SPIRITUAL INFIRMITIES (Part 1-2)

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Eric Aboadwe
January 4 ·

SPIRITUAL INFIRMITIES (Part 1)

Our Scripture reading for this New Day is taken from the Gospel of John where it says:

“After this there was a feast of the Jews, and JESUS went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a POOL, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of SICK people, blind, lame, paralyzed, WAITING for the moving of the WATER” (John 5:1-3).

We THANK God for adding value to our lives because we were spiritually worthless due to SIN. But He has bountifully blessed those who are MEEK with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places in CHRIST JESUS our Lord (Ephesian 1:3).

When our Scripture reading begins by saying that “After this there was a feast of the Jews, and JESUS went up to Jerusalem,” it is because of the fact that before JESUS went to Jerusalem, He performed extraordinary MIRACLES such as turning water into wine at Cana of Galilee and healing a Nobleman’s son who was at the point of death (John 4:46-54).

So our reading is giving a continuous account of the works of JESUS which many were seeing it as PHYSICAL, but which were rather conveying a SPIRITUAL message. So in order for JESUS to manifest His spiritual HEALING powers, He went to a “POOL” in Jerusalem where different kinds of SICK people such as the “blind, lame,” and “paralyzed” were waiting to be healed.

We must understand that the words “blind, lame,” and “paralyzed” are all descriptions of the human condition of SIN. The word “blind” means human beings “cannot SEE the Kingdom of God” (John 3:5) due to their condition of SIN which has blinded and disqualified them from the PATH to eternal life. Also the words “lame” and “paralyzed” means humans lack the CAPACITY and they are therefore unable to obey the RIGHTEOUS requirements of God’ LAW or do anything to obtain SALVATION.

However the moment a person is “born again” which is the spiritual HEALING which comes after receiving the remission of SINS, sanctification, justification and redemption simultaneously (1 Corinthians 1:30), then he or she can “SEE” (enter) the Kingdom of the Holy God whose beauty and holiness is indescribable.

Whenever we read the Holy Bible, we must not see things PHYSICAL. This is because JESUS said, “the Words that I speak to you are SPIRIT, and they are life” (John 6:63). Therefore if God is speaking to us through our Scripture reading, then we must not hear the Word with PHYSICAL ears but with SPIRITUAL ears. Doing so is the only way by which we can comprehend the Words of the Almighty.

As I said earlier, the words “lame” and “paralyzed” are synonymous to our spiritual “CONDITION” of SIN, and when we receive the “REMISSION of SINS” (forgiveness), that is when we are healed from SIN. The Bible gives us a cogent evidence about this. That’s why when JESUS was in Capernaum and they brought to Him a “paralytic,” the Scripture tells us that “When JESUS saw their FAITH, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your SINS are FORGIVEN you” (Mark 7:5).

Here we see JESUS performing spiritual HEALING on the “paralytic” by giving him the free gift of the FORGIVENESS of SINS before telling him, “ARISE, take up your bed and walk” (Mark 2:9). When JESUS told the paralytic to “ARISE,” He was manifesting His creative power as recorded in Genesis when “the earth was without FORM” (Genesis 1:2) and He said, “Let there be LIGHT,” and there was LIGHT (Genesis 1:3). The remission of SINS is God’s healing power which breaks away the shackles of the darkness of SIN through the LIGHT of JESUS CHRIST.

As a Christian, if JESUS has taken away all your SINS in the WATERS of the Jordan, and He died on the Cross, and He tells you, “Son, your SINS are FORGIVEN you” and He tells you “ARISE,” and you end up rejecting His Words because of your denominational doctrines, and you are still LYING down offering the Prayers of Repentance and asking Him to FORGIVE your sins every day, then the Words of JESUS will have no impact in your “soul” even though you see yourself as a pious and a devoted Christian.

JESUS is the HEALER of your soul (Luke 5:31), but unless you believe in His Word of the water and blood, then you will continue to live in a “CONDITION” of SIN. Meanwhile JESUS spoke His Words to you in an unequivocal voice when He told you to “ARISE” in His “RIGHTEOUSNESS.” But the false gospel tells you to SIT down in SIN and be sanctified gradually until you reach perfection. But the question is: “When will you reach that perfection?” We must not allow anybody to deceive us irrespective of his theological prowess.

False teachings can never enable us to “ARISE” from our spiritual “CONDITION” of being “lame” and “paralytic.” However the Lord JESUS told us to “ARISE” because He has “FORGIVEN” us all our SINS on the account of our FAITH in his baptism, blood and resurrection. He has CURED and RESTORED us completely from our spiritual paralysis (palsy).

Our study continues and we will look at how a man who had an “INFIRMITY” for 38yrs was healed in this “POOL” of “WATER” which appears in our Scripture reading, and which corresponds to the mystery of CHRIST baptism which has CURED our spiritual INFIRMITIES and palsy.
Knowing the blood of JESUS alone cannot heal any SINNER from SIN. This is because the secret to salvation is CHRIST’S baptism.

The LORD is GOOD!



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Eric Aboadwe
January 5 ·

SPIRITUAL IMFIRMITIES (Part 2)

We are continuing our reading from John 5. So today we will look at the Verse 4 where it says:

“For an ANGEL went down at a certain TIME into the POOL and stirred up the WATER; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the WATER, was made WELL of whatever DISEASE he had.”

In our previous study under this topic, we understood the SPIRITUAL meanings of the words “blind, lame” and “paralyzed” which connotes our spiritual CONDITION of SIN and which is the same as our sinful nature. We also learnt that JESUS is the HEALER who restores or cures our SIN by giving us the “REMISSION of SINS” through our being born again, justification, sanctification and redemption which are all simultaneous occurrence.

And let me emphasize the fact that UNLESS a man admit the fact that he commit SINS until he dies, and that he cannot even remember all the SINS that he commits in this world, then JESUS will not HEAL that person. That’s why He said that “Those who are WELL have no need of a PHYSICIAN but those who are SICK, I have not come to call the RIGHTEOUS, but SINNERS, to repentance” (Mark 2:17).

In other words, JESUS is saying that He came to HEAL people like Apostle Paul who confessed, “This is a FAITHFUL saying and worthy of all acceptance, that CHRIST JESUS came into the world to save SINNERS, of whom I am a chief” (1 Timothy 1:15). Paul was not a hypocrite, so he was not ashamed to admit that he is the chief of SINNERS.

For such For people like Paul, JESUS is more than willing to cure their spiritual illness and use them for His glory. So when Paul confessed that, “For the GOOD that I will to do, I do not do; but the EVIL I will not to do, that I practice” (Romans 7:19), he was declaring his spiritual INFIRMITIES. Don’t forget that Paul was also a Pharisee (Philippians 3:5), but he threw away this kind of HYPOCRISY and admitted who he really is before God.

But nowadays many believers in Christendom have become HYPOCRITES to the highest degree. They have become the modern version of Pharisees. You will see them singing the hymn which says, “Chief of SINNERS though I be, Jesus shed His blood for me; Died that I might live on high, Lived that I might never die, As the branch is to the vine, I am His, and He is mine.” Yet almost all of them do not actually admit that they cannot STOP SINNING in this world. So they play the HYPOCRITE by hiding behind the LAW so that everyone will perceive them as GOOD nurtured people.

Such people are only interested in PHYSICAL healing and they remain unconcerned about their spiritual “DISEASE” of SIN which is hidden inside their heart (Mark 7:21-23). But we must know that all the sick people such as the “blind, lame,” and “paralyzed” who came to the “POOL” for the moving of the “WATER” were not HYPOCRITES, but they came as they are without disguising themselves. This is because if they disguise, then they will never receive their HEALING.

So to be HEALED from our spiritual “DISEASE” of SIN, the first thing that every human being must do is to recognize his or her fundamental SINFUL Adamic nature. When Jeremiah also admitted His own SINFULNESS before God (Jeremiah 17:1 and 9-10), He desired strongly to be HEALED. Therefore he prayed, “HEAL me, O LORD, and I shall be HEALED; Save me, and I shall be saved, for You are my praise” (Jeremiah 17:14).

When we admit like this, then we can all go to the “WATERS” of the Jordan River in order to receive our spiritual HEALING. Our Scripture reading said that, “For an ANGEL went down at a certain TIME into the POOL and stirred up the WATER.” Here, we must know that the word “ANGEL” means a messenger in both Hebrew and Greek. And in Exodus 3:1-6, it is written that an “ANGEL” appeared to Moses in a flame of fire from the midst of a burning bush and He spoke to him.

This “ANGEL” who appeared in the burning bush was God Himself in the person of CHRIST. And according to the prophecy of the Old Testament, JESUS and John the Baptist were both messengers. When you read Malachi 3:1, John the Baptist was a “messenger” whiles JESUS was “The Messenger of the COVENANT.” So JESUS CHRIST is our “ANGEL” (Messenger) Who was sent by God to HEAL our spiritual ailment. He is the Almighty God who was manifested in the FLESH (1 Timothy 3:16).

So just like what our Scripture reading is saying, JESUS also went to John the Baptist “at certain TIME” in order to “stir up the WATER” of the Jordan River. He did this as “the LAMB of God who takes away the SIN of the world” (John 1:29). Therefore when the Scripture says that, “Then JESUS came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be BAPTIZED by Him” (Matthew 3:13), the word “Then” is referring to that “certain TIME” as it appears in our Scripture reading when JESUS our “ANGEL” also went down into the water by being “BAPTIZED,” and when He did that, He also “stirred up the WATER.”

Our Scripture reading also says that “Then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the WATER, was made WELL of whatever DISEASE he had.” It means that anybody who will also BELIEVE that John the Baptist laid his hands on JESUS to transfer our SINS onto Him in order for Him to die on the Cross and resurrect for us will also be “made WELL” of whatever “DISEASE” of SIN that “he had.”

My beloved Brothers and Sisters, when JESUS was BAPTIZED, He actually “stirred up the WATER.” This is true and not a lie. His stirring of the “WATER” was so clear that the people around the banks of the Jordan River heard the “WATER” flowing in an irregular current with babbling noise. We must know that what the Bible has recorded in John 5:1-9 is talking about the HEALING power of JESUS baptism which has made us “WELL” from all our DISEASES of SIN.

Whoever believe in His BAPTISM has also “stepped in first.” In God’s eyes, whoever believe in the “WATER,” the “BLOOD” and the “RESURRECTION” of JESUS has also “stepped in first.” This is because JESUS did it for every SINNER in this world. So when you “stepped in first,” you will understand the words of the Apostle Paul when he said, “For as many of you as were BAPTIZED into CHRIST have put on CHRIST” (Galatians 3:27).

Our study continues.....................

JESUS is LORD!