Good Morning,
Are you ready to be set free from 'issues' that have been holding you back, or, hindering your freedom and growth in Christ? Issues like these: fear of failure, fear of success, denial (everyone else has the problem, not me), being aloof and cold (I don't need anyone else), insecurity, jealousy, defensiveness, self-pity, isolation, chip on the shoulder; martyr mentality (why is it always me that have to give), depression, controlling and manipulative, victim mentality, loneliness, fear of intimacy, argumentative, pessimistic, anxieties, just to name a few of the issues that we can be guilty of allowing to dominate or control our lives. We must be like the woman with the 'issue' of blood. "And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately." (Luke 8:43-47) Issue means a flow, to run like water; to rush or draw; the action of going out or flowing out; the action of coming forth from, or as if from something in which one is immersed. Isn't that indicative of the list of issues that was mentioned, they flow out, as well as immersing the person in them. What are the issues that have been flowing from our heart? What do you need to be healed and delivered of? Listen, this is how we can begin to see ourselves free from 'issues' of the heart as well as any other issue. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." (Prov. 4:23) This verse reads like this in the Amplified Bible; "Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life." You may not have a bloody issue that has kept others from drawing close to you as this woman had, but what issues has kept others from drawing close to you, or kept you from drawing closer to even God? These issues of the heart are more diseased than even the issue of blood, because a lot of the time they go without being healed. The issue of blood must have tainted every area of her life. It kept her isolated and separated from intimate contact. It had caused her to become hard, tough, and 'self-absorbed'. Yet, it also produced in her a fight to live and someday be healed. She recognized her need to be set free from what she was immersed in and what was coming out of her. Do you recognize your need to touch the hem of His garment and be made whole? Has that 'issue' caused you to be friendless, or have strained relationship? Has it separated you from your 'would-be' champions and cheerleaders in your life, by making you draw inward? Has it made you hard, callous, sharp, insensitive, or overbearing? Has it made you timid, weak, and afraid of challenges in your life? Are you tired of being tired? Will you dare to come closer to Him?