10/30/19 – Pastor Brian’s Blog –
Do you have someone in your life that would love to be healed? We are living in a world that needs serious healing. We need physical healing. Last Saturday I visited with a good friend of mine, Ernie Tiede, that needs serious healing. Ernie has tongue cancer and for months he has been through many doctor appointments, major operations, as well as radiation and chemotherapy treatments. These treatments are killing his body, with the hope that in the end it will restore his body back to the life he experienced before the cancer.
Many are praying for Ernie, because he needs it, and his family needs it. We are praying for physical healing, but we are also praying for spiritual healing. We are praying that people will see Christ in Ernie, his wife Kristan, as well as their children Tanner and Lyndsey, so that in turn, people will be drawn to Him. Jesus said… “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” John 12:32
Jesus once asked a question of another man that needed healing, a question that seems to me to have an obvious answer! The question was this… 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?” John 5:6
Jesus was at the pool of Bethesda, a pool that legend said was a pooling of healing. Whether or not that is true, is up for debate, but because Jesus is at this pool this day, anything is possible!
So, the fact that Jesus would ask the question, “Do you want to get well?” seems to be a bit odd, don’t you think? This man has been lame for 38 years. For 38 years this man could not walk. For 38 years, he was willing to try anything to be healed, even wait by this pool.
So why the obvious question? There are times when we need to ask the obvious, to see if in fact the person realizes that they have a need, and to see if they are willing to do whatever it takes to meet that need.
I have no doubt that you have people in your life, just like I do, that need serious healing. Yet before we can truly help them, we must know if they want to be truly spiritually healed or if they just want the consequences removed. Jesus didn’t force healing on this man, He first asked the man what he wanted.
Just because life isn’t going well for us, does not mean that we want to be healed. Just because our spiritual life is a mess, does not mean that we want to be made well. We might hate the circumstances we find ourselves in, we might wish that the consequences would go away, but, “Do you want to get well?”
We may say we want healing, but when we read the Bible, we refuse to do what it says. We might physically be attending church on Sunday mornings, but spiritually we choose not to connect. When God calls something sin, we choose to call it an addiction, or use the “I’m only human” excuse, or justify it by saying it is not my fault because life has not treated me fair!
Judy and I have worked with a lot of people over the years. We have spent a lot of time with people that hated their life situation, people that were miserable in their marriage, people that had wayward children, people that had lost the joy of their salvation, only to find out that they didn’t really want to “get well.” It would have saved us a lot of time, if we had only been as perceptive as Jesus and had ask these people, “Do you want to get well?”
Maybe God has brought you to this blog today, and you find yourself in serious need of spiritual healing. I would encourage you to give up control, tell Jesus that you want to be healed, be willing to totally surrender to Him and watch Him do what only God can do!
It is not that God is unable to help you, that isn’t the problem, the problem is we often refuse the healing process. If that is you, then please understand that it is not that God cannot help you, it is that you do not really want to be healed. Yet if you are serious, and you want spiritual health, God is willing and able to do it today. All you need to do is answer positive to His question, “Do you want to get well”?
