Touch the Hem of His Garment

(Luke 8:40-48)

This is a much discussed and well known scripture where we see the woman suffering a flow of blood healed by touching the hem of His garment. I too have discussed this section of scripture previously when covering it in Matthew and Mark (Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43). You can check these out in the links at the end of this post.

So in this discussion I would like to cover something else from this section that I have not previously discussed.

Healing by the Holy Spirit

The healing power that Jesus had came not from himself but through the Holy Spirit within him. Now what we see here is that when the woman touched the hem of Jesus garment, healing power went forth from Jesus without his foreknowledge and the woman was healed.

It is clear from this that even though Jesus was unaware of what was going on, the Holy Spirit was not. The Holy Spirit saw and recognised that this woman had been suffering many years and that she had faith to be made well. Thus when she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, the Holy Spirit responded and healed her.

The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is given to us when we ask for it by God. Some of the work of the Holy Spirit is to teach, counsel, guide and transform us into the image of the Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit does not take us over though. We are told that we, “…did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship.” (Romans 8:15) The Holy Spirit will not do his work by dragging us kicking and screaming along the way.

But then the Holy Spirit also leads and protects us when we are unaware of danger, especially when being attacked by Satanic forces. The Spirit will nudge us with scripture and remind us of what is right so that we can have the victory. In the same way the Holy Spirit stepped in with this sick woman and gave her the healing she needed, on the basis of her faith as Jesus stated afterwards.

Using the Power of the Holy Spirit

It is up to us to make the first step and the Holy Spirit then provides the power to take the step and move us in the direction we have chosen, when it is in the will of God.

The Spirit also helps us when we are weak, for the Bible tells us, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26) When we are weak then the Holy Spirit will and can intercede to God on our behalf. The Spirit does this in accordance with the will of God for our benefit.

By using this power and praying in the Spirit we can overcome. We can walk in the Spirit and thus overcome the passions and desires of the flesh that would lead us astray. There is much I can say about this, but time and space do not permit. If you would like to know more about walking in the Spirit, I urge you to look at the relevant section in my free eBook The Foundation Teachings of Christianity