GET UP AND WALK

The paralyzed man in Mark 2 was forgiven and cleared in God's eyes, but he was still a prisoner of his affliction. He was relieved of all his sins, but still impotent. He knew Christ as a relief but not as a resource!

It is not enough to be a forgiven cripple, a relieved prisoner. There is something we must do. Christ's part is to clear us before God and our part is to get up and walk! We must go beyond relief from sins into the freedom of his resources.

"Is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins.... I say unto thee [the sick of the palsy], Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house" (Mark 2:9-11).

That man did not get up on his own strength; Christ imparted his strength to him. Without Christ, we can do nothing. We can overcome only through his strength and the power of the Holy Spirit!

Christ was saying to this man, "I am going to make you an example of my power over sin! Where you were the weakest, you will become the strongest. The thing that made you a prisoner, you will pick up and carry. You will overcome the very thing that held you down."

A spiritual cripple cannot be a true expression of Jesus Christ. We must live in the full power and victory of a life free from the bondage of sin. We all know our weakness, places where we are vulnerable, and Satan tells us that we will always be weak at that point, and one day be overcome by it.

Not so! By his glorious power, God can make us strongest at our weakest point. That is what the Scripture means when it speaks of his strength made perfect in our weakness.
What hinders you? A besetting sin, a weakness, an unresolved inner controversy? Whatever it is, it must go! You can no longer be chained to a bed of failure. It is all accomplished by faith in God’s promises.

The Lord wants to get you up out of that bed! He will give you all the power you need to overcome and walk in total deliverance!