Choose Life (Part Fifty-Two): Drink From the Waters (Part Seven).

Lay Down Your Heavy Burden

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?  

― John 5:5-6, NKJV

We continue this week with the story of the sick man healed at the Pool of Bethesda. [John 5:1-15].

An Enemy on our Trail:

I don't need spiritual blessings on the other side of eternity. I need them here and now. And, they are available. It is ours for the taking if we so decide. They are ours for the asking. The devil, knowing our ignorance and laziness of mind, in some cases, comes to challenge us against receiving. He even uses our own against us. Men and women working the agenda of Satan, yet dressed like God's servants. No wonder Jesus tells us to mark them out by their fruits, not their titles and Christianese language. [Matthew 7:15-20]

Satan does his work in several different ways and fronts. Irrespective of which way he comes, or which method he uses, his objective remains the same. He wants to destroy you. If he cannot get to that directly, he will try to kill you. If he can kill you, then he might be able to destroy you. If he cannot kill you, he tries to steal from you. If he can steal from you, then he tries to kill you. If he can kill you, then he tries to destroy you. This is the devil's unending cycle. He cannot even as much help himself to change. He is as it was condemned to this cycle. Guess who then needs to change? [John 8:44, 10:10]

The Sweet Now and Today:

There is nothing else for God to do. He would not even as much as stop the devil on our behalf. Why? He has done his bit. He has done His part. The ball is in our own court. We have the baton. We have the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions. [Luke 10:17 - 20] When are we going to start using it? When are we going to grow up and make our Father proud? When are we going to start declaring His manifold wisdom? [Ephesians 3:10-11] When are we going to grow up and stop being children? [Romans 8:19] Whether we make it or not in this life is not up to God. He has done His part for us all.

Although the way to the Holy of Holies has been opened unto us, God is not going to force us to come in. [Hebrews 4] A great many rather than follow the example of the repentant prodigal son, choose rather be the elder brother. Sad. So, very sad. Even with the truth so clearly, before us, we still can't choose rightly. We are so consumed by our own lust. How so shameful. [Luke 15:11-32] How pitiful and sorrowful, that though surrounded by much, we are no different from forsaken orphans.

© 2017 Akin Akinbodunse.

Link to Study Series:

Choose Life (Part Fifty-One): Drink From the Waters (Part Six).

Link to Other Resources:

Unchanged Word of God (David Jeremiah)

Don't Tell Me There Ain't No God (Gary McDougall)

Stay Salt: The World Has Changed (Rebecca Manley Pippert)

God Has Not Changed His Mind About You (Andrea Lynn Gates)