Shalom!

This post is dedicated to a precious friend Nikki Rosen.

Touch of Faith
by Simon Dewey

photo source



Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years,
and had suffered many things from many physicians.
She had spent all that she had and was no better,
but rather grew worse.
When she heard about Jesus,
she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment.
For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”
Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up,
and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.

Mark 5:25-29

My friend Trudi and I arrived in Manila a week ago. Together with another friend Tina, we conducted the Transforming Hearts seminar with a group of recovering drug dependents last weekend.

It is always heart wrenching for me to see a bunch of healthy, gifted, strong and promising young men, but gripped in the dark prison of drug addiction. It is a clear example of how the enemy can blind us to the beautiful identity that God has given us, and block the road that leads to our bright future.

Instead of being productive young men, living up to their true potential, they are derailed from their God-given destiny and true life purpose.

Many of them have been in a cycle of freedom and bondage for years.

What really grieved me was the belief inculcated into their minds that a drug addict "is powerless over his addiction," and that only on their gravestones can it be stamped that their complete recovery has taken place.

This really grieved me.

As we looked into the eyes of these young men, we saw a dull sense of hopelessness.

I cannot accept this! Because what I know and what I believe is that there is no mess so deep that God's hand cannot reach down and turn it around. There is no prison so dark that the brightness of God's love cannot shine through and set the captive free.

No one ever need be imprisoned in his or her wrong choices. Hope is always available.

I spoke to them with all the hope I had in my heart for their healing - your addiction is not your identity!

I understand why most drug recovery programs (or other recovery programs for that matter) would require their participants to say at the beginning of each session, "Hi, I'm John, and I'm a drug addict." This self-admission is meant to break any cycle of denial that most of them try to hold on to and which becomes a roadblock to recovery.

However, recovery is a process, and at a certain point in the healing journey, a person should be able to identify that he is no longer an addict, but on his way to victory and full recovery.

Lest I be misunderstood, I hasten to add that I have had no hands on experience with drug addiction. So whatever I say here is said with humility and an admission of my own limited understanding. I certainly do not discredit the work of personal healing that has been brought about by self-discipline and the rigid adherence to many self-help steps.

But victory is not gritting our teeth, and fighting our bondage or addiction with every ounce of strength or energy.

As Craig Hill would say, That's not victory, that's abstinence! Victory is when we have planted the flag and no more enemies are shooting at us.

And I will not hesitate to say, with full conviction, that true victory is available only through a higher power and authority, the kind that comes from God alone.

I believe that true victory is possible only when we have tapped into the ultimate source of eternal life, and that is God alone.

And this is what the young men who participated in our Transforming Hearts seminar realized at the end, that God offers hope...healing...recovery...victory to anyone willing to receive it.

We need no longer be slaves of our past once we have made the choice to turn our lives over to a new Master.

And we certainly need not walk with our heads bowed, believing we are mere victims of our faulty upbringing, or imperfect parenting, or our own unwise choices, or unfortunate circumstances beyond our control.

There IS a way out!

Jesus is our Healer, our Deliverer...the Prince of Peace.


The Hebrew word for peace is SHALOM.

Today the word shalom is used as a common greeting in Israel. Like "Hello," or "Hi"...but the real intent in using the word as a form of greeting is to impart peace, as in "Peace be with you."

However, peace is not all that shalom connotes.

Shalom is such an amazing word! It means:

...completeness

...wholeness

...health

...peace

...welfare

...safety

...soundness

...tranquility

...prosperity

...perfectness

...fullness

...rest

...harmony

...the absence of agitation or discord.


Strong's Concordance 7965

Whole. Complete.

The same root from which the word integer comes. Entire. Untouched. Unbroken. Nothing missing, or lacking.

This is also where we get the English word integrity. No cracks. No imperfection. No stain or blemish.

One of my favorite names of God is Jehovah Shalom. He is my all in all. If I have His peace, then I have enough. It means I am at rest, I am healed, and I have lack of nothing.

God taught Moses the Aaronic blessing found in Numbers 6:22-26:

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
“Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying,
‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.
Say to them:

"The LORD bless you and keep you;

The LORD make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.”’

These indeed are powerful words we declare over one another each time we say the Aaronic blessing, or even just the word Shalom, to one another. Everything that the word shalom means, we wish on another when we use it as a sincere greeting.


And this is what she needed, that woman who suffered for twelve years from a flow of blood. She suffered from an affliction that was not only physical, but also emotional. For in those days and in that culture, women with an issue of blood were always considered unclean. She had a stigma upon her. People knew her as the woman with the hemorrhage, and they stayed away from her.

She longed for wholeness...for affirmation...for acceptance. Shalom was the cry of her heart.

The passage quoted above, one of the Bible verses that I am holding on to and believing in for my own healing, was very much on my heart just a few days before I left my home city of Bacolod.

It was the same passage that rose up in my heart as we were conducting the Transforming Hearts seminar to the group of promising young men last weekend. Shalom was the deep longing of their hearts as well.

The woman had tried all the best doctors... and had come to the end of her rope. Finally she realized that her hope for full and complete healing came from only one source. She said, "If only I touch the hem of His garment...the tassel of His cloak...I shall be made well."

I have heard it said that it's possible the woman knew that if she could touch one of the tassels of the tallit (Jewish prayer shawl) that Jesus wore, she had hopes of being healed. Such was her faith in the power of God that she was willing to elbow her way into the crowd, incognito because she bore the stigma of being unclean, until she was at the feet of Jesus, and able to touch the hem of His garment.

A Jewish prayer shawl worn during the daytime as an outer cloak

We know the story. After touching the hem of His garment, she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus turned around and spoke to her, confirming that her faith had made her whole.

Jesus spoke shalom to her. She was made whole.

She did not have to wait until the grave to be considered fully restored.


One of the men in our group gave a shout of freedom after receiving the healing touch of Jehovah Shalom. In just a few more months he will turn 50 years old. He now looks to his drug addiction as a thing of the past. And he is embracing full and complete restoration in the name of Jesus Christ.

Another young man will turn 37 before this month is over. During one ministry session he repented for having allowed walls to be built around his heart, having been his own protector from life's hurts, instead of letting Jesus be the one. And in a simple humble prayer, he asked God to tear down the hardened layers of his heart.

A precious man of 28 years old was released from the drug rehab facility a few days ago. God provided him a place to live as well as a new job. He considers himself fully delivered from drug addiction and is looking forward to life as a new creation.

Of course, only time will reveal if these men will continue to walk in their healing. But I want to believe that this is their turnaround year, even as we have prayed to the Holy Spirit to pour on them His turnaround anointing!

All things are possible...only believe! (Mark 9:23)

May the words of this post be an encouragement to any reader that comes this way today. May Jehovah Shalom grant you wholeness in body, soul, and spirit!

View of the city on this cloudy day, as seen from the top floor of the Makati Tuscany where we held the Transforming Hearts seminar last weekend

Free indeed!
Hundreds of pigeons live on top of the tall buildings in this part of Makati city, and every afternoon we were delighted as they showed off their flying stunts and skills!

Below I have posted one of my favorite songs on healing. I invite you to take time to listen to it.


Heal Me
by Terry McAlmon

Heal me, heal me
I need a brand new touch
From You my Lord


Heal me, heal me
Let the fullness of your life
Now be restored


Heal Me by Terry McAlmon