THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF THE SAVIOUR’S DOUBLE TOUCH
Mark 8:22-26
“And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.” (Mark 8:22). They brought the blind man and wanted Christ to touch him. You may also have been brought to His presence for a touch. They requested a touch for the man because he was blind. In the same way, if you are lame, deaf, blind or have any sickness you have brought to the Lord, Jesus will heal and give you His salvation and deliverance. Jesus loved the blind man and took his hand in fellowship with him. The Lord loves you, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). He is holding your hand and taking you to the place of salvation and healing. Everything Jesus did has a meaning and a purpose. Christ took the man by the hand and led him out of the town. There were many people around who thought they had sight, but they did not have insight, they could only point to the blind man, so Christ took him out of the presence of the religious people who had sight but no insight. Jesus has all the power to heal but did not assume the man’s condition after he touched his eyes. He asked him a question to know how he saw. We also interview people today to confirm the testimony they share about their healing. The man had not seen anything before Jesus touched him, so he looked up and confirmed he saw men as trees walking; the men looked like trees to him but because they were walking, he knew they were men. When God touches you, you must look, search and find out if you are perfectly whole. At the first touch, a change happened, he could see but not brightly and perfectly. So, Christ touched him a second time and he became perfectly whole. When Christ touches any life, it is the Saviour’s touch that makes any of them doubly perfect.
- THE PETITION AND PRAYER FOR THE SAVIOUR’S TOUCH
Mark 8:22-23a; 6:55-56; 7:32-37; 2 Corinthians 6:17-18
They came and made a petition before the Lord, wanting the Lord to touch the man. When you are brought to Jesus, stay there, He will touch you. “And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.” (Mark 8:22). The man was brought to Christ and Jesus took his hand and led him out of the town. You must come out before you come in. Christ must take you out of the midst of spiritual blindness, unbelief and dark influence on you.
Everything Christ did had a purpose. He takes you out of Egypt so He can take you into Canaan. He takes you out of your sin and the influence of sinners before He takes you into the salvation of the Lord. He holds your hands and says, ‘I am the Light of the world’ but the world is in spiritual darkness – in behaviour, understanding and the power and measure of Christ. So, Christ took him out of the influence of darkness and the ungodly. He took him from the midst of friendly foes who did not want the man to see as well as they were seeing, to be as happy, independent and self-reliant as they were. They wanted the man to be subservient and lean on them for survival. They wanted him to be totally paralyzed and impotent, and unable to do anything without them, but the Lord led him out. It was the Saviour’s touch the man wanted and that’s what you should want to. He leads you out so He can lead you in. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18). Christ is not in darkness, or in the midst of idol worshippers, dishonest religious people, nightclubs, or those who carry the Bible on Sunday and carry masquerades during the week, so He calls you to come out! You must come out before you come in. You come out of Egypt, darkness and sin, afterwards, a miracle will come upon your life, and the Lord will touch your heart. This is what the Lord did to the blind man, He took his hands and took him out and separated him from unbelieving influence and fiendish friends. The man knew nothing, he didn’t see the people’s hearts, and he didn’t know their hearts and intentions. You too don’t know the hearts of people around you, so Christ calls you to come out from among them. All the money the man could ever get would have been from the people as he could not fend for himself, so the people would not allow him to rely on God, but they could not give him sight. Similarly, those who keep you dependent on them cannot provide for all the needs of your life. God calls you to ‘touch not the unclean thing’. There are many things in life that if you touch them you become unclean. The serpent tempted Eve to eat the tree God instructed they shouldn’t eat or touch. The question is, if you are not going to eat something, why are you touching it, looking at it and examining it? Don’t eat it, don’t touch it. The thing that brought the human race from grace to grass is touching, taking and eating the forbidden fruit. Whatever will bring unclean thoughts to your mind and others, or draw you to drunkenness, don’t touch, so you will not take. Touch not the unclean thing anymore and God will receive you to Himself.
- THE PRIVILEGE AND POWER OF A SINGLE TOUCH
Mark 8:23b-24; Matthew 14:35-36; 20:30-34; Mark 5:25-30,34
There are different kinds of people. Some had a single touch, and they were healed perfectly. Others had more than one touch, in fact, Naaman had to dip in River Jordan seven times before he got his healing. You don’t have to wait for another touch, a single touch can roll your problem away. “And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.” (Mark 8:23). If you put an ‘n’ before the word ‘ought’, you get ‘nought’. Before the first touch, the man saw ‘nought’, and after the first touch, Jesus asked if he saw ‘ought’. Do you see more than nothing? Do you see any change? There are stories and experiences in the Bible that we don’t identify with all of them – for example, we cannot identify with Pharoah, Judas Iscariot, or Demas. The Bible speaks about this man who saw men as trees walking, and he required a second touch before he saw perfectly. We don’t build our life around his experience and think that anytime we pray we would only get a partial answer. The man had his own life to demonstrate. Other people get perfect wellness through a single touch. “And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto him all that were diseased; And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.” (Matthew 14:35-36). A single touch made them perfectly whole. “And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David.” (Matthew 20:30). There are people who need a second touch, but there are others who just need a single touch to make them perfectly whole and destroy the works of the devil in their lives. One touch from the Lord will remove the hand of the devil in your life in Jesus name.
- THE PERFECTION OF PERFORMANCE AT THE SECOND TOUCH
Mark 8:25; 2 Corinthians 1:15; 1 Thessalonians 3:10; 1 John 5:13-15,18
“After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.” (Mark 8:25). Christ put His hands again on the man’s eyes. You too can have the touch of the Lord again on your eyes, ears, mouth, skin, brain and system such that any disease lodging there will be taken away. You must get well; you must get saved and the joy of receiving a miracle will be in your heart again. As Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes again, He made him look up and his sight was fully restored. You are restored and have received perfect health in Jesus name. “And in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before, that ye might have a second benefit.” (2 Corinthians 1:15). If you’ve got a miracle before, another miracle is coming your way. If you got salvation before, sanctification is coming your way, and if you got sanctified before, the baptism of the Holy Ghost is coming your way.
