In charasmitic Christian circles, it is often said that we should come to church, seminars, conferences, and other Christian events expecting God to do something miraculous. Are those expectations worthy of the God we claim to serve? Recently, I was reading a passage in Luke and was encouraged greatly by it.

As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." And he cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, let me recover my sight." And Jesus said to him, "Recover your sight; your faith has made you well." And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. Luke 18:35-43 ESV

There are a great many lessons to be learned throughout this passage, too many cover in one short post. Jesus said that those who have not seen Him yet still believe in Him will be blessed (John 20:29). The stage was set for the blind beggar in Luke 18 to experience the power of Christ, and to "see" Him. Earlier, in chapter 18, Luke describes a rich young ruler who, because of his riches, could not see Jesus for who He was. This beggar was doing the same thing he always did, begging, yet we learn here that he was at the ready.

  1. We must be ready

This point may seem cliche at first but what does it mean to be ready? The blind beggar was ready because his circumstances were lined up but it goes much deeper than that. He had not allowed his previous circumstances to harden his heart, dull his senses, or keep him from expecting more from God. Notice that the beggar called on Jesus as the "Son of David", which if heard by the Pharisees or Jewish leaders, would have been cause for the blind beggar to be stoned for reasons of blasphemy.

By using the term “Son of David,” the beggar was essentially declaring Jesus as “the Messiah” within the hearing of the crowd. At our church, we teach that upon repentance and starting your walk with Christ, you must tell someone, and quickly. This blind beggar was overcome with faith and shouted his belief into the crowd. He was not ashamed of his knowledge of Jesus and who he believed Jesus was. Interestingly, he could have been bitter about this crowd stomping through his begging path, or perhaps even been selfish and siezed the opportunity to pull in some major profits.

Here are a few points on how to be ready for God to do something.

  • We must not allow our circumstances to dictate what we believe about God or keep us from expecting Him to move mightily.
  • We must pray continually for God’s answer to come
  • We should always speak to God with reverance and belief in who He really is; God who created all things!
  • We should do nothing out of our own selfish ambition (see Philippians 2:2-4)
  1. We must be praying

It is implied that this poor, blind beggar, upon hearing who the crowd was fussing over, was on a new mission. His mission was now to get Jesus’ attention, and to simply get the chance to talk with Him. How many of us, as believers, lack the simplicity of approaching God’s throne just to get His attention and talk with Him? This man could not have known that healing was inevitable. Perhaps he heard stories of this Jesus healing others. He certainly had nothing to lose by simply talking with Him!

Jesus asked the beggar what he wanted Him to do. Think about that question for just a moment… what would you have asked of Jesus? What if you were the one in the blind beggar’s position? What if you had all your senses intact, what would you have asked for? The story in this passage appears like a "genie in the bottle" sort of scenario. Or was it? If the blind beggar had asked for riches, I am confident the story would have turned out much different. Instead, the blind beggar asked for his sight to be given to him.

  1. We must be aware of His will and follow it

The blind beggar asked for his sight and Jesus gladly gave it to him. He understood what it was like to not see anything at all, and then in a split second to see everything, including Jesus! I believe his desire to see Jesus and follow Him was more powerful than any selfish desire he ever had.

When we are confused and have nowhere to turn, Jesus gives us a choice, a choice to ask the right things, believe in His will, and to follow Him. I have prayed for many things in my life and struggled at times because I believed I was not getting the answer I needed. I have begged and pleaded with God to hear me out, yet in what I can estimate in my finite mind, I hear nothing. At times I am so busy about what I want, and what I feel I need, that I miss the move of God.

It is only when I am humbled, have nothing left to say, empty and broken, that I am "at the ready" to hear God’s voice. In fact, I distictly remember when I prayed and prayed about my mom and believed she would be healed from her cancer. I was watching television programs, listening to the radio, and reading articles from the word of faith community. I was hearing that healing was being withheld because my mom lacked the faith or had a great sin in her life. I started to believe these teachings and began to rely on them heavily.

I ended up spending the summer with my parents and drove my mom to her chemotherapy appointments. We had good talks about faith, forgiveness, and family on those drives. After that summer back in Southern California, I remember getting a call from my sister saying mom was on the edge of dying. I remember playing the song I wrote for her on the phone and hearing her breathing as she said so faintly, "I love you, son."

I can recall the day my mom passed away. I was broken. I was angry at God because He did not answer my prayers, and now I was at an impasse. I remember hearing all the things my mom said to me on those drives to chemotherapy and back. I could hear the voice of God softly giving me comfort, reminding me that His answer was actually total healing for my mom. I then thought of how awesome God was to give me an entire summer with her, and to line up my circumstances so that I could do such a thing. I was actually getting my answer during that whole summer but I was so busy believing outside of His will that I missed much of the joy He had in the midst of it.

I must say that I am heavily cautious of the "word of faith" movement and I cannot express enough how much each believer should be in the "Word of God"  and be under the teaching of the full gospel. The "name it and claim it" movement is dangerously close to heresy.

So, may we be like the poor, blind beggar and ask Jesus for our sight to be restored. May we see beyond what our minds can comprehend and trust in our God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-consuming!