Hosanna Restoration Church

This particular revelation of the working of God has blessed me from many directions over the years. Jesus asking if the man wanted to be healed, reveals His concern for our wants, and our need to be specific about them. The man’s declaration that no one was there to put him in the water, reminds me not to make excuses and to respond to Jesus and His word and not to past experience or present circumstances. There are more things to this in my personal list and I am sure you can add other personal revelations as well.

This time as I read it, the thing that jumped out at me, was that Jesus asked the man to do something. He told him to get up. In order to get up, he had to get rid of his doubt and rise up in faith. He had to have faith that Jesus could do what He was offering to do for the man. We all have this same thing to do. If we want to enjoy all the fullness of God, then we are going to have to have faith in God.

The next the thing the man was asked to do was pick up his sleeping mat. Do you see, that if by faith he got up, the next thing he would have to do is put down religion and law and pick up that mat and walk. To carry that mat was against the Sabbath law. Most times, when people begin to operate by faith in God, there are religious ideas that have to be abandoned. In this man’s case, he also knew that only this man in front of him offered what he wanted most. The law and the priests never came by and offered him the opportunity to be healed. This was his chance at life and so he took it. He got up. Can you imagine what a thrill it was to stand. Can you also imagine the spirits of doubt and of religion that attacked now as he bent to pick up the mat. Perhaps there were people in the crowd yelling, “no it is against the law!” A relative might have even come and told him, “don’t do it.” Jesus stood there, and then as the man picked up the mat, He disappeared into the crowd.

If you think about it, there is always something that we must do in order to walk in what God has promised. To be saved we must call on the Lord. We make the choice, do we respond to the voice of the Lord or the voice of those who say otherwise. Churches argue over what we really need to do. No need to follow all of what God says. Some don’t even believe the bible is the word of God. That is like telling the man after he got up, “now that you are up, you don’t have to pick up the mat, do what ever you want now.”

Sometimes what we have to do is as simple as asking. God knows our needs, but He still tells us to ask. In other cases, we must give up things. If we desire to be healed, we have to give up sickness. To receive peace, we have to give up turmoil, and what is causing it. We often have to give up circumstances and believe that the truth over rules even what we can see and touch at the time. We have to give up our sins. We have to give them to God in repentance and leave them behind. Jesus later told this man, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law, but He left us with greater commandments to follow. First Corinthians 11:30 tells us that many are weak and sick…why, because they think they can do things any way they want. But Jesus said, “this is the way.” So let’s walk in it.