning point. And so she decides I’m going to declare the truth. She chooses to step forward. And the verse says, we’ll read it again. The woman saw she was not hidden and even though she was afraid, even though she was like, oh my goodness, I had Jesus heal me, but I didn’t ask them for permission to see you know, she, she has all of these feelings and she falls down before him and declares in the presence of all the people. She doesn’t care how many people are there. She doesn’t care about the people in front of all of them. She says, you touched me, and I was healed. She became an energized truth teller and I just love this about this woman. She declared the truth.
Rachel Wojo: 10:51 It would be, would have been easier not to come face to face with Jesus. It would have been easier not to admit in front of the crowds what happened, but she fell at his feet and shared her story of healing. And this was his response to her. Luke eight, 48. He said to her daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. I have to think, you know, um, she came before him as this desperate, depleted patient. And with one touch, she left energized and expectant. For what could happen in the future, I have to read this part to you because I’m so passionate about the words that God gave to me in this moment of studying the woman with the issue of blood. If there’s ever a day that we need more determined during disciples of Jesus, it’s today. If there was ever a time when we need perseverance, feel to parenting.
Rachel Wojo: 11:55 It’s right now. If there’s one hope I have for you as you’re listening to this today, is that women who are empowered by the Holy Spirit, that you would leave this video and say, I want to be an expectant, energized truth teller. I want to tell the world how I touched Jesus. He touched me, touched me. I’m a changed woman and as a result, I’m healed. And to share your story. Women who are healed of discouragement, depression, desperation, and disease can be transformed into expectant, energize truth tellers of God. Women who’ve experienced coming to Jesus won’t settle for anything less, and instead of choosing to continue, you know, I have to wonder. She had lived with this for 12 years. She was desperate to the point of saying, I’m not going to do it anymore, but don’t you think sometimes it’s so easy to get in the habit of dealing with our disease or our issue that we just say, well, that’s just the way it is.
Rachel Wojo: 13:10 You know, I’m, I’m not going to try to change because you know, that’s just the way it is. I can’t change anything or do anything about it. And she didn’t have that outlook. She had the outlook of Jesus can change me. And so I think that sometimes we look at our background or we look at our history, our education, all of the things that have happened over the years to craft and create, you know, our personality and who we are. And we sometimes can look back on those things and kind of blame those and say, well, that’s just the way I am. Rather than allow God to use those weaknesses to become our strengths.
Jennifer Jackson: And you know, when you give Jesus your shame and he lifted her shame and she wasn’t ashamed of him in front of all those people. And that’s what happens. That’s the transaction we’d given love, shame and were not ashamed, not ashamed to say, we want to follow you.
Rachel Wojo: 14:10 We want to reach out and touch. You were right here, so good. I love it. Let me pray for you before we go today, Lord Jesus, I thank you so much for the opportunity just to have these women listening and hearing your word, watching this video. Women who long to chase after you, who long to touch you and be empowered to go from depleted, discouraged, and desperate women two inch energized and energetic and just unbelievable tellers have your truth. We thank you and praise you by the power of your Holy Spirit that you have given us this opportunity and in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much for being apart. We’ll see you next time.
WOMEN OF THE BIBLE VIDEO SERIES:
Video 1: Lydia
Video 2: Deborah
Video 3: Syrophoenician Woman
Video 4: Elizabeth
Video 5: Mary Magdalene
Video 6: Woman with the Issue of Blood