“[They] begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well” (Matt. 14:36, NKJV, emphasis mine).
“And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all” (Luke 6:19, NKJV, emphasis mine).
Jesus was so charged with the power of God that He didn’t even need to put His attention specifically on a person for healing to flow. With just one touch from someone behind Him, power transfer happened. Even when He wasn’t seeking someone out to heal them, countless individuals received desperately needed restoration just by reaching out for a split second of physical contact with Him. The crowds picked up on this, and scrambled to get close enough to benefit.
The power flowing through these contacts parallels that of an electric circuit. I’m sure you’ve seen a light bulb come alive when someone completed the circuit by touching a wire to a battery. Of course, this dynamic is similarly at work in the many apparatuses that make our lives more comfortable. When a circuit is complete, electricity can flow to them and provide power. In the same way, physical touch completes a circuit that allows spiritual power to flow.
God knew He made the world this way. For this reason, He warned Adam not to even touch the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:3). Touch is an incredibly effective conductor, both for evil and for good. (Although malignant forces can also be transmitted by touch, God’s power is overwhelmingly superior).
I once unwittingly completed an electric circuit with my body by touching a cheaply made extension cord in the wrong place. The force that went through me was so overwhelming that I was gasping for air afterwards, crying, and aware that I might easily have been dead. As a result, I am extremely careful now when it comes to electrical cords and outlets.
This principle also carries over into the spiritual realm. Just as we treat electricity with great respect and care, we want to do the same with the power of God. Understanding this, Paul cautioned Timothy not to be hasty with the laying on of hands. This is because the apostle understood just how much power can be released in this way.
By the same token, I am by no means going to stop using electricity out of fear that I might be electrocuted. Neither am I going to shy away from seeking to be a conduit of the power of God. My brothers and sisters, guided by His wisdom and humility, let’s hunger for His glory to be channeled through our lives!
Daddy God passionately desires for us to understand how ready He is to flow in life-changing ways through our touch. When we read about the spiritual gift that Timothy received through the laying on of Paul’s hands, let’s allow that to light a fire in our spirit! (2 Tim. 1:6). When we absorb the truth from the book of Acts that the Spirit can be given to others by the laying on of hands, let’s let that cause us to hunger to see it happen in our lives! (Acts 8:18).
Let’s allow Jesus’ example to stir us up too today! Think about it. Living as a man, He was filled unceasingly by the Holy Spirit. As a result, even his clothes were permeated with ever-accessible power. His very presence emanated healing. I want to live like that too!
Father, fill us to overflowing with Your Holy Spirit! Use our touch to bring life to those around us! Let us so overflow with Your nearness that even our physical proximity transmits the power of Your presence! Through our hands and through our hearts, let Your Kingdom come!!
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Have you ever felt, or been aware of, the power of God flowing through a physical touch?
Feeding On Jesus 
Love this! When my Mum was dying, several people sent letters from Germany, where Mum and Dad ministered as missionaries and church planters for almost 6 years. So many testimonies flowed in of how Mum touched people with God’s healing. One story was of Mum giving her favorite sweater to a woman – who shared how every time she put on that sweater, she felt so very loved. What that lady didn’t know is that my Mum didn’t have many clothes and that her decision to give that away (in God’s prompting) was a much bigger sacrifice than many realized. Mum and Dad lived by the grace of God as envelopes of money mysteriously appeared with exactly what they needed to get by and even once a sum of money in their bank account that they questioned but the bank only later figured out was a mistake – and so they paid back at interest free, as they could.
Your sharing made me look back on similar promptings I followed to give physical gifts to people – even as a Prodigal – which shows me it is no longer we who live, but Christ in us. But it’s also helping me to see how I can actively partner with God in this, by explicitly asking for more opportunities to bless people in physical ways like that.
It reminds me of Paul’s tent making business and Lydia’s cloth making business – businesses that placed physical items anointed by the Holy Spirit into people’s hands.
And it makes me think of the huge handwoven wool blanket my writing friend (a widow and mother of 4 daughters) sent me, when I was suffering deeply from trauma triggers and grief. Every time I or my family and now our cat snuggles into that blanket, we feel so very loved also.
One time, God asked me to give away my Mama’s Maori greenstone necklace that I wore around my neck daily. He asked me to pray over it and anoint it with oil and give it to my elderly friend, whose family (like my own) went through awful spiritual abuse, asking her to pray about who to pass it onto in her family when she went to be with the LORD. It so touched her heart (and my husband’s too) and she too mentioned the blessing of wearing it. But it also brought such joy to my heart, as I felt my Mama’s legacy of love in Christ being passed onwards.
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Each one of these stories is exceedingly precious and I am so excited to see the eternal reward that will come from each one! So, so close to Jesus´ heart! I can relate to that feeling. When I was pregnant with my first baby, I had received a gift of baby clothes. It was my very first set, and filled my heart to overflowing with excitement and joy. And He asked me to give it away to a family with much less. I did so, with joyful tears because I so felt His pleasure in me doing so!
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I needed to correct something I said above: when I gave my elderly friend and neighbor that necklace, I didn’t ask her to pray about who to leave it to, I told her she could leave it to whoever in her family she wanted to. I actually had someone in mind, as I knew she didn’t have long to live, but I decided to give that desire away too and leave it in God’s hands.
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Ah, okay, thank you for clarifying 🙂
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I say Amen 🙏🏽 to your prayer. I want to live like that too Jennifer.
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Smiling lovingly with His joy. Yes Daddy God!, by Your Spirit help us to do so! (Catching up on here once again, now that we finished with our visiting missions team 🙂 )
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This also reminds me of how God’s been drawing my attention to physical items in a Prodigal’s home I minister to. He’s had me speak of them and connect them to His Presence with her and in her – blessing not just her, but bringing such joy, peace and faith to my own heart.
After I had just been speaking of how we both hear God’s Voice because we are His sheep, I then noticed a toy sheep hanging from her lamp. Then, I noticed a sculpted lion the next time and told her how beautiful it is. She had made it herself and I connected it to CS Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, she too, as it turned out, had read as a kid. I now see how God is healing both our hearts through these physical items that speak so much to me of His never foresaking love and deep compassion for us.
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This is so beautiful! I can feel the Father’s joy and love reading about it. Thank you, Anna
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Oh my!! And now I am crying!! Look what I penned in September last year:
Woven, woven
In your love
In your love
In your love.
Rooted strong
Within the soil
Of Your heart
For us.
Good and perfect
Gifts You bring
From heaven above
Contentment rain.
In each and
Every storm You sway
Your branches firmly
Found in You.
Now rooting us
Ever strongly in
The Vine abiding
Life to give.
Blessed, blessed
Throne above
On Your mercy seat
We’re known.
Seated now
In heavenly courts
Your judgments pure
And righteous speak.
No child forsaken
Nor forlorn
In the Son of God
Set free.
Rivers washing
All our sin
All our pain
Away in praise.
Lifting up
Your heart as One
In Your streams
Made glad.
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Soooo beautiful!
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When I had lunch one day with the speaker of Revivaltime Radio broadcast, as I left there was a strange feeling of purity and wholeness that I had not felt since the night I was baptized in the Holy Ghost, some 10 years earlier. Your blog reminds me that I need to stay in “contact” with the Source of that power that changes lives. Thanx for this challenge!!
❤️&🙏, c.a.
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This comment blessed me so very much! Thank you, C.A., for sharing it.
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Faith is the motive, the means and the conduit through which His Life flows into the brokenness of humanity. He is ever near.
Thank you for the share.
BT
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Amen and amen! Thank you too, BT! (Catching up here after hosting a team. from CA 🙂 )
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Touch is a mysterious thing!
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Indeed! 🙂
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Amen! Jennifer, your use of “completing the circuit” takes my thinking to many other words that demonstrate this connectivity with God through Jesus. Grace and peace continues to lead our faithful witness.
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Yes, our connection with Him is the most important aspect of our existence, isn’t it? Thank You Abba for that grace and peace!
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