And Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him; and when he came near, He questioned him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And he said, “Lord, I want to regain my sight!” And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God. Luke 18:40-43.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Think only on whatever is true, lovely, beautiful, excellent, blessed, and joyful. Do not tolerate worry and fear. I AM here. Jesus told the disciples in the boat as they cried out in fear, “Take courage, I AM, do not fear.” Matthew 14:26. And He is with you always until the end of the age. And then you shall always be with Me and Him. I never leave you or forsake you. And I am love. So love is here with you now. I am good and all good things come from Me. So goodness is here with you now. I am all powerful. So power is here with you now. The power to heal is present. The power to deliver is present. The power to restore and make new is present. You have nothing to fear.
What is your answer in EVERY situation? Walk in love. Love never fails.
Imitate Me as My dear children and walk in love. And then you will not fear anything or anyone for perfect love casts out all fear. Come to know and believe in the love I have for you and you will not fear anything, not even yourself.
Love greatly. Be strong. Be gentle. Leave the rest to Me and the rest will come. I am working for your good. Do you believe that? If not, it will be hard for you to receive good results and it will be hard for you to have peace.
And that brings us to our next life lesson, the next miracle recorded in the gospel of Matthew, which is also included in the accounts of Mark and Luke. It is the healing of the two blind men near the city of Jericho, but Mark and Luke focus only on one of the two by the name of Bartimaeus. Matthew includes both.
It begins near Jericho. Luke writes, “As Jesus was near (eggízō, from eggýs, “near,” extreme closeness) Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging.” Luke 18:35. Mark fills in more details, “Then they came to (erchomai: to come, go) Jericho. And as He was leaving (ekporeuomai: to make to go forth, to go forth) Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road.” Mark 10:46. Now hearing a crowd going by, he began to inquire what this was. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he called out, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Luke 18:36-38; Mark 10:47; Matthew 20:30. This man had heard about Jesus, and what caught his attention was primarily that Jesus healed blind eyes, which was the sign of the Messiah, the Son of David, that had been foretold by the prophets. He had faith for that Jesus was the Messiah and Lord. Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet; but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Luke 18:39; Mark 10:48; Matthew 20:31. There was no way with the Messiah that close he was going to allow his miracle to pass him by. He was sure if he could get the attention of Jesus, he would receive his sight.
Jesus heard the cry of faith. My ears are specially tuned to the cry of faith, to the cries of My people in distress. When the Israelites began to cry out to Me in their distress as slaves in Egypt, I remembered My Covenant with their forefather Abraham and I came down to redeem them out of slavery to the freedom of the children of God. And I did not lead them out of slavery to go nowhere. I led them out healed and laden with silver and gold to go across the wilderness to the land I had promised Abraham in Covenant for his descendants. And it was a good and fruitful land, flowing with milk and honey, filled with beautiful cities they had not built and large houses filled with good things that they had not gathered, and vineyards and fruit trees they did not plant, and wells they did not dig, and I was giving that all to them freely. But they could only take and receive it by faith, which only Caleb and Joshua had. They took and received possession but the others of their generation did not. Faith is important. And Bartimaeus had faith, faith enough that he and his companion both got their sight.
At the cry of faith, “Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him; and when he came near, He questioned him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And he said, “Lord, I want to regain my sight!” And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God. Luke 18:40-43.
Mark adds more details: “And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage, stand up! He is calling for you.” Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. And answering him, Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And the blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!” And Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.” Mark 10:49-52. Here he called him “Rabboni,” so now he followed as one who was a disciple of Jesus to learn from Him and hear his words. He was not one of the twelve but there were many who followed Jesus, crowds who were constantly seeking to find where He was so they could hear His teachings and bring those who needed healing to receive as they had.
And Matthew fills in about his companion, “And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Lord, we want our eyes to be opened.” Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him. Matthew 20:32-34.
Moved with compassion. The miracles of Jesus are miracles of compassion whereby He released My Kingdom benefits on earth by faith. What was bound in Heaven, Jesus bound on earth, and what was loosed in Heaven, Jesus loosed on earth. And He told you who believe in His Name to do the same. Matthew 18:18. And He knew I AM the LORD your healer and that I send My Word to heal you and deliver you from your destructions and He is the Word I sent forth from before the world began. He loosed the Kingdom benefit of total health and healing upon the earth wherever He went, but it was only received by those who had faith. Otherwise there was no connection, no conduit, though which the power could flow.
He did everything He did filled with love so all He did was fruitful in the lives He touched. Walk in love, it is a pleasing fragrance before Me, as your prayers of love are—they come upon the golden altar as incense before Me.
My servant Paul understood. He walked in love among those who beat, arrested and killed him. Just as Jesus had. And he was filled with joy but he counseled you as well by inspiration of My Holy Spirit to do all you do from motives of love for Me and for all whom I made, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. You would think that doing these things would be enough to please Me and get a full reward, but remember, I do not look so much at outward appearances and works but at the heart. That is, the motive behind the works. The Pharisees did many good works and walked in integrity for the most part, trying to keep all My laws plus all the laws imposed by their traditions, but they had no love for Me or for others. They were harsh with no compassion for those they considered less holy than themselves and were very proud of their OWN righteousness, which they felt they had earned by themselves. When they prayed they recited how perfect they were to impress Me and put others down. Remember the Pharisee and the tax collector praying that Jesus told you about? The tax collector paid more attention to Me than the Pharisee did.
Jesus said to the Pharisees, “But I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.” John 5:42.
For you today, what is love? How do you know if you are walking in love so that you, like Jesus, can bring days of Heaven to the earth? I tell you how love walks, so see how your walk lines up with the following: “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, is not rude, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered and keep record of wrongs, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13. Faith and hope both work by love. Your knowing and believing in the love I have for you as manifested in Christ Jesus your Lord. He is My gift to you and He gives you the gift of the promised Holy Spirit to be with you and in you forever giving you free access to Me.
You are facing opposition everywhere and the devil and his demons will give you numerous opportunities to step out of love into the darkness of offense, fear, jealousy, strife, and other evils but watch the path for your feet and let My Word light up the Way. In the Light, you won’t stumble.
I love you. Never give up no matter who tries to get in your way. Be like Bartimaeus, he just would not be quiet no matter how much they tried to silence his calls and attempts to reach out to Jesus. My ears are attentive to your cries of faith. FCR response—faith, cry, and rely when trouble comes. And “Please help me” gets My attention every time when said with faith as you cast the care on Me. I am present as your Helper. Just call on Me and I will answer you. Jeremiah 33:3.