The Kingdom Within – Part 2 – What Jesus Required Of Those In Need

by Clyo Beck

You’re visualizing all the time. And Jesus prompted those who sought healing to ask explicitly for what they wanted.

So how do these facts relate and affect you? Let’s take a look.

This is Part 2 of my 3-Part Series on “The Kingdom Within.”

Read Part 1.

YOU VISUALIZE ALL THE TIME

Do you realize that you are visualizing all the time?

When you hear about something, you immediately form an idea or picture of how things will play out.

You do this in a split second when you read the paper or see a news story.

You do it in a split second when you hear about a friend in trouble, thinking: “Oh, he’ll figure it out,” or “Oh, my God, This could be the end of him.”

Yet, most people do not give much attention to their visualizations.

Or the power they have on their lives.

Or how a string of thoughts like this, “How am I going to deal with this? I’m never going to be able to dig out of this,” creates a picture in the mind of failure and sets a downward spiral in motion.

And how it’s the same when you have a negative thought about your spouse or child.

The thought sets a picture in your mind, whether you are aware of it or not, that will contribute negativity to your next experience with that person which, in turn, reinforces the picture and so it goes.

If you do not stop that pattern, if you do not create a different picture, you will wind up with some sort of problem on your hands, such as a breach in your relationship.

If you’re life is going well, then most of the time when you have a negative thought, you are not dwelling on it or feeling much emotion about it; you’re just letting it go and switching your mind to something else more positive.

People who have problems, however, whether they realize it or not, visualized those problems happening in some way – at some time – or those problems couldn’t manifest.

Now many people have been programmed to see things in a certain way. They never actually made a choice as to what they would visualize. They do not even know they are visualizing or that they are getting results “by default.”

Yet, the fact that everyone visualizes is a given.

Now, the question is, are you willing to take control of your visualizations?

If you are not willing to take the time to clearly state what you want and visualize the end result, then that is evidence that, consciously or subconsciously, you either do not believe you deserve it, or you do not really believe it can come to you or that God will bring it to you.

Yet Jesus required that those who came to him clearly state what they wanted, which would have put a visualization of themselves as healed into each of their heads.

WHAT JESUS REQUIRED OF THOSE HE HEALED

Consider that, when you look at the gospels, you find people being prompted by Christ to state explicitly what they wanted, even though their needs were evident.

In Mark 10:46-52 Jesus says to blind Bartimaeus,

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Bartimaeus replied with the obvious:

“Master, I want to see again.”

Similarly, when Jesus sees the sick man by the pool of Bethsaida (John 5:6), he knew the man had been there a long time. Yet, still he asked:

“Do you wish to get well?”

You know Jesus was no fool. You know he knew what each person who came to him wanted. You know he could see the need.

Still, look through the Gospels and you will see that Jesus never heals without a request.

He always required the person to state exactly what he wanted.

And Jesus encouraged people to make any earthly request they wanted. Jesus never told anyone that what he or she was asking for something out of bounds.

What this means is that you can ask for anything. Nothing is out of bounds.

Also, it is good and right for you to state exactly what you want, whatever that is.

So how does the fact that you visualize all day long connect with the fact that Jesus asked people to commit to a declaration of the healing they wanted?

The wrap up to this series is in my next post: How God Works Through You.