This morning, we continue our series, “The Miracles of Jesus.” Before we get into the miracle, let’s look at the foundational scripture I will share with you all year.
(Psalm 126:4 TPT)
Now, Lord, do it again! Restore us to our former glory! May streams of your refreshing flow over us until our dry hearts are drenched again.
This is a season of refreshing and restoring for us. I pray you get refreshed and restored as we study each miracle.
Read John 11
Friday, we saw how Jesus basically told Martha that He was ready, willing, and able to do something about her brother’s situation, but it went right over her head. Although what she said was “religious sounding,” they were empty words, not spoken from a believing heart. What Lazarus needed was a resurrection. Jesus told Martha that He was the resurrection and life. He was ‘resurrection‘ in the flesh. What she needed for her brother was standing right in front of her. Jesus even asked her, “Do you believe this?” In other words, “Do you believe me?” But look at how she replied. She said, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” That’s not what He said! It is obvious that Jesus and Martha were not on the same page.
So after seeing that He was getting nowhere with Martha, Jesus moved on to Mary. After all, Mary was a worshipper. Even if Mary did not come to Him with faith-filled words, at least she might come to Him in worship. Jesus was ready to resurrect Lazarus, and He was simply looking for a “trigger” from the sisters. One sister had come and failed. Even after repeated attempts by Jesus to get her to speak faith, she missed what Jesus was doing altogether. One sister down, one more to go. Mary was coming, and she would have her chance with Jesus. As we look at what Mary did, we seek to observe the differences between the two sisters. Mary said similar things to what Martha did, but it was HOW she said them that made the difference. It was her posture, her position, and her worship. Mary came to Jesus in a different way, and she received completely different results.
Have you ever been there? Have you ever been somewhere where God is moving mightily, where people are getting healed, where you can visibly see others getting their breakthrough, but then some seemingly receive nothing? The writer of Hebrews tells us that two people (or two sets of people) can hear the same message, but the message heard will only impact those who receive it and mix it with faith (Heb 4:2). That’s how you can be at the same place, at the same time, hear the same Word, from the same person, and still miss what God wants to do in your life, even though others have received their blessing. In that case, the problem is not on the part of the transmitter but rather the receiver.
That’s why I believe this series is so important. When you meditate on the miracles, you OPEN your heart to the supernatural on another level, and you start (as I taught you on Friday) believing on God’s level. When you are there, you position yourself to experience God the way He wants you to. At that point, all limits are gone, all hindrances are removed, and all that is left is a limitless God and His son/daughter on the earth. The results are supernatural and amazing when God is free to do what He planned to do in your life.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. God is looking for your cooperation.
— I have told you many times that for God to fully operate in your life, He is looking for your cooperation.
— When you fail to get in sync with God and believe on the level that He desires to operate on in your life, you are hindering Him from doing what He planned to do from the foundations of the world.
— While God is God, and He can do anything, He has chosen to operate through humans on this planet, and He has chosen to require faith from humans to do so. So while God does all He does by grace (unearned and unmerited), if you fail to provide faith, your lack of faith will keep you from the fullness of God’s grace, and you will run the risk of missing out on God’s best.
— Jesus tried His best to get Martha to agree with Him, in faith, that her brother would rise again. But she missed every one of Jesus’ advancements. It seemed like everything Jesus said was going over her head. Please don’t be like Martha. Don’t make God have to work so hard to bless you! Please be OPEN to what He wants to do and sensitive to the divine impulses of the Holy Spirit.
2. God is sovereign, but He will never force you to perform His will.
— God has given us the ability to make our own decisions. He made us to RE-present Him on the earth. He made us so we could show the earth what heaven is like. But if He did not give us the right to make our own decisions, then He would be doing everything and not us. There would really be no need for man.
— God gave us both the charge to rule the earth and the choice NOT to do it if we don’t want to. This then leaves this world and many of the decisions made here in OUR hands and NOT God’s!
— The entire earth functions on system of cause-and-effect, sowing-and-reaping, and the free-will of humans. You have the choice to either follow or disregard God. You can choose to obey Him or ignore Him. This freedom to choose is what makes your obedience so precious in His sight.
— Jesus could not FORCE Martha to believe because if He did, it would not be coming from HER HEART!
— Obedience is not obedience if it is forced. God will not force you to do anything because if He did, you would no longer be a free moral agent, and the repercussions would be vast. Our worship would be fake because it would not be genuine. Submission would be phony because it would be forced. Sacrifice would be worthless because it would be orchestrated.
— The point of true faith and worship (and what makes our obedience pure) is that it is an act of our own free will. God wants you to want Him and to believe in Him with your own heart. Anything less is forced obedience, which is not obedience at all.
— So, while Jesus was frustrated with Martha, He could not force her to believe because if He did, she would not be the one believing. In other words, you are not a puppet, and God is not some grand puppet master. When He provides GRACE, He is looking for you to provide FAITH, and it must come from your own heart!
— When God is ready to release the grace, you must be ready to activate your faith. You keep saying that you are waiting on God, but if you are not ready when God is ready, then you are the one holding Him back, just like Martha did in our text.
Worship would be fake because it would be forced and not genuine. Submission would be fictitious because it would be contrived. Any act of sacrifice would be a farce because it would be orchestrated. So for all these things to mean anything, they must come from our hearts as an act of our FREE WILL!
3. When you DIE TO SELF, you free God to do what He planned to do in your life.
— The key to success in Christ is not more trying; it is more dying.
— It is when you truly die to self that God is free to do whatever He wants to do in your life. At that point, you get to live the life He planned, and it will be much greater than anything you could ever come up with on your own.
— Jesus wanted desperately to resurrect Lazarus, but He was looking for faith from Mary and Martha. He repeatedly tried to get faith out of Martha, but all His attempts failed.
— Think about Jesus’ interaction with Martha (for a moment), and then think about your own life. How many times has God come to you, over and over again, attempting to pull FAITH out of you? Don’t make it hard for God. Live a LIFE of faith. Be quick to offer God faith in every situation. Look at every challenge through the lens of faith. Speak to every situation using the language of faith. If your heart is open to believing the impossible, and your lips are ready to declare words of faith that are backed by a believing heart, you will be in a position for God to do ALL He wants to do in your life. And that is the best place to be… OPEN to God’s will, READY to receive God’s best!
4. Develop a heart of expectation.
— To be in sync with God and to fully experience His grace, we need to develop a heart of expectancy. This means actively anticipating God’s intervention in our lives, even when the circumstances seem impossible.
— When we maintain a heart of expectancy, we create an atmosphere of faith that invites God to do what only He can do in our lives, unlocking new dimensions of His grace and favor.
5. Embrace a lifestyle of openness and surrender.
— The key to success in Christ is being OPEN to whatever He wants to do; however, He wants to do it!
— A lifestyle of surrender involves continually submitting our desires, plans, and expectations to God, trusting that He knows what is best for us, and knowing that His plans for us were set from the foundations of the world.
— When we embrace this posture of openness and surrender, we position ourselves to receive God’s grace and experience His power in every area of our lives.
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, this is a season of refreshing and restoring for me!
I know You made plans for me before the world began, and I am learning to live my life with a heart that is OPEN to Your plans.
Your plans will manifest in Your timing. So I declare that when You are ready to move, I am ready to receive!
I am ready to experience Your best. I am ready for Your will to be done in my life in an uninhibited way. I am ready to experience heaven on earth. I am ready for the supernatural to be natural to me.
I am ready for your will to be my will every second of every day.
