Take up your bed and walk

A few weeks ago, in church during worship, I so clearly heard the Lord say, "Take up your bed and walk." The story with the man at the pool of Bethesda just kept replaying over and over in my mind.

As I prayed over these words in the weeks that followed, the deep feeling of correction and healing started to rise in my soul. I believe this is a word not only for individuals but for the church as the body of Christ.

John 5:2-9 recounts the story of a man who had been an invalid for 38 years, who would wait by the pool for an angel of the Lord to come down and stir the waters so that the first one in would be healed. In 38 years, he has yet to be the one who would make it in first. The story recounts his meeting with Jesus at the Sheep Gate of the city. Jesus heals him, telling him to "get up, take up your bed and walk."

The Lord showed me how, for many years, leadership has tried to time the miracles of the Lord and how hard they have worked to get into the "pool of His miracles", but have felt like they just keep missing it. The moment passes, and because of the weakness of their bodies, they aren't able to see the working of God as they would have liked. The Lord showed me their effort, how strong the upper body of the church had become (leadership) to try and move quickly to see the desired outcome but the lower part of the body (their congregations) was not yet ready and though the leadership (the upper part of the body) thought that the lower part just needed their help to get into the right place, they were not able to do it because it was by the power of their own strength and not the Lord's.

Jesus decided to heal the man right then and there, without the water in the pool moving or him moving to get into it.

I believe God saying that He is now meeting His church in a new way, not in a way that many have grown accustomed to and wanted to be part of but He is brining the new move of His Son to change the church, to heal her and to proclaim to leadership that He acknowledges their hard work but that He will do this His way. He is healing the entire body. It will no longer be the need of the leadership to get people into the move of God because He is bringing the move to them. He will heal the body and the "lower parts" of the body that the church may work in unity with spiritual health to get the work of the Lord done as He leads them to do so.

The time of trying something in your own strength is over. God wants to meet you in your need in the way that only the Son can. He is concerned with the healing of His body and His bride that she may be and walk in the fullness that has been planned for her.

Later in the story, the Jews have an issue with the man being healed on the sabbath and decide to pursue Jesus because of it. Those who do not understand that this is a time where Jesus will move as He wants to do, though it be different from the timing and that which they know, will end up persecuting that very thing that Jesus wants to do. Who He is and wants to be to His church in this season.

The time to try and do something in your own strength is over. This is a time where the church will experience a great healing to move as she is called, and leadership will not be able to take the credit for the move that God will do. This is not about their legacy; it is about His.

The church has reached a critical moment where she needs to get up, take up her bed and walk.

For individuals, this is a time when God wants to meet you personally. He wants to heal you through the means of salvation. Jesus met this man at the Sheep Gate, a gate that was consecrated during the time of Nehemiah, a gate which had no locks. A gate that was open to those who would follow their shepherd. A gate that symbolises salvation. You will not be able to do what needs to be done in your own strength. Things that feel like you have struggled with for years, where you have tried over and over again to overcome it by getting into what you know as God's presence, He will come and meet you in a place where you do not necessarily expect it, and there He will heal you. He will bring the breakthrough. If God is calling and impressing on your heart to "get up, take up your bed and walk", this is the time to do it. Move as He calls you to do.

I pray that this word will act as an encouragement for what Jesus wants to do in your life and in His church in this season. May the seasons of old pass away and the old way, the way we are used to, the way of striving so hard that we have forgotten what we are actaully striving for is now in our midst, be over.

I will pray for you continually.

Blessings