TAKE AWAY THE STONE
Wednesday – July 31, 2019, Tamuz 28, 5779
Greetings precious people of God and welcome back to this powerful and empowering Bible Study of the Book of John. If you are reading this on Facebook please take a moment and hit the “love” and “share” buttons to expand the reach of this Ministry. Thank you for valuing the Word of God. The featured pictures this week are various artist depictions of the Ministry of Jesus and this account of Lazarus. Then on Friday is a picture of Donna and me, the leaders of this Ministry. Now, let’s turn our attention to our Bible Study by reading the primary text aloud.
John 11:38-42 (KJV)
38 Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
As we continue with this account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, I want to remind us all of a few things. One is that God did not cause this illness to show He could heal. Sickness in believers brings zero glory to God. God (the Father) did not purpose that Lazarus become sick and die so He could show people He could raise the dead. That is a perverse and abominable line of thinking if you were wondering what I thought. Even the world recognizes this as child abuse! The delay thing was the result of unbelief on the Lazarus end not the Jesus end. The Father in His intense desire to show forth His goodness (glory) had to work some things out. Where there is no faith there is no healing and no raising of the dead. Remember that the children of Israel could not enter the promised land due to unbelief and neither can we. Our promised land is all of our Covenant which is nothing but blessing and no curse.
Hebrews 3:18-19 (KJV)
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
The folks in Nazareth had the same problem.
Matthew 13:57-58 (KJV)
57 And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.
58 And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Is this why you or I have not seen mighty works in our lives? Is it time to repent of unbelief (which is sin) and build our faith, and receive the mighty works our God has already paid for and are on the table for our taking? Next, Jesus issues the command to remove the stone from the mouth of the cave in which Lazarus is buried. There was a day when Jesus issued that command in our lives! When we placed our faith in Him and were saved, He commanded the mighty angles to roll away the stone the devil used to keep us captive in his kingdom. All the grave cloths were removed, all death was removed, and we went free without condemnation into the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of His dear Son, Christ Jesus.
Colossians 1:13 (KJV)
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Martha had made a faith statement earlier on the road to the gravesite and now almost blows it BUT Jesus reminded her of that conversation. He reminds us of our faith statements but way too often we ignore Him, speak in unbelief, and negate the good things that were set in motion by faith. As we move into verse forty-one, we find the gathered persons rolling the stone away so that the one who is dead may live and be loosed of all that bound him in death. We were dead in our sins and bound very tightly by the devil but now we are alive in Him and made free to the glory (to manifest the goodness) of God.
Until our next publication, as a Bible Teacher and Prophetic Voice I speak this blessing over each and every one of you, receive it by faith in Jesus name!
Numbers 6:24-26 (AMP)
24 The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you;
25 The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you;
26 The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually).
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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