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Jesus Christ came to make you whole—toheal you from your head to your feet, insideand outside, and to make you a new creature.Will You Be Made Whole?A C L A S S I C M E S S A G E B Y O R A L R O B E R T SWhen Jesus healed people, He often came to themwith the question, “Will you be made whole?” WhenHe ministered, He touched every phase of the individual’slife, so when He finished working with a person,that person could say, “I am whole.”A whole healing is a complete healing—spirit, soul,and body. Our eyes can see only our human flesh,which is actually just our physical house. But thereis so much more to you and me. When Jesus heals uscompletely, our spirits are renewed, our bodies arehealed, and our minds are transformed. Never doubtthe power of your faith in Jesus Christ to make you awhole person.Healing—inside and outJohn 5 tells us that Jesus went to the pool of Bethesda,where He found a large multitude of sick people.Among them was a man who had been lying there,crippled, for 38 years. The man believed in a legendthat said an angel would come at a certain season ofthe year and stir up the water. Whoever was fortunateenough to get in the water first would be healed.Jesus asked the man, “Will you be made whole?” Theman thought Jesus was merely talking about his physicalbody getting a physical healing when the angelstirred the waters. So the man said, “I don’t have aman to put me in the water.”But when Jesus said, “Will you be made whole,” Hewas also talking to the man inside the body, made inthe image of God. He was talking to every part ofhim—spirit, mind, and body.You’ve got to have JesusThis man’s problem was a problem many peopleface—they don’t “have a man.” They may have ideasor a philosophy, and some of them have a religion. Butthey don’t have the man who matters most—Jesus.Once I was ministering to a gentleman who neededhealing. He said, “I don’t know much about JesusChrist and all that business.” Yet he wanted JesusChrist to heal him. I had to get his thinking turnedaround, to get him to quit thinking about his bodylong enough to think about the Man, Jesus.The disabled man at the pool told Jesus, “Others getthere before me.” He began to blame other people. We’reall prone to do this.The most difficult thing you and I will ever do inlife is look in the mirror and say, “You’re the man.”“You’re the woman.” We’re always looking at somebodyelse. Others get in our way and we think, Well,this fellow did this, and because he did, I’m not going toget my deliverance, as if that had anything to do withit—but it really doesn’t! If everybody in the wholeworld got in your way and God turned His back andwas walking away, you could still get down on yourhands and knees, crawl behind Him, reach out atrembling hand, touch the hem of His garment, andget healed.The man at the pool had many excuses:“I have not a man.”“Someone gets in my way.”“I’ve been here 38 years.”“It’s too late; I’m too old.”But Jesus looked the man squarely in the eyes and refusedto accept a single excuse. Instead, He told theman, “Rise, take up your bed, and walk.”“Rise”—what did Jesus mean? Well, we immediatelythink of the man’s body getting up. But is that whatJesus meant? Remember that He asked, “Will yoube made whole?” Wasn’t He talking to the spirit ofthe man who lived in that body? He meant, “You’relying down inside. Rise! Stand up! Stand up on theinside!”God made people to walk upright, inside and out.That’s why it’s important to respond when Jesus says,“Rise, take up your bed.” The bed had been carryingthis man for 38 years. Jesus said, “It’s been carryingyou. Now you carry it.”What is our bed? It depends on who we are. Ourbed is often simply our attitude. For instance, peoplewho are filled with self-pity might say, “Everybody’sagainst me. Nobody likes me. Everything wrong happensto me.” That’s the bed they’re carrying around.Jesus says, “Take up that bed.” And He wouldn’t sayto take it up if we couldn’t.For others, their bed might be hostility toward otherpeople. They may like dogs, or cats, or things, butthey don’t like people. That’s the bed they’re lying on,an attitude of hostility. It’s the inner man despising anotherman made in God’s image, and that’s violatingthe commandment to love one another. That’s a bed,and we have to pick it up. Whatever bed is holdingyou down, Jesus says, “Take up that bed and walk.”It’s time to walkIf You Need Healing, Do These Things by Oral RobertsOne of the first books ever written by Oral Roberts, thistimeless message is still a powerful tool to help you learnhow to release your faith for healing! $7Why didn’t Jesus say “walk” when He first startedtalking to the man at the pool? Instead, He first said,“Will you be made whole?”Jesus first deals with us where we are. To be healed,we have to be healed inside, and then we can behealed outside. Jesus came to heal the whole person,not the disease only. If He were to heal the diseasewithout healing the person, it wouldn’t be a completehealing.When the man was healed, Jesus said, “Don’t sin anymore.”In other words, “Don’t lie back down.” Thismeans, become God-conscious. Don’t practice lying downinside, or withdrawing from the human race, or reducingyour world to the size of your bed. Take up yourbed so that you can be made whole—inside and out.Friend, let me encourage you today with these words:Don’t lie back down. Don’t get back in the old attitude.Don’t withdraw from people. Keep standing up.Keep loving people.Look to Jesus—and be made whole!Jan/Feb/Mar 2009To order: call 918-495-7777, or visit our online bookstore at www.orm.cc22for a complete listing of our products.23