In John chapter 5, we read: "Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, 'Do you want to be made well?' The sick man answered Him, 'Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.' Jesus said to him, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.' And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked."
Picture the scene that Jesus Christ walks into. These are the people of God, what was supposed to be the testimony of God's glory and presence in the earth, and yet we find a pool that gets stirred up every once in a while, and a great multitude of people waiting for the stirring of the water so that they can have a chance for a miracle.
And I'm thinking about the multitudes now, in the generation we're living in, who are waiting for something to happen. Something that can only come from God. These people knew the miracles of God, the miraculous deliverances He had done over the years. And here they are, waiting one more time, a multitude.
Consider some statistics from the year 2024. An estimated 23.4 percent of U.S. adults, the equivalent of 61.5 million Americans, were experiencing some form of mental illness. Some 14.6 million are suffering from severe mental disorders, and nearly 13 million adults reported serious thoughts of suicide. Among youth aged 12 to 17, 15.4 percent experienced major depressive episodes, and more than 3.4 million reported serious thoughts of suicide. Worldwide, the World Health Organization reports that roughly one in eight people, over one billion, live with a mental health condition.
There is a multitude one more time waiting for the stirring of the water. A multitude hoping for a better day, hoping for a miracle like the one that has happened in somebody else's life. We're not aware sometimes of how many people are crying out for mercy in this generation.
This poor man was there for thirty-eight years, hoping beyond hope every day that somehow the healing he had heard about could maybe eventually be his. And I see multitudes again in our generation waiting for what has happened in the past to happen again.
In America, there have been past seasons where genuine healing evangelists were raised up, stirring people to believe that they could be healed. These evangelists were messengers, just as an angel, which means messenger, would come down and stir the water in the pool.
God Almighty, stir the water again is the cry of my heart. And I know that God will not disappoint, because He declares Himself to be the Father to the fatherless, the husband to the widow, the defender of those who have nobody to defend them.
A multitude is waiting again. I just got a report a couple of days ago of another young man who took his life, just a teenager. That's not right when there's a church in this country. That's not right when the word of God is still here and we can speak to these young people with power and great grace and great authority.
There are so many people with the same question Gideon once had. In Judges chapter six, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!" Gideon answered, "O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about?" Then the Lord turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?"
Gideon is embracing unbelief and hopelessness when the word of God comes to him with authority and power. And God Himself says to Gideon, this is your might: I have sent you. In our generation, this is our might: God has sent us to defeat a power of evil trying to destroy an entire generation. God has given us His Holy Spirit and placed His word inside each one of our hearts. This is not the time to draw back. This is the time to believe God and to speak with authority.
The man at the pool would be like a person in our generation who says, everybody has given up on me. Nobody believes that my life can ever amount to anything more than just lying here, hoping that maybe one day I won't be depressed, or drug addicted, or paralyzed when it comes to moving forward. But thank God, there is always One. If the whole world gives up on you, my brother, my sister, there is always One who hasn't given up on you, One who has a plan, sees a purpose, and never gives up on anyone created in the image of God. It doesn't matter where you are, how you've lived, or what you've done. God has a plan for your life that is way beyond anything you've ever dreamed was possible.
There was little compassion left among the multitudes. You would think somebody would say, "Here, go ahead, you've been here longer than me; you go get in." But the society around him was selfish, everybody in it for themselves, and we are living in a day very much like that. It's only in the kingdom of God that you find those who prefer others before themselves.
But this time the water stirs, and it's different than it used to be. He doesn't have to crawl to the water. The water is coming to him. The Bible declares the word of God to be living water. In Ezekiel 36, God said to His people, "I will wash you with clean water," and "I will give you My Spirit." The water is stirring now, but the stirring is within him. And Jesus said, "Rise, take up your bed and walk."
I believe we're living in the last days. The events unfolding in the Middle East, the way society is devolving according to what Paul wrote in Thessalonians, we're seeing it all right before our eyes. Christ is coming back. But He's not coming back for a defeated church. He's coming back for a victorious church, for a people who are standing and speaking the word of God. Not the noble, not the mighty, but the foolish, the nobodies, the weak of this world. People who turned to God, heard His voice, and stood up.
Jesus said in John 7:37, on the last day, the great day of the feast, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." It doesn't say into his heart; it says out of his heart will flow. Out of the essence of his being will flow this water that stirs a generation to believe that they can be healed, be whole, be free, and become everything God has destined their lives to be.
It's not a dead pool anymore that gets stirred occasionally by one messenger. The church has living water within her. And as that water comes out, it stirs the hearts of people to believe that God can use their lives, set them free, break their addictions, give them a reason to live. I thirst for His presence, for His name to be glorified again in this generation. I thirst for the addicted, the afflicted, the depressed, the suicidal, to find life in Christ Jesus.
Living water is speech initiated by the Spirit of God, based on the word of God, and it stirs the hearers to believe they can be healed. Their bruised hearts can be healed. Their captivity will have to let them go. It causes the hearer to believe that they can take up their bed and walk and become a living testimony of who God is through His Son, Jesus Christ. We're not called to be an argument about the existence of God. We're called to be a demonstration of the reality of God, the willingness of God to inhabit frail humanity and let His power be made known through us.
The church is an army, a place where we learn how to fight for something bigger than ourselves, for the glory of God and for the souls of men. It doesn't matter what our education is or is not. We have living water within these earthen vessels. We get up and speak what God gives us to speak, and when we speak, miracles start to happen. Lives start to be transformed. I'm not willing to live beneath my inheritance.
Thirteen million adults contemplating suicide. Three point four million youth thinking today about suicide. Not on my watch.
It's time to fight, to stand, to speak. It's not time to nurse our wounds. We've all got struggles, and we'll have them until Christ returns. But I want a bigger vision than me. I want to see young people come to Christ, and those on the edge of suicide not just to keep their lives but to give their lives to Jesus Christ and find a reason to live. It's worth the fight.
Rise up, church of God. Take up your bed and walk. I don't care what your problem has been. Get out of your addiction. Get out of your depression. Take up your bed and walk and become a living testimony of the reality of God.