Heart Tracks - The Command

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,

John 5:6-9

I recently heard Samuel Rodriguez speaking on this passage of Scripture and there was a point he made that really spoke to me. He said that after Jesus asked the paralyzed man if he wanted to get well, He paid no attention to his reason for why he couldn't be well. He simply commanded him to stand up and walk. It made me think of all the "I can't" moments in my life. All those times that my response to Him, to the challenges He'd placed before me, was "Lord, I can't." Does it also speak to all of yours?

The man at the pool obviously wanted to be well and whole. He just didn't see any way for that to be so. His eyes were upon his lack. He couldn't put himself in the pool and he had no one who could help him in. His focus was upon his limitations and all that appeared to be against him. In how many places and ways is it the same with you and me? When we're faced with the seemingly impossible, how quick are we to say to the One who bids us to step out and follow Him, "I can't?"

Rodriguez made the point that the response of Christ was not to ask the paralytic to stand up, He commanded him to do so. In response to the command, his paralyzed body could do only one thing; stand. Let's stop right there. How does all that register in your mind? His Word says that what the Lord speaks, is. When Christ commanded him to stand up, the paralysis that held him captive could not keep him in that captivity. It had to yield its hold. His body could do nothing but heed the command. Our 21st century rational, logical western minds have a very difficult time with this. We believe in the miracle working power of Christ, but we're held captive by a mindset that struggles to believe it can be so for us. We're trapped in the "I can't" instead of living in the wonder of "He is." I was recently at an event where many were wearing t-shirts proclaiming Him as "The Chain-Breaker." Can we dare to believe that He can, He will, break the chains of every "I can't" that holds us in bondage?

I have walked in a lot of "I can't" places. Added to my own "I can't" were those around me who agreed, telling me I couldn't. Into those places He came. Into those places He still comes. He speaks His healing, freeing, all powerful command...and the chains of all the exclamations of "I can't" and "You can't" fall off. And I, we, learn anew, the truth that we really can "do all things in Christ." The paralytic had been in his condition for 38 years. Thirty eight years of saying "I can't" How long have you been in yours? Standing before you, me, is the One who asks, "Do you want to get well?" With every atom of your being, do you want to be "well," whole, full, free, victorious?

Thirty years ago, when my world and life came crashing down around me, I saw no way that I could go on, get past, have joy and life again. I was slipping into the attitude of "I can't." I couldn't see how I could know joy again, see my life and ministry restored, and come out of the mire that was slowly sucking me down, and threatened His very life within me. Into that Christ came, again and again, and said I could. I could because He was. He is. At His command, all the power of hell quails. He spoke that command to me, and out of the mire He brought me....then, and many times since. Today, in all of your "I can'ts," can you dare to believe He is? At His word, His command, every giant, every mountain, every chain, must fall away.

I have seen it put that when Jesus commanded Peter to step out of the boat and onto the water, Peter didn't step first onto the water, but upon Jesus' word "Come!" Greater than the storm that engulfed him, and the fear that gripped him, was the power of Jesus word and command. It is no less so with you and me. In the midst of all of our "I can'ts," He commands us to come to Him. When we step out onto that word, the power of every one of them is broken. He speaks that word to you now. Will you step out onto it?

Blessings,
Pastor O