Do you remember the story we read a few days ago when Jesus and His disciples were caught in a violent storm in a boat on the Sea of Galilee? After He rebuked the wind and waves, Jesus rebuked His disciples for their lack of faith. They had been filled with fear, even though Jesus was asleep and had clearly said they were going to the other side. He expected them to believe His Word. In the similar story we just read, there was one thing that was different from the start: Jesus was not in the boat with them. This time they were on their own!

Certainly the disciples were in the center of God’s will that night, rowing across the Sea of Galilee. They were just following Jesus’ orders. And certainly God knew they would encounter threatening winds on their journey. He must have been giving them another opportunity to exercise their faith. From this story, we can learn what we should do when we face opposition that is hindering us from fulfilling God’s will.

According to John’s record of this same story, Jesus’ disciples had rowed about three-and-a-half miles when the wind and waves grew menacing (see John 6:19). Jesus, after spending time praying high on a mountainside, saw that “they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves” (Mark 6:48). They had been rowing for hours, and now it was the middle of the night. They were sleepy and their muscles were aching. They were probably yelling directions at each other to keep their boat from capsizing. In their own strength, they were trying to make it to shore, but it looked impossible.

There is no indication that any of them even tried to exercise any faith. No one suggested that they pray. No one said, “Let’s stop rowing and start praising God that we are going to make it to the other side, because we’ve been sent by Jesus to do just that.” No one attempted to rebuke the wind, imitating Jesus.

Jesus, after waiting until three o’clock in the morning, finally stepped out onto the water and began walking toward the same destination as His disciples. When they saw Him walking by, they were terrified, not recognizing Him in the darkness, thinking He must be a ghost! But Jesus tried to calm their fears by telling them who He was. That is when Peter requested that Jesus command him to walk on the water.

Jesus actually said only one word to Peter: “Come!” Before then, Peter had nothing to stand on but water, and had he stepped out of the boat, he would have immediately sunk. But once Jesus spoke, Peter could stand on the Word of God. By faith, he stepped out of the boat and began walking toward Jesus on the water. He was literally walking by faith. When did Peter begin to sink? It was when he doubted. And why did he doubt? Because he began looking at the high waves around him, becoming fearful.

This is a great illustration of how we can walk by faith. When we have a promise from God to believe, it makes no difference what our circumstances are saying to us. God’s Word is always true, and if we’ll believe in spite of our circumstances, we’ll experience the blessings God promises. If we doubt, however, we may well begin to go down, just like Peter.

Peter almost made it all the way to Jesus. When he began to doubt and sink, he cried out for Jesus to save him, and Jesus mercifully did. Praise God that even when our faith is failing, Jesus still loves us and will help us in our troubles.

Clearly it was Peter’s doubts and lack of faith that caused him to sink. Proud people would rather find something else to blame, and amazingly, they often blame God for their failures, claiming that failure must have been God’s will. I wonder what Jesus would have said if He had overheard Peter, once he was back in the boat, saying to the other disciples, “The reason I sank, of course, is because it wasn’t God’s will that I make it all the way to Jesus!”

Q. Jesus apparently wasn’t initially planning on rescuing His disciples from their predicament, because Mark’s Gospel said, “He started to go past them” (Mark 6:48), walking on the water right by their boat. Why do you suppose Jesus did that?

A. Perhaps because Jesus is so polite. He won’t get involved in people’s business unless they invite Him. This is a picture of many Christians. In the midst of life’s storms, they try to make it in their own strength, and Jesus walks right by, wishing they’d ask for His help. Have you invited Jesus into your boat?

Q. When Jesus and His disciples arrived on the shore of their destination, people soon began bringing all their sick to be healed. The Bible says that all who touched the fringe of Jesus’ robe were healed (see Matthew 14:36). What does this teach us about faith?

A. It was obviously God’s will for everyone who was healed to be healed, but each sick person had to exercise faith to receive what God wanted him to have. People who have faith will demonstrate their faith by their actions.

Application: Have you begun to sink in some area of your life because you’ve been doubting God? If so, look again at God’s promises regarding your situation, and get back up on the water by faith!

Herod Antipas, the man who ordered the execution of John the Baptist, was the son of a murderer. His father was Herod the Great, who had once killed his own wife and two of his sons to preserve his power. It was Herod the Great who had also ordered the killing of all the male babies in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill Jesus. With such an example set before him as a child, it is no wonder that Herod Antipas was a wicked man. He had fallen in love with his half-brother’s wife, Herodias, who also happened to be his niece, and she had fallen in love with him. So she divorced Herod Antipas’s brother and married him.

John the Baptist, a preacher of righteousness, had declared that what Herod and his new wife had done was a sin. Herodias hated John as a result of this and wanted him killed. But Herod’s conscience would not allow him to order John’s execution, and so he only had John put in prison as a favor to his selfish wife. He was under conviction for his sin and knew that John did not deserve to die.

Herod, however, made a foolish public oath to Herodias’s daughter, offering her anything she desired after she pleased him with a dance during his birthday party. Her mother instructed her to request John the Baptist’s head on a tray. Herod was trapped by his promise, and so he reluctantly ordered John’s beheading. A Roman soldier immediately carried out the gruesome task, and gave Herodias’s daughter John’s head on a tray. She in turn gave it to Herodias. What a sickening sight! Think how evil someone would have to be to desire such a thing!

Although this is a sad story, for John it had a happy ending, because he was in heaven, enjoying God’s presence, even before Herodias had possession of his head! The people I feel sorry for are Herod and Herodias, who, unless they experienced a repentance the Bible doesn’t record, have been in hell now for almost two thousand years.

Q. Is it possible for murderers to get into heaven?

A. Yes, but only if they repent and are saved by faith. Remember that Moses, David and Paul could all be considered murderers. However, any murderer who dies without repenting will spend eternity in hell. The apostle John wrote, “You know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them” (1 John 3:15).

Q. At present, the United States government says that it is legal for women to murder their babies before they’re born. Because it’s legal, does that make it O.K.?

A. No, because God has always said that murder is wrong. Murder is perhaps the highest expression of selfishness that exists, and murdering one’s own child is the most debased murder a person could commit. There are millions of mothers and fathers in America who are child-murderers. Their only hope of escaping hell is to repent and believe in Jesus. Praise God that He offers them forgiveness.

Application: Herod Antipas grew up having a murderer for a father. Herodias’s daughter grew up with a mother and stepfather who were murderers. Aren’t you glad you were born into your family? You are blessed to have parents who love Jesus and who are teaching you right from wrong.

Because Jesus’ love was so great, He wanted to serve everyone. He was limited, however, because He was only one human being. There were so many sick and demon-possessed people, and so many who needed to hear the good news and repent of their sins. So Jesus instructed His disciples to pray that God would send out more workers, and God answered their prayer by sending them!

Before Jesus sent them out to minister throughout the towns of Israel, He supernaturally equipped them for their job, giving them authority to cast out demons and heal every kind of disease and illness. He specifically commanded them to heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy and cast out demons. Jesus knew that miracles would get people’s attention to listen to His disciples’ message, just as in His own ministry (see Luke 9:6).

Their message was one of repentance (see Mark 6:12-13), which is not always a popular message, but nevertheless is an integral part of the gospel. Jesus knew that many people would reject His disciples, and He didn’t want them wasting their time trying repeatedly to reach unreceptive people. If a town or village didn’t receive them, they were to shake the dust off their feet and journey to another one. If God loves everyone, why should anyone have two opportunities to receive Christ until everyone has had at least one?

Jesus’ disciples weren’t allowed to take any money or extra provisions with them. That would teach them to rely on God to supply their needs, and also provide motivation for them not to stay long in places where their message wasn’t received, places where no one would feed or shelter them.

Jesus knew that His disciples would face the same persecutions He’d encountered. They would be slandered, hated and even killed. Some would face martyrdom because their own family members would betray them. We have no record in the Bible of this happening to any of the twelve, so perhaps it occurred after Jesus’ ascension into heaven. With the exception of Judas and John, it is thought that all of Jesus’ disciples died a martyr’s death.

Perhaps the most challenging words in Jesus’ commission were the standards He set for every one of His followers. He expects our fully committed allegiance. Our loyalty to Him should supersede the loyalty we have for the people we love the most, including our parents and children. Jesus knew that as a result of His coming, some households would be divided over Him. Unbelieving family members would turn against believing members. But true believers will not compromise their faith just to please their loved ones, because they love Jesus the most.

Incidentally, if Jesus wasn’t God, He was a horrible person, because only God would have a right to demand a higher love and devotion to Himself than what we show for our own families. Jesus said, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will find it” (Matthew 10:39). He wasn’t talking about physically dying as a martyr, but of giving up our own agenda in order to obey Him, another way of describing repentance. If anyone refuses to repent, he will miss out on experiencing life as God intended and miss out on eternal life. But whoever will give his life to Jesus, submitting to Him, that person will experience a life that he was created to live, one that is enriched by God forever. Aren’t you glad you’ve given your life to Jesus?

Q. Jesus instructed His disciples to avoid preaching to Gentiles and Samaritans, ministering only to Jews (see Matthew 10:5-6). Why is that? Doesn’t God love non-Jewish people?

A. We don’t know the answer for sure, but we can be certain that it wasn’t because God didn’t or doesn’t love non-Jewish people. Jesus loves everyone and died for the whole world. Perhaps Jesus sent His disciples to minister to Jews because they would most likely be more receptive than other groups, having a faith in the Old Testament that promised them a Messiah. They would also be more likely to receive a message from Jesus’ Jewish messengers. God wants everyone to hear the gospel, and the quickest way for that to happen is to win the most receptive people who can then reach others. Jesus followed this strategy in His own ministry, ministering to Jews and then sending out some who believed. Later, Jesus commissioned His disciples to preach to all the ethnic groups of the world (see Matthew 28:19).

Q. Jesus said that we are to acknowledge Him before others, also saying that if we deny Him publicly, He would deny us before the Father. Does that mean there is no hope for us going to heaven if we, under pressure, say that we don’t know Jesus?

A. No, because God is merciful. No true Christian would deny Jesus at a time when he wasn’t under pressure, but a true believer might yield to the temptation to deny the Lord if his life was in danger. Under pressure, Peter denied the Lord three times, but Jesus forgave, restored and used him greatly afterwards.

Application: Today there is a need more than ever for workers to be sent into the harvest, as the world’s population is more than six billion people. That is five billion, eight hundred million more people than the number that lived on the earth when Jesus sent out His apostles. Pray today that God will send out more laborers who are supernaturally equipped to spread the gospel.

Back in the days of Elizabeth and Mary, people got married at a younger age than people do today, often when they were teenagers. Mary may have been only sixteen or so when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and told her she would have a child. Imagine God coming to the earth through a teenager!

Because she was not married to Joseph yet, Mary wondered out loud how she would be able to have a baby. Gabriel explained to her that although the baby would be her son, the child would not be Joseph’s son. He would be God’s son, conceived by the Holy Spirit. He would be the first and only God-man, 100% human and 100% God.

Gabriel told Mary that her son would be given the throne of His ancestor David and that He would “reign over Israel forever” (Luke 1:33). His kingdom would have no end. David was a great king who had ruled over the nation of Israel about one thousand years before the time of Jesus. When David was still alive God had promised him, “When you die, I will raise up one of your descendants….and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son….Your dynasty and your kingdom will continue for all time before me, and your throne will be secure forever” (2 Samuel 7:12-16). After David died, his descendants did rule after him for about five hundred years, but since then there has been no descendant of David ruling over Israel.

When Jesus lived on the earth He never did rule over Israel. In fact, the people of Israel killed Him. But God’s promises are true. The Bible tells us that Jesus will one day live in Jerusalem, and from there He will rule the entire world! There won’t be any United States of America then or any other countries—Jesus’ kingdom will be the only kingdom. And His kingdom will never end! Everyone should want to be in that kingdom.

Gabriel told Mary that her relative Elizabeth had also experienced a miracle: she was pregnant in her old age. So Mary journeyed to Elizabeth’s house and stayed with her for three months, probably until John was born. Elizabeth probably appreciated having someone to chat with during those three months since her husband couldn’t talk!

When Mary arrived at Elizabeth’s house, John, who was probably already filled with the Holy Spirit (see Luke 1:15), “jumped for joy” inside his mother. The Holy Spirit in John knew who was inside Mary, and was quite happy about it! So what is the key to being joyful? Being close to Jesus!

Elizabeth may have heard about what Gabriel had told Mary, because when Mary arrived at her door she already knew that Mary was pregnant with a very special child. Or it’s possible that the Holy Spirit inspired her with a gift of prophecy, because we read that she was filled with the Holy Spirit upon Mary’s arrival. Regardless, Elizabeth knew that Mary’s baby was even more special than her own. She called Mary “the mother of [her] Lord” (Luke 1:43), so she knew that God was living inside Mary’s womb.

It seems that Mary was suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit then as well, because she responded to Elizabeth’s greeting by speaking a beautiful poem. It was all about God’s goodness toward her and to everyone who fears Him. The best thing God did for us was to send Jesus! Like Mary, we’re blessed!

Q. Because Mary and Elizabeth were somehow related, we know that Jesus and John the Baptist were distant relatives. Do you know of anyone who is alive today who is related to Jesus?

A. Everyone who believes and follows Jesus is a brother or sister of Jesus!

Q. Jesus lived inside of Mary for nine months. Has He ever lived inside of anyone else?

A. Yes! If you believe in Him, Jesus lives inside of you! He doesn’t live inside you physically, like a baby inside its mother, but spiritually, because the Holy Spirit lives in everyone who believes in Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is just like Jesus and the Father. That is why Jesus once promised everyone who loves Him that both He and His Father would come to live inside them (see John 14:23).

Application: Since Jesus lives in us by the Holy Spirit, we should always remember that He is with us to direct our thoughts, words and deeds.

Rather than rejoicing over the healing of a man who had been lame for thirty-eight years, the Jewish leaders found fault with the man who had been healed, claiming that he was breaking the fourth commandment by carrying his pallet on the Sabbath. They also began harassing Jesus, accusing Him of also breaking the Sabbath by healing someone that day.

Jesus responded by truthfully and clearly stating that God was His Father, thus He was God’s Son. Although God is perfect in holiness, some of the commandments He’s given to human beings don’t apply to Himself. For example, your parents might have a rule that you be in bed by nine o’clock each night, but you can’t accuse them of doing wrong if they go to bed later than nine! Some of their rules apply only to you, and not to them.

The same is true of God. He commanded the Israelites to offer animal sacrifices on a regular basis, but that is not something God does! And no one can rightfully accuse Him of sinning because He doesn’t offer sacrifices. By the same token, although God commanded the Israelites not to work on the Sabbath, that didn’t mean it would be a sin for God to work that day! Because Jesus was God, He could work on any Sabbath He chose. That’s why He responded to the Jewish leaders by saying, “My Father never stops working, so why should I?” Although God rested on the seventh day after the six days of creation, perhaps He hasn’t rested since!

The Jewish leaders recognized that Jesus, in calling God His Father, was claiming to be equal with God, and hated Him all the more. But Jesus didn’t back down from His claim. Rather, He expanded on it, showing that He had a unique relationship with God the Father that no one else ever had or ever will have.

Unlike any other person who had ever lived, Jesus perfectly obeyed God the Father. He was acting as the Father’s perfect representative on earth, and they shared an intimate relationship. It was the Father who gave Jesus the ability to teach with amazing wisdom and work miracles, and those signs proved to all that He was God’s Son.

God the Father, who is the only one who can give physical or spiritual life, determined and decreed that it would be only through Jesus that anyone could receive new physical life and be resurrected after he had died. Jesus will one day exercise His God-given authority to raise the dead by resurrecting everyone who has ever lived. Also, by the Father’s decision, only through Jesus can anyone receive spiritual life and be born again. And just as physically dead people will one day be resurrected when Jesus speaks, so spiritually dead people are hearing Jesus’ words and being spiritually reborn.

The Father has also appointed Jesus as judge of all people, and one day everyone will stand before Him to give an account of his or her life. He will determine who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. His judgment will be perfectly just because it will be in perfect accordance with the Father’s judgment. Obviously, as Jesus said, God the Father wants Jesus to be equally honored with Himself. In light of such incredible claims, we can only conclude that Jesus was either God’s divine Son or He was a very deranged and evil man.

In light of His amazing teaching and the miracles that God did through Him, however, the only intelligent choice of the two alternatives is that Jesus was indeed God’s only Son!

Q. Jesus said that the Scriptures pointed to Him (see John 5:39), and specifically referred to the writings of Moses (see John 5:46). Can you think of any scriptures in the first five books of the Bible that speak of Jesus?

A. First, the entire system of sacrificing animals to atone for sins pointed to Jesus’ sacrificial accomplishment on the cross as the Lamb of God. Second, the establishment of a high priest who stood between God and man, interceding on behalf of sinners, points to Jesus as our High Priest who reconciled us to God by His death. Third, God promised in the first books of the Bible that the Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah. And fourth, referring to the Messiah, Moses spoke prophetically of another prophet of great authority whom God would raise up (see Deuteronomy 18:18-19; John 1:21; Acts 3:22-23).

Application: Jesus plainly stated that anyone who listens to His message and believes that God sent Him has eternal life. When people do believe, they will pass from the realm of death into the realm of life, and will not be condemned for their sins (see John 5:24-25). That’s good news! Does it apply to you?

Praise God for what Jesus did for this lame man at the pool of Bethesda! He had been suffering for thirty-eight years from his sickness, and perhaps had been unable to walk all that time. But he still had hope of being healed. He’d heard that an angel of the Lord would occasionally stir the waters at the pool of Bethesda. Afterwards, whoever stepped into the water first was healed of whatever ailed him. So the lame man joined many other sick people who sat around the pool each day, watching and waiting for the troubling of the waters. He had been present a number of times when the waters were previously stirred, but others who had more mobility reached the water before he did. So he kept on waiting for another opportunity, and hoped that the next time the waters were stirred, someone would care enough to help him be the first to get in.

Angels, of course, don’t work independently of the Lord, and so we can be sure that the only time an angel stirred the Bethesda waters was when God sent him. So why didn’t God send an angel every five minutes to stir the water so that everyone could be healed? Can we conclude from this story that it wasn’t God’s will for everyone there to be healed?

Actually, all the sick people at Bethesda could have been healed without ever stepping into the pool of Bethesda, because God promised health for every obedient Israelite in His covenant with them. God said in Exodus 23:25 (NASB), “But you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst.” In Deuteronomy 7:12-15, God promised the Israelites that, if they obeyed Him faithfully, He would remove all sickness from them. If any of the sick people at Bethesda had believed what God had promised, acting in faith, they would have been healed. Even if they had been disobedient to the Lord, thus not meeting the conditions of their covenant with God, they could have repented, received forgiveness, and then received healing. Anyone who disagrees with that is saying that God is a liar, and that His promises can’t be trusted. It’s true: He promised health to obedient Israelites!

By occasionally sending an angel to stir the waters of the pool of Bethesda, perhaps God was also trying to stir up His people by way of reminder that He was still in the healing business. Every time someone was healed, God was sending a message to all Israel that He’d spoken centuries earlier to their ancestors: “I am the Lord who heals you” (Exodus 15:26). Surely God didn’t want all those sick people waiting at the pool to think His mercy was limited, or that His love was greater for sick people who were more watchful and mobile than other sick people. Surely He wasn’t trying to encourage a selfish competition that would make the majority of suffering people continual losers. No, the God whom the Bible says shows no partiality (see Deut. 10:17; Rom. 2:11; Gal. 2:6) wanted His covenant people to know that He was their healer. And He was not choosing to heal specific ones and choosing not to heal specific others, because anyone who got into the water first was healed. Individual responsibility was a factor.

The same God who occasionally sent an angel, sent His Son one day to the same pool. And just as when the angel visited, only one person was healed that day as well. Did Jesus want to convey to the sick people present that He loved only one person enough to heal him? No, like His Father, He was trying to show them that He had the power to heal them all, hoping that all would trust Him for their healing. Numerous times in the four Gospels, we can read about Jesus healing everyone who came to Him requesting healing. This healing at the pool of Bethesda was an advertisement for Jesus and an encouragement for the rest to trust Him and be healed. This healing should encourage us today, because the Bible says that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

Q. Was this lame man at the pool of Bethesda healed through his faith?

A. No, this man, unlike so many others whom Jesus healed, was not healed through his faith. Here is the evidence: First, the man was not seeking Jesus, rather, Jesus found him. Second, Jesus said nothing to him about his faith healing him as He often did with others. And third, the lame man had no idea who Jesus was, even after he’d been healed. When he first conversed with Jesus, he wasn’t looking to Him as someone who could heal him. In his mind, Jesus was no different than any other person present.

This healing, then, is an example of a “gift of healing” working through Jesus. Gifts of healings operate as the Holy Spirit wills (see 1 Cor. 12:11), and faith is not necessarily a requirement for the sick person to be healed. It is a sovereign act of God.

Q. Jesus later told the man He’d healed, “Stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you” (John 5:14). What can we learn from that statement?

A. We can learn that sin can lead to God’s judgment. If the healed man didn’t repent and quit sinning, there was the possibility that he might wind up worse than he previously was. God is a loving God, but He is also holy. He will punish evildoers. We must be careful, however, that we don’t conclude that all sick people are being punished for their sins. Then we would be guilty of passing judgment.

Application: The people of the world often need signs from God to open their hearts to the gospel. Let’s pray today that God would mercifully grant that more signs and wonders would be shown to the unbelieving world. Also that even people who have no faith would be healed, that more attention would be given to the good news of Jesus Christ.

After reading the past two days about people who received miracles from Jesus through their faith, today we read about an entire town that, for the most part, missed out on receiving any miracles from Jesus because of their lack of faith. This once again proves that God’s will coming to pass in our lives is dependent on our faith. Naturally, Jesus wanted to bring blessings to the people in the town where He had spent most of His life. The Bible, however, said that He couldn’t do any mighty miracles there because of the people’s unbelief (see Mark 6:5). This clearly indicates that He desired to do mighty miracles there. Notice also that the Bible said Jesus couldn’t , not wouldn’t do any mighty miracles there. It wasn’t because He didn’t want to perform mighty miracles for them, it was because He was actually limited by their unbelief.

All Christians know this is true concerning salvation, so why don’t they realize that it’s true concerning anything else we receive from God? It is God’s will for everyone to be saved, but God’s will doesn’t come to pass in a person’s life unless that person believes the gospel. That means there are people in hell right now whom God wanted to be in heaven. Likewise, if a person is ill, we should not conclude that it’s God’s will for that person to remain ill. God expects us to believe His Word, but so few do when it comes to healing because they’ve been wrongly taught that it may not be God’s will for them to be healed. Thus they have no faith for healing, and Jesus is hindered by their unbelief.

Even when they pray for healing, many Christians confess their unbelief, saying, “Lord, if it is Your will, please heal me.” They are admitting that they aren’t sure what God’s will is, which makes it impossible for them to have faith. Faith can only be born from God’s promises. Only when God’s will is not revealed is it appropriate to say, “If it is Your will.” Otherwise, we’re saying to God, “Lord, I know what You’ve promised, but in case You were lying about it, I don’t want to hold You to what You said.” The Bible says, “Are any among you sick?…prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make them well” (James 5:14-15). How can any Bible-believing Christian argue with that?

The reason the majority of people in Nazareth didn’t believe in Jesus was because they had known Him and His family for decades. They knew He was a very good person, but they had no idea that He was God’s Son. They refused to believe in Him, even though they had heard about His miracles in other places and heard Him speak before them with great wisdom. Thankfully, however, there were a few people in Nazareth who apparently had some faith, but who, as the original Greek indicates, had only minor ailments. Jesus laid His hands on them and healed them. But for the majority of people in Nazareth, Jesus was “amazed at their unbelief” (Mark 6:6).

Q. How do you think Jesus feels about the lack of faith in people today?

A. He is probably amazed at everyone who doesn’t believe in Him because of the overwhelming evidence that He was a historical person whose life story is accurately recorded in the Bible. However, Jesus once wondered if anyone would have any faith when He returns, saying, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8, NASB).

Application: Could it be that you may have hindered Jesus from working more in your life by your unbelief? In prayer today, ask the Lord is this is so, and if it is, ask Him to help you grow in faith.

In both of the healing stories we read today, faith was a factor. Jairus believed that if Jesus would lay His hands upon his dying daughter, she would live. His faith was evident from his actions. First, he journeyed to Jesus who was by the seashore. And second, he made his way through a crowd, fell at Jesus’ feet, and publicly begged Him to come and lay His hands on his daughter, stating that she would live if He would. Only someone who had faith would do what Jairus did.

Also, when messengers from Jairus’ house told him that his daughter had died, we read, “Jesus ignored their comments and said to Jairus, O Don’t be afraid. Just trust me'” (Mark 5:36). Luke’s Gospel records Jesus saying, “Don’t be afraid. Just trust me, and she will be all right” (Luke 8:50). Naturally, Jairus was tempted to be afraid that his daughter would not be raised, but Jesus encouraged him to keep on believing. Obviously, Jairus’ faith played a key part in his daughter’s being raised from the dead.

The faith of the woman who had suffered for twelve years with internal bleeding also played an important role in her healing. Jesus plainly told her that it was her faith that had made her well (see Mark 5:34). Her faith was also evident by her actions. She, too, pressed through a crowd in order to touch Jesus. She had been thinking to herself, “If I can just touch his clothing, I will be healed” (Mark 5:28).

This helps us to understand better why more people aren’t divinely healed today. If more of us truly believed, more of us would be healed. But we have been brain-washed (or better said, “brain-dirtied”) to believe that God only chooses to heal some and not others. As a result, we doubt that we are among those whom God wants to heal, and our lack of faith stops our healing.

But this idea is proven to be biblically unsound by what we’ve just read. Obviously, healing is available to all who will believe, because the woman with internal bleeding was healed by Jesus even before He knew who had touched Him . He realized that power had gone out of Him for healing, but didn’t know who had been healed. Faith drew His healing power out, and it was available for anyone and everyone! The reason that woman believed Jesus would heal her was because she heard He never turned anyone away who came to Him requesting healing. She had heard that everyone who touched Him was healed.

This same story also disproves the idea that if it is God’s will for someone to be healed, He will automatically heal that person. It was obviously God’s will for the woman we just read about to be healed, but she wasn’t healed until she did something: she put her faith into action. It was and is Jesus’ will for everyone to be healed, but they have to do something. They have to put faith into action. It is just the same as salvation. God wants everyone to be saved, but not everyone is automatically saved. People have to believe the gospel.

One reason more preachers in America don’t teach this truth is because they know it offends proud people who refuse to acknowledge that their lack of faith stops them from being healed. They would rather put the blame on God and His supposed will not to heal everyone.

Even people who believe that God wants them to be healed aren’t always healed, because their faith is often very weak. I’ve personally experienced weak faith. But I would rather admit my weakness than say that God wants me to remain sick, contradicting His many healing promises. And I would rather have a weak faith that can grow stronger than be stuck with no faith for the rest of my life. And finally, I’m sure God would prefer weak or wavering faith over no faith at all!

Divine healing is a subject upon which we need to remain balanced. We shouldn’t think that God condemns us for our lack of faith, or that He is opposed to our seeking a doctor’s help. Jesus didn’t condemn the sick woman in today’s story for previously going to a doctor. But praise God that Jesus can fix anything doctors can’t! Let’s trust Him more!

Q. According to something we’ve read today, is there any time when we should ignore people’s comments?

A. Jesus ignored the negative reports that the messengers brought from Jairus’ home. When anyone says something that contradicts what God has said, it’s good to ignore it. We don’t want to be influenced to doubt. Perhaps that is also the reason why Jesus cleared all the mourners from Jairus’ house before He raised Jairus’ daughter. Their weeping and wailing could have influenced Jairus and his wife to doubt, drawing their attention away from Jesus’ promise to change their sad situation.

Q. Why do you suppose that Jesus commanded Jairus and his wife not to tell anyone what had happened?

A. Because Jesus already had more publicity than He needed. This also indicates that Jesus didn’t raise and heal the little girl to prove that He was God’s Son. He did it because He loved that family and wanted to help them.

Q. Why did Jesus instruct the parents to give their daughter some food?

A. Because her body needed nourishment, and Jesus was concerned that her parents, in their excitement, might overlook her need. Jesus really cares about people.

Application: Today we read about a man who had something restored that he’d cherished for twelve years (see Luke 8:42) but lost. And we read about a woman who had something removed that she wanted to be rid of for twelve years. Jesus intervened in both situations at the same time, restoring and removing, according to the need. He is wonderful!

According to Matthew’s Gospel, these two miracles occurred right after the miracles we read about yesterday. Perhaps within the space of only one hour, Jesus healed a woman who had bled internally for twelve years, raised a young girl from the dead, opened the eyes of two blind men and cast a demon out of a man who had previously been unable to speak! No wonder the crowds who were with Him that day marveled. Yet the Pharisees, unable to improve upon their old explanation, continued to accuse Jesus of using Satan’s power to cast out demons.

As we read yesterday’s two miracles, we learned that faith was a key ingredient in both instances. Today’s first miracle, the instant healing of two blind men, was also credited to faith. Jesus asked the blind men, “Do you believe I can make you see?” and they responded, “Yes, Lord, we do” (Matthew 9:28). What do you think would have happened if they had said, “No, Lord, we doubt it”? Obviously they would not have been healed, because Jesus then said, ” Because of your faith , it will happen” (Matthew 9:29, emphasis added). If they had not had faith, they would not have been healed, even though it was obviously God’s will for them to be healed, because they were healed.

This proves again that God’s will doesn’t always automatically come to pass. As I mentioned yesterday, this truth makes proud people angry, because they would rather put the blame on God, claiming that it’s not His will for them to be healed, rather than admit that their faith is weak or nonexistent. However, Jesus said, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matthew 21:22). There are scores of examples in the Bible of people doing just that and receiving healing.

The faith of the two blind men was not only evident by what they said, it was evident by what they did. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they followed along behind Him, shouting, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” It wouldn’t have been easy to follow along behind Jesus without sight. Perhaps someone was guiding them. Notice also that, before crowds of people, they kept shouting to Jesus for mercy. They were obviously convinced He could open their eyes, and weren’t ashamed to publicly and repeatedly ask Him. They were bold and persistent in their faith, to the point of going right inside the house where Jesus was staying! They would not be denied! True faith is always determined, and when people have strong faith, they don’t quit.

Q. Nothing is mentioned in today’s reading about the man who was mute having any faith. Is there any indication of his faith in the story?

A. Yes. The man must have possessed some amount of faith, or he wouldn’t have cooperated with his friends who brought him to Jesus. It is also true that Jesus did sometimes heal people who apparently didn’t demonstrate any outward signs of faith. Those cases could be categorized as “gifts of healing” mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:9 (NASB). They operate as the Holy Spirit wills, and are sovereign acts of healing by God that don’t necessarily require faith on the part of the person being healed.

Application: You may not need to receive healing, but perhaps you are facing some other difficulty in which you could apply faith in God’s Word. If so, imitate the faith of the two blind men we just read about. Be bold and persistent, and your faith will bring the miracle you need!

As we read yesterday, not only did Jesus have authority over the wind, commanding it to stop, He also had authority over evil spirits. Remember John the Baptist said that God had given Jesus “authority over everything” (John 3:35). The demons that possessed the man we’ve just read about were obviously very powerful, to the point of being able to empower the man with the strength to break chains. However, they were no match for Jesus. In fact, all the evil spirits in the world together don’t have a fraction of the power that God has.

The demons who inhabited this man drove him to do strange things. He lived in a cemetery, wandering through the tombs night and day without any clothes, screaming and cutting himself with stones. That shows us how wicked the devil and his evil spirits are. Because people are created in God’s image, Satan loves to see that image marred. If you’ve ever had an enemy draw a mustache on a photograph of yourself, you have some idea what I mean. Satan would love it if every person would become demon-possessed and act like that man did.

Notice how afraid the demons were of Jesus. When Jesus came ashore, the demon-possessed man ran to meet Him and fell down before Him. Was that act the man’s own doing or was he being motivated by the demons? Probably it was the demons, because it’s unlikely the man had any idea of who Jesus was. The main demon, however, named Legion, knew Jesus was the Son of God, and confessed it through the man’s shrieking voice, begging Jesus not to torture him. Later, all the demons repeatedly begged Jesus not to send them “to some distant place” (Mark 5:10). Those demons were scared to death of Jesus, because they knew who He was and what He could do! They were bowing before Him hoping for some mercy!

Also notice that Jesus asked the main demon inside the man what his name was. This is another indication that although Jesus was God, when He became a man He laid aside His attribute of omniscience, or knowing everything. God the Father, of course, knew what the demon’s name was.

I don’t know why Jesus gave the demons permission to go into the nearby herd of pigs. Perhaps it was just to display God’s great power. Can you imagine seeing a herd of 2,000 serenely grazing pigs suddenly going crazy, stampeding to their deaths down a hill into a lake? This also seems to indicate that at least 2,000 demons were previously living inside one man. Either demons can squash really close together, or, more likely, there is no such thing as space in the spiritual realm.

This story should fill us with awe at the mercy, goodness and power of the Lord. One day in heaven we’ll meet the man who was delivered, and rejoice with him for all that God has done for us. Not all of us were demon-possessed before our salvation, but all of us have been delivered from Satan’s power over our lives.

Q. Should Christians be afraid of demons?

A. Absolutely not, because demons are afraid of Jesus who lives in all Christians.

Q. Wasn’t it wrong of Jesus to allow the demons to go into someone else’s pigs? Surely the owners were upset over the loss of 2,000 pigs.

A. Actually, Jesus’ allowing the demons to enter the pigs serves as another proof that He was God, because God owns everything, including those 2,000 pigs. God can do anything He desires with people’s private property, because it’s more His property than theirs! Additionally, the Jews were forbidden in the Law to eat pork, and so perhaps the owners of those pigs were breaking God’s law, and what Jesus allowed was an act of judgment.

Finally, this story also teaches us the value that God places on people, who are created in His image, compared to animals, who are not. One man is worth much more than 2,000 pigs! This is a message to our perverted society, which allows the killing of baby humans but forbids the killing of certain animals.

Application: The people of the region who saw the formerly-possessed man were filled with fear, and rather than bowing before the Son of God and requesting forgiveness for their sins, they begged Him to leave them alone. Jesus sadly granted them their request, but instructed the delivered man to return to his friends with his testimony. This is a picture of the whole world today. They really don’t want Jesus around, but Jesus, hoping that they will soften, has sent us, those He’s delivered from Satan’s power, to tell others what God has done for us.