LEARNING DAILY

John 5:3, 5, Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. (v.5) One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

Pastor Jonathon Moore spoke at NorthRock Church about a man Jesus healed at the Pool of Bethesda. He said, “One encounter with Jesus changes everything. Believe that. Receive that.” He continued, “There are times we know what to do and for some reason we do not do it.” Paul said in Romans 7:19, “I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.” (New Living Translation). How many of you reading this can relate and say this is true of you? “The man Jesus was talking to had a physical need; the situation shows one’s spiritual need as well” (JM).

Pastor’s first point was when the pool moved you move – it was a rule. Verse 4, “For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.” This verse was added to the Bible for clarification about this situation. It was probably a superstition, but it helps us understand that too many people are living under rules that God did not give, believing things that God never said. Jesus looked at the man and asked him if he wanted to get well. “Before He could deal with the physical problem He needed to deal with the man’s belief system. He had been there for “thirty-eight years”. He was comfortable – the discomfort in his past had conditioned him to not try something new” (JM).

2 Corinthians 10:4, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” “Strongholds are arguments or experiences that argue against the knowledge of God, causing us to live by lies that become rules by which we live. That does not mean those feelings are right. The enemy wants you to take yesterday’s pain into today’s life. He wants you to see life from your stronghold, not from the way things are. Just because you feel stuck where you are does not mean you have to stay there” (JM).

Pastor said the first thing an individual who feels stuck in their situation needs to do is “get honest with yourself.” What is causing you to be stuck in the situation you are in is to expose what is limiting you. This man was comfortable. Jesus told him he needed no one to put him in the pool, he needed Him. When you become honest with yourself, you cannot blame anyone or anything for what you have accepted in your life. That is good teaching.

What did the man have to do. Jesus told him to “get up take your mat and walk.” Pastor said, “Start walking! God requires you to get on the playing field.” The man had to get up and as he began to do so, his healing came. You and I need to participate in what God wants to do in our situations. Do not allow rules to control those things you face.