Luke
5:18 And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and
they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before
him. 19 And when they could not find by what way they might
bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him
down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.
20 And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven
thee. 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this
which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? 22 But when
Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in
your hearts? 23 Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to
say, Rise up and walk? 24 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power
upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto
thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. 25 And immediately
he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his
own house, glorifying God. 26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God,
and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day.
This scripture reminds me of when Jesus
healed the paralytic and told him to take up his bed and walk. He had the nerve
to heal him on the Sabbath day and the priests were angry. “How dare you carry your bed (do work) on the
Sabbath day.” Here they aren’t angry over the day or that Christ healed them,
but that he did so by forgiving sins. Are you one of these people? Do you get
angry because someone’s good works are done different than you were taught?
I have seen it all to often in churches
that someone doesn’t like how another saint’s gift works. Scripture says that Jesus gives each of us
several gifts AS HE WILLS; not as WE will.
There are religions over all the earth that will murder you because you
do not believe as they do. Why do we in
Christ get so angry because one has prophecy and the other has tongues and
interpretation. I had one person tell me
to stop wasting time speaking in tongues and just prophecy to the person I was
praying for. That is great advice except
for one thing; my gifts don’t work that way.
My wife receives warnings and prophetic visions in her sleep. I pray in tongues and THEN I receive the
interpretation.
It’s not your job to denigrate someone’s
gift. Unless they are doing something
UNSCRIPTURAL you should rejoice over their gift. I have Word of Wisdom but not Word of
Knowledge. I know others who have word
of Knowledge but not Word of Wisdom.
I’ve had a perfect stranger prophesy to me because they saw me in a
vision and two days later saw me in real life.
There are gifts I wish I had and I have certain gifts that I used to
wish I didn’t have. What changed in my
life is that I finally realized that I have EXACTLY the gifts that God ordained
for me to have. In addition to that
exciting idea, scripture offers me the opportunity to request other gifts that
I feel I may want (1 Corinthian 12:31).
Since you are coveting the best gifts from God and He has an unlimited
supply, it is the one type of coveting you can do with God’s blessing.
There was a doctor, Patch Adams, who treated
the fear and uncertainty of an illness before he treated the patient. His first
act was to make you feel comfortable and then, when you weren’t terrified out
of your wits, walk you through the treatment process. In the case of this
scripture, the man was a sinner. We know
this because Jesus said he was a sinner. Sometimes we will hesitate to come to
God because our heart is so guilty. I attend a highly prophetic church and
there have been many times over the years when I have wanted to stay home because
I feared God would put my stuff out there, let people know I’m not perfect. The
only reason for God to shout your sins from the housetop is that you won’t deal
with them in a timely manner. Remember, He’s not interested in embarrassing
you, He wants you delivered and set free. Run to Him. He can fix it.
In the scripture above, this man knew he
was a sinner. It’s possible he might have stayed in bed till he died if it had
not been for his friends. Verse 20 says that Jesus saw THEIR faith. What faith? The faith to climb up onto the roof and dig a
hole large enough to lower their friend down to Jesus. That act was the faith
Jesus saw. The Bible says that faith
works by and is empowered by love. Has a great move of God ever come by
stinginess? All the great moves of God
have come because when God sought for a man, someone heard the heart call and
shouldered the burden. Whether it was because they loved God or that they loved
their friend, it moved them to action which moved God to complete the process.
My wife reminded me yesterday of the
scripture that says, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his
life for his friend.” These men loved
their friend enough to tear up a roof and make sure that Jesus could see their
friend up close and personal. They
didn’t care about the consequences, only about the results. Their faith healed their friend. Their faith probably saved their souls by
turning them to Christ and God. They
could not have healed their friend; they didn’t have the gifts. They probably took up offerings for doctors
and nothing came of it. They still loved
him enough to climb a roof and tunnel through it to reach Jesus. What love!
On the other hand, the scribes and
Pharisees who loved appearances more than results, who lived for the letter of
the law rather than the spirit of love, were angered by Christ’s
pronouncements, “thy sins be forgiven.” One thing the Jews knew was that only
God could heal. Christ settled that one by saying, “Arise, take your bed and go
home.”
The man with palsy glorified God and went
home. The others were filled with fear and awe and wondered about God’s
miracles. In Matthew 12:24, the Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons
by the prince of demons. Jesus said that no house divided against itself shall
stand. Satan who breeds illness, does not heal.
Only God heals. After their
accusation in Matthew 12:24 He ceased speaking to them again.
You may not always like the way God gets
things done. You may not like dancing or singing or prophesying, or any number
of Christian acts that many in the church enjoy; but NEVER speak against them
unless scripture specifically forbids them. You might just find yourself
fighting against God, and you can’t win that fight.
Lord, let me see
your vision and renew a right spirit within me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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