"After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?"
Is it just me or does that also seem to you like an odd question for an all-knowing GOD to ask? Why would the LORD ask a man who had been crippled for thirty eight years, who was at the pool where healing takes place, who was obviously waiting for the stirring of its' waters, if he wanted to be healed? It seems pretty obvious doesn't it? Or does it? What if one of the keys to healing, whether physical, spiritual or emotional is much more tied up in our willingness to obey God's WORD, then we think? What if you have been emotionally crippled most of your life by unforgiveness, bitterness and resentment, and then one day you discover that your LORD said; "Forgive and you will be forgiven."? Do you think you would instantly see the connection between obeying the words of scripture and healing? And, what if, when you did see the connection, the lights came on and you understood that you did indeed need to unconditionally forgive everyone you have been holding hostage, AND that the key to your healing was tied to your willingness to forgive, would you do it? Would you do it regardless of how unfair it felt to let go, if you felt you were letting people get off scott-free who had genuinely hurt you? It is at this point that the question Jesus asks suddenly becomes as clear as Waterford Crystal, doesn't it? I can't help at this point but think of a scripture in Romans 10. "But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach:" Romans 10:8 ASV How often we plead with the LORD to heal us of this thing or that. We have a sense of being unwell, crippled, even paralyzed when it comes to certain things. We want to love as God commands us, but we feel incapable. We want to let go of something from the past, but hands clenched with anger or greed make letting go impossible. Can we hear the probing question of our LORD, the One Who knows all, all about us, asking "So, do you really, really want to be healed?"
What is GOD saying that you are refusing to hear? What have the scriptures said that you are unwilling to comply with? It is impossible to think that you and I, for years, could have been laying by the pool, waiting for the miraculous to happen, when all the time God's words of healing are as near us as our confession of what He has said, and our compliance with it? Again, we hear the voice of the One Who loves us, even in our crippled conditions asking: "Wouldst thou be made whole?" How often we want to blame our painful, chronic dis-eases, and decades of continued brokenness, on the Devil or something or person we know, when the truth might very well be that it is our unwillingness to say "No!" to sin and self, but "Yes" to God and the scriptures, that is keeping us from the inner healing that comes from simple obedience. So, "Wouldst thou be made whole?" It is very possible that, "The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach."
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