Part 1: How To Be Spiritually Healed By Jesus (Mark 5)

Bible Verses:

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. – Mark 5: 1-2

Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet. – Mark 5:22

And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. – Mark 5:30-32

Part 1: Ask Jesus Personally

Notice in all of the above verses about people being healed, they each left a crowd and became an individual to Jesus.

Christianity must never be private but it must always be personal. You should never try to live the Christian life away from the church in a selfish lifestyle, but you must live the Christian life away from the crowds of followers, fans, and fanatics. To be healed by Christ, you must leave the crowds and come into a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

It’s possible to be around Jesus and never be touched by Jesus. You can orbit Jesus, be around people who talk with Jesus, and even pretend to be someone who knows Jesus, but you will never truly be healed by Christ until you become an individual and leave the crowd.

In 2 Kings 4:18-37 Elisha is being approached by a Shunnamite woman whose son has just died. He sends out his servant Gehazi to see if there is a problem. She simply states to his assistant, “All is well.” But when the mother of the child reached the man of God who had the power to heal her son, she fell at his feet and pleaded that he would save her son. Elisha tries to send Gehazi to do the healing for him, but the women refuses and says:

“As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he arose and followed her. 31 Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. Therefore he returned to meet him and told him, “The child has not awakened.”
32 When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. 33 So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the LORD. 34 Then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. 35 Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house, and went up and stretched himself upon him. The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 36 Then he summoned Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite.” So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” 37 She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.”

The women knew she didn’t need the servant of the man of God, she need the man of God herself. She needed the man of God to come personally into her situation. She needed him to lay on her child, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand.

Likewise, if we desire to be healed of our wounds and sinfulness, we don’t need the pastor, the friend of Jesus, the counselor who knows about Jesus. More than all of those things we need Jesus himself, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand.

We need Jesus to come and breathe on us personally for our dead hearts to be raised. Therefore just as the demon possessed man fell at Jesus’ feet (Mark 51-2), just as Jairus had to come and present himself to Jesus “by name” (Mark 5:22), and just as the women with a discharge of blood had to become an individual amongst a crowd of people surrounding Jesus, if we hope to be healed by God, we must come to Christ personally.

The Lord’s servants won’t do. A call that gets blended in with the masses won’t do. Being someone in the crowd who never really knows Jesus by name who is unknown by him won’t do. We need the Lord himself. We need him personally. Therefore the first step to be spiritually healed by Jesus is to ask him personally.

(Note: This is a 3 part series on how to be spiritually healed by Jesus Christ. In Mark 5 Jesus heals a demon possessed man, Jairus’ daughter, and women with a chronic discharge of blood. While all of Jesus’ miracles glorify God, their main purpose is to act like visual aids to his sermons about the gospel. His miracles showed physically what he was trying to teach people spiritually. Mark 1:37-38 explains, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 And [Jesus] said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” So as we study Mark 5, we’re not going to be focusing on how to receive a physical healing. What we’re talking about is how to receive a Christian spiritual healing, a healing to the heart, from Jesus.)