WHAT I TAUGHT:
In this season of my life, I am learning that Jesus can heal me from my circumstances. For so long I disqualified myself. I believed that everyone except me could be healed and used by God. I thought that the bad things I have done, and my circumstances were too heavy for healing. I then realized that if I don’t believe he can heal me then I don’t believe what he did on the cross is important. I had to remind myself that I have accepted God’s gift of grace through his son Jesus Christ. I had just forgotten because life got hard, and I wasn’t seeking God.
So in John chapter 5 verses 1-15 it talks about Jesus healing at the pool of Bethesda. Bethesda means mercy in Hebrew, so this was a pool of mercy. Around this pool was the blind, the lame, the paralyzed, the mute, and the sick. They believed that when the water would stir up it could heal them, but really it was an underground water system. It would rarely overflow and begin to stir. So these superstitious people would wait at this pool hoping they could be healed one day.
Verse 5 sates that one man had been there for 38 years just lying on his mat, and while Jesus was passing through heading to Jerusalem he found this man. He then asked him if he wanted to be healed. The man replied saying, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in someone else goes down ahead of me”. Jesus simply said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk”. So the man immediately obeyed, and he was healed. This took place on the sabbath, and the Jewish leaders said to the man, “It is the sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat”. The healed man replied saying, “The man who made me well said pick up your mat and walk”. The Jewish leaders asked who it was, but Jesus had already slipped away. Eventually Jesus came back, and found the man at the temple and told him, “See you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse will happen to you”. The man then went to tell the Jewish leaders it was Jesus who had healed him.
Just like the man in the story, it’s so easy to lay on our mat for 38 years. It’s comfortable to lay around with others who have the same issues as you. It is easy for us to group up with the people who have the same past as us, and talk about why we can’t live for the Lord God almighty. Or why we can’t accept his free gift of healing and grace. It’s easy to stay on your mat because you don’t have to put any effort into getting up. But I beg you to not get stuck in your own pity party, or stuck in someone else’s. Don’t stay with a group of people that hold you back from growing with the Lord. Don’t be like the man on the mat and let people hold you back because they do not want to be healed. People can be selfish, and they don’t want to be alone in their misery. Sometimes the group you are in isn’t the best for you. Sometimes your friends aren’t good for you. Sometimes the people in you life are holding you back from having a deep relationship with your Father in heaven. Sometimes the closest people to you are pushing you back down on your mat.
You see these people laying around this pool didn’t want to be changed they wanted to be accepted. They rather be comforted than changed because they find their identity in their problems. Do not come to church to find others too pity with. Come to church to be transformed.
Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will”.
In others words do not hold onto the issues this imperfect world throws at you. Do not highlight them, and allow them to have power over you. Do not allow your issues to be your name. Do not define yourself by your issues. Don’t hide behind your issues. Just because something has happened to you doesn’t mean you can’t get off your mat. Just because you messed up doesn’t mean you can’t off your mat. Please do not forget you are sons and daughters of the living king!!! Jesus sacrificed his life so you can live yours!!!
Jesus is looking for the one wants to be changed, and leave their issues behind. It’s a choice to accept his love, but it’s free. With healing comes responsibility. Once you tell others you can tell others about your transformation. You can share your testimony. You can tell others the truth of the living God.
Your issues do not disqualify you from receiving God’s love, and this is what I am learning!!! It took me years to get off my mat. It took me forever to realize Gods good grace can take away my pain. I wouldn’t accept God’s love because I thought I didn’t deserve it. I ran away from God. You can’t let your issues define you!!! Im telling you God is fighting for you, but so is satan. They both want you to choose them, and you have a free will to make your decision. If you feed yourself Jesus you will find grace and love, but if you feed yourself anything not of him you will find darkness and confusion. You receive what you believe. If you don’t believe God can heal your issues he can’t show you his good and perfect plan for you. He wants a relationship with you. Whether you know him or not he loves you. He carried and died on the cross for you, so pick up your mat and live for him.
