Focus: The Force of Faith

Text: Mk.5:30

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

The force of faith is derivable from God. Faith's power is God-given. By faith the believer connects with God, and by it he collects from God. Faith is the means by which we approach God and gain His favor. Faith is the hand that receives what God gives. Connection to and collection from God is made possible only by means of faith.

The woman of issue of blood came to Christ and went home perfectly healed, because she touched Christ's clothes by faith. Christ felt her touch. Power left Christ by her touch. There was force in her touch. I call that force, 'The force of faith'. The force of her touch of faith was felt by Christ. Christ said to her, "Your faith has made thee whole." Her faith produced great effect, and that effect can be seen by how Christ felt within Him and by the healing that occurred in her body.

Mark reports, "And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?" Virtue left Christ, and He knew it. The touch was unique and He felt the force of it. Luke records the fact that Jesus said, "Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me" (Lk.8:46). The word 'perceive' speaks of knowledge. The Lord Jesus Christ had perfect knowledge of what happened to Him by the woman's touch of faith.

Luke tells another story of touch: "And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all" (Lk.6:19). The woman of issue of blood was not the only person who touched and got healed. Many others at a different time also touched Christ and got healed of their diseases. Everyone who touched Him by faith received divine healing. Virtue flowed from Christ to them. 

The word 'virtue' is dunamis in the Greek. It is variously translated in the King James Version of 1611. In Gal.3:5, it is translated as 'miracles.' Dunamis is miraculous power. In Phil.3:10, it is resurrection power which Paul desired to experience. It is translated as 'might' and 'mightily' in Col.1:11 and 29 respectively. In Rev.18:3, it is translated as 'abundance,' meaning that dunamis is loaded power, huge, immense. 

There is abundance of power in God, of which no one can exhaust it by drawing. God's power is infinite and inexhaustible.

In Heb.11:34, it is translated as 'violence,' which gives us the violent nature of dunamis. It is eruptive, disruptive, explosive and volcanic. Christ's dunamis is a dynamite. It takes out every force that stands in its way. In other places it is translated as "mighty deeds," "mighty works," "wonderful works " and "ability" (2Cor.12:12; Lk.10:13; 19:37; Mt.7:22; 25:15). Dunamis is a wonder-working power, a result-oriented force, an ability that makes things happen physically or supernaturally.

Faith connects to and collects from Christ. Christ's virtue is for the taking. You tap into and draw from Christ's power by the tool or implement of faith. God rewards our effort of faith. You cannot come to Christ by faith and leave the same way you came.

Take that step of faith. Come to Christ by faith. Touch Christ by faith. Pray to Him in faith. Call upon Him by faith. Make that faith-informed and faith-inspired effort. Virtue will surely flow from Christ to you. You shall experience God's miraculous power in your life by your touch of faith. You may not know the force of your faith until you reach out and touch Christ.

Be rest assured that faith works. Put your faith to work and you will see it working for you. Isaiah tells us that God "giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength" (Isa.40:29). Come by faith and take the power that God willingly gives.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter