Rise and Walk

I once coached a young lady who wanted to overcome binge eating. She confided to me that she uses food as a crutch. I found her choice of words quite telling.

The Holy Spirit led me to ask her a powerful question: “What in your life is crippling so that you feel you need a crutch for support?”

It turned out that she felt disabled emotionally because of past events in her life. She needed emotional healing before she could rise, lay aside the crutch, and walk.

Her situation reminded me of a story from the Bible in which Jesus healed a physically disabled man, enabling him to rise and walk.

If you feel disabled and are using food as your crutch, then the following Bible story can give you great encouragement that you can be made well – if you want it.

John 5:1-15 tells the story of Jesus and a sick man at the pool of Bethesda. Scripture tells us that this man had an infirmity for 38 years. Not only was he sick, but he had other sick, suffering people surrounding him at the pool.

I am sure that being in this sick environment for so long had convinced him that sickness was “normal.” But now, Jesus was with him. Jesus saw him lying on his sickbed and asked him a strange question: “Do you want to be made well?”

You might think to yourself, “What kind of question is that? Of course the man would want to be made well. Who would want to stay sick?”

Actually, you would be surprised!

In the many years that takebackyourtemple.ue1.rapydapps.cloud has been online, I have encountered sick people who want to remain sick. Their sickbed has become comfortable. Wellness scares them.

After all, what would they become if they were well people? What would happen if they no longer had sickness as an excuse?

So fear of the future holds them back from receiving their healing.

The man in the story never answered the question that Jesus asked. While Jesus’ question was future focused, the man answered according to his past:

“Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

The man’s response is not uncommon. How often does God direct us to look to the future, but we instead look to the past?

All too often, we use past failures to feed our fear so that we can stay where we are.

They don’t call it the comfort zone for nothing! But you know what? Miracles never happen in the comfort zone.

Thankfully, Jesus did not act according to the man’s past. Even though scripture does not record this, I believe that Jesus saw within the man some belief that wellness was possible. Why?

Because in other cases in which unbelief existed, Jesus could not do many miracles (see Matthew 13:58).

But I believe that faith was present because Jesus said, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And the miraculous happened: “And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.”

Evidence that the man was made well was his ability to rise. If the man had not believed, he would not have risen.

Here’s the point: I believe some of you want to be made well, but you doubt that it can happen. As long as you remain lying on your sickbed, you will prove yourself right!

I challenge you to grab hold of a vision of yourself as a well person. Let that vision excite you, capture your imagination. Say yes to it and say, “Yes, I can have that.

It may take longer than I would like but I am not going to quit until I get it.” Then rise. Even if you fall down, rise.

Proverbs 24:16 says, “For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again…” According to scripture, righteousness is your identity, not sickness: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).”

Since you are the righteousness of God in Christ, then your destiny is to rise! You rise because you have a destination; you’ve got places to go and people to see. So rise and then walk, one step at a time.

Do you want to be made well? Only you can answer that question. But if you do want to be made well, then your next move is clear: Rise and walk.

Be blessed in health, healing, and wholeness,

Kimberly Taylor
Creator of the ‘Take Back Your Temple’ program
https://takebackyourtemple.com/program

P.S. Are you ready to grow stronger Spiritually and heal emotionally as you obtain your “feel good” weight? Let the Take Back Your Temple program be your guide. God’s way is change from the inside out and once you are changed His way, you are never the same!

Click here to learn more about the Take Back Your Temple program