Whatever the Father is saying...

I heard this scriptural tidbit from a friend and mentor of mine, John White, recently, and found it so telling and beautiful I wanted to share it with everyone...

It comes from John chapter 5 -- which records Jesus healing the lame man at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus goes to this special fountain of water in Bethesda where sick and infirmed people of all kinds gathered to wait for the "troubling of the water." It was a local belief that when the waters became "stirred" suddenly, by angelic influence, the first one to make it down into the water would be healed of their infirmity. Jesus came there and spoke with a "certain" man who had been sick or infirmed for 38 long years. The man told Jesus that he wanted healing, but he had no one to carry him down to the water when it began to stir, and someone always made it there before him.

John recorded that when Jesus heard how long he had been sick, he told the man "Take up your bed and walk" and immediately the man did just that and was instantly healed. John records none of the other sick folk waiting there at the pool of Bethesda being healed that day.

Then Jesus makes a statement in verse 19 that reveals a very vital truth. He says "I assure you, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does."

It should occur to us that there were many who needed healing that day, and only one got it -- and it was not because the others didn't want it. It was because it was not offered to them. Modern evangelistic Christians might say, well what about the others? No sharing the good news with them? No healing them? No passing out tracts or giving an invitation to the dozens around? What a wasted opportunity! It might seem that Jesus was stingy, or perhaps didn't understand the vitality of giving all the others His special touch that day?

The answer is this: Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing. For the first thirty years of his life, that was staying home and doing no ministry. When his ministry started, some days he healed hundreds... some days he healed no one. Was He out of God's will on those "unproductive" days? The answer we find in his statement: Whatever I see the Father doing, that's what I do. What a simple way of living and ministering! There was no theory he was following, no program he adhered to, no "moving and shaking" involved. He listened, and did whatever He heard the Father tell Him to do. That day God only wanted to heal one man.

This, to me, seems in direct conflict with the modern thinking of most of us Christians today. We want a formula to follow, a law to adhere to, a plan of action to put into place. However, more damage has been done to the kingdom of God by well-intentioned saints who are trying to do God's work on their own power or initiative. They feel the urgency of the gospel message and want to take action immediately. It is a hard lesson to learn when the "mover and shaker" sees many years of hard work gone down the tubes, too late realized that it was never God's will to go there or do that in the first place.

How much stress can be relieved, and how many brick walls can we avoid, by simply following in Jesus' footsteps and practicing our faith the way that Jesus did: Whatever I hear the Father saying, that's what I do. Jesus never called his followers to "figure it out." He never gave them a formula to follow. In fact, even the "great commission" itself is more like a great prophecy... instead of "Go ye therefore," the running greek text lends itself more closely to "Having gone therefore..." (Mat. 28:19 - see Young's literal translation, for example) As in the story of Mary and Martha, He has called us to choose that better part. He called us to listen to him, and then to do whatever He says -- nothing less, and nothing more. After all, it is not our work -- it is His. He promised that He would build His church. Not us. All he has asked us to do is be completely available, and instead of working to "make things happen," simply put our effort into staying close enough to Him to hear His whisper...

Do you hear what the Father is saying today?