Good Monday morning (5-10-10),

Peter and John were going to the temple to pray in the middle of the afternoon.

As they neared the temple they came upon a crippled man on his way to work. Each day his friends or family carried him to one of the temple gates where he begged for charitable gifts. I’m thinking setting up right outside the temple door was a pretty good place to hit people up. I imagine lots of other beggars were waiting in line for that prime spot if it ever became vacant.

When this man, crippled from birth, saw Peter and John he went right to work. It might have been reflex — anybody walking had more than he had. One thing we know that he didn’t know is that he was about to encounter somebody who possessed an extraordinary truth and knew how to operate in that truth…and someone else was fixing to get the primo spot.

I’ve always found Peter’s response to this beggar interesting and unusual and incredibly challenging. The Amplified says, “Peter directed his gaze intently at him, and so did John, and said, ‘Look at us!’”

Some teachers explain they meant, “Look at our clothes. We are poor men. Why do you think we have anything to give to you?” But I don’t in any way believe that is what happened. I don’t believe it because of what came next.

They wanted his undivided attention. They intended that his focus be entirely on what they were about to say.

One thing I’ve learned: you can’t receive anything from God unless you are willing to look at Him with your whole heart and mind and soul and spirit.

Peter and John knew this. They said, “Look at us.” The crippled beggar must have heard something in Peter’s voice: a command, an authority. The Word says He paid attention because he was expecting to receive something from them. He stopped looking around for the next ‘mark’. You could say he watched them with an attitude of expectancy.

This is a good way to receive from the Lord, completely focused on Him without any distraction, expecting something.

Then Peter does something so unusual most of us miss it. We just rush right over it to get to the good part. But, for me, this is the best part! Let’s examine what Peter didn’t do. He didn’t get out his Bible and preach. He didn’t lecture this beggar on what all he’d done wrong that had caused him to be lame and poor. He didn’t get down on his knees and start praying long drawn out prayers. He didn’t, and by this you can tell he hadn’t been to Pentecostal Seminary, he didn’t lay hands on him and close his eyes and get all worked up. He didn’t even pull out his handy vial of oil.

Peter said, with a simplicity that would never go over in today’s sophisticated church, “What I have I give to you…in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!”

Oh Lord! Oh glory hallelujah! Get up and walk.

We all get excited when we read the next verse, where Peter takes the man’s hand and helps him walk for the first time in his life; when we read “at once his feet and ankle bones became strong and steady.” Oh we can shout about that verse.

But that place where a man who is flesh and blood as I am, a man just walking down a city street, a man who had to get out of bed and brush his teeth and eat food to fuel his body and who felt pain if he stubbed his toe…where that man said simply, “What I have I give, get up and walk”…there is the place I rejoice. There is the moment I can’t forget. There is the phrase that wakes me up at night, anticipation pounding in my chest.

What I have I give to you. Rise up and walk.

That is a man who knows who he is in Christ. He’s not hobbled with false humility. He’s not bound by religious pride. He’s not interested in getting credit or attracting attention. He just genuinely knows what has been obtained for him by his Lord and Savior. He knows the truth…and that truth has set him free to release the gift to anyone who asks.

Laurie Gross

“I pray that God might grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the deep and intimate knowledge of Him, by having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so you can know the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe…” Eph. 1:17-19