It's no longer about me

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man

¹ A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ²They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³ Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶ Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ⁷ “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

⁸ Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? ⁹ Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, ¹¹ “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” ¹² He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!"

-Mark 2:1-12

This was a real great weekend. As much as I want to say that I enjoyed going up to the EM retreat with my church, I'm more reluctantly glad to say that I'm more happier to be back facing the difficulties of life and the reality of God's victory that comes with those challenging times! Mighty exciting stuff, I must say. So with this verse that I just shared above, I've come to have LIFE and LIFE to it's fullest (John 10:10) spoken into me tonight by a dear sister of mine that the Lord has divinely appointed into my life at the most perfect time, His time. =) So with this verse that she spoke over me saying that this paralytic man has much to do with my season of life as of yet. What's amazing to me about this scenario is:

1. paralytic man didn't come on his own will but his friends brought him
2. Jesus says in verse 5 that the paralytics mans SINS are forgiven,
3. Jesus gives an ultimatum in vs 9
4. once Jesus commanded him to be healed, he immediately got up & went home

Let me start by saying this. Coming back to church after retreat everyone will start off their greetings and convos by asking, "HOW WAS RETREAT?!" Every time someone asked me that today I answered, "hmm.. it was interesting." I honestly didn't know how else to answer because I didn't want to fake a fascade and say it was GREAT or just plain GOOD or OK. Going up I already had a steadfast heart that didn't want to budge in the aspect of emotions. Emotionally getting turned on and leaving the junk of my problems behind on the mountain and coming back down. Which in all honestly is almost exactly what happened. haha. Well in a sense, this retreat was so much more than me being blessed, it was more of a real great time of being HEALED. Healing took place not just within my own heart and life but within the lives of the members of this body that He is restoring BACK TO HIMSELF! It's such a fruitful time for our ministry with all the great movements He's been leading us in, into the promised land flowing with milk & honey, I'm thoroughly blessed just being a part, member of this unit (1 Cor 12:12)! OK so with this healing background mentioned, I want to go straight into this passage mentioned above.

God has been faithful and just in using many sisters & brothers in my life to help me on this track of inner healing, going back to areas of my life that I once felt very crippled and paralyzed from functioning in daily society but just as this paralytic was lying on a mat, his friends were the ones that went above and beyond to bring this friend of theirs to this Jesus that came into town believing that He would heal this friend. Like in all honesty, HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!!! to have friends who would believe on your behalf? ah, just amazing! Not really sure on the legit context of this passage but I bet Jesus was super famous coming into this town, I mean he was at this house that was packed from the inside that people must have been flooding outside the doors, just wanting to get a peek, a word of Jesus. Almost like the beginning of the semester of college classes. haha. There just was not enough room! So for the friends to think of such a genius idea, NOT giving up, "they made an opening on the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw THEIR faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." (vs.4,5) And I bet that was all that had to be done, friends brought crippled friend believing that He'd be healed by Jesus, Jesus spoke the word and that was it. But then it goes on to say in the following verses that, "Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (vs 6,7) Let me just tell you this now unless you haven't caught on yourself BUT for reals, Jesus is NOT dumb. "He KNEW in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts" (notice not minds, vs8) and he answers by giving them an ultimatum: "Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk?'" (vs9) But Jesus knew their faith and saw their hearts and responds, as he always does in a gentle manner, "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . ." He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." (vs 10,11) I love that he just says, go home. haha I thought that was pretty funny but I digress. Once Jesus commanded this paralytic to actually do something about Him healing this man, this man, "got up, took his mat and walked out in FULL VIEW of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying 'We have never seen anything like this!'" (vs 11,12)

So how does this tie in with me, retreat, inner healing and the such? Well, like I mentioned before, I've been abundantly graced with such loving brothers and sisters who care not just for my well being but for my relationship with God to flourish like He's always planned for it. The 4 men carrying paralytic represents my friends (brothers and sisters) and I am the paralytic. I was paralyzed by my past sins, regrets, guilts, bitterness and pains + hurts but once Jesus spoke forgiveness over me of those sins, I was already released and healed by His grace, His mercy, HIS BLOOD! But some people these days have been questioning this forgiveness and questioning if healing has really been taken place in and through my life and I believe that God wants to glorify Himself through me by showing vs 10 to come alive. "But that THEY may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgiven sins.." He's saying to me (the paralytic), "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." So I'm getting up from my crippled-ness and paralysis of living in regrets, guilts, shames, condemnations, hurts, bitterness and the pains that once lingered through my blood and veins and allowing Jesus' blood to bring His cleansing touch over EVERY SINGLE AREA of my past, present and future and proclaiming that I am ALL HIS and that the enemy has got NO RIGHT over any areas of my past, present and future! IN JESUS NAME! And now going past God's spoken forgiveness upon my life but taking up my mat and walking in the presence of my peers, church congregation, mentees, bible study students, walking in full view for them to see God's glory. How he healed me, how he's saved me, how he's graced me with His life. And for that I can't utter anything else but HOLY! HOLY! HOLY! From here on out, I only pray that my life will, "amaze everyone and they will praise God, saying, 'We have never seen anything like this!'"

Jesus, BE GLORIFIED! I am Yours, Only Yours.

-Live Productively