The next few weeks or so, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I’m going to do a weekly series called Reconciliation with GOD. I think this is important for the Children of GOD to recognize the LORD GOD we serve and why it is important to serve Him. He’s all that we need and I think we need to be constantly be reminded of that. The world and its ways can bring about life struggles in our beings, but when we are encouraged, strengthened, and comforted by the WORD and truly receive the WORD, our heart changes, our minds changes, and our perspective changes. This is the time to truly lean on the LORD because He alone helps us in our weakness. I hope these posts help and strengthens you to walk this narrow path that we children of GOD are called to: a path of life in Him, joy, peace, righteousness, truth, and holiness. Share this with friends, family, someone that is in need to hear of these topics.

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I was listening to music on the radio and after the music ended, a woman was talking about being hangry when she was at the store, meaning hungry and angry. She said that when you go to the store with an empty stomach, it will lead you to make bad food decisions. So instead of buying healthy food, you go and buy unhealthy. It could have been her opinion but it made sense. You’ll eat anything because of your “hangerness”.

I reflected on this in my own life because when I get really hungry, I would eat food that I don’t really like. For example, I do not like peanut butter. If I was really hungry, I would eat it, combining it with other foods, to fill me up.

This is the same thing when it comes to desiring GOD. We should be hungry for God. We should be so hungry for Him that we should come to Him and He himself would make us full. In John 6:35 the WORD says, Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

When we do not feed on the right foods but instead feed on the wrong foods, we may be filling up but not in a healthy way. This is the same with the WORD. Consuming the WORD is more spiritually healthy for us than feeding on other things, such as the desires of the flesh and the world. Consuming the WORD is the only thing we need to consume in living spiritually and not live in the flesh. Anything else will not make us whole but will make us hunger for more.

Consuming the WORD is the only thing we need to consume in living spiritually and not live in the flesh.

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In this teaching, we’re going to focus on the story of Blind Bartimaeus, in Mark 10:46-52.

What we know about Bartimaeus is that he was blind. He couldn’t see.

This could relate to us today.

We are blinded by the things that are going on in the world. We are being fed with rules and teachings that cause us to be blind. It leads us to go this and that way. We’re not going the straight and narrow path but the path to destruction that is wide.

The word says that the LORD came to open the eyes of the blind.

“Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.””John 9:39 NIV

“Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”” Matthew 15:14 (NIV) .

This is Jesus Christ talking about the religious leaders. They were blind guides that were leading the Jews the wrong way. And if they continued, they would fall into the pit, they would be lost.

How are we blind? It is based on listening to teachings that are not godly (maybe you know or you do not). What I mean by false teachings are rules and regulations that are manmade, not the statutes and laws of the LORD GOD. For example, the news could be false teaching because it is causing you to fear when we are not called to fear, but to walk in power, love, and sound mind. It comes from placing yourself in the world. It is engaging with the world and yourself more so than living for GOD.

What is this telling you? This is telling you that if you are continuously living in the world, then you are going to be blind. You are going to be led the wrong way. Brothers and sisters in Christ: the more you engage and interact with the world, the less you grow close to GOD. You are not going to understand who God is: His righteous ways, His holiness and truth, and His unfailing love.

God is love but because of false teachings, we are led by false teachers who are telling us that God is not love but always rude, mean, and unjust because of what is happening in the world. The WORD says the GOD is the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. He is also just and He is also righteous. But you have to grow to know HIM by spending time with HIM for you to know this. You have to read your bible with the Holy Spirit to grow into the knowledge of GOD.

And, God IS love. He truly is. However, because of our choices, our thoughts, our intentions, and our own attitude toward things lead us to think negatively. So we look at God differently. Therefore, leading us to see the Lord Jesus differently as well. The LORD Jesus Christ is our savior, but you also have a choice to make when it comes to believing in Him based on how you live for Him!

GOD is Love, but also Just, Righteous, and Holy! But you won’t understand this if you do not spend time with HIM, i.e. His WORD.

Remember that Jesus only did what the Father GOD did. So think about how Jesus lived on earth and doing only what He saw the Father do. He was showing who the Father really was!

Faith is the basis of all we are when living for GOD. When we don’t believe right nor live right, we don’t think the right thoughts about The LORD. This decreases our faith in GOD. Your faith should align rightly with GOD so that you see things clearly. Therefore, not being blind.

Going back to blind Bartimaeus. Blind Bartimaeus was blind and was a beggar. So if we see this a different way, Bartimaeus was blind, unable to see the truth. And he was also a beggar, begging for money as people walked past him.

So think about this: he was blind and a beggar.

He was blind and unable to see, as mentioned. When you are blind and unable to see, it may be because you are filled with so much of yourself and/or the world.

But is it in Christ that you can clearly see things, you can clearly understand why you should not engage with the world but submit to GOD.

Bartimaeus was also a beggar. Do you know that we as children of GOD do not beg? The WORD says in Hebrews 4:16 (NIV), Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

We as children of GOD do not come before the LORD begging, but with confidence and humility, we present our request before the LORD, in accordance to His will. To go further, we as children of GOD are not beggars but have everything we need in Christ Jesus. The WORD says, in Matthew 7:11, If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

This tells us that we children of GOD can ask GOD the desires of our heart, according to His Will, and He shall grant it.

So what I’m saying is that we as children of GOD are not meant to be blind and beggars but royal priesthood, seated in heavenly places and walking in authority in Christ Jesus!

Now we recognize the meaning of what blind means spiritually and what a beggar is spiritually. These are in opposite of who a child of GOD should be.

Let’s keep going.

So Jesus Christ comes to Jericho, walking with His disciples. Jesus seems to walk by the blind beggar. Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was where he was sitting and cried out to Him, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!”

Blind Bartimaeus was not where he wanted to be

Bartimaeus was not where he wanted to be. It is like the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. After leaving his home, spending all the inheritance he had, and then having nothing left, he ultimately went back to his father. He thought about being one of his father’s servants, embarrassed and filled with shame because of his past actions.

If you know the story of the prodigal son, the father ran toward his son and kissed him and restored the son, though being a servant was enough to enter his father’s house but the father had other plans. This is what we are going to see with blind Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus cried out to the LORD for mercy, hoping to be heard. It seemed like Bartimaeus knew the world could not give him what he wanted, but realized he needed the ONE to help him see things. He needed to see. He believed that Jesus Christ would help him finally see the truth, therefore, setting him free! Bartimaeus was tired of being blind, unable to see how to live for the LORD. He knew something had to change, and by crying out to Jesus Christ from his whole heart, he was heard.

Jesus Christ heard his cry for mercy and turned His attention toward Bartimaeus. When you ask GOD for mercy, from your whole heart, He will hear and turn His attention toward your direction.

The great thing about the mercy of the LORD is that we have Jesus Christ, the high priest, who also understands mankind and our heart, interceding for us when we are in need of deliverance, because He was man on earth, while also being GOD. In Hebrews 4:15-16 (TPT), He understands humanity, for as a man, our magnificent King-Priest was tempted in every way just as we are, and conquered sin. So now we draw near freely and boldly to where grace is enthroned, to receive mercy’s kiss and discover the grace we urgently need to strengthen us in our time of weakness.

I, myself, for example, lived in a blind place, due to watching pornography. I was filled with anger, shame, and impurity, and thinking that the action that was portrayed in the video was the only way that exemplified love in the form of sex! Finally realizing that I could not live like this I cried out to the GOD for mercy, from my heart! Glory to His name because He answered my cry for mercy, He delivered me, and now I can see!

When you cry out to GOD for mercy, you humble yourself before the LORD! He will hear you, as Jesus heard the cry for mercy of Bartimaeus. Jesus called him and the disciples told Bartimaeus to “cheer up, on your feet, He’s calling you.”

When Jesus calls you, it is good news!

The LORD GOD hears our cry.

And this is the interesting thing Bartimaeus did, he jumped up and took off his cloak, his beggar cloak. When someone wears a cloak of some sort, it is a sign of a position with responsibility or even an identity. Think of Elijah placing the cloak on Elisha. This was Elijah signifying to Elisha that he was called to be a prophet, along with his duties and responsibilities that accompanied it.

So to see Bartimaeus take off his beggar’s cloak, it’s like he let go of his identity of being a beggar. He no longer wanted to identify himself with being called or known as a beggar. This similar event happened with Lazarus when Jesus Christ raised him from the dead. When Lazarus came out, in John 11:44, THE WORD says, The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Do you have any cloak or grave clothes you have been carrying around? Shame, pain, hurt, guilt, anger, unforgiveness, stubbornness? The LORD wants to take that off of you! And you have to be willing by faith!

After taking off his cloak, he went to Jesus. Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

We have a great GOD who hears us, as He heard the cry of Bartimaeus, and desires to give us what we desire according to His will.

So what did Bartimaeus ask the LORD? What was his request? His desire? Bartimaeus wanted to see! In Matthew 6:22-23, the WORD says, The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Another consequence of being blind leads you to live in darkness. When someone is blind, they cannot see, it’s darkness, all around them. There’s no clarity, there’s no light!

So when Bartimaeus asked, requested to see, he wanted to see the truth, he wanted the light of GOD in him, he wanted to see clearly. Jesus Christ wants to set the captives free; He wants those who are blind to now see. He wants to fill you with light, all of Him in you!

This is what happened to Bartimaeus requested to see and received from Jesus Christ. Jesus told him, and I wanted to quote this from the TPT (Passion Translation), in verse 52, “Jesus responded, “Your faith heals you. Go in peace, with your sight restored.” All at once, the man’s eyes opened and he could see again, and he began at once to follow Jesus, walking down the road with him.

This is what it says in the KJV (King James Version), And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way.

Both of these terms, healed and whole are similar. In Greek, whole means sozo, which means to save, to preserve one who is in danger of destruction, to serve or rescue. So this tells us that the LORD not only restored Bartimaeus’s sight but his life as well! In Ephesians 3:20 (KJV), ‘Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,’

So Bartimaeus did not only receive his sight but his life was preserved by GOD.

GOD wants not only to heal us but to preserve us, make us whole!

Just like the prodigal son, in John 15, starting verse 11, the father not only restored his son to sonship but also threw a big party for him, giving him the best things in his house because his son returned.

God desires you to see who you are as His child. He desires to give you the best things that the world does not and cannot give. But the only way to “see” this is for you to have the light of GOD in you. It is to have Jesus Christ in His perfect love. It is also to have the Holy Spirit in you, who is the Advocate, the Helper; as well as the Spirit of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, might, and fear of the LORD!

Let’s not forget this last part in verse 52 of the story.

‘And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.’

When Bartimaeus received His sight, he received wholeness, and we can also say he was full of Jesus and the light of GOD, and he followed Jesus Christ along the road. I read a story or a testimony in a Kathryn Khulman’s book of a person who not only received their healing but also was filled with faith, joy, and strength as they continued with zeal, their journey with the LORD.

God does not only heal but restores and makes us whole, filling us with all of Him. Remember the fruit of the Spirit? We are also filled with this as the LORD restores us. We grow to live in love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). So Bartimaeus did not only receive his sight but also restoration, leading him to follow Christ!

When we are saved by grace through Jesus Christ, when we return to the LORD GOD, His light shines in us, which gives us all the more to follow Him. Jesus Christ is the light that shines in the darkness that the darkness cannot overcome it. In Christ Jesus, we can see clearly. We have the light of GOD in us, we have clarity, so following Him is necessary to keep the light of Him in us.

Is there anything in your life that is leading you blindly in the darkness, you’re unable to see the truth, and you do not have clarity in knowing who GOD is and how much He loves you? Maybe you’ve been so much in the world that you’ve developed negative ideas of who GOD is, of who Jesus Christ is, and even of who the Holy Spirit is.

The LORD Jesus Christ wants to drive out that darkness and fill those areas with His light. From your heart, ask for His mercy and He will hear you! Then confess and repent of your sins, plead the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse you from all conscious acts that lead to death, that caused blindness. Then ask the Holy Spirit to highlight those things that caused blindness if you are not aware of it. Reject and denounce those things that caused blindness and ask the LORD Jesus to fill those areas with His light.

Ask Him to fill you with His perfect love! Ask Him to restore you and make you whole, and believe by faith that He has done it! Then follow Him wholeheartedly!

This is my prayer for you, according to Numbers 6:24-26:

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Be blessed!