Faith comes by hearing. (Romans 10.17)
Hearing what? The word of God. (Romans 10.17)
When faith is born, courage is also born to put into practice the thought, inspiration, intuition, this is, the voice of the Spirit of Faith.
The Pool of Siloam continues to be a living witness of the practice of faith. This is where the Lord Jesus sent the blind man to be healed. It is located in the Tyropoeon Valley, in the lower end of the underground passage to Hezekiah’s Tunnel (Siloam Tunnel). Besides the depth of the valley, it is necessary to walk down 34 steps to access the pool. To obey the Lord’s order, certainly, the blind man found great difficulty to reach the pool.
A closer look at the details of John 9 helps us understand the secrets and mysteries of faith.
1 – The vision of God
The Lord and His disciples noticed the blind man sitting by the side of the road. The blind man did not cry out for Jesus to catch his attention. Probably because he did not know He was there;
2 – The doubt of the world
His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
People’s ignorance attributes to God the reason for suffering when, in reality, it is the devil who came to steal, kill and destroy (John 10.10);
3 – The answer from God
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”
The Lord responded to doubt with the conviction (faith) that suffering is for the manifestation of the works (will) of God;
4 – The awakening of faith
“When He had said these things, He spat in the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.”
Since the blind man had not manifested any sign of faith (he did not cry out to the Lord), Jesus mixed saliva with dirt to make clay and anointed the eyes of the blind man. The blind man must not have understood anything that was happening. He just kept observing…
5 – An act of faith
And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.”
When the blind man heard the command from Jesus, he was immediately moved by the Spirit of faith, and was encouraged to sacrifice, this is, to obey. Notice how the Lord Jesus did not help him or lead him to the pool, nor did He tell His disciples to do so. The blind man knew the difficult path that led to the pool and he went there alone. Even though he knew how difficult it was to get there, he was not discouraged or wait for someone else to help him. Couldn’t the Lord Jesus have made things easier for him and sent him to the tank in Bethesda, which, though a little further away, was easier to reach?
We’ll continue tomorrow…
Bishop Edir Macedo
www.bispomacedo.com.br/en
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