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Do You Want
To Get Well?

Jesus was always surprising His disciples with the things He did and said. Some of them seemed a little crazy...

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” John 5:6

In the context of this question, Jesus and His disciples had walked up to the Pool of Bethesda. This was where sick people came because they wanted to be healed. According to their beliefs [the text is unclear whether it actually happened or was simply a belief], at random times an angel would stir the water of the pool, and whoever was the first into the water after that would be healed.

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The area was full of sick people gazing intently at the water, waiting anxiously for the stirring and hoping to be the first in…and this while the Great Healer was standing right beside them. [Side Point: Sometimes we are so fixed on how we think something should be done that we miss what God really wants to do. Let’s keep open minds and eyes!]

Jesus could have healed everyone in that place. But He didn’t. The Father had sent Him to help one man get well, a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. Every day, he pleaded with his friends to bring him to the pool. Here was a man who was hoping in what he knew was hopeless. Yes, he believed that if he could get into the water first, he would be healed, but he knew that, because of his condition, someone would always beat him to it. Yet day after day, he hoped…he dreamed…

To this man…dreaming the impossible dream…wanting to be restored to health…Jesus comes. And what does Jesus ask? “Do you want to get well?” Is that a crazy question or what? The answer should be obvious. What a dumb question to ask a sick man struggling to get a healing.

Yet we know Jesus did not waste words. There was a reason behind the question. The truth is, many people who say they want healing, victory, or a touch from God really don’t. Although they go through the motions and talk the talk, they have become comfortable with their sickness, their anger, their bitterness or whatever is holding on to them. They have had it, or held on to it, for so long that it has become a part of their identity. It is who they think they are. They have embraced their enemy and are afraid to let him go. Who would they be without the sickness or the anger or the bitterness to give them attention or meaning or satisfaction? It would be a new world, a new experience, a growth. For some, losing what they know is not what they want. So while they act and talk as if they want deliverance, their heart is not in it. They will always find excuses for the way they are…

While there are many reasons for sickness, in the case of this particular man, his sickness was caused by some kind of sin [John 5:14]. In asking whether he wanted to be healed, Jesus was also asking whether he was willing to leave his sin behind. The Bible is clear. If we receive deliverance but are unwilling to walk in it and return to our old ways, we can find ourselves in worse shape than we were before. It is not genuinely helping to deliver someone who is only going to use it to get into worse trouble!

"When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first." Luke 11: 24-26, NIV

Do You Want To Get Well?

What is it that you need to be healed or delivered from? Physical sickness? Emotional sickness [bitterness, resentment, anger, etc.]? Spiritual sickness [coldness to Jesus]? Financial sickness? Or…? Jesus is looking at you and asking, “Do you want to be made well?” Are you willing to do what it takes and abandon old thought patterns and actions to be delivered? Are you willing to launch out into something totally new…to follow hard after Christ…and not return to the past? Do you really want to be made well? Think about it and all its implications before you answer.

Glenn Davis is a Christian author and Bible teacher whose work draws on more than 40 years of study, writing, and local church teaching. He has written 700+ articles, created five Bible courses, published three books, and shared 100+ Bible videos on YouTube. Readers can find his books on Amazon, follow his teaching on YouTube or visit Glenn Davis Books. Away from the keyboard, he enjoys time with family, reading, walking, and board or card games.

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