Will You Be Made Whole?

In this message, I explore the story of a man who lay helpless for 38 years at the Pool of Bethesda — and the one question Jesus asked him that changed everything: "Will you be made whole?" I share a remarkable modern miracle of healing and deliverance, and I invite you to let Jesus call you by the name of who you were always meant to be.

Show Notes

Opening Prayer

"The sick man answered and said, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I'm coming, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, rise, take up your bed and walk." I am going to be sharing the word of God with you, and I do believe that you are going to experience a miracle. People are going to get set free, you're going to get delivered, you're going to see and begin to experience the miracle power of God that is available for you because of Jesus Christ, who died on a cross 2,000 years ago and paid the price for your sin. And because of his sacrifice, you can be reconnected to God. And being reconnected to God, there is a newness of life that is given to you. Jesus Christ himself said, "I came to give you life eternally, but I came also to give you life abundantly. I came to give you a reason to live. I came to give you a story of what I'm going to do in your life that only God can accomplish." And once the word of God is spoken and you've had an opportunity to respond, then you can celebrate that with us. Father God Almighty, I thank you for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. Lord, you told us years ago, cast the internet on the right side of the boat and I will bring in a harvest. And we obeyed you. And this prayer meeting is now in over 200 countries and dependencies around the world, and Lord, you're going to bring in a harvest. God, I thank you for the numbers of people who are going to come out of darkness and into light, out of captivity and into freedom, out of weakness and into strength, out of confusion into clarity of thought. God, you're going to send healing into homes, families, marriages, minds. God, you're going to deliver. Lord, we boast about you, we talk about you, but the work is all yours, and we acknowledge that. You have the power, and you proved your heart when you went to a cross. It wasn't just a vain display of your affection. Lord, there was power released when you were raised from the dead, and because of that, God, we have hope in this generation. Lord Jesus Christ, we ask you that the work that you came to do, you would do today. God, you would set free the oppressed, give sight to the blind. Let the poor have the treasure of heaven open to them, the strength of God revealed to them. Heal those that have been wounded so deeply they think they'll never recover. Bring healing into their lives. Lift up the weak. Set free, God, those that are captivated. And Lord, we ask you to do this for the glory of your name. Lord, it's time for you to work. God, the world is dark, the day is late, you're coming soon. We ask you, God, to move in miraculous power again in this generation. As you have done — we sing about it — do what you are famous for. Do what you have done, what you have displayed, what you've shown us, God. Clearly in the scriptures, we see your heart. You healed all who came to you. You never turned somebody away and said, come back some other time. You healed every person. We are here to declare your victory, your power, your heart, your cross, your work. And we do it in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Pool of Bethesda — John 5

My message is called "Will You Be Made Whole?" John 5, beginning at verse 2: "Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water." I think of the numbers of people who are exactly like this — sick, blind. You don't see a way forward. You don't have the strength to get up and move into what God has. You're paralyzed by fear, perhaps, and you're waiting for your divine moment. The moving of the water symbolizes a divine moment. It was the stirring of God, and whoever got up and got into the stirring of this water first was healed of whatever disease or circumstance they had. "For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water, that whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years." I want you to picture that. Can you imagine what this man felt like? Thirty-eight years lying there, unable to move, can't see a way forward. The only way forward is if he can make it into a divine moment in his life. He somehow knows that only God can make a difference. Thirty-eight years of hopelessness. "When Jesus saw him lying there, he knew that he had already been there in that condition a long time. And he said to him, 'Do you want to be made whole?'" "The sick man answered him, 'Sir, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up. But while I'm coming, another steps down before me.'" In other words, maybe there were people there at one point saying, "Hey, we're going to do this together. We're going to get you through this. We're going to fight through this together." But after thirty-eight years, everybody gave up. There's nobody left. Nobody there to help him. All of the words of encouragement that would be spoken into this man's life are gone. There's just nobody there. It's only him. Don't you love it that when everybody's gone, Jesus Christ is still there? He is the one who sticks closer than a brother. He does not walk away from us in our struggle, in our time of difficulty. "Jesus said to him, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.' And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked. And that day was the Sabbath."

Gary's Story — A Modern Miracle

Several years ago, this prayer meeting used to be on a Tuesday night in New York City at Times Square Church. And requests were coming in from all over the world, but some were repetitive. There was this one that kept coming in from a place called Newfoundland in Canada, from a lady called Heather. She kept saying, "Pray for my husband Gary. My husband Gary is a drug addict. Everyone has given up on my husband Gary." As a matter of fact, in line with this passage, Gary had been a drug addict for 38 years. Gary had gone to every conceivable program known to humanity and nobody had been able to help him. He would always get out, maybe experience momentary victory, and then go back again into his old habits. He had a chair in the house and used to sit in that chair and do drugs — whatever kind, some of them were pretty hard drugs. Heather was watching this prayer meeting, this worldwide prayer meeting. And one night the Spirit of God came upon her and she went downstairs, got an axe, and chopped his chair to pieces in the living room. I told her she should write a pamphlet and call it the Book of Acts, according to Heather. She chopped Gary's chair to pieces in the living room and she said, "Satan, no more in this house. No more drugs in this house. No more debauchery in this house. No more captivity in this house — because I'm hearing something online. I'm hearing a message that I can be free. My marriage can be restored. My husband can be delivered." She kept giving those prayer requests week after week. Pray for my husband Gary and my son Liam, if I remember correctly. So one Tuesday night I got up and I saw that Heather had submitted another prayer request: pray for my husband Gary. And at that moment, the Holy Spirit came upon me. Now you and I need to learn this — especially the students here in this Bible school. We need to learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit because we live a supernatural life. The Spirit of God is within us. And if we learn to cooperate with God, when God is moving and God is speaking, miracles start happening. I looked into the screen that night and I pointed my finger at the screen. I said, "Gary, listen to me. You are not a drug addict. God has called you to be an evangelist. You are an evangelist. You're not a drug addict." He'd been 38 years on drugs. He'd already moved out. He was living with another woman. At that very moment, he had walked in the door to get some clothes to take to this other house where he was living. He walked in, and on the screen was this man from New York pointing his finger at him and saying, "Gary, listen to me." God knows. God knows how to reach somebody. God knows when to reach somebody. Gary left the house. He was angered that night. "How dare — who is this man? How does he know about me? And how dare he speak that way?" He said, "If you would have been close to me, you would have got hurt that night." He told me, and he would have been able to do it too. He said, "I got in my car and I was so mad at you. I was shaking, gripping the steering wheel. How dare he say this thing to me? Does he not know who I am? Does he not know the bondage I'm in? Does he not know I can't get free from this? Does he not know the way I'm living? Be an evangelist — what is he talking about?" He gets in his car, drives to his girlfriend's house, gets out of the car, goes up the stairs, in through the door, and has a massive asthma attack. He doesn't have asthma. Can't breathe. It terrifies him. He runs out of the house, gets back in his car with his heart pounding. He says, "That didn't happen. That can't be real. That didn't happen." He gets out of his car again, goes back in the house, has a second attack where he can't breathe. He begins to realize God is speaking to him. He goes back home, surrenders his life to Jesus Christ, and is completely set free — without withdrawal. I flew Gary and Heather to New York City where Gary was able to share his testimony at Times Square Church. And he's such an evangelist that he won somebody to Christ on the street on the way to the church that day. He's a gifted evangelist. He's a natural evangelist. And the last I heard of Gary, he was studying to be an evangelist. God had transformed his life.

He Calls You What You Will Be

You see, Jesus Christ doesn't call us what we are. He calls us what we will be. "Your name is Simon, but you're going to be called Peter. And upon this rock, I'm going to build my church." He would meet people and rename them. Praise be to God. What is your new name? What has he called you? I know what is on your birth certificate, but that may not be what God is calling you. He's calling you by the name of the person that he's intending you to be, and you will become that by the power of the Spirit of Almighty God. I think for too long we've lived a natural Christianity. By that, I mean we've lived by what we think, what we feel, what we know, and what we think we can do. And we've fallen very, very far short of the possibilities that God has for each of our lives. What I talked to you about — speaking into the screen — is called a word of knowledge in the Bible. It's a gift of the Holy Spirit. If we learn to cooperate with God, miracles start happening. I personally feel I've lived much of my life just riding the edges of what God really wants to do. And my prayer lately is, God, take me deeper, take me farther. Give me a deeper sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. God, I feel that there is so much more that I have not laid hold of. Thank God for what has happened — it's been a marvelous journey — but it's short of what God could do. I think of all the opportunities every day to speak into somebody's life in a bank or a store or a supermarket. And the number of times maybe I draw back, or don't do what God's calling me to do, when he knows what that person was crying the night before. He knows the need of their heart. And I want to encourage the young people that are here and those from the campus church — seek God for everything he's got for your life. Ask for the giftings of the Holy Spirit. Read about the gifts and just say, "God, give me the fullness of what I need to glorify your name on the earth." It's not about me being aggrandized. It's about you and your work being done through my life. Help me to move in cooperation with you, because there are so many other Garys out there that need to be set free. They need somebody to speak into their life. They need a word of knowledge spoken to them to bring them out of where they are into where they could be.

Embracing the Question

This man lay 38 years at this pool and most likely everybody had given up on him. I think of the numbers of people whose families have given up on them, people around them who knew them best, maybe saying, "You'll never change. You'll always be like this." And I thank God with all my heart that there is one who doesn't give up on you. There is one who doesn't call you what you think you are, but calls you what he's going to make you into. "You're not a drug addict, Gary. You're an evangelist." Hallelujah. Jesus knew this man had been in that condition a long time. And he said, "Do you want to be made well?" Now, some people embrace their pain — or their addiction — to the point where they have no sense of what they would be without it. You counsel some people who are sorrowful, and they don't have the power to cast off their sorrow because they don't know what they would be without it. They've had that cloak around them for so long they don't have the courage to throw it away and come to Jesus and be made new, because that sorrow is the one thing that has seemingly brought them comfort. But there has got to be a willingness when Jesus says, "Do you want to be made whole?" There's got to be something in your heart and mind that says, "Oh God, I want that with all my heart. Where you lead me, I will follow. What you ask me to walk away from, I will walk away from it. Where you call me, I will go. What you give me, God, I will possess it with great gratitude. What you ask me to say, I will say. Where you ask me to go, I'll go. What you ask me to do, I will do." Jesus Christ, I want your life to be lived out inside of mine. I want to live for the sake of others. I don't want to be relegated to just an argument in this world. This world is too dark now for an argument. I want my life to be an expression of the reality of the living Christ within me. So take me where I need to go, and make me into what I need to be, and give me what I need to possess, and give me something to say when I get where you send me. God, I want to walk in cooperation with you. I want to know your power. I want to see you do a work, God, in my generation that can only be attributed to you. Do you want to be made whole? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. In whatever God defines that wholeness as. It's not my definition that binds God. It's whatever God says. My life — whatever he says wholeness is. I might have an aspect of character that I think is quite nice and God says, "That's got to go." If you want to be made whole, you've got to let that go. You've got to let the pride of past accomplishment go. Or you've got to let your propensity to this or that go. You might think it's a wonderful thing to have, but God says, "No, you've got to let it go." If you want to be made whole, if you and I are going to walk in unison, it's got to be all me — with you simply embracing my will, my word, and my way in your life.

Rise, Take Up Your Bed, and Walk

The man said, "I have no man to put me in the pool." In other words, he had been looking to man for too long. He'd been looking to self-help books written by the spiritual gurus of our time. He'd been looking for voices to give him counsel. He'd been looking in all these places, and everybody eventually gave up on him. I don't know if you've ever been there, but you might think it's a bad place to be — but it's actually not that bad a place, because there's only one voice left when all the other voices are gone. The ones who were encouraging you but had no power to change you. The ones who were condemning you but have no power to judge you eternally. Only one voice has that power. Jesus said to him, "Get up." There are people listening to my voice right now online. You've been too long in that place. Years with the same struggle. Years with the same depression. Years with the same sense of worthlessness governing your mind and your life. Years with the same desire for vengeance eating away at your soul. Years with these grievances and grief dominating your life. Years driven by your own lust and enticed, as the scripture says. Years not satisfied with the partner that God has given you for life — your wife or your husband — but always lusting in your mind for somebody else, chasing some elusive happiness you think you're going to find somewhere. You've been bound that way for years. But Jesus says to you — it's time now to rise up in the power of God. I will strengthen you. All I ask you to do is get up from where you are and prepare to go where I'm taking you. That's your part. Even if you physically have to just simply get up off your couch, get up off your bed, get up out of your car, get up off your park bench — I don't know where it is — but something has got to get in your heart that says, "God, I don't want to live like this any longer." "Take up your bed," he said, "and walk." I found it interesting that he didn't say to this man, "Leave your bed there." Imagine if you're lying on some stinky old mattress for 38 years. You'd be inclined to leave it there. And Jesus says, "No, roll it up, stick it under your arm, because that's going to be your testimony. People are going to say, 'Why do you carry that old thing around?' And you'll tell them." That's going to become your testimony. Hallelujah. Roll it up under your arm and begin to walk in this newness of life that I have given you, promised you through my Son, Jesus Christ. And then the scripture says, "Immediately the man was made well." Immediately. When Gary left his girlfriend's house, drove back home, where this pastor from New York had pointed his finger in his face on the screen, and got on his knees — he was immediately healed from 38 years of addiction without withdrawal. A miracle touched his life. God touched him. And Gary rolled up his bed, put it under his arm, and started to walk. And I love the fact that as he was coming to Times Square Church, walking through Central Park, he was compelled to stop and talk to somebody and led them to the Lord. "Let me tell you what Jesus Christ has done for me." You know, it's amazing when you simply let God do a work in your life and you begin to tell people about what he has done. You're not theologically debating with anybody anymore. You're telling them about an experience that you've had with God. The real, living Son of God told me to get up from where I was, take up my bed, and walk — and here I am. Praise be to God. And people are looking for that all over the world today.

An Invitation to Come Home

For those that are listening online, all you have to do now is admit that you need a Savior. Just admit it. For many, that's not difficult. You can't save yourself — you know it. The voices that once maybe gave you some kind of encouragement for the future are almost all gone, if not all gone, and only one voice is left. And it's the voice of Jesus Christ calling you home to himself. Not crawling down the road half lame, but walking down the road healed — empowered by the Spirit of God, given a newness of life, a calling that only God can give, and a message that is really simple: Jesus saved me. Jesus healed me. And Jesus has sent me to you. To tell you that what he did for me, he can do for you. You too can rise. You too can take up your bed. And you too can walk. That's what revival looks like, by the way — the simplicity of one person telling another where salvation and healing can be found. Open your heart. Just open your heart and say, "Jesus Christ, I can't save myself. But if you really came to the cross, and you died so that I could be reconnected to life, forgiven my sin, and that I could intimately know God, and he can know me — then I'm going to open my heart to you, and I'm going to invite you into my life to be my Lord and my Savior. And I'm going to start a journey of where you ask me to go, and I'm going to tell people along the way that you became the Lord of my life. You transformed me, and you called me, and you're speaking to them through me." This is your moment. This is your time to rise up. This is your time to come home. This is your time to begin a new life in God that only God can give you. Let's pray together right now. Lord Jesus Christ, I invite you to come into my life and be my Lord and my Savior. Thank you for forgiving me, for loving me, and for coming to me when I had given up on myself. I don't fully understand the depth of this love, but I receive it. And by your goodness, I'm going to rise up right now, and I'm going to begin a new life. I'm coming home, Jesus, to you. Amen.

What is Carter Conlon | A Call to the Nation?

Carter Conlon presents a weekly 24:55 program, encouraging and equipping a generation willing to pray, willing in God’s power to rise up and plead for mercy on behalf of others. Carter says: “As God’s people we have a responsibility to believe God for the power to find the full purpose that He has for our life!”

Opening Prayer

"The sick man answered and said, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I'm coming, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, rise, take up your bed and walk."

I am going to be sharing the word of God with you, and I do believe that you are going to experience a miracle. People are going to get set free, you're going to get delivered, you're going to see and begin to experience the miracle power of God that is available for you because of Jesus Christ, who died on a cross 2,000 years ago and paid the price for your sin. And because of his sacrifice, you can be reconnected to God. And being reconnected to God, there is a newness of life that is given to you.

Jesus Christ himself said, "I came to give you life eternally, but I came also to give you life abundantly. I came to give you a reason to live. I came to give you a story of what I'm going to do in your life that only God can accomplish." And once the word of God is spoken and you've had an opportunity to respond, then you can celebrate that with us.

Father God Almighty, I thank you for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. Lord, you told us years ago, cast the internet on the right side of the boat and I will bring in a harvest. And we obeyed you. And this prayer meeting is now in over 200 countries and dependencies around the world, and Lord, you're going to bring in a harvest. God, I thank you for the numbers of people who are going to come out of darkness and into light, out of captivity and into freedom, out of weakness and into strength, out of confusion into clarity of thought. God, you're going to send healing into homes, families, marriages, minds. God, you're going to deliver.

Lord, we boast about you, we talk about you, but the work is all yours, and we acknowledge that. You have the power, and you proved your heart when you went to a cross. It wasn't just a vain display of your affection. Lord, there was power released when you were raised from the dead, and because of that, God, we have hope in this generation.

Lord Jesus Christ, we ask you that the work that you came to do, you would do today. God, you would set free the oppressed, give sight to the blind. Let the poor have the treasure of heaven open to them, the strength of God revealed to them. Heal those that have been wounded so deeply they think they'll never recover. Bring healing into their lives. Lift up the weak. Set free, God, those that are captivated. And Lord, we ask you to do this for the glory of your name.

Lord, it's time for you to work. God, the world is dark, the day is late, you're coming soon. We ask you, God, to move in miraculous power again in this generation. As you have done — we sing about it — do what you are famous for. Do what you have done, what you have displayed, what you've shown us, God. Clearly in the scriptures, we see your heart. You healed all who came to you. You never turned somebody away and said, come back some other time. You healed every person. We are here to declare your victory, your power, your heart, your cross, your work. And we do it in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Pool of Bethesda — John 5

My message is called "Will You Be Made Whole?" John 5, beginning at verse 2:

"Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water."

I think of the numbers of people who are exactly like this — sick, blind. You don't see a way forward. You don't have the strength to get up and move into what God has. You're paralyzed by fear, perhaps, and you're waiting for your divine moment. The moving of the water symbolizes a divine moment. It was the stirring of God, and whoever got up and got into the stirring of this water first was healed of whatever disease or circumstance they had.

"For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water, that whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years."

I want you to picture that. Can you imagine what this man felt like? Thirty-eight years lying there, unable to move, can't see a way forward. The only way forward is if he can make it into a divine moment in his life. He somehow knows that only God can make a difference. Thirty-eight years of hopelessness.

"When Jesus saw him lying there, he knew that he had already been there in that condition a long time. And he said to him, 'Do you want to be made whole?'"

"The sick man answered him, 'Sir, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up. But while I'm coming, another steps down before me.'"

In other words, maybe there were people there at one point saying, "Hey, we're going to do this together. We're going to get you through this. We're going to fight through this together." But after thirty-eight years, everybody gave up. There's nobody left. Nobody there to help him. All of the words of encouragement that would be spoken into this man's life are gone. There's just nobody there. It's only him.

Don't you love it that when everybody's gone, Jesus Christ is still there? He is the one who sticks closer than a brother. He does not walk away from us in our struggle, in our time of difficulty.

"Jesus said to him, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.' And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked. And that day was the Sabbath."

Gary's Story — A Modern Miracle

Several years ago, this prayer meeting used to be on a Tuesday night in New York City at Times Square Church. And requests were coming in from all over the world, but some were repetitive. There was this one that kept coming in from a place called Newfoundland in Canada, from a lady called Heather. She kept saying, "Pray for my husband Gary. My husband Gary is a drug addict. Everyone has given up on my husband Gary."

As a matter of fact, in line with this passage, Gary had been a drug addict for 38 years. Gary had gone to every conceivable program known to humanity and nobody had been able to help him. He would always get out, maybe experience momentary victory, and then go back again into his old habits. He had a chair in the house and used to sit in that chair and do drugs — whatever kind, some of them were pretty hard drugs.

Heather was watching this prayer meeting, this worldwide prayer meeting. And one night the Spirit of God came upon her and she went downstairs, got an axe, and chopped his chair to pieces in the living room. I told her she should write a pamphlet and call it the Book of Acts, according to Heather. She chopped Gary's chair to pieces in the living room and she said, "Satan, no more in this house. No more drugs in this house. No more debauchery in this house. No more captivity in this house — because I'm hearing something online. I'm hearing a message that I can be free. My marriage can be restored. My husband can be delivered."

She kept giving those prayer requests week after week. Pray for my husband Gary and my son Liam, if I remember correctly.

So one Tuesday night I got up and I saw that Heather had submitted another prayer request: pray for my husband Gary. And at that moment, the Holy Spirit came upon me.

Now you and I need to learn this — especially the students here in this Bible school. We need to learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit because we live a supernatural life. The Spirit of God is within us. And if we learn to cooperate with God, when God is moving and God is speaking, miracles start happening.

I looked into the screen that night and I pointed my finger at the screen. I said, "Gary, listen to me. You are not a drug addict. God has called you to be an evangelist. You are an evangelist. You're not a drug addict."

He'd been 38 years on drugs. He'd already moved out. He was living with another woman. At that very moment, he had walked in the door to get some clothes to take to this other house where he was living. He walked in, and on the screen was this man from New York pointing his finger at him and saying, "Gary, listen to me."

God knows. God knows how to reach somebody. God knows when to reach somebody.

Gary left the house. He was angered that night. "How dare — who is this man? How does he know about me? And how dare he speak that way?" He said, "If you would have been close to me, you would have got hurt that night." He told me, and he would have been able to do it too. He said, "I got in my car and I was so mad at you. I was shaking, gripping the steering wheel. How dare he say this thing to me? Does he not know who I am? Does he not know the bondage I'm in? Does he not know I can't get free from this? Does he not know the way I'm living? Be an evangelist — what is he talking about?"

He gets in his car, drives to his girlfriend's house, gets out of the car, goes up the stairs, in through the door, and has a massive asthma attack. He doesn't have asthma. Can't breathe. It terrifies him. He runs out of the house, gets back in his car with his heart pounding. He says, "That didn't happen. That can't be real. That didn't happen." He gets out of his car again, goes back in the house, has a second attack where he can't breathe. He begins to realize God is speaking to him. He goes back home, surrenders his life to Jesus Christ, and is completely set free — without withdrawal.

I flew Gary and Heather to New York City where Gary was able to share his testimony at Times Square Church. And he's such an evangelist that he won somebody to Christ on the street on the way to the church that day. He's a gifted evangelist. He's a natural evangelist. And the last I heard of Gary, he was studying to be an evangelist. God had transformed his life.

He Calls You What You Will Be

You see, Jesus Christ doesn't call us what we are. He calls us what we will be. "Your name is Simon, but you're going to be called Peter. And upon this rock, I'm going to build my church." He would meet people and rename them. Praise be to God.

What is your new name? What has he called you? I know what is on your birth certificate, but that may not be what God is calling you. He's calling you by the name of the person that he's intending you to be, and you will become that by the power of the Spirit of Almighty God.

I think for too long we've lived a natural Christianity. By that, I mean we've lived by what we think, what we feel, what we know, and what we think we can do. And we've fallen very, very far short of the possibilities that God has for each of our lives.

What I talked to you about — speaking into the screen — is called a word of knowledge in the Bible. It's a gift of the Holy Spirit. If we learn to cooperate with God, miracles start happening.

I personally feel I've lived much of my life just riding the edges of what God really wants to do. And my prayer lately is, God, take me deeper, take me farther. Give me a deeper sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. God, I feel that there is so much more that I have not laid hold of. Thank God for what has happened — it's been a marvelous journey — but it's short of what God could do.

I think of all the opportunities every day to speak into somebody's life in a bank or a store or a supermarket. And the number of times maybe I draw back, or don't do what God's calling me to do, when he knows what that person was crying the night before. He knows the need of their heart.

And I want to encourage the young people that are here and those from the campus church — seek God for everything he's got for your life. Ask for the giftings of the Holy Spirit. Read about the gifts and just say, "God, give me the fullness of what I need to glorify your name on the earth." It's not about me being aggrandized. It's about you and your work being done through my life. Help me to move in cooperation with you, because there are so many other Garys out there that need to be set free. They need somebody to speak into their life. They need a word of knowledge spoken to them to bring them out of where they are into where they could be.

Embracing the Question

This man lay 38 years at this pool and most likely everybody had given up on him. I think of the numbers of people whose families have given up on them, people around them who knew them best, maybe saying, "You'll never change. You'll always be like this." And I thank God with all my heart that there is one who doesn't give up on you. There is one who doesn't call you what you think you are, but calls you what he's going to make you into. "You're not a drug addict, Gary. You're an evangelist." Hallelujah.

Jesus knew this man had been in that condition a long time. And he said, "Do you want to be made well?"

Now, some people embrace their pain — or their addiction — to the point where they have no sense of what they would be without it. You counsel some people who are sorrowful, and they don't have the power to cast off their sorrow because they don't know what they would be without it. They've had that cloak around them for so long they don't have the courage to throw it away and come to Jesus and be made new, because that sorrow is the one thing that has seemingly brought them comfort.

But there has got to be a willingness when Jesus says, "Do you want to be made whole?" There's got to be something in your heart and mind that says, "Oh God, I want that with all my heart. Where you lead me, I will follow. What you ask me to walk away from, I will walk away from it. Where you call me, I will go. What you give me, God, I will possess it with great gratitude. What you ask me to say, I will say. Where you ask me to go, I'll go. What you ask me to do, I will do."

Jesus Christ, I want your life to be lived out inside of mine. I want to live for the sake of others. I don't want to be relegated to just an argument in this world. This world is too dark now for an argument. I want my life to be an expression of the reality of the living Christ within me. So take me where I need to go, and make me into what I need to be, and give me what I need to possess, and give me something to say when I get where you send me. God, I want to walk in cooperation with you. I want to know your power. I want to see you do a work, God, in my generation that can only be attributed to you.

Do you want to be made whole? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. In whatever God defines that wholeness as. It's not my definition that binds God. It's whatever God says. My life — whatever he says wholeness is.

I might have an aspect of character that I think is quite nice and God says, "That's got to go." If you want to be made whole, you've got to let that go. You've got to let the pride of past accomplishment go. Or you've got to let your propensity to this or that go. You might think it's a wonderful thing to have, but God says, "No, you've got to let it go." If you want to be made whole, if you and I are going to walk in unison, it's got to be all me — with you simply embracing my will, my word, and my way in your life.

Rise, Take Up Your Bed, and Walk

The man said, "I have no man to put me in the pool." In other words, he had been looking to man for too long. He'd been looking to self-help books written by the spiritual gurus of our time. He'd been looking for voices to give him counsel. He'd been looking in all these places, and everybody eventually gave up on him.

I don't know if you've ever been there, but you might think it's a bad place to be — but it's actually not that bad a place, because there's only one voice left when all the other voices are gone. The ones who were encouraging you but had no power to change you. The ones who were condemning you but have no power to judge you eternally. Only one voice has that power.

Jesus said to him, "Get up."

There are people listening to my voice right now online. You've been too long in that place. Years with the same struggle. Years with the same depression. Years with the same sense of worthlessness governing your mind and your life. Years with the same desire for vengeance eating away at your soul. Years with these grievances and grief dominating your life. Years driven by your own lust and enticed, as the scripture says. Years not satisfied with the partner that God has given you for life — your wife or your husband — but always lusting in your mind for somebody else, chasing some elusive happiness you think you're going to find somewhere.

You've been bound that way for years. But Jesus says to you — it's time now to rise up in the power of God. I will strengthen you. All I ask you to do is get up from where you are and prepare to go where I'm taking you. That's your part. Even if you physically have to just simply get up off your couch, get up off your bed, get up out of your car, get up off your park bench — I don't know where it is — but something has got to get in your heart that says, "God, I don't want to live like this any longer."

"Take up your bed," he said, "and walk."

I found it interesting that he didn't say to this man, "Leave your bed there." Imagine if you're lying on some stinky old mattress for 38 years. You'd be inclined to leave it there. And Jesus says, "No, roll it up, stick it under your arm, because that's going to be your testimony. People are going to say, 'Why do you carry that old thing around?' And you'll tell them." That's going to become your testimony. Hallelujah. Roll it up under your arm and begin to walk in this newness of life that I have given you, promised you through my Son, Jesus Christ.

And then the scripture says, "Immediately the man was made well."

Immediately. When Gary left his girlfriend's house, drove back home, where this pastor from New York had pointed his finger in his face on the screen, and got on his knees — he was immediately healed from 38 years of addiction without withdrawal. A miracle touched his life. God touched him. And Gary rolled up his bed, put it under his arm, and started to walk.

And I love the fact that as he was coming to Times Square Church, walking through Central Park, he was compelled to stop and talk to somebody and led them to the Lord. "Let me tell you what Jesus Christ has done for me."

You know, it's amazing when you simply let God do a work in your life and you begin to tell people about what he has done. You're not theologically debating with anybody anymore. You're telling them about an experience that you've had with God. The real, living Son of God told me to get up from where I was, take up my bed, and walk — and here I am. Praise be to God. And people are looking for that all over the world today.

An Invitation to Come Home

For those that are listening online, all you have to do now is admit that you need a Savior. Just admit it. For many, that's not difficult. You can't save yourself — you know it. The voices that once maybe gave you some kind of encouragement for the future are almost all gone, if not all gone, and only one voice is left. And it's the voice of Jesus Christ calling you home to himself.

Not crawling down the road half lame, but walking down the road healed — empowered by the Spirit of God, given a newness of life, a calling that only God can give, and a message that is really simple: Jesus saved me. Jesus healed me. And Jesus has sent me to you. To tell you that what he did for me, he can do for you. You too can rise. You too can take up your bed. And you too can walk.

That's what revival looks like, by the way — the simplicity of one person telling another where salvation and healing can be found.

Open your heart. Just open your heart and say, "Jesus Christ, I can't save myself. But if you really came to the cross, and you died so that I could be reconnected to life, forgiven my sin, and that I could intimately know God, and he can know me — then I'm going to open my heart to you, and I'm going to invite you into my life to be my Lord and my Savior. And I'm going to start a journey of where you ask me to go, and I'm going to tell people along the way that you became the Lord of my life. You transformed me, and you called me, and you're speaking to them through me."

This is your moment. This is your time to rise up. This is your time to come home. This is your time to begin a new life in God that only God can give you.

Let's pray together right now.

Lord Jesus Christ, I invite you to come into my life and be my Lord and my Savior. Thank you for forgiving me, for loving me, and for coming to me when I had given up on myself. I don't fully understand the depth of this love, but I receive it. And by your goodness, I'm going to rise up right now, and I'm going to begin a new life. I'm coming home, Jesus, to you. Amen.