Questions for Reflection:
What great news did the Lord Jesus bring? What is the will of the Heavenly Father?
If someone with a healing need comes among us, do you believe that praying in Jesus' name can solve the problem, or do you believe that healing will only come when the person's behavior has repented?
Have you experienced testimonies of God's healing in your life? If so, share them to build the faith of others!
Do you have testimonies of leading others to healing and deliverance? Please give examples, as this is a great glory to God.
This chapter records Jesus healing the paralytic who had been ill for thirty-eight years, which brings out the theme of this chapter: doing things according to the will of the Heavenly Father. I am very shocked that in today's generation, although there are many churches, there are too few people who do things according to Jesus. When I was attending a healing and deliverance course, I met a brother who stood behind the brother being ministered to and prayed for him, but he manifested himself. He shouted fiercely like a wild beast, but the person being delivered in front said: Brother, please don't pray anymore! Because his voice was too scary.
What shocked me was that it was supposed to be a healing and deliverance prayer and course, but someone needed to be healed and delivered but no one cared. This generation really needs a church like Jesus, doing what Jesus did.
Yearning for God's Healing
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. (Some manuscripts include: and they waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would go down into the pool and stir up the water. The first one into the pool after each disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.) One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “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.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. (John 5:2-9)
From what Jesus did, we know that the Heavenly Father's will is for us to be healed, but it is difficult to obtain without a yearning heart. There were many sick people lying beside Bethesda, including the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed, but only this paralytic was healed. The reason is that the paralytic had a heart yearning to be healed. The Bible says: For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:10). As long as you knock and seek, you will surely receive!
Five years ago, I pondered: Why is what the church does so different from what Jesus did? I had a great desire in me to imitate Jesus after reading The Bible and do according to God's will. Today, God has brought many sick brothers and sisters to us through the outreach ministry of the church, and they have been healed one by one. Jesus commanded a word, and the paralytic stood up and walked. We say ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand sentences until the sick are healed. It can be seen that the healing and deliverance of our church has entered a new stage, that is, a stage that is more and more like Jesus.
Today, God personally testifies for us. There are many supernatural events that cause people to suffer. Sister yr told me that many people in their church are sick, and she is eager for these brothers and sisters to be healed. There was also a brother who was healed, which showed us the needs of this generation.
A Controversy Triggered by a Healing
Today, are you doing healing and deliverance according to the will of the Heavenly Father, or are you preaching a painless doctrine? Jesus made the paralytic who had been ill for thirty-eight years stand up and walk, so we imitate Jesus and do according to the will of the Heavenly Father. We must not only do what Jesus did, but also do greater things than Jesus did in that generation, so that people can gain life! Jesus did not make the paralytic repent and be healed before healing him. From this, we can see God's priority, which is not to demand people's sins, but to heal people!
But the Pharisees focused on why they were taking things on the Sabbath? Why work? When the paralytic met Jesus again in the temple, Jesus warned him not to sin anymore. Sin is not what God wants, but God will definitely give grace to people before their bad habits are changed. After the man met Jesus, he went and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. (John 5:15)
The Jews did not care about the healing of the sick, but nitpicked that Jesus violated the Sabbath. And God's priority is very clear, that is, to save people first. Behind the Pharisees is a brood of vipers, belonging to the devil. God gives people life, and the devil takes people's lives. Seeing the big things and ignoring the small things is what our God does. If you ignore the big things and only do the small things, it is nitpicking. The Pharisees could not see what God did, could not see the beauty of people being healed, and only saw that Jesus violated the law.
Obtaining God's Revelation
Jesus tells us that He can only do what He sees the Father doing. It is very problematic for the church not to do practical things. God constantly reveals to us to do according to the revelation He gives us.
Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. (John 5:19-20)
Jesus did what the Father did, and we do the same, which should be walking in God's will. We often do new things by God and live a wonderful life every day. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. (John 5:21) The man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years was dead in all kinds of minds, but God brought him back to life, which is God's will. The dead can come back to life, and all things are possible in Jesus. We must know that God wants people to be resurrected from the dead, which is God's will. People cannot live by feeling. If they feel bad, they will be entangled and painful, which will become a bondage for your whole life.
Jesus Brings Good News
John 5:25-29 tells us: the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. When Jesus was crucified, the tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised (Matthew 27:52). After Jesus rose, many saints came out of the tombs after his resurrection, and went into the holy city and appeared to many. As for these things, they are beyond our comprehension. Whether we can understand them is not important; what is important is that the Bible does say so. What Jesus did completely transcends the human logical system. God is completely beyond what we can understand, but should we believe in Him? If we believe, then healing will be easy.
For I do not seek my own will but the will of him who sent me (cf. John 5:30). When we serve and build the church, we should not seek our own glory, but according to God's will. When we follow God's will, God will personally testify. John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus, and he testified about Jesus. Jesus said: But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me (John 5:36). Jesus was sent by the Father, and the Father made nothing impossible for Him. He told the paralyzed man to pick up his mat and walk, and the man picked up his mat and walked.
In the past, God has performed many miracles, healing the sick and casting out demons, through my hands, manifesting God's glory. If a church does not do what Jesus did, then there must be something wrong with that church. The Bible says so, and we do so. God does these things of healing the sick and casting out demons through us, which is God's testimony to us. We now begin to yearn that, through the power of this gospel, we can not only rise and walk ourselves, but also enable more people to stand up and walk. What a wonderful testimony it will be if this generation can be healed and delivered through the power of the gospel! It testifies that God is with us, and also testifies that we are walking in God's will! If we only talk about principles and do nothing, it will not solve the problem at all.
Becoming a Blessing to This Generation
Five years ago, I began to yearn in my heart, which has led to the revival of the church today! If we have greater desires, then in five years, there will be a greater revival! Recently, I have begun to yearn again to bring our church into the ranks of training talents, so that brothers and sisters can heal and deliver others, and also manifest God's glory in their jobs! The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. (Deuteronomy 28:13)
God wants to make you superior to all people and live out God's various wonderful promises in the Bible. I hope that one day, we can build an online university to cultivate high-quality talents to bless society. Therefore, the Son of Man came to give sheep life, and to give it more abundantly. In the Old Testament, God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands (Genesis 9:1-2).
We were originally created in the image of managers. We must take on this role, exercise the authority of management, let those who are imprisoned go free, heal the sick, and become a blessing to all nations! God will continue to manifest His glory through us.
Why can't people see? Because they have no faith, do not believe in God's words, but believe in human doctrines and logic. Human doctrines cannot heal the sick, but only glorify oneself, but we want to receive glory from God. Therefore, Jesus said: You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life (cf. John 5:39-40). We all read the same Bible, but the received understanding is different.
Some people read that diseases can be healed, while others think that diseases cannot be healed. I choose to do what Jesus did, and God manifests His glory on me! As long as you go to pray and seek, God will surely give you such a promise. God is looking for such vessels. But people look and are able to see, listen and are able to hear, but do not understand. It is fatal to read the scriptures but not seek the will of the Father.
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners (Isaiah 61:1). This is the essence of the gospel. The Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus to be crucified on the cross, bearing our curse and carrying our sorrows. By His wounds we are healed, and by His punishment we have peace! God makes our liberation and redemption clear and visible. How can you believe if you accept glory from one another, yet do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (John 5:44) If we only seek God's glory, then that glory will come! If we do not seek this glory, how can we be Christians who manifest God's glory and live in God's will?
Conclusion
We must imitate Jesus and imitate Paul, which is also the core value of our church. Although we cannot heal people immediately, we can repeatedly talk about it and do it. I believe that the efficiency of healing and deliverance of the brothers and sisters in our church will become higher and higher, their abilities will become stronger and stronger, and they will become more and more familiar with the operation behind evil spirits.
The operation of evil spirits has patterns to follow. We must cultivate an interest in understanding the spiritual realm. The Bible uses spiritual words to speak of spiritual things. This book is not about moral concepts. If the powerful gospel is believed to be a gospel without power, it will be cursed. Paul said: We must strengthen our faith again and continue to do what Jesus did. Sister KX in our church had a child in her class whose parents had lost faith in him. Sister KX embraced and cared for him with great love from Jesus Christ, and gave him comfort, and this child became very well-behaved. We must serve those in need with such grace and mercy. God will be with us and confirm what we do with His power. Do not seek your own glory, but seek the glory of the Father, and this glory will be manifested through you and me. What a wonderful life it will be! We will not lack in our lives.