#14 Breaking Barriers with Faith: The Unnamed Woman's Story

Ever felt stuck in a cycle of disappointment, hurt, and struggle? This episode will have you finding companionship in the story of an anonymous woman, who, for twelve agonizing years, wrestled with an incurable illness. As we navigate the paths of her journey through scripture in Luke 8:42-48 and Mark 5:21-24, we will connect with her pain, her persistence, and ultimately, her unwavering faith in the healing power of Jesus. 

Known only by her illness, this woman's determination led her to Jesus, cutting through societal norms and legalities. Can you imagine the desperation that fueled her strength? Let's venture together through her story as we discuss the importance of bringing our own struggles to Jesus, allowing Him a chance to intervene in our lives. We'll contemplate why Jesus chose to reveal her healing publicly, turning a personal victory into a public testimony. 

Finally, we'll draw inspiration from her courage and unyielding faith, using her story as a beacon of hope in our own lives. Recognizing that our faith, regardless of its size, can be potent enough to spark healing, just like the woman who was brave enough to reach out to Jesus. Embark on this journey of faith and healing with us. Don't forget to subscribe to our email list and leave a review for our podcast. Let's stop running and start healing, together.

Would you like to do some one-on-one coaching with Crystal? You can go to www.crystalloyd.com and click on coaching and connect with her on No More Running Facebook and Instagram @crystalloyd2

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Have you ever found yourself running? Running mentally, emotionally, spiritually, financially and even running physically from things in this life. This is No More Running the podcast for women. Hello, I'm your host, Crystal Loyd, and I've been known to run and still find myself running from the things in this life. Running from God, His calling, his purpose for my life. Running from change that's within my control, that needs to be made, or any type of change. Running from hard or even good or even just simple little things in this life. And God said to me Crystal, if you will stop running and surrender, there are things that we can accomplish together. Maybe you find yourself running as I have. I want you to know that you're not alone. Let's go from running to No More Running together. Let's get started with prayer, holy Spirit, we invite you to be a part of the podcast, the lessons, the life coaching and the sharing of our stories. Let it be known today that you are God. God, help us to go from running in this life, from whatever it may be that we're running from, from running to No More Running. In Jesus name, thank you for joining us today on No More Running podcast. Today we are going to study the life of a woman. I wish I could tell you her name, but the Bible never says her name. She's an anonymous woman with the issue of blood, but she is so important that she's wrote about in three of the Gospels Matthew, mark and Luke. And the scripture comes from Luke 8.42-48, or Mark 5.21-24.

Speaker 1: 2:13

So I am a teacher, a Bible teacher at heart. When I was a little girl, I would make my sisters I have three sisters, but I grew up with two and I would make them sit down and listen while I read and taught them the Bible with my small New Testament Had no idea, of course, I'm young, I'm a little girl. That what God would call me to later in life. So here I am, the bossy big sister here telling them to sit down and listen so that I can teach them the Bible. This is all I had, my little New Testament. Until I got older. One of my sisters would sit and listen and my younger sister. She would sit and listen for a few minutes but then she was off to play. She had better things to do than listen to her bossy big sister. But that's okay, she was young. But I do miss those days with my sisters, where all of us were in the same room together.

Speaker 1: 3:24

We also see Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals to restore or to heal And each name of God reveals God's character and who he is and what he does. And if you ever have a chance to study God's names, take that chance, because I have studied God's names before and I love it. It just reveals his character, who he is and then what he does through each of those names, and maybe I'll do a study on the podcast. So you'll have to let me know if that's something that you're interested in me doing on the podcast. I encourage you to listen and get away with Jesus. Tell the kids it's mommy, me time. Tell the family, the husband, I'm going to take a minute for myself And I'm going to. You can use Crystal as an excuse. I'm going to go listen to Crystal's podcast And I'm going to study my Bible. We're going to study, so I'm going away for a few minutes. So, take this time to listen and to learn and hopefully I can do this well for you, because I love the story And I have heard it preached and taught so many different times. But each time that we listen to God's word, we read God's word. You know, God reveals new things through his word Each time we hear it preached or taught, or even when we read it and study it.

Speaker 1: 5:08

So I'm hoping that I can show you some things that while I was studying this lady, this woman that God showed me. So I want to look, let's look at her life and let's see who she is. But here she is. She's a woman. She's suffering from an incurable disease and she is bleeding, and she has been bleeding for 12 years. She's had a hemorrhage or she has an hemorrhage and it's incurable. The pain and the hurt that she's went through through all of these years, you know the physical pain and the emotional pain and just all the disappointments that she went through visiting this doctor or that doctor. And so I think about this.

Speaker 1: 5:58

I think about how she must have got her hopes up each time that she would visit the doctor. She would visit this one. Okay, I'm hoping this is going to be the one. I'm hoping this is the day that this doctor, this healer, can help me. And maybe you've been there, you know, you've got your hopes up about something, disappointment after disappointment after disappointment, and so I can.

Speaker 1: 6:28

I can so relate with this woman in how she gets her hopes up each time. But I love her persistence. She's so persistent, she keeps going and going and not giving up. But in visiting these doctors she's not getting any better, but she's only getting worse as time passed. So she spent all of her energy, all of her time, all of her money. She was bankrupt And I'm a banker. You know, this is what I do for a living, and so I couldn't imagine just something, you know, a bankrupting you, and I mean going to this doctor or that doctor. And maybe, maybe you're there, maybe you've been there before, and you can so relate to this woman and what all that she's been through. I mean physically, and not just physically, but emotionally, and then financially and then spiritually as well.

Speaker 1: 7:31

And you know it had to zap her. It had to zap her energy, day after day after day. And then I wonder what her prayers were like God, please, heal me. God, please heal me, God, please let this doctor be the one. God, let this time, let this day be the day that I am healed. And then you know she's trying to scrape up enough money each time, doing whatever she could to get healed. It kept her poor, just for dead end after dead end after dead end, nothing worked.

Speaker 1: 8:13

And then up on top of that, according to the Jewish law, she was unclean because of her condition. It restricted her religiously and restricted her social life. I mean she was forced to be a loner. I mean, sometimes I choose to separate myself, I choose to be a loner, but she was forced to be a loner. I mean, can you imagine how lonely she must have been, how depressed that she must have been? And she wasn't supposed to be in that crowd that day, or any day for that matter. Others might have touched her and then they themselves would have become unclean. So, she was forced to stay away from people, from crowds, to keep to herself. So, you know, I'm sure she didn't have many friends, if any at all, or she was even forced to stay away from her family. You know she expected to live in pain, with this, bleeding and as an outcast, until the day she died.

Speaker 1: 9:25

But then here is Jesus and she's heard about Jesus. The great physician because this is who Jesus is known for in the New Testament is the great physician. So she's heard by some way or another. You know, in passing, maybe she's, you know, trying to stay away from people, but she's hearing these whispers that Jesus is coming to her area. So the word had spread and he's coming to her town and she knew she had to get to Jesus. Look, here's her glimpse of hope. She knew she had to be there. She had to be there that day, that time. So she went and there's this huge crowd, and the Bible says that the crowd of people almost just crushed him.

Speaker 1: 10:18

A lot of people trying to get their healing that day, and not just their healing, but their family member healed as well. Because, well, what was Jesus doing? You know, Jarrus, Jarrus, Jarrus sorry, these names is a synagogue leader and he is begging Jesus. He came and fell at Jesus' feet and was like my daughter is dying, please come to heal her. And so that's what he's doing. He's on his way to heal Jarrus' daughter, and so here she is. you know, she's a crowd of people and they want their healing, they want their family member healed, and so I mean she could have let this, really, she could have let this crowd scare her away.

Speaker 1: 11:09

I know that I have done that before. I have let crowds scare me away, especially after COVID going back to church. The crowds. It gave me a lot of anxiety because what if I caught COVID again? because I've struggled so much with COVID And so there's times where, honestly, I just I couldn't bring myself to be in a crowd. I'm getting better now. Sometimes I still have that anxiety of being in a crowd And I'm normally, I'm a people person and crowds don't bother me. But then after COVID, you know something's happened there and I just struggle. But, like I said, I'm getting better. But here she is.

Speaker 1: 11:59

She did not let that crowd scare her away because she knew she had heard the stories about Jesus And so she had knew that she had to get to Jesus And so she didn't let that crowd scare her away or the people whatever. She is a risk taker. I mean she's like today I will be healed. I don't care what people think of me, what I should be or what I should do right now. No more pain, no more hurt. That's that was her thoughts that day. I believe it. I believe in her going, making her way through that crowd. She was saying get behind me, satan, because today is my day of healing. Nothing or no one is going to stop me or stand in my way today.

Speaker 1: 12:53

I believe that her sights was so focused on Jesus. This is where we need to be, ladies. This is where we need. We need to have our focus, our eyes, our hearts so focused on Jesus. And there was a time where I was just focused on my hurt and on my pain and I was stuck there. I don't know if you can relate or not, but I know that I, for years, I say, stuck in that hurt and I wasn't focused on Jesus. I was focused on the pain, I was focused on the hurt, but now I love it. She was focused on nothing else but making her way to Jesus.

Speaker 1: 13:45

I want to be her, i want to be like her. So I mean, i really like this woman. I want her as my friend. I want to interview her for my podcast and when I get to heaven, first thing, jesus, of course, yes. And then I'm going to seek this woman out and I'm going to be like girl. Let's talk about this day, let's talk about your healing. Tell me I've got to have all the details. Sit down with me, let's have coffee and let's sit down at the big, big table and tell me everything.

Speaker 1: 14:20

Girl, she was bold. I like her. Look at her. She wasn't even supposed to leave her home and for sure, for sure, for sure Not be in that crowd of people that day. I love that she's a risk taker. I love because, really honestly, i'm not much of a risk taker. It takes a lot for me to to get out of my comfort zone, to take some risks. So here she is, she's getting out of her comfort zone. I mean, we can learn from her. I mean, really honestly, you know she's breaking a law here Not that you should break any laws, but she's taking a risk. Let's take a quick break. I'm excited to tell you that I'm offering life coaching. If you're interested in coaching with me or want to learn more, run on over to my website, crystalloycom. That's crystal with a C and Lloyd with one L And sign up for a free 20-minute coaching session with me. Also, don't forget to join my email list. You can email me info at crystalloycom. Can't wait to help you to go from running to know more running. And she's taking a risk on Jesus And I love it. I love it. So let's continue going on. So here she is.

Speaker 1: 15:48

Really, she could have used so many excuses that day. I'm not important enough. Look, he's already on his way with Joris you know this synagogue leader to heal his daughter. So I'm not important enough to be healed, i'm a nobody. Well, nothing else has helped. You know this doctor or that doctor, so why should I even try? Why should I even, you know, try this, try Jesus.

Speaker 1: 16:22

Maybe it's not the right time to come to Jesus, you know, maybe it's not right for me to come to him as the last resort, but she had laid all the excuses aside and she came by faith. She was so determined She wasn't letting anyone or anything standing in her way, making her way through this crowd. And listen, she wasn't a pusher, she, i mean, she didn't come through there, you know, with force. She just went in this crowd quietly. She thought I'll just slip in quietly and I'll get close enough just to touch the edge, just the fringe of his garment, then I will be healed.

Speaker 1: 17:15

Look at her faith. I don't know about you, but I want this kind of faith. But here she's just moving in really slowly. I just I can imagine this. And you know she was afraid of being exposed, of being unclean. You know what if they called her out Unclean, unclean. Did I say how much I like this woman. She is awesome. She was focused on Jesus. I want to ask you a question Are you focused on Jesus as she was? I'm guilty, i'm not as focused as she was on Jesus. Look at her determination. I have a question for you Are you as determined to get to Jesus as she was? I'm guilty, i struggle. I need to be more determined to get to Jesus, to spend time with Jesus, to read his word, to pray.

Speaker 1: 18:25

She fought every day, all the time, to get healed of this bleeding condition that lasted 12 years, 12 long years. But until she came to Jesus she wasn't healed. You know that hurt that maybe you've been struggling with, that you've been dealing with, that you've been holding on to from your childhood abuse, from that hurt in that marriage or a divorce that you've went through, or, like the church, hurt that I've experienced. You know that God's people placed on you or a family member that has hurt you over and over and over, time and time again. A friend, your best friend, that was supposed to be your best friend anyways. But until we come to Jesus, we won't be healed. I'm not saying never, but it may be delayed, but it doesn't have to be. Don't wait another day to come to Jesus with all of your hurt and with all of your pain and with all that. You are just like her. I mean, she's coming and clean. She's coming just the way she was, just who she was, with all of her hurt and with all of her pain. She was coming to Jesus. You know, i beg of you to get the help you need, either in counseling or with a life coach, but I beg of you to come to Jesus.

Speaker 1: 19:59

What happened when she went to Jesus? Let's look at that okay. So she was healed physically of her bleeding. So she's went through the crowd quietly, she's made her way to Jesus. She's touched the edge, just the fringe of his garment, and immediately she stopped bleeding. Now we women we know, don't we? We know when we're bleeding, we know when we're not bleeding, we know our bodies well. But immediately she was healed physically, but not just physically. She was also healed spiritually. That's what Jesus does, right? I mean, when he cleanses, when he heals us, he don't just heal us in one area, he heals us physically, emotionally, spiritually. I love Jesus so much.

Speaker 1: 21:04

Why did Jesus deal with her publicly? Because he stops. He stops everything And he's like who touched me? And, of course the disciples. And I'm thinking, you know, maybe it's Peter, i don't know Jesus. I mean, look, there is a crowd of people and they're crushing on you. Everybody's touching you. What do you mean? He knows that the power of has went out of him. He knows that somebody was healed that day, but why do you think that he dealt with this publicly?

Speaker 1: 21:38

I mean, do you really think, do we really think, that Jesus didn't know? I mean, he's an all-knowing God. He knew, he knew exactly. Was he going to expose her for who she is? you know this unclean woman? Was he going to treat her like everybody else had treated her? No, i want you to look. He did it for her own sake.

Speaker 1: 22:07

He wanted to heal her physically, yes, but he wanted to heal her spiritually as well. He wanted to make her whole. To be made whole is what the Bible says. And then he says daughter, your faith has made you well. I want to be made whole. I'm raising my hand. Please pick me. Pick me from. Whatever you're giving Jesus, i want it. Whatever you're giving away, if you're giving away, wholeness, that's what I want And you know he gives it freely. Just reach out. Reach out to Jesus, just the edge of his garment, just the fringe of his garment, and the small faith he responds to. Whatever faith, it is as small as a master seed.

Speaker 1: 23:03

And you know that's another thing when I get to heaven that I'm going to ask Jesus, when I'm talking to her, and I'm going to say Jesus what you know where is her faith here? How big or how small is her faith here? You know, just because this is how I think, i just want to know every detail. And then, of course, i am going to learn this woman's name. I'm going to be like girl, tell me your name, just tell me, and then we are going to be friends. I just see it, i just know it.

Speaker 1: 23:37

But can you imagine her life afterwards? And that's what Jesus wanted to do. He gave her a new story, a new testimony, a new life. And I can just imagine afterwards. This is how my brain thinks. I am an analyst, so I analyze everything, everything. I don't even feel like I'm that great at my job, but I analyze at everything. And so I'm thinking that afterwards she's telling everybody and everybody's asking her tell me about this day, tell me how you got healed, what did it feel like? What do you feel like now, are you bleeding? Are you still bleeding? I mean I could just imagine. Well, i mean I would want to know.

Speaker 1: 24:26

And then, if this happened to me, if I was the one who had been made, healed and made whole, i want to tell everybody. I want to tell everybody about what Jesus did for me, how he took me, an abused little girl, from running from everything in my life and always having my running shoes on, or always having my running shoes in my sights, because if I need them they're there. So how he took me and he made me whole and how he helped me to stop running. But if I'm honest, sometimes I get my running shoes on and I start running again. I run from God, i run from God's people, or I still have my own, those running shoes, because what if? What if God hurts me And what if God's people hurt me again? But I love that. Jesus says to her daughter your faith has made you well And I want to be made whole, as she was.

Speaker 1: 25:37

Then I go to this place. I love this, i love her faith And we can learn from her and her faith. So many in that crowd. I want us to see this. There were so many in that crowd that day And they were pressing on Jesus, crushing him almost, but they did not receive healing that day. We in the Bible, right here now, we only read about two healings that day Jars' daughter, and then we read about this anonymous woman with the issue of blood. So I think about this and I think about her faith.

Speaker 1: 26:16

But then I go to this place, okay, i think about what if, what if, what if, what if? What if she let fear take over and hold her back? What if she let fear control her? I mean, i know I can relate and, if I'm being honest, i let fear control me, let fear hold me back from writing or podcasting or recording. This is not easy, guys. This is not easy putting yourself out there or starting your own business, your own business, your own store, or starting your business of life coaching, helping women look to the future, helping and giving them a glimpse of hope for their future. No more running God His calling, you know. No more running from His calling, from my life, from your life, from the hurt. What if she hadn't had enough? I think about she's had enough. You know She had tried everything, everything. What if she wasn't so determined to get to Jesus? What if she hadn't had her sights focused on Jesus? And I think about us. What if we are not so determined to get to Jesus? Or what if we don't have our sights focused on Jesus? And then what if we let the crowd scare us away? or she had let the crowd scare her away? Remember, i told you I was there after COVID.

Speaker 1: 27:54

It was hard for me to go back to church. I remember the first time that we went back to church we went to a marriage thing that our church pathways was offering and it was called Fart Night And there was a crowd of people and I was very nervous and easily could have ran out that door, but I wanted to stay And this I loved. You know they we had went to one before, i believe, and I loved this. So I was like I wanna go to this, telling my husband I want us to go to this. We needed this. You know you need this in your marriage. It was called Fart Night. So and learn how to fight fire. I believe that was it. It was a few, a couple of years ago. But I didn't want to let my anxiety, my fear of crowd or my fear of getting COVID again to control me. So I refused to let my anxiety, or you know just that fear, control me that day.

Speaker 1: 29:05

And I'm so glad that she did not let her fear, did not let her anxiety, or you know just the fear of I mean, here I am, i'm breaking the law, here I'm the Jewish law. And so I'm so glad that we have her as our example of pushing, of just making her way. I mean, i don't even know she wasn't even pushing, but she came in quietly but she had her sights on Jesus And she was so determined. And I'm so glad that we have her as our example of how we can make her way to Jesus And we can have our sights on Jesus And then what he does for us when we come to Jesus and the healing that we receive and how we are made whole when we come to Jesus. I do wanna ask you a question. Okay, i know I feel like I've asked a lot of questions, but I ask this of myself a lot of times, so I'm not asking you something that I've not already asked myself.

Speaker 1: 30:13

Have you even come to Jesus with your hurt, like this anonymous woman? I know it was years before I even came to Jesus. I had talked to some people about my hurt, but I kinda isolated myself from God and God's people And I avoided talking about dealing with my hurt, my pain, and I avoided God I'm being honest because I was afraid of it. But have you had an heart to heart with Jesus and just got real and just said hey, here you go, i'm just laying it all out, jesus, have you invited the Holy Spirit into your life, into your heart, into your hurts? Okay, this is the way the Holy Spirit is. He has to be invited. He needs to be invited so that he can work in this area of your life, because God is not going to force his way in. That's not who he is. But once we invite the Holy Spirit into our heart, into our life, into our situation, when what's going on, then the Holy Spirit can work, he can move, he can intervene in this part of your life. You know, maybe it's fear that's controlling you, maybe it's your anxiety that's controlling you. You know, whatever it is, invite the Holy Spirit to come in.

Speaker 1: 31:45

I know there was a time where I was talking to God and when I had COVID and I was just letting all of it out, all of my hurt, all of my pain. I just told God I can't do this anymore. I can't do this on my own. I wanted healing every day. I was so tired of hurting from all the pain in my life that I had experienced and the control that it had over my life. It controlled my decisions as a woman, as a wife, as a mother, a friend, everything. It controlled everything. But until I brought it to Jesus, until I brought everything, i had everything and I just laid it at the feet of Jesus. Until I took off my running shoes and I laid it at the feet of Jesus and said no more running God, i surrender. Nothing changed for me in my life, nothing. And until you surrender to God, until you take off those running shoes, until you lay them at the feet of Jesus and let those running shoes symbol the hurt, the pain, whatever it is, take them off, lay them at the feet of Jesus, lay them at the cross there.

Speaker 1: 33:18

I want you to refuse to stay in that hurt and say get out of my way, satan, because I am getting to my Jesus. I am setting my sights on Jesus. I am laying my hurt and my pain, my sickness, my shame. Whatever it is, lay it at the feet of Jesus. Once you invite the Holy Spirit in your heart, into your life, into that situation, i want you to understand how close Jesus will be to you. This is something that I learned while doing a Bible study on Jonah and with Priscilla Schiver. She had told us to put her hand in front of our face and I want you to do that. I want you to put your hand in front of your face, close, okay, put it where you can feel your breath, and do you feel that? Do you feel your breath on your hand? This is how close Jesus will be to you. In your pain, in your hurt, in your struggles and in that situation that you're going through right now, feel that breath, feel your breath on your hand. That's how close Jesus will be to you. My prayer today for you will be that you will look and you will go back to Luke, mark and Matthew and you study this woman.

Speaker 1: 34:55

I mean. Maybe, like I said, every time we study and we read, god may reveal something totally different to you, but I love that he showed me how determined she was and that she's a risk taker, and that I can learn from her that I need to be more determined to get to Jesus as she was, and I need to take some risk in my life to get to Jesus. You know, jesus has called me to preach or speak or share my story. Whatever he's called me to do, do this podcast, live coaching, i don't know. whatever it is, that's what I want to do and if that means I have to take a risk, i want to do that and I want to meet with Jehovah Raphael, the God who heals, the God who restores, and I pray for you that whatever has been stolen from you, whatever the locus has eaten and stole from you, i pray that God will restore.

Speaker 1: 36:03

And then I pray that no more excuses, ladies, no more excuses. Let's step out in faith. Let's do this together and, god, i know that when we take that risk and we step out in faith, i know you will show up, because that's who you are, and I know that you will heal us because that's what you do. And, asking for you for who you are a healer. I'm asking for you for that's what you do, lord the great physician. You've been doing it and I pray you continue to do it. God, do it through my life and through these lives of these ladies that are listening.

Speaker 1: 36:48

I love you, friend, and I hope that this just a small little study here on this anonymous woman that I'm going to learn her name and I get to have it, and I hope that I have taught you a couple things, because I had never seen this before.

Speaker 1: 37:05

She's a risk taker. I mean, she was determined and she had her sights on Jesus and I want to be her. I want to be like her in this sense anyways, and so I hope that I can be more, or I hope that my faith can be like hers, even if it's as small as a mustard seed. I hope that my faith can be like hers and that I can be healed, and I know, through Jesus, i can be and you can be. I love you. I hope you have a great day and friends, until next time. Hey, don't forget, you can sign up for the No More Running email list at info at CrystalLoycom and make sure to like, share and follow. We would love for you to leave a review for the podcast. This helps us reach even more women who might find themselves running as well. Gotta run.