People who are disabled, and have to beg to survive, have a faith birthed in desperation, birthed in the harshness of the reality of the situation they are faced with. They know they have need of the mercy of God. They know they have need of Jesus.
Desperation and faith, in the mercy of God, produces tremendous results. I want to spend a moment considering the story of blind Bartimaues. Bartimaeus was one of these people reduced to a life of begging because of his blindness. Mark 10:46-52 tells us:
“Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him. So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.”
Wherever Jesus went huge crowds followed Him, because of the miracles. There are people who believe that the age of miracles has passed and to reach this generation we need to try other methods, to win people to Christ. My mentor in the ministry Mike Francen says “If Jesus used miracles to draw the masses, how can we do anything less?”
Others say, “Well, we need to use this model of evangelism or that model and the days of mass evangelism are over.” I’m a great supporter of any method of evangelism; we need to be creative and use any means to bring people to Jesus. But I’m telling you, miracles still draw the masses. I see it in my own life and ministry.
As a ministry, we are passionate about seeing the power and fire, of the Holy Spirit, in the Church. The power of God is the only thing that produces real results. Aimee Semple McPherson, the great evangelist, faith healer and revivalist said “The Church today is full of indifference, materialism, unbelief and powerless program’s that doesn’t save souls. What we need is the fire of the Holy Ghost.” Aimee was the founder of the Pentecostal Foursquare denomination, which now has more than 8.7 million members globally.
Bartimaeus was blind, he had heard about Jesus and what had been happening and now, Jesus was drawing near. Bartimaeus wasn’t going to miss out on his opportunity to receive a miracle. It was his special moment! Now I believe God is with us and we have the presence of God with us, whether we feel it or not: we can believe God for healing whether we feel anything or not, and miracles can and do happen this way.
But, there are also times when God shows up and does special things. Jesus said, “Where two or more are gathered, there I am in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20) There is a corporate anointing that comes when we gather together; faith rises in that anointing, and miracles begin to happen, as we make our claim in faith based in the finished work of Christ.
Bartimaeus could hear the commotion. Wherever Jesus is there is a commotion. Some Churches want revival, but they get concerned at the slightest bit of commotion. We need to be willing to allow God to rock the boat a little bit if we want Him to move on our behalf.
People say to me, “What happens if Jesus doesn’t do a miracle when you pray?” Sometimes I respond, “Well, what happens if he does?” I’m telling you when Jesus starts doing miracles, you will have some commotion!
And Bartimaues began to cry out. Now this was no wish-washy cry. I believe it was a raw cry; there was nothing to lose for Bartimaues, he had nothing anyway! But he had everything to gain if he could get close to Jesus. They were trying to shut him up, but this was a man broken by life, humbled by life, he didn’t care what anyone thought of him.
Bartimaeus was a man of no reputation, he cried out even louder! That’s persistence! That’s tenacity! Some of us sit quietly when well meaning people try to tell us we’re getting to noisy or too radical for God, others of us are like Bartimaeus, no one can keep us quiet. Sometimes it’s only as we are broken and desperate for God we see his intervention and mercy.
Bartimaues knew he was a man in need of mercy. “Have mercy!” He cried. “Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me!” Mercy! This was the cry of someone who knew only Jesus could help! Jesus is ultimately the only one who can help in any situation
No one could stop this man from getting his miracle. He was persistent. Let me say at this point that faith and persistence in prayer don’t necessarily conflict. There are many passages of scripture which suggest God honors and rewards persistence in prayer. (Luke 11:5-13, Luke 18:1-6, Romans 12:12, Col 4:2)
Some believe we should pray once and then wait for the answer, others believe we should praise God until we see the answer. I don’t want to suggest there is any best way to pray other than to say it is not wrong to persist in prayer, it’s biblical!
There are so many people in this world in need of mercy. Literally, billions are headed into eternity with no saving knowledge of Christ. They need mercy. We need to be the kind of people who cry out for mercy on their behalf. We need to be aware of the plight of the unsaved and cry out to a merciful God!
Romans 10:13 says, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!” Calling on the name of Jesus today is the only way to salvation! The story of Bartimaeus illustrates this principle so simply. It’s as we cry out to God for mercy, there is salvation for anyone and everyone who believes.
Then Jesus said to Bartimaeus, “Your faith has healed you.” It was his faith in Jesus’ mercy which brought the healing. Jesus did not say, “Well, you obviously didn’t have an ounce of faith, I had to believe for you.” No, His response implied the thought, “You understood that I can do anything, you understood that I care about what you are suffering with, you understood that I have a heart of mercy and compassion.”
Today I want to encourage you, God is a God of mercy and compassion. He knows what you’re going through. He knows what you need. And I’m believing that today as you cry out to Him that He will visit you just like he visited Bartimaeus and give you the miracle you need.
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