THE WOMAN WITH THE SPIRIT OF INFIRMITY

THE WOMAN WITH THE SPIRIT OF INFIRMITY 

 The Gospels are filled with some of the wonderful healings and deliverances God did through Jesus Christ. By faith, we too can receive and give the same kind of miraculous blessings. The record of the woman who Jesus “loosed” from the demon of infirmity is what the Lord gave me to talk about today, because it is one of the demons attacking and trying to attach itself to many of God’s people in our world today. The story is in Luke 13:11.

 

“And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.”

 

The Greek word for “infirmity” is astheneia. This is the definition:  The “want [lack] of strength, weakness, infirmity A. of the body, its weakness and frailty, feebleness of health or sickness. B. of the soul, want [lack] of strength and capacity requisite [required] to understand a thing, to do things great and glorious, to restrain corrupt desires, to bear trials and troubles.” All of the above is in the definition of what infirmity is.

 

We all know people with this problem, or you may have it yourself. In this woman’s case, her frailty even affected her posture, and she was bent over under the overall strain of life itself.

 

“And he [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.  

 

“And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, ‘Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.’ And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God” (Luke 13:10-13).

 

The woman knew this was from God and she honored and celebrated Him for healing her. Life could no longer push her down. Jesus gifted her with the understanding and the strength to do great things and overcome corrupt desires and bear up under trials, things she could never do before.

 

We all have things that bother us about ourselves, but Jesus is here to heal us of all that. As He said to the man whose son was suicidal: “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23).

 

Got a problem? Jesus has the answer. Let’s respond like the man who had the suicidal son: “And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe” (Mark 9:24).

 
Hebrews 11:1 tells us: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The Amplified version puts it this way: “Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”

 

Faith believes what God says, before it’s seen in our reality. God wants us to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).

 

We have the kind of faith like the woman in Luke 13. She went to where Jesus was. She sought his teaching, his wisdom, his love. And she received what he offered. She was lifted up—she was straightened up and set free, relieved from all her weaknesses. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ makes us strong. And faith connects us to God.

 

For more examples of faith, check out Hebrews 11.

 

Love, Carolyn