Obtaining a Blind Man’s Faith

03 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by eisakouo in Luke, Our Spiritual Process

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aflame with the fire of God, Bartimaeus, beggar, blind, Divine Power, Elizabeth Browning quote, faith accesses God, faith comes by hearing, God is real, have mercy on me, illustration of the sun, Jesus, Jesus is alive, Lazarus, Luke 18:38, Romans 10:8-11, Son of David

The story of blind Bartimaeus reminds me a lot of Lazarus, the poor beggar who sat outside of the rich man’s house everyday begging. Lazarus had a meager existence. No one really cared about him. His medical care consisted of dogs licking his wounds. Bartimaeus was a beggar too, but blind. Both had the daily routine of begging others for sustenance. In Jesus’ time, beggars were at the bottom of the social ladder, only slightly more important than dogs.

Faith Doesn’t Need Eyes – Faith Comes By Hearing!

Blind Bart couldn’t see, but as with many blind people, he had a keen sense of hearing. On this particular day, he could tell from the rumble of the mob that “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” No doubt, Bart had heard of Jesus. Perhaps he heard about how Jesus healed people, even restored sight to the blind!

Even though Bart couldn’t see Jesus with his own eyes, he believed based upon what he had previously heard. He didn’t just believe Jesus was in his city: he believed Jesus had the power to change his life. So he cried out, “Jesus! Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Luke 18:38) The term “Son of David” was a term reserved for the coming Messiah, the King. It was a title of Divine Power. Bart was confessing Jesus was more than a mere rabbi or teacher–He was the King! Bart had more insight to Who Jesus really was than almost any other figure in the New Testament! Wow!

Faith Accesses God

Faith is the first step everyone must take to receive mercy from God. Faith is not just believing God exists, it is acting on that belief. Real faith causes your heart to leap and your mouth to open in confession. This is why I like to read and re-read Romans 10:8-11.

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.

These verses remind me how I accessed the Lord with faith the very first time. They also remind me that I can access the Lord over and over again with that same faith. I call it working my faith muscles. The more I work them, the larger they grow.

Bartimaeus is a great picture of people in the 21st century. We have never seen Jesus with our physical eyes, but we have heard about Him. Faith then comes by hearing… It is not just believing facts about Jesus, it is trusting Him with our whole life. When people ask me “how do you know Jesus is real?” I know He is real because I have met Him and He lives within me. In fact, I have talked to Him today. He is not just some historical figure, another man of religion who died long ago… Jesus is alive and I have a relationship with Him. Like Bartimaeus, I was blind before I met Him but now I see.

The Good News was Jesus wasn’t too busy to take time out to minister to old Bart. He was just a week or two away from sacrificing Himself on a cross for the sins of mankind. I am sure there were hundreds of people vying to get Jesus’ attention, but one lone beggar crying out in faith caught the Lord’s heart. Faith will access God every time.

You may think that in the larger scheme of things you aren’t very important. In comparison to the entirety of the cosmos, our planet is just a small rock circling a minor star. You are just one of over eight billion human beings sharing space on the third rock from the sun. In spite of this, you are of such great importance to God, that when you call out to Him, He pauses to help you!

The mighty sun burning 93 million miles away provides the gravitational pull that keeps all the planets in orbit. Yet that same sun will still warm your face on a cold day as if it had nothing else to do. Likewise, the creator God who keeps the entire universe running will stop and answer your cry for help as if He had nothing else to do. God isn’t distracted by the millions of other voices. He always has time for you.

Blessings – From God’s Incubator,

Pastor

How to Receive an Answer from God (Part III) – Letting God Answer in His Own Power

26 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by eisakouo in How to Receive an Answer from God

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Abraham and Sarah, glory to God, helping God, Ishmael, Lazarus, old lady and the atheist, prayer, require a miracle, the Lord did it, wrong solutions

Have you ever tried to help God out while waiting for the answers to your prayers? I’ve been there … got a few t-shirts and learned some hard lessons.

The classic Biblical example of a couple trying to help God is Abraham and Sarah. God promised a great nation would come from their loins. Years passed without a son being born. When it appeared God needed their assistance, they took matters into their own hands and had a son (Ishmael) through their servant Hagar. This was not God’s plan, or His promise.

I also think of young couples who get married too soon and live to regret it. Our quick/help solutions are almost always the wrong solutions. We need to wait for God’s solutions, even if they require a miracle, as it did for Abraham and Sarah!
Why does God wait until the last possible moment, when the answer requires a miracle? Why do our circumstances often get worse before He answers?

It is because we tend not to give the Lord credit for answering our prayers until all of our capabilities have been exhausted. When God answers our prayers after all avenues have been exhausted, things can only be explained by God acting on our behalf. Everyone, believers and non-believers alike, realize it was God who moved and answered by His power. The glory is all His and His alone. Sometimes the glory comes from the answer and sometimes it comes from how it was answered. Ultimately, people will say, “The Lord did it.”
We see this clearly when Jesus raised His friend Lazarus from the dead. Jesus wanted an occasion to reveal His power to everyone. Jesus knew He could count on Mary and Martha because they would not deny Him, even though their “personal prayers” appeared to be going unanswered. Jesus delayed and let Lazarus die to show everyone He had the power over the grave! But those four to five days before Jesus arrived were rough on the sisters. All this reveals that the closer we are to the Lord, the more our faith gets tested. If you consider yourself to be a friend of God, then rest assured… you will be tried.

If your prayer has not been answered, don’t give up or act too soon to solve it yourself. Instead, trust God and wait on Him! God wants to reveal His power through your situation…. to you and to someone close to you who needs to know that your God is for real!
A little old lady came out every morning on the steps of her front porch, raised her arms to the sky and shouted, “Praise the Lord!” One day an atheist moved into the house next door. Over time, he became irritated with the little old lady. So every morning he would step out onto his front porch and yell after her, “There is no Lord!”
Time passed with the two of them carrying on this way every day.

Then one morning in the middle of winter, the little old lady stepped onto her front porch and shouted, “Praise the Lord! Lord, I have no food and I am starving. Please provide for me, oh Lord!” The next morning, she stepped onto her porch and there were two huge bags of groceries sitting there.

“Praise the Lord!” she cried out. “He has provided groceries for me!” The atheist jumped out of the hedges and shouted, “There is no Lord. I bought those groceries!”
The old lady threw her arms into the air and shouted, “Praise the Lord! He has provided me with groceries and He made the devil pay for them!”

Blessings,

Pastor

Barriers Where Faith Will Not Go

22 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by eisakouo in Our Spiritual Process

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death, delay, faith, false beliefs, heal, healing, Lazarus, Mary and Martha, power

Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother (Lazarus) would not have died.” ³³ When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, ³⁴ and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?” John 11: 32-37

There was a common, unspoken belief among those who followed Jesus. It was believed Jesus could heal anyone at anytime from any distance. Everyone in Lazarus’ circle kept telling the Lord, “If only You would have been here.” These types of statements implied the Lord’s reach of healing extended only unto death, not beyond the grave.

We know from reading the beginning of this chapter Jesus purposefully delayed so that Lazarus would pass away before He arrived. This helps explain why Jesus delayed. He wanted to correct the false beliefs of those who surrounded His ministry. Jesus purposefully delayed so that He might raise Lazarus from the dead, proving His power beyond the grave. I like the way Jesus dealt with false beliefs. He didn’t kick people out of His circle, He confronted their wrong beliefs with POWER!

Why couldn’t the people’s belief system allow Jesus to operate outside the area of healing? Remember, even the disciples couldn’t believe the Lord for food, calming the storms, or even for power to cast out demons. Since they had never seen power manifested in this way, it was beyond their spiritual comprehension.

Please know … These types of barriers were purposefully exposed by the Lord in due season. If the Lord confronted these good folks’ lack of faith, don’t you think He must do the same in our lives? Unfortunately, when God does expose our lack, we interpret His movements as being something else. Instead of correcting ourselves, we get angry, blame the Lord, and throw ourselves a spiritual pity party. Martha and Mary could have become angry because Jesus didn’t arrive in a timely fashion as they requested. They could have easily blamed the Lord for delaying and being unsympathetic to their needs. Like many other believers I know, they could have held this resentment for the rest of their lives. Thankfully, this was not the road they chose to travel and neither should you.

Jesus will never let us settle for less when the best real faith has to offer is fully available. Allow the Lord to expose all your vulnerabilities and areas of lack. If maturity is your goal, then only the best will do.

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He Loved Me So Much, He Was Late

21 Thursday Jul 2011

Posted by eisakouo in Our Spiritual Process

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delay, Lazarus, postpone, process, real faith, spiritual growth

“So Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.” John 11:15

This is a difficult statement to read and digest. Put yourself in the disciples’ shoes for a moment. We can be sure they all had love and affection for Lazarus and his extended family. We are told Jesus did. Now we discover Jesus is “glad” He wasn’t there so that Lazarus could die! Does this sound cruel to you?

Most of us have had someone special or very close to us pass away. Times of loss are especially difficult. Was the Lord there by your side in your time of need? Maybe you have been sick, even to the point of death, or knew of someone else in this condition. Was the Lord there by your side during your time of need? Hasn’t the Lord met you in all your moments of great need?

My point is this – One of the ways we know we are truly growing in the Lord is when He delays or postpones His answer or arrival. It is in this precise moment of delay that we are not bothered or confused by the Lord’s actions because we trust Him. Faith at its finest can undergo delay or postponement and not be detered.

If you are not really maturing in the Lord, then His presence or lack of presence may not mean much to you. If you are in the process of growth and His friendship and nearness is vital, then this type of testing from heaven is what you can expect. Lazarus, his family, and even the twelve disciples, were all expecting the Lord to move one way. They believed Jesus could only heal Lazarus before he died. But the Lord chose to “delay” because He loved them and wanted their faith to grow beyond it’s current limitations.

Does the Lord love you so much today that He would purposefully procrastinate in answering your prayers? Or are you one of those followers who completely falls apart when heaven appears to be inactive or indifferent. If the Lord’s movements appear to be unusual, it just maybe He is attempting to stretch your faith. Purpose today to “get over yourself” and grow past your fears to discover a deeper belief in the Lord.