One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” “I can’t,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to help me into the pool at the movement of the water. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me.” Jesus told him, “Stand up, roll up your sleeping mat and go on home!” Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking! But it was on the Sabbath when this miracle was done. John 5:5-9
Have you ever felt like your prayers would work better if you had specific step by step instructions? Or if you only had that key word or order that would unlock the answer to your needed miracle? The paralyzed man found himself in much the same situation. He saw God as healing in only one way, through the pool at Bethesda when the water was moved. Because of that limited mindset, he thought he missed his healing many times. Why did he think that? Because that’s what he was told.
Although it was true that the pool’s water healed at times, but it was God who brought the healing, not the pool. The man had a very limited view of God’s power. That’s why Jesus asked him, did he want to get well? Jesus wanted him to challenge his thinking about why he was still ill. Of course he told Jesus he couldn’t because he wasn’t quick enough to get to the water when it was moved and someone always stole his healing. But Jesus was about to rock his world. He not only didn’t need to be moved to the water, but he didn’t need the water at all! Jesus spoke to him with a command to pick up his bed and walk! Instantly he received his healing, rolled up the mat and walked away. His whole perception of where healing came from changed that day and probably wondered why he didn’t know that before.
But Jesus didn’t only speak to the man’s physical limitations but spiritual ones as well by healing him on the Sabbath, a day when there was to be no work. The spiritual authorities at the time taught the law, that there was to be no healing on that day! Imagine not allowing someone to experience God’s healing because of the day. But that’s what they believed and taught others. This should make us wonder what limitations of God’s power have we placed on our lives? Jesus came to show us by example there are no limitations on God’s power or through ways He works; for as He said in Jeremiah 32:27 “is there anything too hard for me?” The next time you have a need and find yourself thinking there’s only one way for God to answer, challenge yourself to remove the limits and wait with great expectation to see how God is going to meet your need.
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