The Story of Jairus and His Dying Daughter (Part VI)

(Mark 5:22-24 NIV) Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him.

Last week I introduced you to a man named Jairus who was dealing with an extremely stressful situation: his daughter was exceedingly sick. Jairus swallowed his pride, approached Jesus, explained the gravity of the situation, and spoke faith-filled words saying: "Come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live."

There are two things I need to highlight from Jairus' declaration. First, Jairus' faith level was at the point where he required Jesus to come to his house and lay His hands on his daughter so that he could be healed. We know from other occasions that Jesus could have simply spoken a word of healing and His words could have healed Jairus' daughter. But Jairus' faith could not take him leaving the scene with just Jesus' words. Jairus required Jesus to come and Jesus obliged his request of faith.

Secondly, it's interesting to me that Jairus included the words, "and live" at the end of his declaration. A person who is sick needs to be healed. A person who is dead needs to be brought back to life. These are two distinct miracles and Jesus was capable of performing both. I believe it's worth nothing that Jairus included both in his petition. It's almost as if he knew that his daughter might be dead by the time the get home. So he included a petition for LIFE in his petition for HEALTH.

This should serve as a reminder to all of us that while the Father knows what we need before we ask (Mat 6:8), He still requires us to ask. James said, "Yet you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it" (4:2). So I don't know if it was intuition of revelation, but Jairus included an important clause in his petition and as you know, his daughter did die before they reached the house.

Faith-filled words for life (and not just health) notwithstanding, the bottom-line is that Jairus, like any father, was shocked when he heard the news that his daughter was dead. Fear flooded his body. Daddy's little girl, his little 12-year-old source of joy was now dead. Sure, he and Jesus were on the way, but there is no question that thoughts of fear, doubt, and unbelief caused him to question whether or not Jesus needed to come any further. As a matter of fact the messengers who came to bring Jairus the bad news actually said, "Your daughter is dead, why bother the teacher any more?"
Did you catch that? Our opponent is a crafty devil. The devil understands faith. Satan knew that Jairus' faith level wasn't at the point where Jesus could have simply spoken life from where they were standing and he also knew that Jesus was still operating off of the last words that Jairus had spoken, when he said, "Come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." Guess what? Those words were still good. That petition was still in order. Jesus was not moved by the bad news at all. Actually Jesus ignored the bad news and said to Jairus, "Don't be afraid; just believe." Jesus wasn't giving up, but the devil was hoping that Jairus would tell Him to, because if Jairus had told Jesus to quit and not come to his house, then Jesus would not have forced himself onto the situation. We will stop here for today.

So what does this mean to you? A few things:
1. Be specific when you pray and ask in-faith.
2. Don't allow what you see, especially the negative, to change what you say!
3. Faith cancels out fear, but fear cancels out faith. Never speak words of fear, because they will cancel out your words of faith!
3. If you can't speak faith, then keep your mouth shut! That's what Jairus did and he got his breakthrough!

Father, I thank You for this revelation. I look at every situation through the lens of faith, I speak the language of faith, and I live a life of faith. I know that I have an adversary and that he will do his best to offer opposition to the things that You want to do in my life, but I declare that even when opposition comes, that I will not allow what I see to change what I say. I won't allow words of fear to come out of my mouth. I will speak the Word only. I will speak faith only. I will speak life only! Now matter how bad it gets, I will speak life! In Jesus' name. Amen!