So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” John 9:24-25.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
My goodness is yours in Jesus Christ your Lord. My goodness flows to each of you through Jesus. I flow into each believer through Jesus and each believer flows into Me through Jesus. My divinity fits into your humanity in Jesus and your humanity fits into My divinity in Jesus. Jesus reconciles you to Me and in Himself joins us together as one. Jesus is the Vine and you are the branches and I am the Vine keeper. And My grace flowing into you through Him enables you to produce the fruits of the good works I prepared for you to do in advance in Christ Jesus by His divine life flowing into you. Of His fullness you have all received grace upon grace!
When you are in Jesus, that is, you have been born again from above of the incorruptible seed of My Word by receiving Him as your Lord, I treat you like Jesus, as My beloved child in whom I am well pleased. Most people do not understand or believe this. They know that Jesus never broke even one of My commandments, John 15:10, never sinned, Hebrews 4:15, and always did what pleased Me, John 8: 29, and they know that in reality that is not the case with them. But Christ Jesus has taken all your sins upon Himself and made propitiation for them so that now you are as holy, blameless, and beyond reproach as He is before Me. When you were baptized into Christ, I clothed you in Him and all His merits are now yours so that you live your life before Me through Him.
Jesus explained this oneness you have with Him and hence with Me as He spoke to His disciples at that Passover meal the night He was betrayed, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:20-26.
He is the One whom I sent. I sent Him to save you. I sent Him to undo the works of the devil. “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to undo (luó: to loose, to release, to dissolve, to untie, to set at naught, to destroy) the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8.
As we continue the instructions on living days of Heaven on the earth—of bringing Kingdom benefits to the earth—we will study another miracle of Jesus. It is a miracle of sight to a man blind from birth. But there is much deeper revelation in this miracle for it is ultimately about going from the blindness of sin to full sight in the Light in Christ. “The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays.” Luke 11:34-36.
“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:3-4.
My beloved John calls the miracles that he recounts “signs.” So you know that inspired by My Spirit he has chosen to share with you the miracles which give you deeper insight into the mysteries of the Kingdom. So, with that in your mind, let us begin to walk through this “sign.”
This incident begins after Jesus had been teaching in the Temple. He had come from the Mount of Olives early in the morning and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. John 8:1-2. Some of the Pharisees who arrived later interrupted His teaching by bringing a woman caught in adultery, trying to gain a case against Jesus. But Jesus responded as I told Him and the Pharisees who brought her departed one by one. Jesus then continued speaking with the crowd, which included other Pharisees as well, and He said, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 8:12. Then there began another challenge with the Pharisees still present about Him giving His own testimony, which they stated was not valid. Jesus then responded with many beautiful revelations of Scripture and passages that justified His statements, but ultimately, because of blinded minds and hard hearts of the leaders, it ended when they tried to stone Jesus to death for what they called blaspheming by speaking as One with Me.
I want you to pay attention though to a truth He revealed that is important to join up with what occurred after this with the man born blind. Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He SENT Me. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.” John 8:42-47.
And Jesus then told them an amazing truth of what I do for you in Jesus. He took your sentence of eternal death, “Dust you are and to dust you shall return.” And went down to the dust of death and tasted death, that is death indeed, for you all, the death of the damned, so that you would never have to taste it. And He told them that for you to know as well, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never taste death.” John 8:51. But then they got back to the testimony issue again, saying, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’ Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?” John 8:52-53. And Jesus’ answer made them try to stone Him, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus Himself was hidden and went out of the temple. John 8:54-59. I hid Him in the secret place of the Most High for His hour had not yet come when He became the sin bearer for all of you.
So leaving the Temple, as Jesus passed by He saw a man blind from birth. John 8:1. This man was blind from birth; he was born with eyes that were missing the parts that I have planned in eyes so that you see. He needed a creative miracle, not just a healing. He needed the missing parts of his eyes. You are the clay and I am the potter, you are all the works of My hands. Isaiah 64:8. And looking at this on another level, when you are born of your human parents you are born as a descendant of Adam of corruptible seed and are children of the devil, since Adam took a new father, children of wrath. But in Christ you are created anew, a new creation in Christ, and your spirit is no longer dead to Me and alive to sin, but is dead to sin and alive to Me. And you can see and understand spiritual realities. Until you are born again you cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven, you are blind to it for the god of this world has blinded your eyes.
Jesus had covered this question with the Pharisee Nicodemus who came to Him at night. He answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again from above he cannot SEE the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3:3-6. My Words are Spirit and Life. They are incorruptible seed. They can remake you.
And the disciples walking with Jesus noticed the beggar blind from birth and asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” John 9:2. It actually was the sin of Adam that corrupted the seed so that disabilities and malfunctions come to the descendants but it really goes back to the sin of the devil when he fell from his exalted position of cherub from Heaven and took one-third of the angels with him in his rebellion to move from a position of service to sovereignty and Adam and Eve joining with him in that rebellion. It released evil into the world which brings the curse—sickness, disabilities, lack, poverty, and eternal death. The opposite of what comes from Me which is every good thing given and every perfect gift. The BLESSING—perfect health and wholeness, prosperity, increase, and eternal life.
Jesus answered the disciples, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” John 8:3-5. What are the works that this would display? I have told already, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to undo (luó: to loose, to release, to dissolve, to untie, to set at naught, to destroy) the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8.
It was the work of the devil, given authority and released by Adam and Eve, that had caused this blindness and Jesus was about to do the works I gave Him to do: UNDO the works of the devil. And you see Him doing this constantly from healing everyone who came to Him that would connect with My healing power by faith, casting out demons, multiplying provisions, countering lies, forgiving sins, telling you the truth that would set you free, and ultimately becoming sin for you and taking your punishment for your sins in His own flesh so that you could be like you were meant to be as if the sin had never occurred—all the way back to Adam.
And He told you that you were to do the works He did and greater. “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” Acts 10:38.
And the time is short, and the devil knows it so his attacks are increasing. It is time for you to gird yourself in truth and go after him to undo his works while it is still day. Walk in the Light while you have the Light of the World in you and on you in this age of grace. For soon the church, the body of Christ of which you are a member, will be caught up in the clouds to meet your Lord in the air and it will be very dark on the earth. Bring as many with you as you can reach for the time is short. Be alert.
Now when He had said this to his disciples as they stood before the beggar blind from birth, who had been listening all along, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). John 9:6-7. This should mean much to you. First, I formed your earthly bodies that house your spirit and soul out of the clay of the earth (dust of the ground) and here I was creating an eye in this man just as I had in the beginning before sin had ever been.
“But a mist (flow of water) used to rise up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Genesis 2:6-7.
And next, I instructed him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. Siloam is the Greek word for the Hebrew word Shiloah. It was a perennial fountain of water from the Gihon spring in Jerusalem that is referred to in the Old Testament near the palaces of the kings of Judah. And the root is שָׁלִח, shalach, “to send.” He was sent there by the One who was sent to save you and make those blinded by Satan to see the light.
Paul the apostle wrote about his call as Jesus had spoken to him on the Road to Damascus: “I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” Acts 26:17-18.
And if you recall, when the Israelites first conquered the promised land under Joshua, the tent of the meeting, the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant, were set up and established in Shiloh, where Samuel grew up as he served Eli. And if you go back to Jacob’s blessing of his sons when he was about to depart from this life, he spoke in prophecy over the tribe of Judah before any kings had been born of the line, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to Him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” Genesis 49:10. This is a Messianic title.
The One who was sent. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have SENT.” John 17:3.
And remember after Jesus multiplied the five loaves and two fish, the crowds sought Him out and asked, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has SENT.” John 6:28-29.
He is the One I sanctified and sent into the world. John 10:36. Not to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
And what did Jesus tell you? “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:21-22.
So the man born blind received the faith command from Jesus and acted on it. He went away and washed, and came back seeing. John 9:7. He did not say he could not go there because he could not see. He did not complain that Jesus had put mud on his eyes and try to rub it off. He did not seek to wash somewhere else on the way. He trusted in that word and went to receive the light that Jesus spoke. He had heard of Jesus and he did the Word Jesus spoke to him. And his faith was sufficient to connect. He did the corresponding action. As Mary told the waiters at Cana, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” John 2:5.
And to the man blind from birth that bubbling spring became life giving water.
When his neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, saw him, they were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?” Others were saying, “This is he,” still others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the one.” John 9:8-9. When you had no sight and eyes that were not whole you look very different with alert and shining eyes filled with life and sight. But let us go deeper. When you become a new creation in Christ it should make a difference in your demeanor, your words, your actions, and your life. Put on the new man and leave the old—put off the deeds of darkness and walk in My marvelous light. “In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” Ephesians 4:22-24.
So they wanted to know how someone they had always known as blind got this marvelous miracle of sight, for no blind person in the Old Testament had ever been healed, it was a sign of the Messiah. And Jesus was doing this often in His ministry. So they asked him, “How then were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” He had become a witness with an amazing testimony. They said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.” John 9:10-12. This man had not seen Jesus since he was healed and all he heard before was His voice. But that was enough to have his miracle, and so it is with you. You have My Word as written in the Bible and spoken by My Spirit in your heart as He witnesses with your spirit. You do not need more to have miracles, signs, and wonders for they follow My Word.
So they the people brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind. Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, “He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them. So they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.” John 9:13-17. He was beginning to see on his journey to knowing Me, the one true God, and the One whom I sent Jesus Christ. He saw Him as a prophet, but he will go further.
The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight, and questioned them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be the Messiah, he was to be put out of the synagogue. For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” John 9:18-23. They had their prayers of many years answered and their blind son was now with perfect sight and yet they were afraid of being expelled from the synagogue so they did not thank Me or exalt the One I sent. Be careful about being afraid to show your faith in Me before others if you think it will make you lose our job or favor with those in higher positions who can promote you or even just let you have the status quo. They preferred the glory of men to My glory.
But the Pharisees were not giving up there. So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” John 9:24. This was based on their determination He had violated Shabbat but it was an evil report about the purest man the world would ever hold and should not have been said about such a great miracle of compassion. A man who was consigned to begging because of his inability to see was set free to live a fruitful life. It was a wonderful thing to give life on the Shabbat. And you will see this constantly in the miracles of Jesus, that is, taking unfruitful lives of misery out of the darkness into fruitful lives of joy in the Light.
But the man who had been blind but now could see was not backing down, he answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” John 9:25. He knew a wonderful thing had taken place in his life and made everything new. So they said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?” John 9:27. He was a bit hopeful they would change, but he was driving a point home. He was going to stay loyal to Jesus, they had never healed him and Jesus had. Know where your gratitude should be directed and whom you should honor in your life. They reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.” The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” John 9:28-33. Does this remind you of the prayer of Jesus to Me at the Last Supper? “Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” John 17:7-8.
This man had learned Scripture and he knew truths from the book of Proverbs and the prophet Isaiah that he now backed up his words with. He had gone to another level of faith. He now was witnessing that Jesus was from Me, that I had sent Him, and that He had done the miracle of the sign of the Messiah. The Pharisees did not like him teaching them. They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” So they put him out. John 9:34. What his parents feared would happen to them had happened to their son and created a division between him and his parents.
But the Pharisees could not take away his wonderful gift that He had received from Me through My Son. He could see. He had the joy no man could take from him. And he was now seeing who Jesus was better than the Pharisees could see.
Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.” John 9:35-37. And he recognized the blessed voice that had commanded him to go to the pool of Siloam and wash. He fell to the ground in praise and thanksgiving. And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Him. John 9:38. He had now come from one who knew of Jesus and followed His direction with faith, to one who called Him a prophet, to one who called Him the one sent by God, to receiving Him as his Lord and worshipping Him. Truly he once was blind but now he could see.
And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” John 9:39-41. There are none so blind as those who will not see no matter how many miracles, signs and wonders are before them.
Without faith it is impossible to please Me. Why? I cannot give you all the good things I wish to flood your life with because you will not receive them.
Jesus came to make those who were blind see. To see Me. In seeing Him, you see Me. And eternal life is a relationship where you know Me, the one true God, and the One I sent, Jesus Christ. John 17:3. And this was Paul’s desire after he saw My risen Son, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:10-11. What is he talking about here? To know Jesus and the power of His resurrection, the power by which I raised Him from the dead and seated Him at My right hand, and this power will work in you far beyond all you can ask or imagine. Ephesians 3:21.
And what is the fellowship of His sufferings? He told you, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” John 15:18-20.
“Being conformed to His death.” What does that mean? Does it mean crucifixion? No, He died once for all and tasted death for all. It means you died to sin with Christ and were raised up with Him alive to Me. Sin is no longer a master over you.
“Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 6:3-14.
I love you. Days of Heaven on earth start with knowing Me, the one true God, and the One whom I sent, Jesus Christ. And it is then you are sent and you are going about undoing the works of the devil.
But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14.