Words of Jesus Podcast - Need Does Not Activate God

Episode Date: December 10, 2021

"The poor you will have with you always." There are many things that we do not understand. There are many things we don't need to understand. What is relevant to our lives will be revealed by the Spirit of God, if we live in a manner conducive to hearing instruction. Specifically, keep the ten commandments; take time every day to hear from God (meditation, silent prayer); and never, ever violate your conscience. Truth is revealed by the Spirit of God. Healing pools of water and lottery healing are not consistent with the actions and personality of YHVH. ***Wilt Thou Be Made Whole (Part 1)CHAPTER 15:  JESUS HEALS A LAME MANIN JERUSALEM, by the sheep market, was the Pool of Bethesda.  Beside it lay a great multitude of invalids—the lame, blind, withered, and bedridden—all waiting for the moving of the water; because at certain times an angel went down into the pool and troubled the water.  Then, whoever was the first to enter the water after its troubling, was cured of whatever disease or infirmity he had.            Jesus, one day, walked beside the Pool of Bethesda and saw a man there who had been infirm and lame for thirty-eight years.  Realizing that he had been so long infirm, Jesus spoke to him, saying;             “Wilt thou be made whole?”            The lame man answered:            “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.”            Jesus said to him:            “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”            Immediately the man was healed.  He took up his bed and walked away.            This miracle came to pass on the Sabbath.  The Jews, therefore, stoppedthe man who had been cured, saying:             “It is the Sabbath day.  It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.”            He answered:            “He that made me whole, the same said unto me, “Take up thy bed, and walk.”            The Jews asked him:            “What man is that which said unto thee, ‘Take up thy bed, and walk’?”             But he who had been healed did not know who his benefactor was, because Jesus had left to avoid the crowd in that place.            Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him:            “Behold, thou art made whole.  Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”             The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris Hello friends, welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. We've been for several episodes now going through this little book called The Words of Jesus. And I'm always excited to bring this to you, to share this book with you and the idea is that you're going to have ideas and thoughts that you've never had before. And the reason is because the words of Jesus, the red ink in the scriptures, unfortunately is very unfamiliar to the average Christian.

Well, it won't be after this series, so we hope that you're enjoying yourself. This particular book is a compilation of what Jesus had to say from all of our Gospels that we have in our Bible. And we're going to find out exactly how He loves and instructs and corrects the people of the earth. And during that time on the earth, He covered a lot of things that, you know, he actually covered things and talked about things that didn't actually apply to the people

he was talking to. You know why? He was thinking about you. He was thinking about the time that we live in and the troubles and the problems that perhaps that we're having. And you remember when he said, I have sheep that are not of this fold? He told his disciples that after he goes away he's going to call all these things to remembrance. He's got a plan.

He had a plan then, he's got one now. And what that was is that these things are recorded for our edification and to give us what we need on this earth. I think that the average Christian, when they consider their spiritual condition, that they have a feeling of inadequacy that I think haunts them, that they just don't have the ability to find what they need to get by every day. There's a lot of reasons for this

and one of them, I'm sorry to say, comes from our conventional churches and the conventional preaching that we all grew up with. And that essentially is that you sin every day and that you don't have the ability to understand these scriptures without...and this is true, but it's misunderstood. And I try to preface this because I don't want this to shock you,

but I think we've been told that you can't understand the Scriptures without the Holy Spirit. Well, what is a Christian doing without the Holy Spirit? It's almost silly to even think about. Why is he without the Holy Spirit? Well, and I say again, unfortunately it's because of some of the poor doctrines and theology that we've been handed over the years

and one of those things is that what God has to say to you, he has written in a book and that is where you're supposed to get your instruction from. Now listen to me. Nobody respects the Bible like I do. I mean, this is not a matter of discounting the Scriptures, but the promise of Jesus Christ was that if you'll keep my commandments, I'll move into you. I'll speak to you from the inside out, from the

inside up. And you're going to hear my voice. As a matter of fact, the word that he used, which I thought was just a beautiful thought, was that if you'll keep my commandments, my Father and I will take up our abode in you and we will manifest ourselves to you. Now to manifest yourself is much more than simply appearing physically, appearing mentally, appearing in some vision, or even appearing

at all. To manifest something to someone else, to manifest yourself to them, is that they would walk away with a manifestation of you. Well, just your appearance is not a manifestation. Essentially, what you say is not a manifestation of you. It's more than your philosophy. It's more than your theology. It's really who you are. And this was the promise. And if that's the promise, that he's going to manifest himself to us

and never mention the Bible, I think that's really a strange curiosity. You know Jesus actually mentioned the Scriptures very few times. And if the Scriptures aren't to occupy such a predominant place in our life, you'd just think that he would have said, when I go away, don't worry about a thing, I'm going to send you a book. But what he said he was going to send us is the very thing that conventional Christianity says that you should

beware of that. Why is it I should beware of that? Well, because you don't know if that's the voice of God or the voice of the devil. We know that when we read the scriptures. So what have we done to the scriptures? We've turned it into a talisman. We've turned it into a book of incantations. We've turned it into a magic. Well, let me tell you something. Many, many a person has been led astray with this book right here. You have to understand that men like David Koresh and men like Jim Jones, they did what they did with this book firmly in their hand.

They preach this to people with this book firmly in their hand. We have to be careful no matter where we are. But when it comes to being led of the Spirit of God, here's what you should know. Sure, the Scriptures have developed among well-meaning people approximately 3,000 or 4,000 Christian denominations. It has taken well-meaning people and people have read in there and interpreted in there until they have created subsequently 30 to 40 thousand denominations that can't even agree

with each other all based upon this book. Let me tell you something about the Holy Spirit that you should know. The Holy Spirit of God has never led a person not one centimeter, not one millimeter to the right or the left of perfect truth ever. It has never done that. If there is deviation, that deviation is within ourselves.

We've been talking for the past several episodes about fasting and what a wonderful tool that is for us to get control of this flesh in us that gives us so much trouble. And many times it's the flesh, it's our mentality, it's us essentially. It's us who takes the truth of God and changes it. It's not the spirit of God. Satan doesn't speak to us. Well, it might be Satan speaking to you. Do you know the Bible teaches us that if we live like we're supposed to live, the wicked one touches him not. Is that true or is it not? Jesus says, I know my sheep and they hear my voice.

A stranger's voice, they don't hear a stranger's voice. They won't follow a stranger because they're my sheep. Are these promises to you, are they really worthwhile? Are they dependable? See, I happen to think that they are. And I've found that even when I get it wrong, my father helps me get right. I've even seen him fix the mistakes I made in good intention and straighten

things out anyway. So, you know, this is perhaps a little more complicated than you might have thought it was, but it's certainly not harder than the way we've been living up until now. That's why we seek out translations and seek out preachers and seek out seminars. And we go from here to there and from there to here and read these books and listen to these DVDs. Why? It's our good intention. We want to be people of God. We want to know things. We want to understand this stuff. Well, there is one way that you can

now, this is not going to put you in good graces with a whole lot of people. If that's your intention, you need to continue what you're doing. But if your intention is to know truth, Jesus said that you shall know the truth. You shall know the truth. Why? Because the Spirit of God is revealing to you what? A-L-L truth. All truth. All truth. And is there a better

place to look? Is there a more accurate place to seek? No, there's not. Now, what about the scriptures? I love every word of them. As you should know if you've been following this series, I appreciate the fact that he has given us these scriptures and that He's reiterated these stories and that He's brought to our minds the things that happened in history and we have historical documents here, we have things that

are written by men that had relationships with God. Absolutely incalculable value. Absolutely, it's the most I mean outside of the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the scriptures in our day. Friend, I want to tell you something. These haven't been around that long. Christianity is much older, much older than the availability of Scripture. So how did they get along without it?

Well, they believed what Jesus said. I'm going to send the Spirit of God and He's going to live inside you. Well, that's just a small recap on chapter 14 and we're going to continue now with chapter 15, Jesus Heals a Lame Man. In Jerusalem by the sheep market was the pool of Bethesda. Beside it lay a great multitude of invalids, the lame, the blind, withered, and bedridden, all waiting for the

moving of the water. Because at certain times an angel went down into the pool and troubled the water, when whoever was first to enter the water, after its troubling, was cured of whatsoever disease or infirmity that he had. Jesus one day walked beside the pool of Bethesda and he saw there a man who had been infirm and lame for 38 years. Realizing he'd been so long and firm Jesus spoke to him saying,

The lame man answered, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the pool. But while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus said to him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. I am, when I talk about this, I am criticized in many cases because I have no trouble telling you I don't believe this at all. Now, wait a minute. Did I just say I don't believe the story that

Jesus is telling here or that the scriptures are telling about him? No. I'm saying that this idea of this angel coming and troubling the water and whoever stepped in was healed? Nope. Sorry, I don't believe it. I just don't. If the Lord had set up some kind of a healing pool, see men can come up with some stuff, can't they? This is nothing but, this is just, this is as goofy as witchcraft.

And I don't believe that there was a healing pool at Bethesda. I don't believe that an angel went in and troubled the water. I don't believe that the first person in after the water was troubled was healed of whatever disease he had. I don't believe it. I'm sorry. I don't believe it. Now some people say that I'm denigrating the scriptures when I say this. No. I'm not doing that at all. I'm just saying that I happen to know the Lord God I serve

and I have never in my life ever, in all of my encounters with him in the scriptures, and his son in the scriptures, I have never seen where there was a race, or a lottery, or by chance kind of a blessing for God. And if you're really quick and you've got somebody to put you into the pool, you know, before somebody else gets in there, that I'll heal you. Otherwise, you can just lay there for 38 years. That is so far away from my understanding of my Father God and His Son Jesus Christ. I just simply

don't believe this. Now, the other thing that makes me say this is, I know people and they make up some of the goofiest stuff I've ever heard of. I mean, how many of us have all heard of the, you know, the gold dust, you know, the angel dust, they, you know, that falls on people. We've heard of the Toronto blessing. You got to be in Toronto or you got to have gold dust fall on you, or you have to do this or do that, or you have to be here or be there, or you have to hear this message, or you have to say these words,

or you have to, come on, that's ridiculous. The other reason I don't believe it is, did this man ask for healing? It was obvious that he wanted to be made whole it was obvious you know even to ask a man that's been crippled for 38 years do you want to be made whole and we're going to talk about that as time goes by but this man you know what his trouble was he says i don't have help i don't have help. I don't have a man to help me get into that water when the angel troubles it. Somebody steps down before me. Well, Don, if the healings weren't going on, what's the water troubling?

Well, have you ever stood by a pool of water? Have you ever stood by a lake, a pond, or whatever, and the wind will come across it and ripple it? Or a fish might jump up and touch the top of the water, or something can happen that that water is not like glass anymore. Well, I think these were all understood, somebody, somewhere, some woman with nothing to do

or some man with an overactive imagination somewhere turned that into an angelic presence. And perhaps somebody somewhere in history or whatever stumbled down to that pool and they got in that water and they eventually got better. Now, not necessarily has to be psychosomatic. You know, a lot of times it's just time, you know, that our bodies are set on heal. That's what they're set on. It's an immune system. It's the loveliness of life that no matter how sick we get, our bodies are trying to live. It's the will to live. People get better. I'm just saying that over time, these

things turn into these big stories. What was it? I heard some Pentecostal preacher was saying, oh, Jesus went to heal a man, or maybe it was Peter and John. I forget the particular story. You can find this. And it says he reached and took him by the right hand. And this fellow thought that this was part of the healing process. It was very, very important for you to reach and take with the right hand, reach and take with the right hand, reach and take him,

and that's how you make sure this healing takes place. Not the left hand, the right hand. You know, I'm reading this and I'm thinking, whose right hand? If I reach my right hand out, am I grabbing their right hand? No, I'm grabbing their left hand. Is it his right hand or my right hand out. Am I grabbing their right hand? No, I'm grabbing their left hand. Is it his right hand or my right hand? You know what? These things get so

silly and so, well, you may not like the word stupid, but I can't think of a better one. It's ridiculous. Here's your test. Here's what you can do. Try it. If it doesn't work, will you walk away from that voodoo and seek the Lord for your healing and let Him tell you what to do or not do? I remember one time going to the Lord about something and there was a particular food

He told me not to eat anymore. You know, I didn't get that instantaneously. It was over a period of weeks. But you know, I really appreciate that. I wasn't looking for a pool with troubled water. I wasn't looking for gold dust or feeling angel wings against my cheeks or anybody took me by the right hand. No, go to your father about this. And find out what it's all about. You know, there was a man

one time that the disciples asked the Lord, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Remember Jesus' answer? No, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Remember Jesus' answer? No. This man was born blind. Now we're talking about a man here. Born blind. He has suffered blindness from the day of his birth. For what reason? That the power of God might be made manifest in him. Really? Yeah. Watch this. And he

gave him his sight back. Well, you mean this guy suffered all those years of blindness for that cause? Yeah. He did. And God just sat back and let him suffer. There was a purpose for it. Do you know there might be a purpose in whatever infirmity that you're suffering with? Whatever thing that's got you beset somehow? There might be a purpose. You know what?

If we knew that purpose, wouldn't it be easier to live with? If we even knew that there could be a purpose, it would alleviate a lot of the anxiety that we have about these kinds of things. Now, you can get a hold of this and you can run with it and you can play with it and say, I think the Lord wants me to be 400 pounds because He wants me to prove his glory in my life or whatever else and forsake

good common sense about the way we eat and the way we live and the poisons that we put into our body and the way we take care of ourselves and you can set all that stuff aside and say that God's trying to work out something wonderful in my life. Do you know how to avoid that? I'll tell you how to avoid that. Keep His commandments. Don't disobey your conscience. Take time every day to hear the voice of God. Don, is it that simple? Yes, it is that simple.

Give that a try. Don't look for, you know, white caps on the lake and call it an angel. Don't look for physical manifestations or little formulas that these preachers put together for you to be healed. And if you insist, if you want to continue that way, will you just be honest? There's one of the characteristics missing in Christianity today. It's just honesty. Well, I'm not sick. I'm healed. You're healed? You know, your body's ridden with

some horrible liver disease or cancer or something. Well, I'm healed. Really? Are you really healed? Yes, let's praise God I'm healed. Why are you saying that? Well, because he's been told that if he ever confesses that he's sick, he's really going to be sick. No, you really are sick. You really do have a problem. Can we just be honest about these things? And if you happen to walk up and go to Jerusalem and go see the pool of Bethesda and you see

a little wind come across the water, right, run down there. Get yourself soaked. But when you come out just as bad as you went in, will you just be honest about it and say there's no truth in that? Well, that's not faith. So since when does faith defy logic? Since when does that happen? You mean you believe faith defies logic? Where did you get that? Oh, that's right. I heard that too. Yeah, it came over the pulpit. Listen, the one who invented logic, the one that makes your brain operate by logic, the one who created you

is in charge of all things. These things are perfectly logical. I mean, they are according to the word of God that set these things up at the very beginning that our bodies have the ability to heal, and there is such a thing as supernatural healing. But as Jesus walked by a man, the Father didn't say, heal that guy. Well, why, Father? Why would I heal him? Because he's sick. You know, where do we get the idea

that necessity empowers or activates God? There's all kinds of necessity out there. There's all kinds of necessity out there. There's all kinds of problems out there. And nothing is being, essentially, very few things are being acted upon. Very few things are changing. Jesus walked by a man at the gate they called beautiful. That man laid there at that gate all those years,

Jesus walked by him. He never touched him, he never spoke to him, he never, not that we have a record, we do know that he never healed him. Peter, James, and John walked by him, and what happened? The Father spoke to them, said, that man over there, he's got the faith to be healed. And the Bible says that they perceived that he had the faith to be healed. Well, this is somebody that's hearing within their spirit.

You know what this is? You know what these guys are? They're guys who keep the commandments of God. They don't disobey their conscience, and they take time every day to hear the voice of God God says walk over there and and pick that guy up let's send him home healed you know what his ankle bones received strength and he leaped and he danced and he he was on his feet why the father was involved in that in that decision the father was involved in that decision. The father was involved in that healing. There wasn't any angel out there stirring the water. There wasn't any angel dust. There wasn't

any formulaic equations being little check boxes. He didn't go over there and tell the guy to speak positive confessions of faith and then avoid anything that's negative confessions. He didn't do any of that stuff. They did what the Father said to do. But what if the Father doesn't say it? Leave it alone. Leave it alone. Can you imagine doing that?

Can you imagine being the instrument of a healing and not telling anybody? We're going to talk about the ego aspect as time goes on. Thanks so much for being part of the program. Time to go is quickly approaching. Join us next time to hear more about the words of Jesus. Hey, I want to hear from you. If you'd like to write to me, I would love to hear from you. You can do that instantly. Just send an email to don at thinkredding.com.

You want to be a part of what we're doing here? Let me give you my post office address. Think Redding Ministries, P.O. Box 718, Pytown, New Mexico, 87827. And until next time, thanks so much for being a part. We'll see you then. Bye-bye. you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you