Do you want to get well?

I watched an Evangelist Nathan Morris (https://shakethenations.com/about/nathan-morris/) revival service on my computer one spring day in 2011, one of many such services, live and recorded, that I watched that year.

I was undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, a total of five months’ worth.*

And as is common, chemotherapy had lowered my immune system and thus I’d been told to not go out in public (except for the doctor’s office and hospital, of course). That meant no shopping in stores, no attending church, no going any place where some sick person might cough or sneeze on me, until my immune system recovered from chemotherapy. That could take a while, my doctors informed me. And so, a lot of television, a lot of internet programs, and a lot of reading occupied my day.

In the middle of Nathan’s message, he walked down the steps from the platform into the crowd. He approached a section off to the side where a number of people sat in wheelchairs.

The television cameraman followed him as he approached one lady and asked her an odd question: “Do you want to get well?”

I wondered why he asked such a question. She was there, wasn’t she? At a healing service? Conducted by this evangelist well known for the many miracle healings that took place in his services?

I wondered if he anticipated her answer… Because she said, No.

He gently asked her, Why not? And through some tears she told him it was because she was afraid she’d lose her disability benefits, her only income. Fear. Fear of being unable to support herself if she was well again kept her from truly wanting or seeking to be made well.

Nathan did pray for her, but he prayed that the Lord would minister faith to her, faith that he could not only make her well, he could also provide all her needs, body, soul and spirit. After a hug and a smile, he moved on to pray for several other people in the crowd. There was no follow-up information about that lady, whether she ever got out of her wheelchair or not. I hope she did.

Jesus also asked that odd question.

Most of the time when Jesus healed somebody, he just did it. Different ways, of course. One time he spit on the ground, made mud and slathered a blind man’s eyes with it. Not exactly polite. Another time he just told a crippled man to do something he couldn’t do, like get up off your mat, pick it up and go home… on another occasion he wasn’t even in the same town with the sick person he healed, he just said a few words and it was done.

One thing he usually didn’t do was ask – what do you want? Only on two occasions did he ask such a strange question.

John 5 tells about the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda. Do you want to get well? Jesus asked him.

What an odd thing to ask. The crowd around the pool was there for one thing only, to get healed. Occasionally an angel would come and “trouble” the water, whatever that means, and whoever got into the pool first would get well. (Seems cruel to me. Only occasionally? And only one?)

The crippled man explained his situation to Jesus, as though this was an obscure, out of the way location and only a few lucky people knew about it.

But this was just outside the Sheep Gate of the Temple in Jerusalem, a prominent building surrounding an upper and lower pool with five colonnaded porches, quite well known to the city. (See http://www.generationword.com/jerusalem101/51-bethesda-pool.html)

The man had been crippled for 38 years, a long, long time. And for a long, long time he had been brought to the pool, hoping today would be his day. But for whatever reason, no-one there would help him get to the pool in time, so day after day he just watched as somebody else got healed.

How discouraging. How depressing. Why bother coming to the pool?

Then Jesus paid a visit to the pool, and asked one particular man a peculiar question. Do you want to get well? From his response, the answer was obviously YES.

So Jesus told the poor man to do something he couldn’t do. Get up, pick up your bed and walk. And he did. He didn’t lay there and wonder — Who is this crazy fellow, doesn’t he know I can’t walk? He just did it. Jesus really didn’t need to ask, he knew the man’s heart. He healed him even before he attempted to rise to his feet.

Jesus didn’t stick around and so the man couldn’t follow him, but his miraculous recovery caused quite a commotion around the Temple. It was the sabbath, after all!

It’s a wonderful story, but I’m curious. Why did Jesus ask him that question?

Here’s the only other person Jesus asked such a strange question… blind Bartimaeus, the beggar. All four gospels recount this event; Mark 10 gives us his name.

Jesus, the disciples and a large number of other people were coming through Jericho. Now, obviously with this crowd there was a lot of commotion. What’s going on? Who is it? Bartimaeus no doubt asked somebody. When he heard it was Jesus, he knew who that was. He knew what that meant. Here’s my chance!

He yelled, Jesus! Son of David! Have mercy on me! He soon got the attention of the crowd, who tried to shut him up. He kept right on yelling until he got the attention of Jesus, who called for him to come. And he did.

I wonder how long it took him to get through that mass of people… When he finally got there, Jesus asked him that peculiar question:

What do you want me to do for you?

Now, I can think of many things Bartimaeus might have said. A big house, a lot of money, a beautiful wife, nice clothes, lots of things. What he did request was simple — to see again.

Jesus didn’t speak a command, didn’t touch him, didn’t make mud, didn’t tell him to do something impossible. He just said, Go your way, your faith has made you whole. Suddenly Bartimaeus could see again, and he did indeed go his way – Jesus’ way! Joining the noisy crowd, he became a follower of Jesus.

Think what having his vision restored meant to this man. Now he could work for a living. Now he could go to the Temple in Jerusalem and worship! He could do all the usual things men did, meet with friends, help out a neighbor, perhaps have a family. But first he followed Jesus. He could see in more ways than one, now. He did want to get well!

(This article is adapted and enlarged from the original.)

* (Yes, the breast cancer “shrank, shriveled, died and disappeared from my body,” as I prayed, praised God, took authority over my body and commanded the cancer cells attacking it, and followed my doctor’s instructions. There have been no recurrences. By the way – I also prayed for my doctors, privately and in person. I still do. They seem to really appreciate it!)

How high a mountain?

How high a mountain would you climb, carrying a sick friend?

Everywhere Jesus went, people followed him. Lots of people. Even up a mountain.

In this case, over four thousand, and that was just the men! (There were women and children in that crowd, too.)

And they weren’t just casually strolling along. No doubt some of them were really struggling, carrying friends or relatives who were sick, injured and disabled, including some who were blind — physically carrying them up that mountain, to Jesus.

How much planning, how much effort did that take? And on the part of the healthy and the sick, how much faith?

Jesus and the disciples had been visiting the area of Tyre and Sidon where they’d had an encounter with the Syrophoenician woman (Matthew 15:21-28).

Leaving there they headed east, skirting the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee before stopping at an unnamed mountain, probably in the Decapolis region across the Jordan River.

Matthew 15:29-38 describes those events:

After going up on the mountain, He was sitting there.  Large crowds came to Him bringing with them those who were limping, had impaired limbs, were blind, or were unable to speak, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them.

The crowd was astonished as they saw those who were unable to speak talking, those with impaired limbs restored, those who were limping walking around, and those who were blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.

(Can you imagine the joy-filled praise and worship that was going on? The excitement? Do you suppose anybody in that crowd wanted to go home? I don’t. And eventually they got hungry.)

Now Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.”

The disciples said to Him, “Where would we get so many loaves in this desolate place to satisfy such a large crowd?” And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”

He directed the people to sit down on the ground; and He took the seven loaves and the fish and after giving thanks, He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

And they all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full. And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.  [Matthew 15:29-38 NASB20]

I can’t help but wonder — how much longer did they all stay there, up on that mountain with Jesus?

Now that they were all healed, healthy, whole and well fed, spiritually and physically, nobody needed to be carried back down, unless maybe some sleepy, tired children.

So — how high a mountain would you climb, carrying a sick friend to Jesus?

Why bother?

Why bother

Posting angels

Posting angels

Prayers for America’s Governments

https://estherspetition.wordpress.com/2023/01/16/prayers-for-americas-governments/?page_id=3353

Praise Him Like a Goldfinch! (Shared from a friend’s blog.)

Praise Him Like A Goldfinch! – A Repost

Repairing America’s fractures

America is obviously fractured; most people I know agree on that. How to fix it?  I was praying about that last night when the Lord answered the question for me.

“I’m repairing America’s fractures, with gold,” he said.

He reminded me of a Japanese method of repairing cracked pottery with gold. I found a description of it this morning on Wikipedia:

“Kintsugi (‘golden joinery’) is a method of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with urushi lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.”

The Lord explained that he’s repairing the cracks in America with his own gold — the gold of his people’s prayers.

“Some of America’s fractures are tiny, some are large, but that doesn’t matter,” he said. “The gold filling those cracks will shine and their seals will hold, when I make the repair.”

(A note for thought: When healed, a broken bone is stronger than it was before the break. That’s by God’s design. When repaired with God’s gold, America will be stronger than before it fractured.)