John 5:1-19
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.
3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie--the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
4
5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
7 "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
8 Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."
9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."
11 But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'"
12 So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."
15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him.
17 Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."
18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

REFLECT

We live strained spiritual lives because we don't understand God's ways. Jesus is the perfect example of someone who had the knowledge and understanding of the Father's ways. Jesus was never in a hurry and adequate in every situation that confronted him.

In today's passage Jesus walks past the crowd of desperate people sitting by the pool os Bethesda and said to just one person: 'Do you want to get well?' Why didn't he ask that question to all? Weren't they all in need? Why focus on one? The answer is found in verse 17 & 19: My Father is always at his work… and I too am working…..the son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing….'

Jesus got his guidance not from what happened around Him, but what went on above Him. Jesus always looked up to heaven to see what God's plan was to not heal all but one. Do we enquire of God before doing anything?

ACT

Share your faith with at least 5 people today to let them know they need spiritual healing.