Jesus told a great story about a man who had laid by the Pool of Bethesda for many years but remained sick. That Pool was the scene of many supernatural healing and spiritual interventions but his particular guy was unable to receive any of them.
Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be healed. The reply was, "Oh, sure I do. The problem is that nobody will help me get into the pool when God's angels show up."
Many people are like the guy Jesus described. They flirt with the supernatural and some of them even claim to hold to the supernatural tenets of the Bible but for some reason never get into the pool and receive what God has for them.
After seeing God and His angels move in my own life and the lives of others I began in 1970 to tell others about the moving of the waters. I invited my friends and acquaintances to "Get into the water". Some jumped right in but others resisted.
Many times the resistors were folks whose ideas about God and how He did things were already set in concrete. The were convinced that they knew all about God and theology and could explain why He no longer moved the waters or healed people in modern times.
Jesus heard the excuse by the man who had been waiting for 38 years and commanded him to "Stand up and walk!" The man did what Jesus said. I must confess that I rarely have the confidence of Jesus so when I receive resistance from people to "Come into the waters" I just back off.
But their resistance to follow the commands of Jesus are puzzling to me. Why do people say they believe in Jesus as the Great Physician and all the miracles in the Bible but will not ask for them today? An even more puzzling issue is why do these people send out prayer requests for folks who are ill or indisposed? They evidently do not believe that God moves the waters in 2001 but still ask for prayer. Hmmm!
As a friend said many years ago. "Yes, our church believes in praying for the sick we just don't pray for them to get well. We ask the Lord to 'Bless the doctors and make the medicines work but not for a direct intervention.'"
Well, if you send me a letter asking for prayer for your sick kid or elder I am going to pray for a supernatural intervention. Otherwise, why pray?
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