John 5: 1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 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.  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 Jewish leaders 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.

If you have been a Christian for a while, you will know about this story and how it was told, that as Jesus asked the paralysed man if he would be made well, the man started telling Jesus the story of his life.

But, there is more to this story – Jesus was on His way to a festival and this man had been paralysed for thirty eight years.  How old was this man?  If he was paralysed from birth, that means he was at least thirty eight years old.  If he was paralysed at the age of ten, he was forty eight years or much older.  Jesus was going to a festival; this was something that happened perhaps every year.  Had Jesus taken that way before or was it His first time?  I don’t know but one thing I do know is that on this particular day and year, Jesus noticed this man.  What was it about this man, that made Jesus pay him attention, when there were other sick people around the pool?

We have to give it to this man, who did not give up in his thirty eight years of his infirmity; he was always by the pool of Bethesda.  Here was a man so close and yet so far; he was near enough but had no access.  Could it be that his family had rejected him and that is why he was by the pool?  For any human being, coming to a place to get his miracle, after a few years, the person might give up and not bother any longer.  But not this man; he just stayed there and one day, he got his own personal visitation, from the Lord of the Sabbath, from the miracle working God Himself.  He got his miracle from the Lord who created of time and space.

This man got healed and that was when he started getting persecuted.  All the years, when he was unwell, no one helped to push him into the stirred waters, no one.  But when he get healed, the Jewish leaders started making a fuss, about the fact that it was a Sabbath day.  The guy told them in response that he knew nothing about what they were saying, except that the person who healed him, told him to pick up his mat and walk.  All what this man wanted to do after being healed is to do as he was told to do, pick up his mat and walk.  He had been bound for thirty eight years and now that he could walk, some people wanted to observe the traditions of men and stop him from his miracle. The law has no place when the King of Glory wants to perform His miracle. Where was the traditions of men, when he was by the pool of Bethesda for thirty eight years?  Everyone walked on by and did not notice him or help push him into the pool.

What have you been waiting on God to do for you?  Are you feeling fed up? Weary? Depressed?  Pls don’t be, take a cue from the man who was paralysed for thirty eight years.  He did not give up on God and I encourage you not to as well.  Your time for a divine visitation is coming where you will sing your own song and dance your own dance.  Don’t give up, hold on to God to make it happen for you.

Nobody knows the time of God’s visitation.  But when that time comes, my prayer for us all is that we will be expectant and in line with His will.  When our time of visitation comes, I know that our miracle will be perfect and everlasting in Christ Jesus, because Godspeed will follow the miracle in Jesus name.