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Change Is A Choice!

by Angela Willingham  
5/31/2009 / Christian Living

In John chapter 5 verses 1 thru 9, we read the account of Jesus healing a lame man that had been sick for 38 years. Can you imagine having some ailment or issue for 38 years? In John 5:1-9, the bible says, 1 Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda,[a] with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick peopleblind, lame, or paralyzedlay on the porches.[b] 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, "Would you like to get well?" 7 "I can't, sir," the sick man said, "for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me." 8 Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!" 9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath,

Everyone in the place was sick or suffering from something. If we are honest about it we are just like those people. We are all suffering from something ourselves. Maybe it is something we can talk about, maybe it is something we keep hidden in our secret closet. The only difference between some of us and some of them is that we have made a decision to put our faith in Jesus and we have been healed. We have made a decision that no matter what it cost we are not going to stay in this same spot another year, two or even another day. We have made a decision to be whole. This scripture reveals a lot about the situation this man was in. The Executive Pastor from our church Pastor John Newson helped me to see it. The man was sitting there and he was unable to get the help he needed. He was unable to get into the pool to get the healing he needed. He needed help getting in, just like some of us need someone to walk us through some stuff. Maybe they have already been there and have victory in that area or maybe they are someone God has placed in our lives to oversee our healing and deliverance. We find ourselves in situations that seem insurmountable. We want things to get better, but we just don't know what to do and there does not seem to be any one around that can help us. Our friends and family can't or won't do it and neither will our co-workers. They have been with us and watched our situations go from bad to worse. They have tried to help and given advice that we may or may not have taken and to be honest they may be a little tired of dealing with our repeated excuses and complaining but failure to do anything. This scripture makes it very clear that if we really want to be healed, if we really want to be whole, God can do it with nobody else's help. The man gave an excuse that there was no one there to help him, but Jesus made it clear, that He is in the healing business and if we really want to be healed He can and will do it, with no help from anyone else, but we have to want it. I thought it was interesting because you would think everyone would want it, but the fact that He asked the question makes it clear that everyone does not want to be healed. You might ask yourself who would want to stay in this condition, broken, hurt, neglected, misused, addicted, ignored? Who would want to stay in that condition?

Maybe someone who did not know anything else.

Maybe someone who had become comfortable with their issue.

Maybe someone who did not want the new responsibilities that would come along with being healed and whole.

The truth is that someone could be one of us. We might decide that we were not willing to pay the cost associated with our wholeness. The cost of having people expect things from us, that they never expected from us before. Before we were seen as the person with the issue, incapable of doing anything more than we were doing and that is what people expected from us. A healed, whole person may be expected to get a job and contribute to the family. A healed, whole person is not a person that sits around complaining or feeling sorry for him or herself. A healed or whole person does not receive sympathy because of their issue or condition. If you get healed the sick and shut in visits and the donations of free food and clothing might stop. The government assistance might stop, if we are healed and whole, things will change. When we answer the question that Jesus is asking, "Do you want to be made whole? Do you want to be well?" A yes answer will cause a change in your life and your outlook. A yes answer will cause people to see you and treat you differently. Are you ready to say yes? Are you ready to be healed, delivered and set free? Are you ready to give up the attention that comes with your issue? Are you ready to give up the attention that comes from constantly having people listen to you talk about it? Nobody can say yes, for you, this is a choice you will have to make for yourself.

You will have to decide you are ready to give up the drugs and alcohol. You will have to stop seeking that high that will never be as good as the first one and seek your high in the one who is able to get you up and keep you up.

You will have to decide to lose the weight and stop just talking about it. You have been carrying that extra 50 pounds around for the last 20 years talking about getting rid of it, but doing nothing about it.

You will have to decide to get out of the self-destructive relationship, that you know you are not supposed to be in. It is not God's plan for your life and you know it.

You will have to decide to stop having sex with that person that is not your husband or wife and wait on the Lord.

You will have to decide to let go of the rejection you felt when that person left you. They are gone and they are not coming back, but the choice to let it go is up to you.

You will have to decide to stop feeling sorry for yourself because you were given up for adoption and be grateful that you were born.

You will have to stop living in yesterday, last week, last year and your childhood.

You will have to decide to stop blaming anyone and everyone else for your situation and take responsibility for the choices you made.

You will have to decide that if nobody else is able, willing or there to help you into the pool, Jesus is and He has been waiting for you to decide that you want to be made well.

Maybe none of those is the things you need to be healed from, but we all have something. Take the time to allow God to reveal it to you and then give it to Him. Allow Jesus to heal you like He healed the lame man, then pick up your mat and walk. Pick up the thing that you have been laying on and carry it into the future that God purposed for you as a testament of where you have come from. Move forward with no regrets and no complaints, just thanksgiving and just like the lame man, tell your story of deliverance. Tell your story of being set free. Tell your story of receiving the ultimate healing through Jesus Christ and be a witness to someone else that is still lying by the pool waiting for someone to put them in the water when the water is stirred. You may not have noticed, but Jesus did not put the lame man in the water. The water was not a key component, Jesus is. The water was necessary if people were going to help him, but Jesus did not need the water. Did you notice that the healing was not delayed it was immediate. Jesus can do a work suddenly and this scripture says it was done instantly. That does not mean it will work that way for you. He may want to take you through a process to give you a greater testimony for His Glory. He may want to take you through a process that will cause you to minister to others along the way. Whatever the reason and however He chooses to do it, trust Him in it, to bring you forth as He purposed.

Remember that you can only make the choice for yourself. Your friends and family have to also decide for themselves, so no matter how much you love them and would like to see them healed they have to answer the question Jesus asked, "Do you want to get well?" for themselves. Your job is to pray, encourage and be ready to help when and if they decide they are ready to be healed. Remember not to judge, because each one of us has a different point that causes us to say enough. If yours came sooner, bless the Lord for it and let your new found freedom be the catalyst to cause you to pray more fervently for them. Whatever you do, don't get so caught up in trying to get someone to where they are supposed to be or where you think they are supposed to be that you missed the defining moments that God has for your life. Being focused on the wrong thing could cost you and your defining moment could become a vanishing point. Make the necessary choices to change in your own life.

Take some time today to allow God to show you the changes that He still wants to make in your life and then answer the question-Do you want to be made whole?

We pray your answer is yes!
Weekly Scripture:
John 5:1-9:
1 Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda,[a] with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick peopleblind, lame, or paralyzedlay on the porches.[b] 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, "Would you like to get well?"
7 "I can't, sir," the sick man said, "for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me."
8 Jesus told him, "Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!"
9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath,

Angela Willingham, CEO New Beginnings Holistic Fitness Ministries, Inc.
www.mynewtemple.org
Copyright New Beginnings Holistic Fitness Ministries, Inc.

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