INCLINE YOUR HEART
If you incline your heart to do God's will, the veils of darkness are removed from your eyes. Progressively you see more and more Light unto the glory of God. Yet if you do not dispose your heart to do God's will, you condemn yourself to darkness, descending darkness. He alone must perform His will but you have to incline your heart to His will. (John 7:17, John 3:21)

LOVE DARKNESS
Children of darkness love their darkness and will defend it by any means. What was an awesome light given to Moses is now used to attack Jesus. Old words, former Light, now a mere shadow of someone else's light. What they refused to embrace then, is now a convenient excuse to bludgeon the Light Himself. Light their fathers contended with then, is now twisted to shackle men in bondage. Dark shadows of old light, to push back the New Light. (,John 1:5, John 3:19,20, John 7:19)

LIGHT IS PROGRESSIVE
They refuse to love the light, hence they made law to bind the people to their perception of what the light was rather than the real Light. It's never actual Light but a twisted version of that light bringing condemnation and bondage. Light is progressive and Light always moves forward toward more light. When you choose old light when new light is given, you are believing in the darkness and you will push back light. You will chase darkness with darkness. (John 3:19-21, John 7:19)

THE STORY OF THE CRIPPLE (John 5:1-15)
A crippled man lay at the Pool of Bethesda and waited, reaping His sinful choices for 38 years. Waited for what? For grace to stir the waters again that he might be able to walk, but nobody would help him into the waters when the angel stirred them.

The cripple said, "I have no man" for 38 long years.

Enters the Morning Star, present in their midst! The Man was standing before him, the One to stir these silent waters. The cripple's belief in darkness prevented him from seeing the very presence of Light standing in front of him. Yet the Light confronted him that He could move out of the darkness of inertia into the Light.

Jesus said, "Rise! Take up your mat and walk." Get out of the inertia, shake off your death clothes and MOVE" and when he did it, he was free!  When he obeyed that, when he moved, totally against the darkness of the day, he walked away from darkness and took the side of Light. After the healing, Christ went and searched for this obedient one. - pursued him! To give him more light. "Go and sin no more, lest a worse thing happen to you." All He was saying was, "go and choose not to sin, go choose Light."

THE WATERS
The waters represent the Living Word who is Jesus, the Man. So much beyond some prophetic word, God gave them a breathing living Word someone who would give continual light, someone they could focus on -not a snake on a stick in the wilderness. (Numbers 21:9 John 3:14) The Word was living!

THE LIVING WORD
We would never ask for that. "Just say something, God." No, I'm going to give you a living breathing Word, so far beyond ideals or principles or truth but One who walks right there with you in your common practical everyday life. Think how practical that is for Him to become flesh! The Word to open a door, The Word to sit down, to sleep, eat, do all common things! With us! (John 1:1-4, 14-18)

PICTURE OF THE NATION
The amazing thing about the cripple is that his life was a picture of the spiritual condition of the whole nation. Israel was crippled in paralysis waiting for the silence to be over! Waiting for The Man!

400 YEARS OF SILENCE
As the Old testament closes the Lord returns the silence offered Him by His people. The Jews had many years to sit, think and wait. They had no king and were under the dictates of the Medo-Persian empire. Though they had a temple, the heights of it's glory had long since fallen. The Babylonian capture and domination destroyed any beautiful illusion of grand worship and it exposed what was truly there: a poor heart condition.

MIRACLES OF THE CITIES
I wonder if the miracles performed in each city were a picture of that city's besetting sin. For Jerusalem, the first miracle performed was healing the cripple and the next two were the healing of the blind. The besetting sin of Jerusalem was thinking that they knew God, while refusing the light when it came to them and choosing their blindness.

THE HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
God was moving in Jerusalem to heal the debilitating sin of crippling Jewish blindness. The Light moved to find where He could shine. LIGHT ALWAYS DOES. An open window rather than a door of rejection. Like the parable of the King and the Kingdom, those subjects of the Kingdom refused the King, now the blessing would go outside. To a man broken enough that the Light may permeate his shell as to receive. (Matthew 22:1-14)

If you refuse to receive Light that it may come in, you will have your choice - darkness unspeakably cold and silent.
This is a plea to incline your heart to do His will....

Copyright © 2000 John Enslow