"Barriers

The definition of a barrier is a structure, such as a fence, built to bar passage. 2. Something immaterial that obstructs or impedes: Intolerance is a barrier to understanding. ...

In John 5 Jesus asked the man at the pool Bethesda, “Do you want to be well?” He had an infirmity for thirty-eight years and was at the pool waiting for his turn to be healed. I believe that Jesus was challenging this man’s mindset, his belief system, and his thought-pattern. Listen to the man’s reply to Jesus’ question. “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up...” The man thought and believed he needed a man to put him into the pool before he could be healed. However, Jesus simply said to him; “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” Jesus was challenging an unhealthy dependence on man. Think of so many people who are stuck today in their predicaments because they are waiting for a man or something else to get them out of it. Take note of Jesus’ three-fold instruction to the man. ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk”. The man needed to rise in his thinking; he needed to rise on the inside above his situation and environment. He needed to rise above everything around him so he could begin to see new possibilities. Do you know that where you are would determine what you see? Isaiah 60:1-4 “Arise, shine; for your light has come! The glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people; But the Lord will rise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see… you can’t shine if you do not arise in the first place! So, the first step of Jesus’ instruction to the man was ‘Rise’. There is a physical rising, as well as a mental and a spiritual rising; the three are very necessary for us to experience a breakthrough in any situation.

Your encounter with Jesus is the one thing that will position and empower you to break through every barrier in your life now. What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old is gone. A new life has begun!” The Apostle Paul said “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. (Php. 4:13) The Psalmist said “For by you I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall” (Ps. 18:29) and in verse 32 “It is God who arms me with strength…”

Change the way you see your situations now. Do you see an obstacle or a stepping-stone? What you see determines what you get. God says “Behold I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert”. (Isaiah. 43:19) Note that, this is not about what you can see with your physical eyes. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” God says, “I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them and not forsake them.” (Isaiah. 42:16) Believing is seeing! Jesus said “If you would believe, you will see the glory of God.