JUNE 2025
HEALING AND WHOLENESS
This is a significant miracle in the Bible where Peter and John healed a man who had been crippled from birth. In a culture that often associated physical disabilities with sin or divine displeasure, this healing challenges such assumptions.
A man born crippled also referred to as lame was often depicted as a symbol of human weakness, suffering and dependence on God. The healing of such a person was a powerful demonstration of God’s love, power, grace and compassion. Also it was a reminder that even in the face of adversity, God can restore.
In those days, daily sacrifices were carried out at the temple at sunrise and at 3o’clock in the temple. This healing took place at the entrance gate called Beautiful in the Temple at 3pm.
As Peter and John went to the temple to pray, they saw a cripple being carried to the gate. Somehow this sight held their attention. He was a cripple who was always brought there to beg for money from those going into the temple to worship.
When he noticed Peter and John going in, he did what he always did, which was beg for money, which in his mind, he thought was his greatest need. Peter and John, trying to get his full attention, told him to look at them. Expecting a gift of money, he looked at them, and they told him that they didn’t have money, but what they have, they would give to him.
Sometimes, we are praying to God desperately for something we think is vital for our survival, but God wants to give us what He knows that we need more importantly to remove what is crippling us. It is important to ask the Holy Spirit how and what to pray for so we don’t block our blessings.
Then they gave him what they had saying…..BY THE POWER OF THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH, STAND UP AND WALK.
You see, here he was at the temple gate, kept outside because he was crippled and treated like an outcast. He was totally unaware of the power of God that Jesus had died for us to receive, but also open to the grace and compassion available to all because of the goodness of God. Even though society would not have welcomed a man in this state into the temple, so had kept him out and therefore he was unable to access the healing anointing that Jesus died to make available, Jesus’ grace, compassion and healing, found him. We also as gentiles, have been grafted into the vine, where the grace and compassion available of Jesus has located us.
Peter then held out his right hand to the man and pulled him to his feet. He had said a command prayer instructing him to stand. Jesus in the gospel always used a command or petition prayer to heal the sick. Also notice that Peter had faith for the man’s healing and was not relying on the man’s faith. Peter knew the power in the name of Jesus Christ which he used. Suddenly, power surged into his crippled feet and ankles. The man jumped up, stood stunned for some time at this miracle and then rejoicing, followed them into the temple.
When the people saw the exuberant joy that He carried, and how He was praising God, they realized he was the cripple that had been outside the temple begging for arms.
So let us be more sensitive to the marginalised, the outcasts, the poor, who Christ also died for. Let us find ways to draw them in to receive all that Jesus did to enable us all walk in. In (John 3:16) we read that “for God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever would believe in Him, would not perish, but have eternal life.”
In our annual conference in Lagos last year, we invited a ministry that ministers to the poor and outcasts that live under the bridge, and about 40 gave their lives to Christ, and some got healed. Let us always search out these treasures of God to invite them into the loving arms of God Almighty. We serve a God who leaves the ninety- nine, and goes after the one. Let us be those who really represent Him well, here on earth.
God bless you,
Mina
