Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26.
Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they removed the stone. And Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. But I knew that You always hear Me; nevertheless, because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” And when He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” Out came the man who had died, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” John 11:40-44.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
You hear people telling you about how to get your prayers answered, praying effective prayers, how to obtain healing, and many more teachings, and these are good, but really that is not the ultimate goal you should be focused on in coming to Me. I will show you a better way to have all those things you seek that is direct and simple, a new and living way. A way to live days of Heaven on the earth.
The real issue is not achieving answered prayer because that will flow from the one thing necessary that I now reveal to you—the key to all the rest is to know Me as I know you. Knowing Me is the answer to all and true prayer. Jesus told you that eternal life is to know Me, the one true God, and the one I sent, Jesus Christ, and why I sent Him, what I do for you in Him, and who I am to you.
The real door to answered prayer is a relationship of trust and love where each knows the other and remains in that relationship no matter what may come because we each know the one in whom we have believed. I know and trust you and you know and trust Me.
Jesus explained why He never veered from the relationship He had with Me—He knew Me and we are one. He prayed that you too would know Me and know Him and be one with us.
And when Jesus prayed, awesome things happened. Not because His prayers were the “three steps to successful prayer,” but because He knew Me and what I was about. Not a slave but a friend because He knew what I was about. I called Abraham My friend. Why? Because I made known to him all I was about to do and he interceded and partnered with Me in it. I even preached the Gospel to him ahead of time and he saw the day of Jesus and rejoiced.
If you remain in My Word and My Word remains in you, ask what you want and it will be done. Prayer is about discussing things with Me according to My Word, which is Me. I am My Word. Jesus is My Word. All things were made by My Word.
Effective prayer comes from an effective relationship.
Moses and I talked things over. I told him what I wanted to do and what I would do and he would tell Me what he wanted done. Why? Because he knew Me. He knew My Name and My ways. He knew I was gracious, merciful, slow to anger, of great lovingkindness and truth, but he also knew My tremendous power that could part seas and devastate armies and bring about justice for an afflicted people. But ultimately once he had My input, he went with that because he had learned it brought great reward and the best result. But that came from the relationship that had developed. He found Me trustworthy. He knew what I was about. To bless and not to curse, to give life and not death, to provide abundance and never withhold from My people when they called on Me in truth.
Prayer is not getting Me to do something, it is knowing I will do something good for you when you ask. It is knowing who I am and what I do and praying accordingly. Jesus knew I am a healer and My Will is to heal so He acted in line with this and prayed and spoke in line with that. At the tomb of Lazarus He thanked Me for always hearing Him and then He spoke to Lazarus to come forth.
When you come to the point where you know Me—My nature and My ways—you pray with confidence that I have heard you and answered and I am taking care of your need. I know what you need before you ask Me but your asking Me to fill that need gives Me the authority to release it in ever greater measure and to tell you what to do to obtain it.
Like when Moses inquired of Me at the Red Sea and I told him I would part the sea if he would lift up his staff and stretch out his hand over the seas and divide it. Exodus 14:16.
Fear is useless, just believe and it will turn out in a good result. If you know Me you will not fear. Perfect love casts out fear. And you will find I am perfect love and you can abide in My love always, not just after you die, but here and now.
If you know Me, in times of trouble, for Jesus warned you they will come in this world, you can sing with the Psalmist, “God is our refuge and strength, a very ready help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth shakes and the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.” Psalm 46:1-3. And with David, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The LORD is my refuge and my fortress and the defense of my life; whom should I dread? When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. If an army encamps against me, my heart will not fear. If war arises against me, in spite of this I am confident.” Psalm 27:1-3.
Elisha looked out his window and saw an entire army encamped against him but he had no fear. He knew Me and I opened his eyes of faith to see My angelic host encamped around the enemy ready to protect him. He knew I had him covered. Just as I do all who believe in My Name. I set My angels to watch over you and deliver you.
But there are times, sometimes many times, that even believers, faced with challenging trials, symptoms, circumstances, and the spirit of fear will slip into doubt and dread. Even after seeing My might works of power to rescue them out of Egypt every time a contrary circumstance, trouble or trial appeared on the horizon, whether real or in the future, the Israelites went into doubt and unbelief. And so do many of you. This is NOT Heaven on earth for you to toss on your bed at night with fear in the pit of our stomach and anxiety over your future. I never wanted you to live a life like that, but a fruitful one of rest in Me—that is, the branch in the Vine.
Now, today, as we continue our lessons on how to live days of Heaven on earth, I will show you the answer to doubt. The Resurrection. Resurrection Power. And if you have taken Jesus as Lord, it is in you.
Many of you feel you have lived a wasted life, wandering in the wilderness but never making it to the Promised Land and the years are slipping away faster than a weaver’s shuttle, and you just cannot seem to get a grip on the life you know is there for you that I sent Jesus to give you.
Sometimes you feel like you are the prodigal son at his lowest point—that you made a mess and are living just to feed swine. And sometimes in pain and lack you give in to doubt and fear instead of driving it out with a command and a shout of victory.
And many of you are in shame and guilt, failure and doubt, and are praying for a new beginning so that you can live it right.
Well, what is the victory that overcomes the world? Even our faith. Your faith connected to and feeding on My faith and the POWER that is in My faith-filled Words. Jesus is the author and finisher of your faith. All I have is yours as well.
What do you do when you cannot seem to get out of the dark valley of the shadow of death? What was the answer that brought Lazarus out of that grave and untied his burial bonds? Resurrection power. Jesus is the resurrection and life. New beginnings. New creation in Christ. Life from the dead. Out of the grave to newness of life. Consciences cleansed from dead works. I am doing something new for you. Days of Heaven on earth.
And that is today’s miracle of Jesus that we are studying. A miracle you find only recounted in the gospel according to My beloved John. We have looked at the raising of Jairus’ daughter from death, the raising of the son of the widow from Nain, and now we consider Lazarus, a good friend of Jesus, the brother of Martha and Mary. Jesus visited their home when He was at Jerusalem. They were faithful to Him and believed in Him as the promised Messiah.
And yet a trial came into their life. You will have trials in this life but if you live a life of faith and trust knowing what to do to release your faith you will become skillful at living the life like Jesus lived. He always took authority over the realm of darkness, and so can you. And His first reaction to this trial was simple, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” John 11:4. He spoke the end from the beginning, and that is what you must do, when a trial hits and Satan attacks speak out the result that is accordance with My Word before you see it, it will manifest if you speak to the situation. First words matter. Jairus had learned that.
“Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in Heaven.” Luke 10:19-20.
He who believes in Him will live even if he dies, and EVERYONE who lives and believes in Jesus will NEVER die. John 11:25-26. Eternal life is in My Son and it is there for you. Do you believe this? If you do, you will see My Glory (My goodness) even now.
The Resurrection and the Life is your answer. All is summed up in Him. All is made new in Him. Ask Him for a drink, all who are thirsty, and He will give you life-giving water that will fill your empty well and bubble up to eternal life. The Holy Spirit, He is the answer. He is the power of the resurrection. He is the power working in you that quickens you to new and life and can do far more than you can even ask or think.
I want you to consider what took place when Lazarus was raised from the grave to a new life.
Martha and Mary had sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick and to come to them, but Jesus also did what I showed Him so He spoke to Me about it and proclaimed that the sickness would not end in death but in a glorious result. John 11:4. I did not send the illness, there is no sickness or death in Heaven where My Will is done, but when Adam gave Satan his earthly dominion, the curse Adam released in the earth brought sickness and death, these are from the evil one. But I can make things work together for good for those who love Me and are called to My purpose of salvation so that what the devil meant for harm turns out for good, for My glory.
And then Jesus told His disciples the He would go to wake Lazarus. But first He finished the work He had been given in the place where He was and then proceeded to Bethany. As Jesus approached Bethany, Martha ran to meet Him. John 11:20.
When Martha met Jesus, she did not so much as greet Him, immediately she said, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” John 11:21. Many of you are asking Me why I let you do what you did or why I allowed the people in your life who hurt you or you hurt. And then she said, “Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” She was putting the whole thing on Him doing something. Telling Him He could do it, but would He?
You may be like that, taking no authority or responsibility to cast out the demons, rebuke the storms, lay your hands on the sick, or declare My Words of power and healing over the situation. But you can, in YOU is something Martha did not have in her, RESURRECTION POWER.
Don’t stay putting up with pain and lack as long as you can just get by when you can rise up and shake off the chains and be free. “Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.” Isaiah 52:2. How? “Awake, awake, clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion; clothe yourself in your beautiful garments.” Isaiah 52:1. Awake sleeper and Christ will give you light! I have rescued you from the realm of darkness and translated you into the Kingdom of My beloved Son, the Light of the world and clothed you in the garments of Salvation (clothed in Christ) and the Robe of Righteousness (in Him you are righteous with My own righteousness). Live as children of the Light. I have redeemed you. Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to Me at midnight chained to the prison floor and the gates flew open and all the chains fell off the prisoners by an earthquake! But no one was hurt, but all were freed. Shake off the chains by praise and worship, it brings the anointing that destroys the yoke and lifts the burden.
Come back to My house. Psalm 36:1-12. In fact, now you are My house. 1 Corinthians 3:16. It is time for you to come out of darkness into My marvelous light. I have redeemed you and cleansed you of all sin. It is time to arise! Now is the acceptable time and now is the day of Salvation.
Now, Jesus said to Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” And I say that to you now who feel it is too late, too old, too trapped and no way out of that grave or that pigpen. Don’t get depressed saying you are too dead, too defeated, too lacking in what it takes to succeed and prosper.
“Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; though I dwell in darkness, the LORD is a light for me.” Micah 7:8.
You shall rise again. And I don’t just mean on the Last Day. Martha assumed that was what the answer of Jesus meant, but it did not.
Martha said to Jesus, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the Last Day.” But Jesus meant a rising from death to life now, in this life. Remember what David sang? “I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.” Abundant, fruitful life on the Vine.
Jesus said to Martha in response, and He says it to you too, “I AM the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26.
And now Christ is in you, your hope of GLORY. The resurrection is in you. You will never go down to the dust of death, your will never taste death, on awakening you will be in My presence. Even now you can have fullness of joy in My presence and the delights at My right hand forever, for I have raised you with Him and seated you there with Him in Christ.
When Jesus came to the tomb, it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they removed the stone. John 11:39-41.
Do you see? He had told her that her brother would rise and that He was the resurrection and the life, then He asked her if she believed. And now He told her if she believed she would see My glory at work. Resurrection power.
And do you remember what Jesus had first said when he received the news that Lazarus was sick? First words determine the outcome of the whole. “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” John 11:4. Watch your words when you are faced with adversity, you are determining the outcome. I speak the end from the beginning. So should you and make it the end you desire. The end that agrees with My Word. Jesus only spoke My Words. Imitate Him. It turned out as He said.
Well, after they removed the stone, Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” John 11:41-44.
I control the passageway of death. I can guide you through or I can bring you back. It is a passageway from earth to Heaven. Jesus comes to take you with Him. Your good Shepherd.
Roll back the stone and come out. I have called you by name, you are Mine.
Do you see from this Scripture the three steps to resurrection power? Let Me show you.
1. Roll back the stone.
Hard hearts, stony hearts where the Word cannot enter and grow. I told My prophet Ezekiel, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” Ezekiel 36:26-27. And what is the cure for a hard, stony heart? Becoming sensitive to Me, which is opening your heart to My Word with faith. Receive the implanted Word which has the power to save your souls.
2. Come forth!
Follow Me. I have given you a new and living way by which to come out of your darkness into My light, to My very throne of grace. “Depart, depart, go out from there, touch nothing unclean. Go out of the midst of her, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD. But you will not go out in haste, nor will you go as fugitives; for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” Isaiah 52:11-12. “Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), proving what is pleasing to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:7-10. Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Ephesians 5:14. Get off the garbage dump and stop picking up and eating garbage. It is time you came out of gossip, malice, bitterness, depression, fear and all other evil thoughts and speech.
3. Untie him and let him go free.
If you continue in My Word you are truly My disciples, and then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Where My Spirit is there is liberty. My Word is the perfect law of liberty. Renew you mind in My Word and you will shake yourself from the dust, rise up, and loose (untie) yourself from the chains around your neck. Isaiah 52:2-3.
Where there are dead things, dead works, the scent of death, the wounded, there the vultures gather. Grumbling, complaining, crying, speaking out fear and disaster, destruction and defeat, bring in the demons to devour. Change your words and change your life. Stop attracting the destroyer and put the holy angels to work for you. They hearken to and obey the voice of My Word.
Just by renewing your mind and calling things that be not as though they are by faith in My promises, you come out of the grave and hell to the throne of Glory. I took Jesus from the grave and hell to the throne of Glory. That is resurrection power!
How do you get it? You receive Jesus as your Lord and He gives you the gift of the Holy Spirit from Me. Acts 2:33, 38. I raised Jesus from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. Have you never read, “ if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11. That is how you will have a new life, that is how you will start new from the mess, the burial cloths binding you and blinding your eyes, that you have created in your life, that is how you rise up from the ashes to beauty of a fruitful life. Get filled with faith and the Holy Spirit.
Just as I raised Jesus from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit that is now at work in you who believe. Once Jesus was lifted up from the earth, He draws all men to Himself. John 12:32. When I raised Him, I raised you with Him. What are you doing groveling around in the darkness of the grave? I drew you up with Him in resurrection power but Satan has blinded the eyes of many, even believers, and hardened their hearts by his lies to you of who you are and about your defeat (but Satan has been defeated, not you who believe, so if you will only fight him he has to flee at the first punch because Jesus already crushed his head) so that you do not see with your eyes nor perceive with your hearts and be converted and I heal you. John 12:40.
That is why Paul prayed for you that the eyes and ears of your heart would be enlightened to know the surpassing greatness of My power put in you who believe in accordance with the working of the strength of My might which I brought about in Christ, when I raised Him from the dead and seated Him at My right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And I put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:19-23.
So the practical way for you to get Resurrection Power working in you. The three steps you learned from when Jesus called Lazarus out of the grave. Remove your stony and insensitive heart, come forth breaking out of that darkness you have allowed the devil to put you in, and get unbound from the mindset that is blinding your eyes to who you are and what you have in Christ. It is summed up in this passage: “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2.
You lay down your life of fear, dread and defeat to take it up again as more than a conqueror, and you call in and enforce My promises.
But the bottom line is simply, get filled with faith and the Holy Spirit. Acts 6:5. And then nothing can take you down, in fact, the harder the hit, the higher you bounce. Depression is grieving when you have not lost yet. But resurrection power is in you. Let it out by your voice and it is the voice of victory (and every demon can hear it and they tremble).
I love you. Jesus is your escape from death to life. Let Him call you out of that tomb you have locked yourself in and when He calls, get up and come out. My Holy Spirit will lead you, teach you, guide you to all truth, and give you words and a wisdom no one can take exception to or contradict. And that is resurrection life. That is days of Heaven on earth.
So then do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. Ephesians 5:17-20.