BREAKTHROUGH TIMING

Hi all,
The Lord's interaction with the lame man in John 5: 1-16 illustrates how the Lord brings breakthrough into our lives in all areas, not just the healing listed there, so I'd like to share about it.
 
I'm talking about breaking through hopelessness and frustration and into a fulfillment of what's on our heart. You know the frustration - where everything you do seems not to be blessed (and even thwarted), and you wonder if the path you have been on which you thought was God has been self-deception, or just for a season, or sin and error - you really don't know for sure.
 
Such was the case of the man who had been lame 38 years. The situation was that an angel came at various times to stir the waters, and then the first person down into the water would get healed. The man desperately wanted to get down to the pool, but he had no one to help him, so someone beat him to the fulfillment of his dream and goal every time. Sound familiar? 
 
Timing
This man was hoping that God would arrange the timing of his life so that several things would come together all at once. He was hoping a mixture of faith and the right circumstances brought about by God partnering with him would bring his answer. In his case that the pool would be stirred and at the same time someone would come along to help him down into the water before anyone else, and then he would be healed. 
 
Verse 6 says "When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he said to him, Do you want to be made whole?"
 
This healing, and the larger principle taught here, has to do with the mercy and grace of our Lord and not this man's faith. 
 
(1) That is the first thing to remember, to look to the Lord and his mercy and grace to help in time of need. In the final analysis it will still be his grace, not our efforts that bring about our answer. He sees you there and knows you've been a long time in that condition, and he offers help. Once Jesus shows up, it doesn't matter how long you've been in that condition.
 
The question
Jesus asked, "Do you want to be made whole? It sounds like a stupid question to a man who hasn't walked in 38 years doesn't it? And that's the situation in our lives too; of course I want to be made whole in whatever area - healed, prospered, fulfilled dream, business, etc. If the answer is obvious, why did Jesus ask it, and why does he ask it of us today?
 
(2) This is the 2nd thing to understand, Jesus asked the question to focus the man's attention back to his desire. The man could have answered Jesus sarcasticly: "Why do you think I'm here?" Instead, he humbly answered it as best as he knew. We stumble over the humility and child-like faith required of our answer.
 
In the midst of our "lameness" in a situation, especially if we have been in that condition some time or are exhausted from our efforts, the Lord will cause us to focus on that desire once again. We must respond to his voice in humility, going back to square one, to refocus our attention on him, laying aside all the distractions around us. Verse 3 tells us there were "a great multitude of lame, blind, and maimed people waiting for the waters to stir". Jesus asked this man to focus on him and answer the question, thus once again clearly defining it in his mind.
 
We tend to get lost in the stress of what's happening to us, so we complain, stating the problem to the Lord rather than our desire. Jesus helped the man focus on the essential goal, stripping away the distractions around him just to look into the face of Jesus. Focus on the Lord, not the problems.
 
The answer
The answer this man gave reveals his limited thinking. He has only one way he thinks God will come through for him: "Sir, I have no man, when the water is stirred up, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming another steps down before me." He wanted healed, but he only saw the answer through the information he had already. Everything in life had told him the order of events was that an angel would come, then some stranger would help him into the pool, then he'd be healed. He could not think outside of his life experience and education to consider the answer might be through a way he had never thought.
 
Thwarted efforts
This man tried to bring about his healing as best as he understood he could, but was thwarted by others - someone else always seemed to get the blessing first. 
 
It's like a business person just on the edge of closing a deal, then someone else gets it. It's like someone's prayers for a family member almost get answered, then something happens to cause it to not happen. The man had been dealing with this frustration 38 years, and at some point earlier perhaps even wondered if the Lord really wanted to heal him, yet his desire to be healed remained. 
 
Your way or his way?
(3) So this is the 3rd point: This man could only see his fulfillment coming by a way he could think of. We must lay aside our thoughts about how we think such and such would play out and consider that the Lord may have a way outside our life and educational experience. Lay out for the Lord how you thought it would happen, but then go back to the start and just answer the question, stating the desire of your heart.
 
As we do #2, focus on Jesus and the basic question of "Do you want to be made whole?", we must let every pre-conceived idea fall to the wayside to be consumed with Jesus standing before us, asking us to break it down to that one question - do you want wholeness?
 
Years ago when we were in the midst of turmoil in every area of our lives, the Father asked me one day: "Where have you always felt the most fulfilled?" That question stripped away all the confusion in my mind as I focused on that one element down through the years that caused fulfillment, and in the end, I realized it was helping the discipleship process with people who were serious about growth. As I looked at my life experiences and saw that gift function within many different types of structures (church and business) over the years, I regained peace that the Father would move us into a place of fulfillment once again. (And he did).
 
The gifts God gave you when he created you can function within any number of business or church structures; often it's a matter of discovering which structure the Father has next for you to function in.
 
His question about fulfillment to me was the same as "Do you want to be made whole?" to this lame man. It caused all the confusion and frustration to fall away and allowed me to focus on the Lord only.
 
Without further discussion Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk", and immediately the text says the man was made whole, and then once whole, took up his bed and walked.
 
Healed first, then walk...
Above, I've brought out 3 points: The answer is based on the Lord's grace, focus on the Lord and the essential question, and humbly consider the answer will come outside your efforts, life experience and education.
 
These elements brought the man to the point Jesus could command healing. Jesus didn't even tell him ahead of time his healing would come in a way different than the man had imagined, he just healed him.
 
...or trying to walk before being healed?
He could not "rise" until he was healed, and I think many people are trying to take up their bed and walk, whatever "their bed" happens to be - work, business, ministry, family issue - before being "healed". One of the most important things this man did was acknowledge that he had no answers, that what he had done before didn't work. This humility and admission of his own failure allowed the Lord to respond to his heart.
 
The frustration is that we are willing to learn whatever lesson the Lord wants us to learn, if he would just tell us what it is! But when we prune a tree we don't tell it why we are doing it, we as humans can see the big picture and the more fruit coming after the tree heals and puts out new shoots, but at the time we just prune it. In the same way, the Father doesn't always tell us why we are being pruned. Jesus said wisdom is justified by her children, which means the offspring or result of a decision made in wisdom is seen on down the road to successive generations of decisions and outcomes. We must be willing to be healed first before we try to take up our bed and walk.
 
Goes against the grain
Of course Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath, which made people around him angry to the point they plotted to kill him (v16). Understand that the way the Lord brings about the healing of your situation will not only come outside of the way you've been thinking, but it will confound and even anger some people. This is because they too have ideas about your life and the direction they think it should go (or not go), and when you start moving at the Lord's direction, they will be angry with you.
 
New walk 
If you consider this man had been at least 38 years in that condition, his muscles would have to be built up and exercised as he walked. So it is with us. On the other side of God's grace, it's old muscles that haven't been used in this way before that need exercising. It may be a new direction, new structure within which your gifts will flow, it may hurt a bit as those muscles come up to speed - but it is God's provision for you.
 
Some will rejoice with us, some will be upset, but for us it will be a matter of using muscles that haven't been used in a long time, or perhaps never in that way, but WE must walk it out.
 
Warning
In typical fashion, Jesus quickly moved on so that the man didn't even know who it was who had healed him. That's like the Lord today, coming to us to heal our situation, then fading into the background as we walk out what he did for us.
 
But in verse 14 Jesus finds the man and warns him; "Look, you've been made whole; sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you." In other words as it applies to my topic today, learn from what made you lame and don't ever go back there. Learn from your mistake and never come that way again.
 
Whatever situation we are facing, we are in it because of decisions we've made. We must acknowledge that and then learn from those decisions, yet still walk it out. Even if we look back and can say with a clear conscience that what we did we did unto the Lord, we must learn where we got off and never repeat it.
 
Full circle
The first of the 3 things I mentioned had to do with realizing the 'healing' of our situation would be a matter of God's grace and not our efforts, though we must cooperate with the Lord certainly, and this is where we end.
 
When Jesus was questioned by the religious leaders about why he healed the man on the Sabbath, Jesus said "Truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but whatever he sees the Father do, for whatever he does, so does the Son likewise." (v19)
 
Jesus healed the man because he saw the Father wanting to heal the man. It was the Father who first saw the long time condition and directed Jesus to grant him that mercy and grace to help. Our efforts therefore should really be focused on intimacy with the Father. Hebrews 4:16 tells us to come boldly to him to receive mercy and grace to help in time of need;  Seek the Father, he is the Answer to all.
 
Some thoughts this week,
Blessings,
John Fenn
www.ifaithhome.org
cwowi@aol.com
Skype: JFennTulsa