Jesus demonstrated His compassion and authority by healing the man with the withered hand, showing that God’s heart is always to restore and make whole, regardless of religious expectations or human limitations. He sees each person’s pain and brokenness, and He desires to bring complete restoration, not just physical but also emotional and spiritual. No matter how long you have lived with your struggle or how insignificant it may seem compared to others, Jesus values you deeply and wants you to experience His healing touch. He is not limited by tradition or the opinions of others—He is moved by love and the desire to set you free. Will you stretch out your hand to Him today and trust Him to restore what is withered in your life? [33:42]
Matthew 12:9-13 (NKJV)
Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him. Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.
Reflection: What is one area of your life that feels “withered” or limited, and how can you invite Jesus to restore it today?
God does not see you as just another face in the crowd; He knows you intimately, values you uniquely, and calls you “the one.” Even when you feel lost, overlooked, or stuck in a pit, God’s love reaches out specifically for you, not just for humanity in general. He knows your thoughts, your fears, your pain, and He is always ready to lift you out of whatever pit you find yourself in. You are the apple of His eye, precious and irreplaceable, and He wants you to know and believe how much you matter to Him. Let His love define your worth, not your circumstances or your past. [38:42]
Luke 15:4-7 (ESV)
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
Reflection: When have you felt unseen or unworthy, and how can you let God’s personal love for you reshape your sense of value today?
Many times, we continue to rely on old habits, coping mechanisms, or self-made solutions to deal with pain and challenges, even when God is reaching out to lift us up. These patterns may have helped us survive in the past, but now they can keep us from receiving the freedom and healing God wants to give. God invites you to deny your old ways, to let go of the “fig leaves” you’ve used to cover your pain, and to trust Him to clothe you with His grace and strength. The Holy Spirit gently reveals where we are still holding on to self-reliance, and He leads us into newness of life if we are willing to listen and surrender. [42:24]
Romans 12:2 (ESV)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Reflection: What is one old coping mechanism or self-protective habit you sense God inviting you to release, and what would it look like to trust Him instead?
The Holy Spirit does not condemn or harshly rebuke; instead, He speaks with loving kindness, gently guiding you toward truth and freedom. When you hear voices of accusation or shame, remember that these are not from your Father—He is always reaching down to help, not to judge. God’s Spirit comforts, strengthens, and encourages, inviting you to take His hand and rise out of the pit. As you learn to recognize and trust the gentle, loving voice of the Holy Spirit, you will experience more of God’s grace and less of the weight of condemnation. [44:27]
James 1:5 (ESV)
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
Reflection: When you make a mistake or struggle, what voice do you usually hear—condemnation or kindness? How can you tune your heart to the Holy Spirit’s gentle guidance today?
Jesus has not stopped working—He continues to heal, restore, and perform miracles through His people today. The same power that raised Christ from the dead and healed the sick in the early church is available to you now through the Holy Spirit. You are called to be a vessel of His anointing, to pray for others, to lay hands on the sick, and to let His light shine through your life. As you step out in faith, believing that the anointing flows through you, you will see God glorified and lives transformed. This is your inheritance and your calling: to carry the presence and power of Jesus into every situation. [51:41]
Mark 16:19-20 (ESV)
So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.
Reflection: Who is one person you can pray for or encourage today, believing that the power and anointing of Jesus flows through you?
God’s presence is not something we have to chase after or earn; He has already come to us, promising never to leave or forsake us. In every area of life—our minds, bodies, relationships, and circumstances—He desires for us to reign, not just survive. This is possible because of the authority and power Jesus has given us over all the works of the enemy. The story in Matthew 12 of the man with the withered hand reveals not only Jesus’ willingness to heal, but also His heart for each individual. Just as a shepherd would rescue his only sheep from a pit, God sees each of us as “the one”—uniquely loved, known, and valued. No pit is too small or insignificant for His attention; our pain, no matter how minor it may seem, matters deeply to Him.
Often, we struggle to receive God’s rescue because we have learned to cope with our pain and limitations in our own strength. We may even devalue ourselves, believing we are not worthy of God’s intervention. Yet, God’s desire is not for us to merely cope, but to be restored to wholeness. He calls us to let go of our old ways—our “fig leaves”—and to allow Him to renew our minds and lift us out of every pit. The Holy Spirit gently guides us, not with condemnation, but with kindness and comfort, revealing the difference between our own efforts and God’s work in our lives.
Jesus’ ministry of healing did not end with His earthly life. The book of Acts shows that the power of God continued to flow through His followers, bringing healing and restoration to all who came in faith. This same power is available to us today. We are called not only to receive healing, but to become vessels of God’s anointing, laying hands on the sick and praying for one another. As we do this together as a community, miracles will multiply among us—not through one or two individuals, but through the whole body of Christ. Our inheritance is to carry the light and power of Jesus, glorifying Him as we minister to each other in love.
Matthew 12:9-13 (ESV) — 9 He went on from there and entered their synagogue.
10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him.
11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?
12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other.
Acts 5:16 (ESV) — 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
Mark 16:19-20 (ESV) — 19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.
And it's a pit that it's actually a grave. But Jesus said, wouldn't you reach down and get him? Come on. Don't you feel that? Don't you. You feel the hand of God reaching down for you because you're the one. I know sometimes when I'm in the pit and I'm like, can you feel pity in the pit? You know what I'm talking about you start to feel pity in the pit and so you're not sure anybody's gonna reach down and help you. You're not sure anybody even knows you're in the pit. But God knows you're his one and he's got his eye on you. And he says, I come to get him out of the pit. [00:38:27] (45 seconds) #RescuedFromThePit
Your pit. You may say, well, my pit's not real deep like her pit or my pit's not really as bad as that. It doesn't matter if yours is just a teeny weeny pit. God sees your pit, he sees your pain. God knows your pain. And God wants you free from your pain. You may say, well, it's not a whole lot of pain like somebody else, but God doesn't want you in your pain. God doesn't want you in your disability. God doesn't want you in your limitation. You may say, well, I can get by with it. Yeah, I know you can. I know you're strong, but God doesn't want you have to deal with it at all. Jesus came to get us out of our pits. [00:39:40] (49 seconds) #ValueInGodsEyes
And one of the reasons we don't allow the Lord to lift us out of our pit is because the devil has made us devalue ourselves in our own eyes, in our own mind. We need to allow, we need to allow God to tell us how valuable we are to Him. Then when he reaches down for us, we just take his hand and come on up out of the pit. You understand? [00:40:47] (38 seconds) #LetGoAndReceive
So God, God wants to renew our thinking, so we're not coping, we're not using our own tools, our own weapons, our own thoughts and our own ideas. Things that we've done traditionally, we're letting that go. That's what the Bible says when he talks about. When he talks about taking up your cross. He says, deny yourself. Deny your old ways of doing things. Deny that fig leaf. You know what I mean when I say the fig leaf? When Adam and Eve, when they were naked, they found themselves a leaf. Jesus. God had to go and kill an animal and put clothes on them. And see, most of the time, we're still fooling with our own fig leaves, trying to cover ourselves up, when all the time we've got a father who's reaching down to lift us out of the pit. [00:41:57] (61 seconds) #GentleVoiceOfGod
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