Rise Up and Walk

Perhaps greater than the WILL TO WIN is the WILL TO PREPARE TO WIN.

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John 5:8 – Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

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In working with people in the arena of leadership, I often say to them that most people I know have the will to win, but far fewer have the will to PREPARE to win.  Simply observation will demonstrate the accuracy of that statement.  In that same thinking, how many people do you know who want to be healed?  To proper?  To always live in victory?  To have true peace?  And the list could go on.  Most folks I know want all those things.  Too often, their problem in possessing them arises, not from God keeping them from such blessings, but from those same folks keeping themselves from the blessings.  They certainly have the will to have them, but alas, sadly lack the will to place and keep themselves in the place to receive and maintain them.  And this is far more common for believers than it may appear at the beginning.

Take a moment and read our Text & Manna for Today.  The readings are brief, but they paint such a vivid picture.  It is obvious that the will of God for His children is that they be blessed, healthy, prosperous, free, and victorious.  Yet such is lacking from the lives of so many believers.  But why?  Reading our Text for Today will reveal at least one of the reasons.  Look at the Words of Jesus; there is a process.  First the man was to rise up, then take up his bed, and then walk.

Certainly the person who is being kept down (by whatever device) desires to rise up.  But too many of them don’t want to take up their bed, or remove their comfort zone.  Even in sickness or poverty, people get comfortable, and people love comfort.  It should be evident from the Scriptures that your heavenly Father wants you to be comfortable, for He has given us the Comforter to abide with us forever.  But God wants our comfort to be in Him, not it our own devices.  Your bed is not your place of comfort; that should rest in Holy Spirit, and He is a mover in your life, NOT an unmoving fixture.  So when you “rise” from your circumstance, you should expect to remove the natural comfort zone.  But there’s more.  You need to “walk,” too.  In other words, when you rise from your circumstance, not only do you move your comfort zone, but you move yourself as well.  So today, my dear friend, “Rise, take up your bed, and walk.” 

Manna for Today – John 5:1-17; Psalm 84:11; Luke 12:32; 2 John 2; John 15:7; Mark 11:22-24;      Isaiah 54:17

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