Lazarus, Come Out!

Greetings in the Lord!

Today's word comes from John chapter 11:1-23, of which I will share selected verses~
"Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha....Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. Then he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea."
"But Rabbi," they said, "a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?" Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light....Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."
...When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

~Once again the Lord has directed me to this passage. How many of us are in a waiting period of some sort right now? I discern with this passage that we are in the same "waiting" period that Jesus was in---the days he waited before the Father directed him to go to Bethany to raise Lazarus. And what can we understand about this time period? "Are there not twelve hours of daylight?" Jesus asks. He was implying that there is enough time to get prepared for what must be done once the Lord gives the go-ahead to leave. In other words, we are in a period of preparation. Also, on the other end of it, there are things that are needing to die first. In this case, Lazarus needed to pass away before he could be raised again. Likewise, we can understand that whatever is coming up for us, our next "assignment" or whatever, it has not fully passed away yet; the timing is not ready for us to usher in the hand of God yet.

Yesterday I was blessed as I went to a revival meeting at a church in Big Rapids. The Lord put on my heart that I needed to pray to increase my faith during this waiting period. I discerned the Lord wants to miraculously "resurrect" a situation, a people even, and I needed to use this time to increase my faith so that the power of the Holy Spirit could move unhindered by a bold and fearless faith that called forth in whatever situation He directs, "Lazarus, come out!"
~Be blessed and be a blessing.

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