You Can Be Set Free

Dannah Gresh: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth knows that so many of us have been praying about a difficult situation for years.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: And sometimes what we think we need is for the pressure to be off, for the problem to solved, for there to be no more difficulty. But God may know that what we really need is to experience His grace and His wholeness in the midst of our problem or difficulty.

Dannah: This is Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, co-author of Seeking Him, for Tuesday, August 5, 2025. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Yesterday Nancy began a series called “His Healing Touch.” If you’ve been struggling with an unmet need for a long time, I pray you’ll get amazing perspective this week. Let’s listen.

Nancy: It's always a joy for me to hear from women who have been set free by the power of God's truth. I rejoice when I receive letters like these. A woman said,

God set me free from the hatred I've had in my heart since I was nine years old. I'm forty now. He set me free.

From nine to forty, that's a long time to live with hatred in your heart. But aren't you glad that we have a God who, whether at nine or forty, can get us to the truth? His name is Jesus. He can set us free.

Well, we're talking about a woman this week who had a long-term issue. It was a physical issue, but it affected her in her relationships. Emotionally she had lost hope. She is not unlike many of us in this room perhaps, and those that we know and love who have lived with perhaps a chronic physical illness that affects us then in realms of our spirit and our emotions. You can't separate all that. If you feel sick for twelve years, that's going to affect you in your emotions and in your relationship with the Lord and with others.

But then there are others of us who maybe it has not been a chronic physical illness, but it's been a chronic heart illness—a sin issue, an issue of bitterness or unforgiveness or anger that we've held onto perhaps for years. We've come to be identified by that illness. We find that we've lost hope. There is no solution. We see that this woman in Mark 5 had been to many doctors. She had suffered many things at the hands of those doctors. They had taken all her money. She had no resources left. She was no better. She was only worse. Then we saw yesterday that she heard about Jesus.

Let me say, by the way, that there may be someone in your life who is this woman. It may not be you at this moment, but it may be somebody that you know and love. It may be that you're the one who can tell them about Jesus and help point them to One who can do for them what Jesus does for this woman in Mark 5.

We're picking up in verse 27 of Mark's gospel, chapter 5. The Scripture says that "when the woman heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment." She came behind Him. We've seen that there is a crowd pressing in on Jesus. There is a crowd thronging Him. It speaks to me that she had to fight to make her way to Jesus.

Here's a woman who is an untouchable. Anyone who knows her and knows her situation knows that based on the Old Testament law, because of this blood disorder that she has, she's defiled. She ceremonially unclean. If anyone so much as touches her, or even anything that she is wearing, they will be defiled. She has to risk whatever they may think, whatever they may know about her, to make her way through that crowd to Jesus.

It's interesting to me this little detail that she came behind Him in the crowd. Why? Well, Scripture doesn't tell us, but maybe we can put ourselves in that woman's sandals and get a sense of what she may have been feeling.

• I wonder if she felt unworthy to look Jesus in the face.
• Maybe she believed all those lies all those years that other people had told her about herself: "You're scum. You're not worth anything." Maybe she assumed Jesus would feel the same way.
• Maybe she was ashamed to face Him.
• Maybe she was afraid that if He saw her and knew about her condition that He would reject her as some of the others had and send her away. She was unclean.
• I wonder if she was afraid that He would be angry if she touched Him. Here is the pure Son of God, and now this unclean woman is going to touch Him.

She didn't really know Him, and she may have had some doubts or some questions about how He would treat her. It is apparent that she had a sense of unworthiness to approach Him. She came behind Him in the crowd, and she touched His garment.

She said in verse 28, "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well." That's a statement of faith coming from a woman who has been so disappointed over so many years by so many other so-called professionals.

Now the parallel passage in Matthew 9 tells us that not only did she touch His clothes, but that she "touched the hem of His garment" (v. 20). Why the hem? How did this woman get through that crowd? When she got to Jesus, was she crawling? I don't know. The Scripture doesn't tell us. But I get a picture of a woman who is desperate—so desperate that she would crawl just to reach out in a humbling position to touch the hem of His garment.

For this woman who had tried everything, she had nothing to lose. What did it matter? She was willing to risk the rejection in this act of desperation. She knew she had no money. She knew she had nothing to pay Him. What she may or may not have known about Jesus is that our inability to pay is what makes us candidates for His grace, when we have nothing to offer Him.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling.

She needed to be reminded that Jesus gives His grace to those who have nothing to offer Him in return. In faith she said, "If I can just touch His garment, I will be made well." That word "well" is the word from which we get our word "hygiene." It means "whole, clean— Somehow in her heart, faith had been ignited. And it's God who puts that faith in our hearts--to believe that if she could just get to Jesus, she would be made clean.

Then verse 29 tells us about the miracle. "Immediately . . ." I love that word. "Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction." Immediately. That's a miracle! After twelve years of going to doctor after doctor, counselor after counselor, therapist after therapist, drug after drug, treatment after treatment, remedy after remedy, and now immediately the fountain of her blood is dried up and she is whole.

How long did this encounter take? Not long. I can just picture in today's way of thinking someone thinking, Well, she can get help, but she'll have to come to Jesus every week for a year or so. Jesus wants us to come to Him not only every week, but every day and moment by moment. But there are moments in our lives when Jesus touches us, and we reach out and touch Him. By faith in His Word and faith in His power, He sometimes does and He certainly can render an immediate transformation.

That isn't to say that there wasn't a process still needed in this woman's life. There were years of baggage she was going to have to deal with. As we come to Jesus and we reach out and we touch Him and we're transformed by His grace, there may still be a process needed in our lives. The Bible calls that process sanctification. It's a process by which we learn how to live out the healing and the wholeness that Jesus has brought to our spirits.

But I want us to be reminded, and we need to hear today, that Jesus has the ability and the power to do in a moment of time what everyone else says will take a lifetime. In touching Him, in reaching out to Him and His Word and His truth, there is power to set us free from issues that have been in our lives for years.

What was it that happened immediately? The Scripture says, "The fountain of her blood was dried up." Jesus didn't just give this woman a Band-Aid, as we so often do. Sometimes that's all we know how to do for people who are really hurting. He didn't give her a temporary solution: "Go home and take this pill and come back and see me in six months and tell me if it's better." Jesus went to the root of her issue, to the heart of her problem, to the source of her bleeding. The fountain of her blood is speaks of being "the origin of a spring, the starting place, the root, the heart of the matter." That's what Jesus does that other people cannot do for us, no matter how professional they may be. Jesus gets at the root of the matter.

He gets at the heart of the issue. The heart of why we are living with this hatred or this rage or this anger or this bitterness or this unsolved conflict for years. He doesn't just put a Band-Aid on it. He gets to the heart of the matter.

We tend to deal with symptoms, and that's why we have to keep going back for more of the world's answers and more of the world's solutions. If they don't get to the heart of the matter, if they don't get to the root of the issue that's caused that bleeding internally in our soul, then they're not going to be of lasting help.

 

Jesus cares more about getting to the source of our wounds than just bandaging them up. Today many people are just helping people feel better. My question is, "What good is it if I help somebody feel better if that person isn't better, if there's not been a change in their life?" Jesus knows that the core issue of my life and of yours is not those symptoms of woundedness as real as they are. Jesus knows that the core issue is my sinfulness, my separation from God. When that issue is addressed, there will be healing in other areas of my life.

The Scripture says she knew that she was healed. She knew it experientially. She was sure in herself that having touched Jesus, now she was healed. I think of women who have written to tell me about how they've had this kind of life-changing encounter with Jesus.

One woman said, "I was able to let go of a lifetime of hatred and forgive my uncle who molested me as a very young child. I'm now fifty-three years old." A touch in the presence of Christ and a lifetime of hatred released.

One woman said, "God help me free my dad that I've kept in prison for at least twenty-five years by consciously forgiving him. My depression has lifted today." 

That flow of blood that this woman experienced pictures in our lives so many of the internal issues caused by that heart issue of sin.

In many cases, it has isolated us. It has separated us from God and from others. So many of us try to get help but are never really getting better, because we've been dealing with symptoms not with roots.

When we find ourselves in a situation like that and we really have three options. We can keep running around looking for another treatment. Some of us, by the way, would rather keep going to the world's professionals because maybe we don't really want to get well. When you've lived with this kind of issue for twelve years or maybe longer, that becomes your identity. Perhaps there are those who have found security in being a sick person. They're content to just keep running around, looking for one more treatment.

There are others—and perhaps I'm looking into the eyes of some in this room—who have given up. You're just resolved to live with the problem, maybe even become numb; you're accustomed to it; you adapt to it. But, you've given up.

Well, this woman didn't do either. She took the third option. It's the option that is offered to you today. She said, "I'm going to get to Jesus. I'm going to press through the crowd."

Some would think that He doesn't have time for you. We've got Jairus who has an emergency, but Jesus was willing to stop for this woman . . . and He will stop for you. The key is that you get to Jesus. He specializes in the impossible. You do not have to keep living in that condition that you've lived with all these years. You can get free from the internal rage, the bondage, the emotional bondage, the addictions. You can be set free by the grace of Christ!

So exercise faith in His power. Reach out and say, "Jesus, You are my only hope. I need You. I have no hope, no solution, nowhere to turn but to You. I've tried everything else, but now I'm asking You. Will You heal me?"

Verse 30 tells us that Jesus, "Immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my clothes?'" Jesus knew that power had gone out of Him. This doesn't mean that He had any less power after helping this woman than He did before.

But He knew that the power to heal this woman was not actually in her touch. And it was not anything mystical about His garments. It was the power of God within Him because Jesus was God. Jesus is God. What had healed this woman was the power of God. In fact, it was the same power that spoke the Word and created this universe. All the worlds came into being by His power.

I was out walking this morning and just as the sun was beginning to come up, enjoying and appreciating the beauty of God's creation. As I contemplated the power of God in creating this world, my little issues didn't all seem so major anymore. When I get to know God in the context of His great power—the power of God was dispensed by Jesus according to His sovereign will, according to what He wanted to do.

This woman really had very little to do with her own healing. She exercised faith. She reached out. Out of her desperation, she believed that He could heal her. But she could not heal herself. She had an incurable illness. The issues of our hearts are incurable. We cannot fix them ourselves. Only Jesus and His power can do that. It's a supernatural impartation of His power that is what makes the difference in our lives. That's how we experience eternal life and cleansing and forgiveness and wholeness and healing for the issues of our hearts. It was not her touch but His power that healed her.

Let me just say as an insert here that this woman experienced immediate physical healing. There are times when God does not choose in His sovereignty to dispense physical healing. I think of the apostle Paul who had some sort of physical ailment. It's not that he didn't pray about it. It's not that he didn't want to be healed. It's something that was a great burden to him. But three times 2 Corinthians tells us that he cried out to the Lord, "Please heal me of this affliction!" God in that case chose not to heal the apostle Paul. But God said, "I'll give you what you really need, which is My grace to walk through this affliction."

I had a woman say to me in one of the breaks earlier, "I've had two brain tumors. I would have to look back on those events, those times in my life, and say they were actually a blessing." She was saying, in a sense, "I wouldn't ask God to take it away now that I've experienced the relationship with Him and His grace that has come to me as a result of having walked through those physical difficulties."

The Lord knows exactly what it is that you and I really need. Sometimes what we think we need is for the pressure to be off, for the problem to be solved, for there to be no more difficulties. But God may know that what we really need is to experience His grace and His wholeness in our lives in the midst of the problem or the difficulty.

Now Jesus says, "Who touched me? Who touched my clothes?" The disciples said to Him in verse 31, "You see the multitude thronging you and you say, 'Who touched me?' I mean, everybody is touching you. There are people all around touching you."

But isn't it interesting that Jesus knew how to distinguish between the many people in that crowd who were just part of the religious crowd pressing around Him and the one person who was coming in faith, expecting Him to do something about her issue? I think of all the people who come to church, your church and mine, on Sunday morning. They're pressing in. They're doing their religious thing. But Jesus knows that there's someone in that crowd who is serious about getting the issues of their heart dealt with. That's why Jesus singles out this woman.

Now when Jesus says, "Who touched My clothes?" it's obvious that He is not asking out of ignorance. He was God. He knew who had touched His clothes. So why is He asking this perhaps very timid, scared woman to identify herself? Why is He going to put her on the spot and have her come to the microphone and tell her story? Well, there could be a number of reasons. I think one obvious reason is that He knew it was important for this woman to make a public confession of what had been a very private matter in her life.

The Word of God says that we must not only believe in our hearts that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is our means of salvation, but we must also confess it with our mouths. Jesus said, "If you're ashamed of Me, ashamed to confess Me publicly, I will be ashamed of you." This woman needed to say publicly what it was that God had done for her. She needed an opportunity to express her faith, to praise God for what happened in her life. Jesus wasn't going to let this woman hide. Her faith had to be confessed openly.

Then I think that Jesus wanted a personal relationship with this woman. He didn't want her to just pass by Him in the night and just be another statistic of just one more person He had healed. I think He was saying, "I healed you for a relationship. I'm not going to let you just go, and go on with your life as it was. I want to know you. And I want you to know Me."

Then I think there's something else important that probably happened when Jesus made this woman come forward and tell the truth about what had happened. After twelve years of living with this kind of illness and this kind of rejection and isolation, chances are that there were some old tapes playing in this woman's mind. She could have been healed, but gone home and continued to hear those tapes playing that said, "Unclean! Unclean!"

I think Jesus knew that by her coming forward and telling her story that He was going to push the stop button on that recorder and put in a new tape that said, "You're clean! You're clean!" She had to now begin the process of thinking a new way about who she was.

It reminds us of that passage in 1 Corinthians 6 where the apostle Paul lists all sorts of sins—fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves. He says, "None of these will inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you." But he says, "That's not who you are any longer. You were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. You're a new person" (v. 11 paraphrased).

Verse 32 tells us that as He was looking for this woman, Jesus "looked around." That word means He was looking penetratingly. He was determined to identify this woman and have her identify herself. Verse 33 says, "The woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth."

Luke's gospel says it this way: "She declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately" (v. 47).

You know, you may have experienced God's saving grace in your life. You may have deliverance from bitterness, from some particular sin issue in your life; but you're not really free until you can confess it before the Lord and in the presence of others. Until you can say, "This is my testimony. Here is where I was. Here is what was the issue in my life. Here is what God has done for me."

Those past failures that we tend to want to hide and cover and not have anybody know about, those actually can become a very important part of our life message.

Dannah: That’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth in our series "His Healing Touch." In her teaching today, Nancy spoke to the woman who is desperate. She’s sought healing. She’s spent all her resources and energy only to be left hurting and disappointed. Does this sound familiar? Maybe you’re desperate for healing, too. 

We saw today that true healing—the kind that lasts—is found in Jesus. 

To help you draw near to him in faith, we’re making available a devotional by Pastor Paul Tautges. It’s called A Small Book for the Hurting Heart, and it contains fifty brief readings to help you find encouragement and healing. This resource is our gift to you when you make a donation of any amount to Revive Our Hearts in August. To give, visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959, and be sure to ask for A Small Book for the Hurting Heart when you do.

Tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts we're probing even deeper, because physical healing isn't our deepest need. Nancy will explain, and hey, before we are done, how could you share your hope in Christ with others today. Nancy's back with some questions to think that through.

Nancy:

• What has Jesus done for you?
• Has He saved you from sin?
• Has He saved you from yourself?
• Has He delivered you from sinful habits and bondages?

Think back about what Jesus has done for you over the course of your knowing Him. Then let me ask you this question, "Are you still hiding in the crowd or are you willing to come forward publicly to testify and say, 'I praise God! This is what He has done for me!'"?

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.