Do you want to be healed?

     In John 5:1-17, we find Jesus standing along side of a man who was an invalid for thirty eight years at the pool of Bethesda.  The story explains that many people who suffered from blindness, crippling diseases, and the paralyzed were laying around the pool in anticipation of an angel to come down, stir the waters and cause healing for those who got in.  As we do a cursory reading of this text, we find a number of interesting statements made by the man.  (1)  I have no one to help me to get in the pool; (2) I keep trying to get in but people keep getting in my way; and (3)  Others keep me from getting my healing.  In other words, "I am not healed because of others."  Then Jesus says, "You get up, pick up your bed and walk."  Well, that seems a bit harsh doesn't it.  But there are some important thoughts behind "How Healing Begins."  

    Over the last 35 years of ministry, I've spent a lot of time praying for hundreds of people seeking both physical and inner healing.  I have listened to people share their struggles with addiction,  struggles with their health, their relationships, their sexual problems, and struggles in other areas of life.  I am often puzzled by "how many" don't get healed because they don't want healing. They just want to complain, blame others for their problems, remain stuck in their past hurts, and choose to remain in chaos rather than choose to be healed.  I have wondered sometimes why so many people want to remain addicted to chaos.

       Jesus asked a very important question in this passage that we all need to ask others before engaging

our time to praying for people, "Do you want to be healed?"  If so, Jesus says, Pick up your bed and walk!  I believe that unless you're prepared to stop licking your wounds, rehearsing your past over and over, and blaming others for your chaos or condition, you will never be healed.  You have to be willing to do something about it.  Some may get upset by my making this claim, however,  many people run to doctors (even, before they call for the elders of the church- James 5:14) quickly to get "medical treatments" in order to find relief from sickness, accidents, etc. There is no question people want to be healed when physical pain is afflicting them or they wouldn't being going to a doctor. The unfortunate thing is that so many people want their doctors to ease them of pain but don't want to address the real cause (poor eating habits, lack of exercise, etc) of their sickness and diseases. Too many don't want to change their lifestyle and bad habits that make them sick. Do you realize that the medical professionals serving us everyday, practice what Jesus commanded?  When you have an operation... within hours the nurse comes into the room and insists that you get up and try to walk as soon as your able.  They send you to physical therapy to get exercise. Heart patients are told to change their diets. It's a part of the healing process.

      Years ago, Kenneth Hagin Sr. was praying for people after a service and a woman came up who was unable to walk.  Dr. Hagin asked her,"why did she want to be healed?" Her response was that she wanted to go dancing in the bars again.  Dr. Hagin decided to not pray for her.  Why? Because her problem was a spiritual issue not just a physical issue.  Why should God heal people who aren't committed to living a transformed life?   I often wonder why people who don't want to change their diet should be seeking healing.  Those who come to be prayed for physical healing might find that if they changed their diets they might find that the right foods might produce the health they're seeking.

       I find many people who struggle with addiction too often won't join a 12 step program, or go to a rehab, or address the underlying reasons they are self-medicating.  Why? Because they really don't want to be healed!  You see "healing" requires something of you.  Instead of laying on a bed, complaining about what others are doing or have done to you, like this man at the pool of Bethesda, you have to do something to begin your process of healing.  During a major conference I was preaching in Atlanta years ago, I had a word of knowledge that someone was suffering with extreme pain in the lower back and couldn't walk or manage themselves well.  I shared what the Lord was speaking and called for the person to come forward to be prayed for.  A gentlemen came forward with a cane and before he had a chance to speak, I asked him, "DO YOU WANT TO BE HEALED?" He just said yes.  He could have started out by telling me "why he was in pain."  He could have told me about the steel rod in his back and how he could never be healed of his problem. But he didn't. I grabbed the cane by faith and threw it back onto the stage (not a normal thing for me) prayed, and then asked him to bend over.  He hesitated, so I asked him again to bend over.  You see he had to do something!  The man began to bend over. I had him do it over and over again.  The crowd started cheering. He started crying because God healed him - steel rod and all.  PTL.  The next day he came to the meeting, testified to the crowd how it was a miracle due to the operation he had and the steel rod placed in his back but now he was totally healed. Afterwards he came up and thanked me for praying for him because he and his wife had not had sex for two years due to his back problems. Then he explained that the night he was healed he and his wife joyfully enjoyed each other because he got his healing.  Wow.  God is a good God.  But again!  "Do you want to be healed?" is the question that we should ask people before we pray for them...  Those seeking healing need to ask "am I willing to make the changes necessary to live life differently." If you have a back condition that gets healed- you need to take care of your back and don't engage things that hurts your back again.  If not, maybe you really don't want healing.

      I think those "who"are emotionally crippled by life who really don't want healing have built their lives and identity around a culture of complaint, playing the blaming game because a new life, new habits, or holding positive perspectives in life requires something beyond a negative way of thinking (see Phil. 4:8).  Jesus is the only one who can speak to your condition but the real question is do you want to be healed?      Too many of us who are in the healing professions can continue to put band-aides on the problems, send people off to get medication, provide venues for their complaints, blaming God, others or even themselves or we can qualify them by asking one question. "DO YOU WANT TO BE HEALED?"  Questions like this could be asked,  What are you willing to do about your condition?  Do you really want to be sober? Do you really want to give up porn?  Do you really want to forgive those who hurt you?  Do you really want to change your diet and exercise?  Remember one thing about this passage in John 5:1-17  The man at the pool laid by the pool for 38 years.  Why did it take him 38 years to finally get up, pick up his own bed and walk?  Jesus didn't pray for him in this text.  Jesus didn't offer prayers for relief.  He told him "Get Up!"  Do something... just don't live in your bed.  Pick up that mat. Stop laying around for another year. Get up and walk.  

      Its time to commit yourself to a better life.  It's time to lose that weight. Stop smoking Cigarettes or pot.  It's time to get clean.  It's time to address your sexual addiction, friends with benefits affair, or your adultery.  Yes you were born with full capacity to live "sinfully."  But you can choose Jesus and let him heal you, deliver you, and set you free from anything that is crippling you emotionally, spiritually, mentally, socially, or physically.  But you've got to get out of your culture of excuses and complaint and activate a life of faith and healthy living.  You can overcome anything... and become a positive, inspiring person who demonstrates "yes I was once crippled, lost much, sat around near troubled people, but I made a decision to allow Jesus to heal me... whatever that looks like for you.  I'm at a point in my life that instead of laying around a pool, waiting for some sign and wonder, with people who have no vision, aren't moving forward to change their lives and remain paralyzed by their circumstances - I'm choosing to devote myself to people who want to be healed.  Life is too short to spend another 38 years with people who have no intention to do something for themselves.  DO YOU REALLY WANT TO BE HEALED?   If you do... Pray and ask the Lord for healing and what changes you need to make in your life to stayed healed.

(See Norman Vincent's Peale prayer for healing: http://www.guidepostsfoundation.org/files-gpf/PrayerForEveryNeed.pdf )