Mk 10:46-52 If You Can Catch His Presence
I’m going to start this message by prophesying: I prophesy that tonight somebody is changing positions in life.
I prophesy that somebody is going to receive their sight tonight, and you’re going to see the life that God has ordained for you, and you’re going to see how the devil has been deceiving you.
Somebody is going to get mad at the devil tonight, and you’re going to stand up in your faith and you’re going to go after your inheritance in Christ.
Somebody listening to me (You’ve been a victim of circumstances and you have let your circumstances define you, you have let your circumstances decide and determine what you can have in life and what you can do, and what you can’t do.
You’ve worn those circumstances like a strait jacket, and they’ve held you in bondage and kept you from the unlimited, free, abundant life that Jesus came to give.
But tonight you’re going to pull a Houdini and your coming out of that strait jacket and it’s not going to take a year or a month or 15 days, but in the next 15-20 minutes you’re coming out and you’re never going to wear that jacket again.
Bartimaeus = Foul, unclean, polluted, he was the son of timaeus.
Timaeus = Highly prized.
Bartimaeus represents who we are without Christ. Before we met Jesus we were foul, unclean, polluted by sin, and yet we were so highly prized by God the Father that he sent his only begotten son into this world to die for us. (Jn 3:16)
He sat by the Highway side begging.
You may be a millionaire living in a mansion with servants and maids, you may have multiple bank accounts and your own private jet and ride around in a chauffeured limousine but if you don’t know Jesus You are no different than a skid road bum rejected by society a slave to alcohol and drugs no house no car no servants and not knowing where his next meal is coming from.
Without Jesus you are both in the same condition, You’re blind you’re lost and you’re unclean polluted by sin.
There is only one cure for you (Rich and Poor alike) That is the blood of Jesus.
You were so highly prized by God that he sent his son to die for you and you were so highly prized by Jesus that he willingly shed his blood for you and died in your place.
Millionaire or bum professional or prostitute (It’s the blood of Jesus, if you’ll cry out to him like Blind Bartemaeus did he will come and he will save you he will heal you he will deliver you and he will set you free.
Multitudes today are like blind Bartemaeus, they are sitting by the highway side begging.
They are blind, they are lost in the darkness of sin, they don’t know their worth and their value to God; They are slaves to the devil, being led around with a leash around their necks and they don’t know who they are where they’re going or why they’re here.
But Blind Bartemaeus also represents another group of people that we find not in the world but in the church.
These are the ones who are in the body of Christ who love God, they’re saved, but they are living the limited life, the small beggarly life, they are the ones who live with the mentality that they are not worthy, and that if they could just get the crumbs from the masters table they would be satisfied.
But this is a spiritual blindness: They are blinded to their inheritance in Christ, they have not realized that it has nothing to do with our being worthy it has everything to do with our accepting what Jesus did as being enough. Our righteousness is in him.
And he didn’t come to give us crumbs (He came to give us life and that more abundantly: Jn 10:10)
The church has gone to great lengths to prepare us for eternal life, but to a large extent has failed to show us how to experience the abundant life right here, right now.
The highway represents (the concourse of life) i.e. the place where life is taking place, where the business of life is going on.
On this highway is Jesus (the anointing) peace, joy, abundant life, favor.
Bartimaeus is on the side of the highway and he is begging.
Again Bartimaeus represents many of Gods people who love God and yet they are willing to live a substandard life.
Like Lazarus the beggar who sat at the rich mans gate desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich mans table, like the syrophenician woman who said to Jesus (even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the childrens table.)
Many of Gods people are saved but they’re living on crumbs, just getting by trying to hold on and hang out till Jesus comes.
They are saved but living defeated lives, discouraged, anxious, fearful, worried, stressed out, no peace, no joy of abundant life, struggling financially.
Jesus didn’t come to bring us a crumby life, just getting by, just surviving, just holding on by a thread.
He came to give us super abundant life, excessive overflowing unlimited life, and a life of Joy unspeakable and full of glory.
He came to give us peace like a river and power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.
He came not only to heal your sicknesses, he said he put his power in you to lay your hands on the sick and they will recover.
One day Blind Bartimaeus the beggar heard Jesus was coming down the highway and he decided that day he wanted that abundant life.
He decided he was tired of begging
He decided he had lived on crumbs long enough
Always in want, always in need, always in lack, always coming up short, just barely surviving.
In essence he was like Mephibosheth who was the product of royalty, he had royal blood, he was Sauls grandson Jonathon’s son, but he was living like a beggar in Lodebar.
David found Mephibosheth and brought him out of Lodebar and brought him into the kingdom and gave him a place at the Kings table.
The place of abundant blessings and provisions.
What happened in Bartemaeus life that delivered him from the place of living the life of a beggar, no vision no dream, no passion, no hope of better days, just getting by living on crumbs.?
You say Jesus healed him: Yes but before healing happened to him (something happened in him).
#1 He recognized he had a need, he acknowledged his weakness, his lack, his deficiency.
#2 He became desperate for a change, he became desperate for the abundant life, he wanted his vision, he wanted deliverance from his lack, he wanted deliverance from a life of impotency = a powerless life.
#3 He recognized that Jesus was the one who could deliver him, who could open his eyes and bring him into a life of vision power and abundance.
#4 He gave everything to get Jesus attention: A lot of people want what Jesus has but they’re not willing to pay for it. No you can’t buy a miracle, you can’t buy Gods presence or power with money.
But it will cost you something
*It will cost you your pride
*It will cost you your preconceived religious ideas and traditions
*It will cost you your old way of doing business, you’ll have to do what the Holy spirit tells you to do.
*It will cost you time
*It will cost you your old associations, You’ll have to run with a different group of people.
*It may very well cost you your reputation (you may be criticized and persecuted, you may be labeled fanatical.
That’s why there are still a lot of blind Bartemaeus’es in the church today
They would rather be blind than pay the price to be healed
They would rather live on crumbs from someone else’s table than to pay the price to receive personal divine revelation and the abundant presence and power of Jesus in their lives.
I’m not in a position to criticize: I used to be one of those people (I would blindly follow and be led around by someone else, living off crumbs because I wasn’t willing to pay the price for personal revelation and have the power of God in my life.
It’s not sin that is keeping most Christians from the abundant life (it’s self).
Bartimaeus robe represents his (self life)
As he came to Jesus he cast away his robe
He put off the self life to receive the Christ life.
The only way for you and I to receive the Christ life (resurrection power and anointing) is to let the cross deliver us from ourselves.
We must deny self
We must crucify self
Jesus said
Lu 9:23 If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me
Paul the Apostle said:
Ga 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
The only way to resurrection power is through the cross.
The life of God can only be manifested in us to the degree that the cross has exercised it’s power over the self life.
We can only receive the divine vision and revelation as we admit our own blindness.
Many of Gods people are blinded by: Religion, traditions, desire for popularity, the praise of men, many are blinded by their feelings and their emotions.
But somebody is changing positions right now
Somebody is casting off their robes of self tonight
Somebody is admitting right now: I’ve been blind
Somebody is recognizing you’ve been living on crumbs
Somebody is making up your mind right now that you are not satisfied with second hand information, you want personal revelation.
Somebody is sick and tired of being sick and tired
Somebody is getting Jesus attention today
Somebody’s hunger, somebody’s desperation is reaching Jesus today and your life is never going to be the same again.
Bartimaeus knew: This was his moment, his divine appointment with destiny.
He didn’t know if Jesus would ever pass that close again (He seized the moment, and caught his presence)
Isa 55:6 Seek ye the lord while he may be found, call ye upon the lord while he is near.
Somebody needs to catch his presence today, if you can catch his presence you can get his promise.
If you can catch his presence you can get every thing you need.
Your miracle, your healing, your deliverance, your breakthrough, it’s in his presence.
Your peace, your joy, your restoration, it’s in his presence.
Your anointing your vision, your destiny, it’s in his presence.
Bartimaeus knew Jesus was coming his way: He had to make a choice (am I going to let him pass me by, or am I going to go after him?)
Bartimaeus went after him (how about you tonight) how many are going to go after Jesus? How many are desperate for his touch tonight.
How many are sick and tired of the devil lying to you and stealing from you?
How many are ready to step into your blessing, your healing, your anointing?
Just lift your hands right now and begin to call on his name
Call on Jesus
Get his attention
Catch his presence
The presence of the Lord is here to heal you, to deliver you, to set you free, to shift you to a brand new level in the anointing.
You say How can I get his presence?
Passion is the price of his presence: It’s not for the casual, it’s not for the comfortable, it’s not for the satisfied, it’s not for the religious.
It’s for the one who cry’s out to him like a drowning man in the ocean, like a man dying of thirst in the desert.
Passion, Desperate Hunger Unbridled Desire (That’s the price of his presence)
