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That’s what Peter said to the man in Lydda. Acts 9:32 “Now it came to pass, as Peter went through all parts of the country, that he also came down to the saints who dwelt in Lydda.33  There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed.34  And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.”

The word ‘arise’ is from the Greek ‘anistemi’ and my lexicon describes it like this.

Of particular interest was the application of this word to those who leave a place to go elsewhere and those who prepare themselves for a journey. Aeneas had spent eight years in bed, paralysed. That’s a long time, certainly long enough for his identity to be established. When people thought of Aeneas, they thought of a paralytic. They could only ever picture Aeneas lying in bed and what was worse, that must have been how Aeneas saw himself.

Many people are identified by their problem. Mary is always drunk, Fred is a gambler, Harry is a loner, Ellie is a prostitute. That’s how people think of them, that is how they think of themselves. Jesus does not think of people in that way. In his eyes we are people who he died for and our problem is something he has already provided for. Someone said “He looked beyond all my faults and He saw my need!”.

When Peter looked at Aeneas he looked the way Jesus looks and he spoke the way Jesus speaks. “Jesus the Christ makes you whole. Arise!” It does not record that Peter laid hands on him or prayed for him or lifted him up. He simply spoke to him. He gave Aeneas a different picture of himself, someone who was whole, and someone who was whole would not be lying in bed. Aeneas and his bed needed to part company and the responsibility for doing that lay with Aeneas. We need to part company with our problems and with our old identity.

Aeneas was paralysed, how could he get up? All he had was a word from God spoken by Peter but it was enough. God’s word changes things. There is enough power in it to separate us from our problem and give us a new identity if we will believe it and act on it. Aeneas received it and believed it and threw the covers back. If you have ever responded to a word from God like this you know that the obedience of faith comes before the physical strength. Aeneas was not healed and then he got up. He was healed AS he got up. He was healed BECAUSE he got up. As long as Aeneas lies in his bed and sees himself as a hopeless paralytic the word of God has no effect.

Aeneas heard the word, believed it and acted on it as far as he was able. He did whatever he could and found that he could do whatever he wanted! The bible says that “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

I love the next bit of the story. It says “Then he arose immediately. So all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.” Changed lives are a powerful testimony, that’s what we love most about Celebrate Recovery, seeing changed lives, including our own! It is a journey, one that begins with a single act of obedience. That step may be weak and faltering, there may be all kinds of fear and doubts but when you make a move in God’s direction He makes a move in yours!

We do not have to be identified with our problem. I am not my addiction. When Jesus died on the cross he did everything necessary for us to be made whole, wholly new, one step at a time.

That is what Jesus asked the man at the pool of Bethesda. I quote it in the rather old fashioned language of the AV because it uses the word ‘whole’. Jesus does not ask him if he wishes to get ‘better’ but to be ‘whole’. Think about that, there is a world of difference.

In your journey of recovery, where are you travelling to? Is your will to get better or to be made whole? Many people want to get free from their addictions and compulsive behaviours but are not determined on wholeness. The ticket to wholeness costs more than they are prepared to pay. They settle for a cheaper fare, a halfway house; better than they were, free from their primary addiction but not whole.

If only we could see the ache in the heart of God for us to be made whole!

When Jesus asked him the question, he misunderstands and tries to jusfify where he is up to on his journey. “It’s not my fault, I can’t get the help, I would if I could.”  Jesus has the desire to make us whole, not just better, but he cannot do it to us, he needs to do it through us. We have to co-operate, our will is involved, we have to line up our will with His will, that’s why Jesus said “Wilt thou?”

Let him ask you the same question as you read this. “Wilt thou be made whole?” It’s not a complex question but a simple one which requires only a simple answer. Yes or No would suffice. You don’t have to justify or explain why you are not whole yet. Jesus is not come to hear your case but to set you free.

Jesus read the man’s heart and gave him the necessary instructions. He did not pray for him or over him. He did not lay hands on him. He gave him three simple unambiguous instructions. “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” How often we would like something more supernatural, something with more goosebumps, something with more oomph! Can’t someone just pray for me and take the pain away? Can’t Jesus just touch me and change me in an instant?

We must acknowledge that prayer does change things, sometimes in a moment and Jesus can and does  ’touch’ us in life changing ways. At other times, like this, it requires a change of mind, a change of actions and a change of attitude on our part. I shared in an earlier post about Jesus changing this man’s thinking. He was waiting for the moving of the water, some supernatural sign from heaven, he thought he was waiting for God’s favour but he was wrong. God was ready to heal him the moment he believed and acted on his faith.

Everything Jesus told him to do was impossible without faith. He was among those described in John chapter 5 as invalid or paralyzed, blind, lame, withered. He could not get up, he could not carry his bed and he could not walk. Does Jesus give us impossible commands to mock us or to shame us or to make things worse? Of course not, his desire is for our wholeness.

The things He has challenged you to do may be impossible but that is where faith comes in. Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God. We have to ‘hear’ what God is saying to us and faith has to say ‘Yes’ when the natural man says “Can’t”.

Each command is important. Just to be able to stand up would be better but better is not wholeness. The next step is to pick up his bed, the thing he has been lying on for years, the thing that is so associated with his paralyzed state. We have to be willing to change, to get up from lying down, to be willing to at least try and then to go all the way, to pick up our bed and walk away from that place.

If you read the story in John 5 you will see that this is the thing that Jesus got into so much trouble for, the religious experts of his day were planning to kill him for this one thing, for commanding the healed man to pick up his bed and walk when it was the sabbath day. The Jewish tradition forbade anyone to carry anything on the sabbath, it was a day of rest. This same Jewish tradition had done nothing for this man in the 38 years he had been sick yet now they criticized him for carrying his bed on the sabbath.

Jesus knew it was the sabbath. Jesus did not give him these instructions to annoy the pharisees. He gave them because they were important. For the man to be whole he needed to walk away from that place. To stay there better was to continue in his old ways, perhaps waiting again for the moving of the water to complete the healing. To cling to his bed and his status of ‘cripple’ was certain to lose him his healing!

It is the same for us. Wholeness should be our goal. Whatever it takes, whatever it costs. Whatever Jesus tells us to do, let us respond in faith, casting aside the approval of others, the excuses, the supports we have relied on for years and let us press on to know Him better, not just as our healer but as our friend and Lord.

What am I waiting for?

This is a question we should ask ourselves often! What am I waiting for before I start my recovery? What am I waiting for in my healing journey?

Jesus came to the pool at Bethesda and there were lots of people waiting. The bible describes them as blind, lame, paralyzed; all of them waiting for the supernatural moving of the waters at the pool of Bethesda. From time to time, so they believed, an angel of God stirred up the waters of the pool and whoever stepped in first (and only the one who stepped in first) would be healed. If you were second, so they believed, they got nothing. Imagine that, the people of God believed that their God behaved like that. Occasionally, rarely, and you never knew when, God would send an Angel to stir up the pool and heal the first one in. The rest of the time, God would do nothing to help them.

Do you think they operated a first come first served arrangement? Do you think that the person who had been waiting the longest was allowed to go next? You can read the story in the gospel of John, chapter 5. I can tell you that no such politeness prevailed. They were not looking out for each other, they were looking out for themselves. And who could blame them? When Jesus came to the pool he found a man who had been sick for 38 years. Stop and think about that for a moment, let it sink in. 38 years.

This man believed that God could heal him and would heal him if he could get in first but he had no-one to help him and whenever the water moved, while he was still coming another stepped in first. Now think about this. All those people believed in God. They believed that this was how God behaved. What do you think?

You can probably tell what I think by what I have already written. This was not God, this was religion at it’s worst. You who are fathers, would you treat your children like this? Would you respect any father who behaved like this to his children? This part of the city had 5 porches or porticoes, 5 is the biblical number of grace or mercy. Bethesda, in Hebrew, means ‘House of Mercy’ coming from a hebrew word ‘Chesed’ meaning loving kindness, one of the most beautiful aspects of God’s character. How can we, who have tasted His lovingkindness for ourselves possibly believe that our God has this aspect to his character. This was not mercy, it was not kind, it was cruel, it was heartless and it fostered cruelty and heartlessness in the people who were waiting there. God is not like this and His working does not have this effect on people. This is religion, man’s empty and futile traditions to try and please God. At it’s worst, like this, it is demonic. If I have not convinced you and you still really think this was God and is typical of how God acts today, ask yourself why Jesus intervened?

Jesus asked him a pertinent question which equates to the same question above. What are you waiting for? God is ready when you are, He is ready now if you are. Jesus did not pray for him, he laid no hands on him, he just changed his thinking and said to him “Rise, take up your bed, and walk”. “And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.”

Here is another awful example of religion. “The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.” Don’t get down on the Jews, all religion is like this. They did not ask him, “How did you get well? Tell us how God healed you? Awesome! 38 years and you’re better! Tell us all about it!”

There was none of that because they were not interested in the man’s wellbeing. They wanted to know why he was carrying his bed on the Sabbath which was against their rules and traditions. If this was not heartbreaking it would be funny! Can you see the difference between the traditions of men and the true character of God? How can we be so blind, so hard hearted, so entrenched, so hide bound?

How many of us doubt God’s willingness to act now on our behalf? How many of us are waiting for God and all the time God is waiting for us to believe in His goodness and mercy and put that kind of believing into action by getting up, picking up the excuses we have been lying on for years, and start moving towards our recovery. The name Jesus means ‘Saviour’. He is always ready to save. He is ready to act when we are ready to believe. Believe today, act now. What are you waiting for?

Joh 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

A very popular scripture, most often mis-quoted and mis-represented as saying something like this. “Jesus said that we can do the works that He did if we believe.”

That is NOT what this verse says. It is not about the works that Jesus DID. He is talking about “the works that I DO”. Present, not past tense.

Jesus is not proposing that we should try and do the same sort of things that He did but that we should allow HIM to carry on doing the same works through us!

This is the way that Jesus worked. He said that it was the Father who gave Him the words to speak and it was the Father who did the works. It wasn’t Jesus, it was the Father. In exactly the same way, the ascended Jesus wants to give us the words to speak and to do His works in and through us. Jesus said, “Just as the Father has sent me, even so, I send you.” John 20:21 In the same way of working, with the same promises, with the same results.

One of the common misconceptions of Christianity, and I hesitate to write this because it will sound like heresy to many, is that Jesus could heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and drive out demons because He was the Son of God. That is not true. Jesus on the earth could do those things because He was the Son of Man. It’s an authority thing. In the beginning the triune God gave dominion on the earth to man. God said “Let them have dominion …..” Adam yielded that authority to satan in the garden but that did not mean that God took the authority back. Jesus referred to himself constantly as the Son of Man. Why did he do that? To show that what he did, he did as a man, an unfallen man, a man with authority. If he did them because he was God then we cannot emulate Him. Jesus sent his disciples out as men and they came back having healed the sick and driven out demons. When Jesus sent them He gave them authority. Now, Jesus sends us with the same authority. Even better, we are not alone, He himself comes with us, within us.

The way Jesus worked is the way we should work. He spent 30 years soaking up the Word of God before He started it putting it into practice. We want the results without the homework. Jesus heard from Heaven. He knew how to hear God’s voice even in the midst of great pressure. When they told Him that Lazarus was sick, come quick, He did not respond to the situation but listened to what God was saying. “When Jesus heard, He said …” He lived to please one! No one else’s opinion mattered more, not even his mother. Jesus said to the Pharisees who lived for men’s praises, “How can you believe when you receive praise one of another and seek not the honour that comes from God alone.”

Jesus wants to continue His ministry to the lost and lonely, to the sick and wounded, to the poor and perishing. He cannot do that directly because he is no longer physically on the earth. This is not a limitation, quite the opposite. Before, he was restricted to one time and place at any moment. Now, he can be everywhere that we are. This is the greater works because he is not geographically restricted. Wherever we are, He is. Will we devote ourselves to the Word the way Jesus did? Will we learn to hear the way that Jesus did? Will we devote ourselves to him the way that Jesus did to His Father? Will we get free from pride and the need for men’s approval and seek to please Jesus only?

Joh 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

How many times have we read or heard this famous verse from Isaiah 40?

Here is the whole thing in context. Isa 40:29 – 31He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. 

I had a couple of days off sick with a virus recently and woke up on the third day feeling nauseous and trembly inside, no appetite, no strength, no energy. I am sure that feeling is known to many of us. I turned to this passage and began talking to the Lord about waiting, what does it mean? The way I read it, God wants to give power to the weak and strength to the faint. That was definitely me. God’s chosen delivery method was through waiting. “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength”. So, I was asking the Lord, “what does it mean, to wait on you?”

I knew that it did not mean waiting FOR the Lord. That is a passive stance. God can heal me whenever He’s ready. No, it doesn’t work like that. Faith without works is dead. Passivity; waiting for God in that way is basically faithless. God is ready now, that’s why it says “He gives power to the weak” It doesn’t say sometimes, now and again, if you deserve it, if you are good enough.

I knew that God wanted to give me His power and strength, I just needed to understand his delivery method and put it into practice. First of all, my wife made porridge for herself with honey and I was reminded of the verse which says “Eat honey, my son, for it is good.” OK, I made myself some porridge with honey and ate it. Next thing, I had a haircut scheduled for 9:00 am, this was about 8:00 am and we were thinking about telephoning at 08:30 to cancel the appointment.  I asked the Lord about that and felt I should go. I was thinking very much about the word shall. They shall renew their strength. It does not say ‘might’ or ‘could’ but ’shall’. The barber was a 10 minute walk away so I decided to walk there and see how I felt.

I was singing these verses all the way there and I was very aware of the next bit, “they shall walk and not faint.”Sure enough, I made it to the barbers OK and all the way home again I was singing these verses again, particularly, “they shall walk and not faint”. We had originally planned to join our church walking group and do a 5.5 mile walk that morning and right there and then I knew what God was saying to me. “Do the walk!”

My wife was a little surprised by my suggestion but agreed and we set off to meet the group. When we arrived at the start of the walk someone drew my attention to a pair of buzzards circling lazily overhead. “Wings like eagles!” God is such an encourager! None of this flapping business, they just spread their wings and rely on the wind.

I can report that I completed the walk without any bother and felt 10 times better than I would have done if I had stayed tucked up in bed! I remembered a quotation from a South African evangelist called Benson Idahosa. “Life will not give you what you deserve, but only what you demand!” Faith had to make a demand on my bodily strength in order for it to be manifested. How much strength would I have needed to stay in bed, cancel the haircut and forget about the walk? None!

I don’t understand it all but waiting on the Lord is not waiting FOR the Lord. He is ready to act now if we will co-operate by faith. It definitely involves listening to the Lord, meditating on His word and putting into practice what it says, choosing the way of faith not the way of feelings. If I had allowed my feelings to dominate me and waited until I felt better, waited until I received the strength before I made a demand upon it, I would not have received it. I would have spent the day in bed. God was gracious and gentle in encouraging me to do the 10 minute walk to the barber before reminding me about the 5.5 mile walk we had planned earlier in the week. God is like that, he gently leads us in our steps of faith. I hope this has encouraged you, feel free to add your own comments  and posts about your own healing journeys.

How many times have we said that? “God, I can’t do this. You will have to find somebody else.”  In John 6:5 we read “Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.

Philip did what we do, we look at the size of the problem and compare it with the size of our resources and we say it can’t be done. That’s the wrong way of looking at things. When Jesus looked at the problem he compared it with the resources of heaven. In Matthew’s account we read (14:19)  ”And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.”

Jesus was looking up to heaven. Compared with the love and power available to him there, the problem did not look impossible at all.

We may think, “It’s alright for Jesus, He was the son of God.” That’s true, although he constantly referred to himself as the Son of Man to show that what he did was as a man, not as God. Though we are the children of men we are also children of God by faith in Jesus. What Jesus did, we can do, if we do it the same way He did, by total reliance on His father in heaven.

It says that when Jesus asked Philip the question, he was testing him. That doesn’t mean he was marking him to pass or fail. It means he was giving him the opportunity to learn, to grow, to develop. It’s the same for us. Impossible situations are not there to discourage us, to show up our failures, they are there for us to learn how to overcome them through faith. They are there to give our faith a workout, to develop our faith muscles.

If all we have is our selves, our human resources, we can’t do it. If that is all we consider we will never attempt anything beyond our abilities. Having tried and failed a few times, sometimes publicly, we learn to live within our resources. We do not want to risk humiliation and failure.

That is not all we have. I am human but I am not only human. I have Jesus, my Higher Power, living right here inside me. Philip had Jesus right there with him but he didn’t consider Jesus in the right way. If Philip couldn’t see it, touch it, hear it, taste it or smell it then it wasn’t real, it didn’t count. Andrew was the same. He did his sums and counted 5 loaves and 2 fish. Then he counted the people, over 5000 men plus women and children. That did not add up to anything they could do. “Send them away to buy bread for themselves” was the universal decision of the disciples.

Do you ever look at the needs of others and want to help but feel totally inadequate? Of course you do, we all do. In ourselves, we are inadequate. In fact, if we think we are adequate we have a real problem. But Jesus wants to move through us to reach out and touch others. When we give Him the little that we have He blesses it, breaks it, and does wonders with it.

Do not look at yourself and give up. Look up and give yourself to HIM.

Ps 89:15-18 “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound! They shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Thy countenance.   In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day, and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted.  For Thou art the glory of their strength, and in Thy favor our horn shall be exalted.  For the LORD is our defense, and the Holy One of Israel is our King.”

There is a joy and a strength that comes from weakness confessed. Coming out of denial and admitting that we have a problem which we ourselves cannot manage or overcome is the beginning of finding joy and strength. To those who do not understand, admitting weakness, surrendering to our Higher Power, Jesus, is going backwards. They think that might is right, only the strong survive etc. Never show your weakness, act tough or people will despise you and take advantage of you.  

Our verses from Psalm 89 tell us a different truth. Blessed are the people who rejoice not in themselves but in Jesus, His strength, His righteousness, His mercy, His favour. He is our defence and our hope and in Him we find joy and liberty. He teaches us to confess our weaknesses to ourselves, to God, and to another human being.  James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”   

I like that phrase, “so that you may be healed”!  This is the way that God has ordained for our healing. I used to surf the adult channels on the TV from time to time and confess it to the Lord the following day. No matter how often I confessed my sin to the Lord I would do it again. While I was doing it I knew that he knew I was doing it but it did not stop me doing it. This went on for years until the day that I admitted the exact nature of my wrongs to another human being. I cannot explain how this works but from that day I am not tempted. 

It is not that I am tempted and have found new strength to overcome, there is a measure of this but generally speaking I am no longer tempted. How did that happen? One minute I was a prisoner to my weakness, my “tendency to do the wrong thing” as John Baker puts it so well, and the next minute I was free. And I KNEW that I was free! My shame and embarrassment at confessing my sin turned to joy and liberty, a liberty that has continued to this day, more than three years later. How does that work?  

I cannot explain it completely but God gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud but He gives grace (favour, strength, joy, liberty, whatever your need is) to the humble. The first word of the gospel is repent. Practical repentance is not just a feeling of sorrow or regret, it is worked out in actions, in turning away from our sins and following Jesus, taking His advice, obeying His instructions.  

He tells us to confess to one another, not so that we may be humiliated and shamed but that we may be healed and liberated. It works! I and countless others can testify to this wonderful truth. We are indeed a blessed people.