FAITH CAPSULE: Look to God not to be a victim of stagnation. 

John 5:1-17                                                           

Stagnation not moving forward is evidence of the agent of paralysis.
Bible recorded, “Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.” (John 5:2-4)
A man with paralysis could not get healing where all kinds of sicknesses were getting healed.
The man with the paralysis of thirty-eight years could not get his healing.
The man with the thirty-eight years was on the right track not to remain trapped. 
The man with paralysis was at Bethesda with the meaning: ‘House of mercy.’ 
The man with paralysis was trapped and could not come out of his paralysis.
In any area of life where stagnation continues to hold a man back from moving forward is evidence of the agent of paralysis. 
Are you experiencing stagnation physically or spiritually?
For thirty-eight years, at a location for healing, a man with paralysis remained stagnated.
What is holding you down and not living life to the glory of God?
As one that believes in the goodness and mercy of God, is there any evidence of stagnation having a place in your life?
John 5:5-7 records, “Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” 
At the breakthrough ground, the excuse is the holding force that holds many downs. 
The man with paralysis has been held down for thirty-eight years by the excuse of no man to put him into the pool.
Are you looking to man for your help, or are you looking up to Jesus for your breakthrough? 
Breaking out of stagnation and not becoming a vessel of mockery is knowing with understanding to lift a voice to God that does not ignore the calling of those who wait on Him. 
The Psalmist states, “My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.” 
The paralysis of man is evidence of looking to man instead of looking to God, lifting his voice to God.
It is time to stop directing voice to man but to direct voice to God and look up to God. 
Jesus is the only one who can pull man through, not man. 

Prayer for today: Ask for mercy from the hand of God to bring you out of stagnation.