The God Who Heals & Delivers in a Thousand Different Ways Part III
“Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you will see the glory of God?”” (John 11:38-40)
We're continuing our series today on community. The scripture above says, “Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.” Let's take that a step at a time. Interesting that the Lord Himself came to the place of the tomb and engaged His community by asking those present to help. “Take away the stone.” Why? Could He not take the stone away himself?
The answer is He wanted participation from those who were busy thinking that this was all the end of the story, that nothing more could be done; it’s over and it’s time to mourn. Lazarus was Jesus’ friend, too, and he was sad, but more importantly, He wanted to level up the community who were settling for less than the best, and were lacking in faith. Martha even said to Him, “Lord, by this time, there's a bad odor. It's already been three to four days.”
Let’s look at how many times we, too, have valued time in such a way, looking at the limitations surrounding us and surrendering to impossibilities because of our narrow view. This is a repetitive calculation of our Greek thinking rather than an eternal perspective which scans across the dimensions of time in reach of options, lessons, and the imprint of how God could possibly leverage our situation where death seems imminent.
God wants us to begin to master the ability to recognize that ALL time is in His hands, and it is eternal. He created it. There is a place for time in our yesterdays, todays, and forever because that is who He is and He wants to show us how to come into partnership with liberation of every area and segment of time assigned to each one’s lifeline.
This is a season to take action as a community. Ask yourself, where is there an old tombstone standing in front of my thinking? To recognize the character of our King, re-read John, verse 40 - "Did I tell you that if you believe you'll see the glory of God!" The word ‘God’ in the Greek is 'Theos' meaning, THE Creator (female noun) and Owner (male noun) of ALL things.
It's time to partner with Him who is both the one who nurtures (fe) and builds (m) our timelines in Him. This is your spiritual inheritance, let’s not miss a moment. God longs to partner with us to remove the stones of our limited thinking, so that His glory can help us to embrace our spiritual identity in new and life-altering ways. I'm pretty sure Lazarus felt surprised, exuberant and kerfuffled as he exited the tomb that day, 4 days after his death.