Perhaps your Lazarus is a dream yet unfulfilled or a lost relationship. Maybe it is a goal unaccomplished, a song incompleletely written, a hope deferred which has made your heart sick, or a prayer as yet seemingly unanswered. Perhaps your Lazarus is akin to the dry bones of Ezekiel’s valley where an entire nation of potentials were lain asunder. Apparently done and gone…but for whom God had a more excellent way in open spite of death its very self.
Whatever your situation or circumstance… Be it a lion’s den into which you have been cast, a fiery furnace you’ve been punished into in lieu of your faithful service to God…or an affliction of your yet weary soul as though God were unaware… Be encouraged my friend, because God is THERE WITH YOU. “God may not deliver from affliction but He will deliver you IN affliction” pastor Sanusi said. The Word says that the testing of your faith works patience…and thus to let it have its perfect work completed in you. Because for every drought, there is an outpour of rain thereafter! For every weeping that endures the night, joy comes in the morning. For every weakness, there is the high priest in Christ who is able to sympathize with it. For every Egypt, there is a red sea crossed; for every Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, there is one like the Son of God who stands in the flames with them shining brighter than the sun.
For every Lazarus in your life, know this: Christ is there…Christ KNOWS. He cares. He weeps. He feels the travail. He makes the journey to you. He disregards the faithless declaration of the enemy or people around you who say all is over for you. Christ shouts that the great stone which inhibits and negatively contains the manifestation of your miracle be rolled away. The Lord Jesus defies death and calls you out from the very impossible to accomplish the promises of life He has made to you. It is NEVER too late for one whose trust is grounded in God.
For every impossibility in your circumstance and situation, there is an Angel of the Lord waiting to be revealed to fight your battle. For every prince of Persia temporarily withholding the visibility of your answered prayer, there is a warring Michael dispensed by God Himself to your rescue. For every stubborn pharoah, there are plagues awaiting revelation and which will ultimately become your testimony and a praise to the almighty God for whom NOTHING is impossible.
God is not unfair. He is not unjust. He is not mean or insensitive. He is not callous, and his intentions toward you are not negative. He is not far away, unaware, or incapable. God is not slow to act or inadequate. In this moment, rebuke and reject every untrue thought about the character and nature of God…especially every misunderstanding of the truth of His undying love towards you.
God is faithful, just, loving, true, caring, strong, dependable, perfect, capable, almighty…His thoughts toward you are of good and not evil, to bless and not to harm you, to favor, bless, prosper and be with you always. He never leaves nor forsakes you; He is come that you may have abundant life. He will do what He says He will do. He never gives up on you. His live for you is everlasting and His lovingkindness towards you never fails. Nothing can separate you from His love, He will do only good to you, and no good thing does He withhold from you. All that God does, He does for your good and growth. And even if He chastens you, it is because you are a beloved heir for whom He cares deeply enough to not let go. You are precious and honored in His sight and He declares His love for you….
Perhaps your Lazarus is your faith…the substance of things you once hoped for and the evidence of things you haven’t yet seen…which has now wavered, faltered, and is flickering. Perhaps like the dead body of Lazarus, your limited understanding of God’s limitless power declares your faith is rotting and stinks. Perhaps you have lost that faith in believing your prayers will only be answered after the resurrection of all the dead. But please allow me to encourage you that the God who transcends time is the lover of your soul…He is the one who calls those things which be not as though they are and they become so because His Word does not return to Him void. That Word is like a fire that consumes and a hammer that breaks every rock in pieces in your life. That God, your God, the God, all God, is the one whose voice your fallen and bound circumstance can not resist responding to in total obedience for the sacrifice of His life for you, is enough to raise all of your deadness. All you must do is believe and according to your faith it will be done.
To your Lazarus, Christ Jesus is saying “Come Forth!” The set time to favor you is now. Today if you hear His voice, don’t turn away or harden your heart…the beautiful savior whose banner over you is love calls for your dead to rise again. These bones shall live! 🙂
Amen!
