One day while Jesus was teaching, a paralyzed man was brought to where he was teaching to try to receive healing. When they were unable to find a way into the building through the crowd, they carried their friend to the roof and lowered him through the tiles and set him before Jesus. That day, the man who was paralyzed from birth was healed. He was the only one healed that night, and his sins were forgiven.
The Lords healing power was with Jesus, and he had the ability to heal that day as much as ever. It was there for everyone, but not everyone decided they wanted healing. God didn't decide who got healed that night. Faith decided who got healed that night.
Only one man was healed, everyone else went home the same way they came in, no one else was transformed and no one else got healed. We can have encounters with God, but that doesn't always mean that there is a permanent change, many of the people in the room, were excited, but they were not changed. Just being in the presence of God isn't enough to change your life, whether it be through a great worship service, or an incredible message, unless you walk in a faith process after the encounter you won't change.
The Faith Process Requires four things: determination, a plan, hard work, and friends.
Determination:
The men in the story didn't just give up when they couldn't reach Jesus because of the crowd, they went up onto the roof, continuing to seek a way until they found it. We also cannot allow the crowd to stop us, things naturally will snap back into their origional shape, so if you don't go through the faith process, you will revert back. We need to make the choice not to let the people in our lives, the movies we watch, or the music we listen to pull us back to where we were.
A Plan
“Your life will not change for the better by accident” God's plan for your life will not fall into your life, you have to make a effort, and actually develop a plan through which to change your life. The mans friend developed a plan on how to move the man, how to lower him into Jesus. Sometimes we will find that the plan we originally had isn't working out, and we need to adjust. But we can't just sit around and expect everything to work out on it's own.
Hard Work
What God has called you to do is not easy, but it is supernatural. The work of the man's friends didn't heal him, but it put him in a position to get the healing power of God. We aren't going to make anything supernatural happen, but our work will put us in a place where God can work. “Faith without works is dead”. If you expect to do what God is calling you to do without working for it, you are being deceived, and you will never accomplish what he is asking of you.
. Friends
You can't do it alone, we all need a support group in order to make it through. People that will hold us accountable, and help us in our journey. That man could not have gotten up onto that roof without his friends, it would have been impossible, no matter how determined he was. There are things in our lives that we can only do with the help of others, so we need to surround ourselves with people that will help us in our journey, and we need to remove ourselves from people that are holding us back to the place where we currently are.
An encounter is great, but it will not change your life without a faith process, you must be determined, come up with a plan, take progressive Faith steps, and surround yourselves with people that will help you succeed in life.
