Encouragement

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“LAZARUS RISE UP!” (John 11: 41-44)

“So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
When He had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

The stone was finally moved, despite some initial resistance to the instructions of Jesus. After a brief prayer to the Father, Jesus commanded the dead man to come out of the cave – and he did! It is the ultimate miracle – God’s resurrection power raising up a man who had been dead for four days!

We can only imagine what took place in the dead and decomposing body of Lazarus when the power of God touched it. Cells came alive and the decaying machinery began to function again, as the heart slowly started pumping, and speeded up to a normal rate, and fresh whole blood began to flow through vessels which came together from a state of powdery ash. Pain probably ripped through the body of Lazarus as the Spirit of Life overshadowed him, and drove out death from every cell, muscle, bone and fiber; as each redundant organ received life blood and oxygen and began to pulsate once more. He probably awoke to a state of confused and cloudy consciousness, as blood rushed to his head, and the Holy Spirit caused the dried out lobes of his brain to become soft, sensitive, and responsive to impulses once more. As his nervous system began to work again, each feeling and sound may have been magnified many times over, and he probably felt crackling waves of “electricity” (the power of God) flowing through him, as each desensitized patch of skin tissue began to live and receive feeling! His eyes were probably unable to focus in the brightness of the light that shone through the entrance of the cave; but a sound was pounding through his head and reverberating through his heart – it was the voice of Jesus calling him out of death and into life! Death had to bow to the voice of Everlasting Life, and lose its grip, as the Spirit of God seeped into him, and the spirit of Lazarus returned to his body. We cannot begin to imagine what Lazarus had experienced in the four days between his death and resurrection! I am sure his first conscious thought was that he badly needed a bath!

Jesus is in the business of calling forth life from death. He is the “Way, the Truth and the Life”! (John 14: 6). He is “The Life, and that life is the light of men” (John 1:4). When we first encountered Him and yielded to the wooing of His Spirit, it was because we heard His voice through the deadness of our souls and rose up to receive a new birth and a new life. Through every stage of our walk with Him, He calls us upwards and onwards, out of our self-absorption, and our focus on the dead works of this life, and into a glorious glimpse of life eternal in Him. Even today, He is calling you and me to higher ground, to taste and see the things of Heaven, to which only Jesus is the key!
When Lazarus rose to life after four days in the grave, it was a miracle which defied all the laws of nature and science. For the disciples of Jesus, the family and friends of Lazarus, and all the members of the Jewish community who had been against Him, this was something incredible and impossible which they could hardly believe! As Jesus said in His prayer to the Father, He wanted them to know and believe that He had been sent to them from God. It was why He said to Martha (last week’s eWord) “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40). But Jesus had known from the beginning that He would raise Lazarus from the grave. He walked in a miracle mindset! He was always in ‘miracle mode’ - healing and delivering people wherever He went. His life and ministry were intertwined as one. He was prepared for this miracle, and prayed towards it from the moment He knew that Lazarus was ill and dying. He risked His life, and went back to Bethany, (where people had tried to kill Him just days before), because He had no doubts about what the Father would enable Him to do by the power of the Holy Spirit. There are heavenly encounters, and supernatural miracles we can see happening in our daily lives, if we too walked in the mindset of the miraculous, and in an expectation of the power of God manifesting through us. Remember that “All things are possible to them that believe”! (Mark 9:23). God can use you as a channel of blessing to many!

So what can we learn from this powerful account of Resurrection Life conquering Death, and how can we move towards this same dimension of power?
•Obedience to the Word of Jesus – they took away the stone at His command.

•The Power of the Word – the hold of death was broken, and life returned to Lazarus when Jesus called him forth from the grave.

•Faith - the power of praying with the confidence and understanding that God hears our prayers. Jesus said “I know that You always hear me”, and thanked the Father for hearing Him.

•Jesus came to give Life, and life more abundantly (John 10:10), while the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. It is His will that we live life to the fullest, and walk in victory, overcoming all the snares of the evil one.

•Jesus wants us to shed all our ‘grave clothes’! These could be some of the past sins and old habits which we may not have shed since coming to a relationship with the Lord Jesus.

We may have experienced His blessing and forgiveness, and have turned from death to life; but there is so much more, if we would let Him have His way in our lives, and yield to the cleansing work of the Spirit. Jesus has robes of righteousness for us - white linen garments!

There is one more thing the Lord would have me share. When we experience salvation in Jesus Christ and surrender to His rule in our lives, the old person is laid to rest, and a new man/woman arises, with a new identity and righteousness in Christ. We become “the righteousness of God in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5: 17). You and I are changed beings. So why do we still experience, temptation and testing in those old areas of weakness, and why is it that sin is frequently crouching at the door of our lives? This is Satan trying to resurrect the old man/woman who used to be subject to him in the past. In the same way Jesus raised Lazarus from death, and raised us up out of the deadness of sin and into righteousness in Him, Satan keeps trying to call back the old dead sinful person, who did his bidding and lived in the flesh. But be encouraged, precious child of God, that you are more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:37). Remember your struggle is not with flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). Remember that Jesus is able to give you the overcoming you need – He understands completely what you experience, because He has been there too. Hebrews 4:15 says “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.” As you daily offer your body to Him as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), and submit to Him, saying ‘no’ to the devil and the thoughts he brings (James 4:7), the power of God will overcome the onslaught of the evil one and you will have the victory. Yes, sometimes the battle seems to go on for too long, but Jesus has promised you will triumph in His name and in the power of His Spirit. Isaiah 59:19 tells us that when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit lifts up a standard against him!

Dear friend, I pray that you will overcome every hindrance the enemy sets in your way, and rise up to receive all the awesome blessings and promises God has for you in this life of power and miracles He has purposed for you. Live in obedience to His Word! Walk in the power of His Word! Expect the unexpected, and believe for it. God has so much He wants to do through your life. May you see miracles exploding around you from this day forth, in Jesus’ name – Amen!

Minoli Haththotuwa, 07 June 2010
www.wingslikeeagles.info

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