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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

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Welcome back to day three of the Daily Blade. As we are unpacking this miracle or this sign that happens in John, chapter 5, the healing at the pool of Bethesda, we're going to reread some of the verses, just for context, beginning of verse 1. 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 in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. Do you know why the Bible says that it has five roofed colonnades? Because it actually has five roofed colonnades.

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It is details like this that help us understand that this is not a myth. This is not a fairy tale. This is an actual event and an actual place, and actual details like this actually happen. Verse three in these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years, and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him do you want to be healed? Now, when Jesus asked this question, do you want to be healed? Don't you think the obvious answer is well, of course I want to be healed. Jesus, I mean the brother, has been here for 38 years. At first it seems kind of like a rhetorical question, because you would think the answer is obviously yeah, I want to be healed. Well, in reality that's a legitimate question. Let me ask you do you want to be healed? You see, I've been in full-time vocational ministry for over 30 years and one of the things that I've realized is I don't know that you can make the assumption that people actually want to be healed.

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You see, there's a lot of people that actually don't want to be healed. One of the reasons people don't want to be healed, one of the reasons people don't want to be healed is because they have taken on such an identity. They have been so defined by their wounds or by their scars or by their addiction or by how someone else treated them, that if you were to take away that thing in their life that you would actually be taking away their identity. Another reason some people don't want to be healed is because if you were actually healed, then you would no longer have an excuse for your bad behavior. I mean, if you actually forgave your parents and you actually forgave your abuser, and if you actually forgave the person that cheated on you, if you actually forgave the person that wounded you. If you were actually healed of that wound that you have been clinging to for so long, then what would be your excuse for being so grumpy, being so angry? Then what would be your excuse for drinking too much or self-medicating? Then what would be your excuse for losing in everything in your life? You see, there are some people that actually hold on to their sickness, to their lameness, because it is the excuse for the life that they live.

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You see, another reason that a lot of people don't want to be healed is because oftentimes healing even miraculous healing takes an incredible amount of work, and some people just aren't willing to do the work that it takes to be healed. So let me ask you straight up I mean just between you and the Lord do you want to be healed? Are you ready to be healed of that addiction? Are you ready to be healed of that bitterness that defines you? Are you ready to be healed of all the excuses that you bring up time and time again why you cannot be the person that God has called you to be? Are you ready to be healed of that unforgiveness that you have been holding on to for your entire life? Well, there's only going to be one place where you can find that healing that Jesus is the great physician.

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Now, physically and mentally and emotionally, god heals in all kinds of ways through peoples, prayers and pills, but he, and he alone, is the great physician and he wants to heal you.

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He wants you to be whole. The Bible says in Isaiah that by his stripes we are healed. Now, god doesn't always promise cures on this side of eternity, but through the blood of Jesus Christ he has a future and a hope for us, and that future and hope is wholeness and healing. Do you want it? If you want to be healed, then you need Jesus, and I dare you I mean I dare you to quit holding onto all of your excuses and to bring that thing in your life that needs to be healed to Jesus right now. Confess it and ask him to begin the hard work in you to heal that thing in your life that has defined you for too long. Because you are not that sickness, you are not that addiction, you are not that bitterness, you are not that abuse, but you are who Jesus tells you that you are. I dare you to walk in the healing and the wholeness that Christ has for you.

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Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.