Jesu, juva

A Call to Action for Men of God

At the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus encountered a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years. Among the crowd of the sick and afflicted, Jesus singled out this one man and asked him a direct question:

“Do you want to be healed?”

Stop right there. That question is stranger than it sounds. And if we breeze past it, we miss everything.

DO YOU WANT TO BE HEALED?

This man had been lying on that mat for 38 years. Think about what that actually means. His income, his relationships, his daily rhythm, his sense of self, all of it was organized around his condition. People came to him. People gave to him. People knew him as the man who couldn’t walk. His wound had become his world.

So when Jesus asked “Do you want to be healed?” He wasn’t asking a rhetorical question. He was asking a much deeper one, because healing wasn’t just going to fix his legs. It was going to demolish everything he had built around his brokenness.

That’s a terrifying proposition when you truly realize what is being said beyond the surface reading most of us have settled for all our lives. It goes way deeper than what we think we would obviously say if this were us. Of course we’d want to be healed! But do we really understand all that comes packaged with that healing?

And if we’re honest, a lot of us are lying on the same kind of mat.

The struggle becomes the personality, and the wound becomes the identity. Whatever broke a man, and whenever it happened, becomes the headline of every conversation. The struggle, whatever it is, gets carried into every room and quietly turned into the thing that draws attention, sympathy, connection. We don’t do it intentionally. But we do it. And somewhere underneath all of it, if a man gets still and honest enough, he hears the same question: Do you want to be healed? And the answer isn’t always a clean yes. Sometimes it’s complicated. Because being healed means picking up that mat and figuring out who we are without the thing we’ve been defined by.

The man’s response revealed his victim mentality: “I can’t, sir. I have no one to help me. Someone always gets there first.” He was focused on the water, on the system, on his excuses. He wasn’t ready to let go of the story yet.

Jesus didn’t validate his excuses. He gave him a command:

“Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk.”

YOUR MAT IS YOUR TESTIMONY

Most sermons focus on the miracle of healing. But there’s a powerful detail that gets overlooked:

“Pick up your mat.”

Why did Jesus tell him to carry the very thing he’d been lying on for 38 years? Because that mat represented his story. His past. His testimony. And Jesus was telling him, “Stop staring at what you think will save you. Talk to me instead. And when I heal you, carry your story with you wherever you go.”

Our testimony is a weapon in spiritual warfare.

Every battle God has brought us through, every addiction He’s broken, every failure He’s redeemed, these aren’t just personal victories. They’re ammunition. They’re tools in our arsenal to set other men free.

THE POWER OF YOUR STORY

Brothers, we need to get this straight: The men around us aren’t looking for our highlight reel. They don’t need to hear about our successes and accomplishments. They need to know they’re not alone in their shame, their fear, their regret, their secret battles.

God is asking us to be His vessel. To deliver His message through our life story. Not the sanitized version. Not the comfortable parts. The real story:

Where we were
How it destroyed us
How the Lord met us there
How He restored what was broken

Be humble. Be transparent. Be willing to share the uncomfortable details. Because the man we’re talking to needs to know he’s not alone. He’s trapped in the same pit we escaped from, and our story might be the rope God throws down to pull him out.

We’re not just sharing information. We’re participating in a miracle. Jesus includes us in the restoration of another man’s life. We are part of the miracle.

SHARE EVEN WHEN YOU’RE STILL HEALING

Maybe we’re thinking, “But I’m not fully restored yet. I’m still working through some areas.”

Good. Share anyway.

There’s an old hymn, Come Ye Sinners, with a verse that cuts right to it:

“Come ye weary, heavy laden, lost and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you’re better, you will never come at all.”

That’s not just an invitation for the lost. That’s a word for every man who’s waiting to be whole before he opens his mouth. We don’t have to have it all figured out. Our hearts don’t have to be perfectly clean. God doesn’t wait for us to get there. He uses us right where we are, on the road, still limping, mat in hand.

Our honesty about our ongoing journey will help both of us. The Holy Spirit will give us the exact words that both we and the other person need to hear. God works through our vulnerability, not in spite of it.

WHEN TO SHARE

Pick up your mat and carry it everywhere. Share your testimony:

When we feel the slightest prompting
When we wonder if the Holy Spirit is leading us (He is)
When we’re with other men
When someone seems to be struggling

We may not know what that person is dealing with. But Jesus does. He puts us in that place at that exact moment because one of the stories written on our mat is the key to their freedom.

Revelation 19:10 says, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” When we share what Jesus has done for us, we’re prophesying what He wants to do for them.

NOW THAT YOU’RE WELL, STOP SINNING

After Jesus healed the paralyzed man, He found him later and said, “Now that you are well, stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”

This is the hard truth: The deeper we go with God, the higher the standard. The more He reveals to us, the more He expects from us. We can’t use the same mouth that worships Him to tear down others. We can’t enter the Holy of Holies in prayer and then walk out and gossip, complain, or speak death over people.

A pastor shared how he was discussing politics with a friend when he felt the Holy Spirit say, “Stop it. Others can, you cannot.”

Why? Because he had been in the inner court. He had experienced the presence of God. With that privilege comes responsibility.

The Three Courts

The Outer Court: Where we start to focus on God, pushing away distractions.

The Inner Court: Where prayer flows and we feel connected to God.

The Holy of Holies: Where time stands still, our hearts swell, and we feel the very presence of God.

When we enter that sacred place, our mouths become instruments of God. We cannot leave that place and use the same instrument to speak ill of anyone. Not politicians. Not our enemies. Not anyone.

Romans 6:13, “Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness.”

YOUR MISSION

Men, here’s our assignment:

Pick up your mat. Own your testimony. Carry it with you.
Share it boldly. Don’t wait for permission. When the Spirit prompts, speak.
Live with integrity. Our words and actions must align. Walk the talk.
Guard your mouth. Speak hope. Speak love. Speak life.
Find men in bondage. Satan has them in his grip. Be the one God uses to set them free.

A WARRIOR’S PRAYER

God, I want to be the man You’ve called me to be. Make my mouth Your instrument of healing and truth. Help me stop wasting words on things that don’t matter. I commit to carrying my mat, my testimony, everywhere I go. Fill me with Your truth and equip me to defeat the enemy at every turn. Make me the vessel You’ve chosen to reach men who are trapped in Satan’s grip. Use me, Lord, to set them free in the name of Jesus. Give me brothers who will fight alongside me in this mission. Together, we will advance Your Kingdom and bring men back to You. Amen.

Now get up. Pick up your mat. And walk.

Blane

SDG

Pick Up Your Mat