Total Healing

Total Healing; “Not in the Pool!

John 5:1-16

In the book of John chapter 5 you will read about a story of a man that was paralyzed and on a daily basis he layed beside a pool that was known to bring about healing to a person that was either blind, lame our paralyzed (v3). There was a certain time of the year that an angel would come down and stir up the pool and who ever would get into the pool first would be the one that received its healing.


It does not give the age of the man; but clearly tells us that he was paralyzed for thirty eight years; it doesn’t tell us how, when or why it simply states his condition.

In the sixth verse, Jesus came by and saw the man lying there and found out that this man had been in that condition for a long time and he asked him “Do you want to get well”? “And the man replied “I don’t have a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I’m coming someone else goes ahead of me.Having been in a state of paralysis.. not physically but maybe emotionally, mentally, financially, or spiritually, we too find ourselves waiting on something or someone to bring about wholeness/healing in our lives.

The man in this story gives us important information that supports my views as a person waiting on someone else to do the job for him, or waiting on something to give him that push that he needs. There is a scripture in Isaiah 40:31 that tells us, “Those who wait on the Lord shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint”.  If we can be honest with ourselves, we to have had this same mentality of waiting on something or someone to give us only what God can give.

The bible tells us that this event took place at a certain time of the year; this was not something that was done on a monthly or daily basis. The season had to be just right but when Jesus stepped on the scene everything changed with this man's situation.This man was bound in his body; but he still had a voice to cry out and call on the name of Jesus. When Jesus came, his only concern was “Do you want to be healed”?

The same question he is asking us; Jesus does not want to hear any of our excuses why we're still left in that state of paralysis, because he already knows how we got there in the first place.He knows that you were abused at some point in your life, he knows that they didn’t treat you right, he knows that you’ve been lied on, talked about, overlooked and singled out, he knows about the test and trials that got so hot it felt as though you were in the fiery furnace, But all he desires to know “Do you want to be healed”?

I too was waiting on the side of the pool for 32 years after trying drugs, alcohol, men, gambling and what ever addiction that I was operating in. I was searching for someone to bring about a healing in my life only to find out that true deliverance and healing comes from the Lord. So when I stopped making excuses and excepted the Love of God, allowing him to bring about a total healing within me, I no longer lay in that state of paralysis.

And he is saying today to you simply “Do you want to be healed”? Jesus told the man to “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk and at once the man was healed, picked up his mat and began to walk.Later on in the story, Jesus finds the man at the temple and said to him” See, you are well again, stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.

Even after Jesus healed the man he still continued on sinning and what hit me was that Jesus said to the man you are well again, which implies at one point in his life, he was doing pretty good, so what happened? We can come to a conclusion that the man was being disobedient and acting out in sinful ways.

The bible tells us that God chastises those that he loves; things are allowed to happen to us only because God wants us to be obedient to him, he says “Obedience is better than sacrifice’ meaning no matter what type of praise you give him; being obedient to him is what he desires the most.

God is always looking out for us, and when he chastises us, those beatings don’t feel so good but it all works out for those that love the Lord. There is a purpose for every situation that arises; we must choose not to put our faith in people, places or things, but only in God.