She Was Made Straight

She Was Made Straight

Text: Luke 13:10-17

This text offers a message of hope to those who have been long bound. "Eighteen years." (The passage of time does not invalidate the plan, the power, or the purposes of God.)

This text offers insight for the need of deliverance ministry: "She could not straighten herself."

This text offers insight to the multiplicity of reasons for illness: "She had a spirit of infirmity."

Sickness can be caused by genetics, the environment, diet, accidents, and the demonic. (Also note she was "loosed," not healed.")

Let’s talk about the Lady; the Lord; and the Loosing.

The Lady

She was in church even though she was so physically deformed she was almost bent in two. Luke 13:11 And behold, there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. (NASB)

She continued on in God and was faithful to His house in spite of great physical adversity. She came to church even though she had no expectation of deliverance, she came because she was faithful to God.

She was a woman of God, and yet she was bound many years.

She was called, "A daughter of Abraham," and not simply a Jew. I believe the Spirit used this phrase to help us know that she was a woman of faith and yet she was physically bound.

How can that be you ask?

1. Abraham is called the father of faith, to be called a daughter of Abraham is to be called a daughter of faith.

2. To be a person of faith does not mean you have faith in all areas.

Abraham believed God for a son, but couldn’t believe God to protect his wife.

David said, "I am weak this day though anointed king and these men the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for me:"1 He claimed to be weak and anointed at the same time. (Note his weakness came in dealing with a family matter. Joab was his nephew, born to his sister Zeruiah. David was a great king, and warrior, but was a poor handler of his own family.)

3. This woman, though bent over, was well known to Jesus as a daughter of Abraham. By calling her such, He identified her as a very precious child of God, albeit one bound with an infirmity. She was a woman of faith, and yet bound by lack of faith. A paradox that is all too often true, and all too often common place.

She could not straighten herself. This is a statement of fact by Jesus. She needed deliverance ministry. She needed someone to help her. She needed someone with a Holy Ghost anointing to minister deliverance to her. We are not told why she couldn’t straighten herself, why she couldn’t just stand on the Word and rebuke the devil, but our guess is that she was emotionally and spiritually at a place where she simply couldn’t do it. She needed help.

The Lord

He saw her. V.12. And he spoke life to her, "woman thou art loosed." When Jesus speaks things happen. Jesus sees, Jesus knows, Jesus speaks life to those near death, to those abandoned by others - Ezekiel 16:3-6.

Jesus raiseth them that are bowed down. Psalm 145:14

David called Him, my glory and the lifter of my head. Ps 3:3 (This is a text dealing with those who are not bowed down physically, but emotionally.)

Jesus has an anointing (ie a Divine purpose, a Divine calling, a Divine empowerment) to set at liberty them that are bruised. Lk 4:18. A bruise is an outward sign of inner bleeding. Jesus doesn’t heal those that are bruised, but sets them at liberty. He releases them from that which causes the inner bleeding. Some people going through divorce need to be set at liberty from the pain and inner bleeding of that life experience. Jesus does it!

Jesus spoke life to her. Jesus knows how to speak life giving words. Isaiah 50:4 "The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to [him that is] weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned."

The Loosing

He spoke life - "thou art loosed"

He also imparted life - "He laid His hands on her"

Peter - such as I have give I thee. What have you got to give? This text describes two groups of people. Those that got to give, and those that got to get.

Those that got to give have got to give what they got to those who have to get what they got to give. I am here to encourage, and to provoke you on.