This morning we continue our series, “The Miracles of Jesus,” by looking at a situation in John 5.
Before we get into the miracle, let’s look at the foundational scripture I will share be sharing with you all year.
(Psalm 126:4 TPT)
Now, Lord, do it again! Restore us to our former glory! May streams of your refreshing flow over us until our dry hearts are drenched again.
This is a season of refreshing and restoring for us. I pray you get refreshed and restored as we study each miracle.
(John 5:1-13 TPT)
1 From Galilee, Jesus returned to Jerusalem to observe one of the Jewish feasts.
2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, there is a pool called in Aramaic, The House of Loving Kindness, surrounded by five covered porches.
3 Hundreds of sick people were lying under the covered porches—the paralyzed, the blind, and the crippled—all of them waiting for their healing.
4 For an angel of God periodically descended into the pool to stir the waters, and the first one who stepped into the pool after the waters swirled would instantly be healed.
5 Among the many sick people lying there was a man who had been disabled for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there, he knew that the man had been crippled for a long time. Jesus said to him, “Do you truly long to be well?”
7 The sick man answered, “Sir, there’s no way I can get healed, for I have no one to lower me into the water when the angel comes. As soon as I try to crawl to the edge of the pool, someone else jumps in ahead of me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Stand up! Pick up your sleeping mat and you will walk!”
9 Immediately, he stood up—he was healed! So he rolled up his mat and walked again! Now Jesus worked this miracle on the Sabbath.
10 When the Jewish leaders saw the man walking along carrying his sleeping mat, they objected and said, “What are you doing carrying that? Don’t you know it’s the Sabbath? It’s not lawful for you to carry things on the Sabbath!”
11 He answered them, “The man who healed me told me to pick it up and walk.”
12 “What man?” they asked him. “Who was this man who ordered you to carry something on a Sabbath?”
13 But the healed man couldn’t give them an answer, for he didn’t yet know who it was, since Jesus had already slipped away into the crowd.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things:
1. Setting the stage.
In John 5, we find Jesus entering Jerusalem. He entered the city through the sheep gate. This is the place where the animals were brought into the city. So it was not clean, to say the least. This is also an area where the blind, sick, and lame gathered. They congregated around the Pool of Bethesda. They believed that this pool had some sort of healing power. From time to time, an angel would come and stir the waters from time and time and the first person to get into the pool after the stirring of the waters would be healed.
There was a man by the pool who had been an invalid for 38 years. Jesus saw him, learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, and asked him a question. This was a very important question and one that we all want to hear when in a pressure situation. Jesus asked, “Do you want to get well?” This was his opportunity. The King of Glory had just visited him in the most unlikely of places and laid out an opportunity to turn his hopeless situation around. But instead of jumping on the opportunity, the man started making excuses.
The invalid went on to explain to Jesus how he had no one to help him get in the water and how someone beat him to the punch every time he tried to get in during the time of stirring. This guy was crippled in more places than one. His legs might have been incapacitated, but his mind and heart were lame as well. Excuses get you nowhere. Jesus ignored the excuses and laid it all out on the line. He said, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” This was it. The man could have no more excuses now. Either he would receive his healing, by faith, through the Words of Jesus, or he would stay in his situation, probably forever. The man received the Word, his body was healed, and he picked up his mat and walked. It was the Sabbath day, and many of the religious would get upset, but this man got his breakthrough!
2. You have to WANT to get out of your situation.
— Some people are going through the motions, but they don’t really want to change.
— The man Jesus healed in John 5 was at the place where people were getting healed. He saw people get healed right in front of his eyes every time the water was stirred, but he never got healed. He was there, acting like he wanted it, but some people just put up a facade. They act like they want to become the men/women God called them to be, but when called on it, all they have is a bunch of excuses.
— You can always find excuses, but excuses will only keep you in your situation longer.
— Never attempt to justify mediocrity. Accept your mistakes and determine to move forward.
— This man had become comfortable in his infirmity.
— It’s dangerous to get comfortable in a terrible situation.
— This man was this way for 38 years, and while he was “acting” like he wanted to get better, he never got to the pool first, and it was probably because he had allowed himself to accept his condition.
— There is a difference between “learning to be content,” (as the Bible teaches) and accepting a terrible situation. You should learn how to be content, but contentment does not mean the acceptance of things that are NOT God’s will.
— When living beneath God’s best becomes your norm, you run the risk of acting like you want better but not really wanting better in your heart. You get to the point where you go through the motions, but you don’t truly have any expectation of a breakthrough. Please don’t ever let this be you!
3. Never allow your situation to cause you to grow a root of bitterness in your heart.
— The man in the text had been lame for 38 years. He had seen so many people healed in front of him that his heart was callous towards his own healing.
— There are some people who are so conditioned to go through challenges that they grow bitter. If you are not careful, bitterness can cause you to miss out on your opportunity when God is ready to move in your life.
— The King of Glory, Jesus Himself, was standing in front of this man, ready to heal him, and all he was doing was making excuses.
— Please don’t allow yourself to get so accustomed to arguing and being bitter that you cannot discern the move of God when God is ready to move in your life.
— If you truly want to move forward, especially in this season when God is ready to renew and restore, you must develop a disdain for terrible situations. Because if you don’t, your comfort will keep you bound to the present while God is calling you into your future, the future He planned for you!
4. Keep your heart open to God and be ready to move when He is ready to move.
It is dangerous to get comfortable in mediocrity. Because if you do, you may never really want to get better. You may say you do, and you may go through the motions, but when the opportunity is there, you may miss God.
Jesus asked the man something you would think you should never have to ask a person who has been in a bad situation for 38 years: “Do you want to be well?“
The sick man answered, “Sir, there is no one to help me get into the water when it starts moving. I try to be the first one into the water. But when I try, someone else always goes in before I can.”
He was saying:
— No one is helping me.
— It’s other people’s fault.
— If I had the help, I would be better.
— The other people keep beating me to it.
— I try, but other people keep taking my blessing.
— I am trying my best, but my best is just not good enough.
Jesus was ready to move in his life, but he was not ready to receive.
Listen, the key to living #TheGraceLife is learning how to receive and respond to the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to make things up. God already made plans for you. He already planned to bless you. Your job is to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit and then receive and respond as He speaks.
— Enter every day with your heart OPEN to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
— Live each moment of each day with your heart attuned to the divine impulses He will lead you with.
— The Adam sinned; he lost the Holy Spirit. He was demoted from living in the spirit to having to live as a mere man.
— The day you were Born-Again, you were redeemed all the way back to the Garden of Eden, before the fall of man.
— Now, you don’t have to rely just on education; you have revelation. You don’t have to live just be your intellect; you have divine instinct. As you develop your ability to hear God and be led by His Spirit, you will walk in God’s best. This is how Jesus lived, and it is how we are supposed to live.
5. The voice of God will reveal the grace of God.
— Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit in all things, and at all times.
— Jesus walked into an area of hundreds of sick people and only healed ONE of them. Why? Because that is what the Holy Spirit told Him to do.
— Today, many would criticize Jesus for walking past people in need. But I have taught you before that God is not moved by need. God is only moved by His purpose.
— Jesus was surrounded by need, but He was not moved by need. He was only moved by the Holy Spirit.
— He was only moved by the purpose the Father sent Him there to accomplish!
— You cannot be moved by need. To make the most of your walk with God, you must only be moved by God’s Spirit.
— The Holy Spirit will lead you to accomplish God’s divine purpose!
— The voice of the Holy Spirit will reveal to you what God wants to do, and in that revelation, God is also revealing where His grace is.
— Far too many believers launch out to do things that God did not tell them to do. These are things that were birthed in their hearts and not God’s heart. But since they pray about it, ask God to bless it, and put an “In Jesus’ name” at the end of it, they think God has to breathe on it. No, God never signed up to release grace where He did not first establish His purpose. God never signed up to give you whatever you want!
— God watches over HIS WORD to perform it on this planet (Jer 1:12). That means He is always looking for people who will discern what His plans are and who will align with those plans by faith.
— When God reveals to you what His plans are, He is also revealing to you where His grace is. That grace is waiting for you to tap into it with your faith. When you do, you will experience God’s best.
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You for Your love and grace! I believe this is a season of refreshing and restoring for me!
As I study the miracles of Jesus, my faith is reignited and increased!
I open my heart to hear from You. You reveal Your Kingdom plans and purposes for me, TO ME, so that I can maximize the purpose and potential You placed down inside me.
From this day forward, I declare that I shall not be driven by need. I shall only be driven by Your divine purpose for my life.
When I was driven by need, I was too focused on myself to hear from You. I die to self. I pick up my cross and follow You.
I embrace my divine assignment, and I don’t worry about my needs. As I pursue Your divine purpose, I know You will give me more than I need.
Your Word says that You are able to make all grace abound towards me so that I will always have more than enough to meet the needs of any situation, and I will also have enough to contribute to every charitable work.
I am led by Your Spirit, the Holy Spirit reveals Your plans and purposes, and as I walk with Him, I get to tap into Your grace. You do all You do by grace, free and unearned. I do all I do for You by faith. As my faith taps into Your grace, I experience You best in every area of my life! GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper!
