The Resurrection Of Lazarus-The Church Today Part II

     Continuing with Part II of "The Resurrection of Lazarus-The Church of Today".

     Our main scripture text is found in John 11:1-14 and let us pick up where we left on at that is with verse 7.

     Verse 7:  Then after that saith He to his disciples, let us go into Judea again.

I will be focusing on specific words in these verses so we can have a better understanding of what He is saying to His church.  So what is He saying to us in verse 7?

Let's first look at the word "disciples" and what it represents to us. 

     If we go to Ungers bible dictionary it says that: A disciple is one that takes instruction, is a student, believer of the one he follows, a supporter, one who is open to be taught, a devotee and tries to act like the one they follow.

     When we read scripture we find that Jesus's disciples didn't really understand who He was nor did they realize the importance of their call to be disciples.  They couldn't look beyond the now circumstances to see that Jesus had destiny and a purpose for their lives. It wasn't until Jesus's death, burial and His resurrection did they realize that he was who He said He was.  Some of the disciples denied Him, some were fearful of man and what man would do to them if they claimed to be His disciples.  Some walked in unbelief that He actually rose from the grave and that He had appeared to some of the other disciples.  

     This is the mind set of some of His disciples even today within the church.  We really don't believe that we as disciples can go and do the works that He did. We know who Jesus is, but do we really know Him intimately? Are we really willing to follow Him no matter what happens in our lives?  We want to keep Him in our box and we think we have Him all figured out, but do we really understand Him and His resurrection power. Beloved, we are the church and Jesus has called us to not only follow Him, but to go forth and be a disciple that brings in the harvest and to reproduce ourselves as Christ did. It's called multiplication!

The last part of verse 7 says:  Let us go into Judea.

     Another aspect of being a disciple of Jesus is allowing Him to take you into the "wilderness of preparation and testings". 

     Ungers bible dictionary says that:  Judea was known to be a wilderness, barren and an unsuitable area for the growth of a city. 

     Judea was also the wilderness were John the Baptist went in preparation for his mission and ministry and where the Jesus was tested by satin and where he fasted for 40 days.

     Are you willing to go into Judea with Jesus?  The other question is: are you willing to go "again" into the wilderness of preparation, testings and are you willing to confront some areas that will be exposed while in this season?

     Verse 8:  His disciples say unto Him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again?

     Verse 9:  Jesus answered, are there not twelve hours in the day?  If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.

     If we are truly walking in the day; then we are walking in the truth of God's word.  We are moving forward and ready to go the distance, because we see that it is time for action, we are not to stand back and wait for another day, another time or season. We are to work the works of Him who sends us while it is day.  We are to progress, grow and step into the light of day that brings revelation, truth and understanding.  And if we walk in the light (Jesus and His word) our path will become clearer and the road to destiny and purpose will be illuminated with life and resurrected power.

     Verse 10:  But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.

     When we walk in the night(a lack of God word, His truth); then we walk in ignorance and we lack understanding. Our walk is unsteady, we become vulnerable to the enemy and we walk in the shadows of confusion and fear.  We become blinded by the night and our future becomes dimmed by the darkness of night and we lose hope. 

Beloved, He is calling you to step out of complacency....step out of the night of slumber and from your yesterday and into the light of your today..... walk in the light of life because in Him is life and our life is the light that is within us.....shine the light of Jesus into those dark places of your life and let that light bring resurrection power into your life.  He is the light and where He is; darkness has to flee.  Step into the light of the truth of the gospel!  How are we going to make it in the night seasons of our lives if we don't know the truth that leads us into the path of light and into our tomorrow? Walk in newness of life and let the old thing pass away.

Next week part III

Blessings,

Elma Garlock

The Resurrection of Lazarus - The Church of Today Part I

     Recently the Holy Spirit gave me a word for the church and He told me that the enemy had released more demons upon the earth. He said that satin senses that time is short and he wants to do all that he can to stop the church of Jesus Christ.

     He also said that we would hear more and more about the occult, witchcraft, strange happening in the earth, a darkness of fear that would spread over the lands, deceptive voices and a falling away,  but we were not to fear, because Jesus was about to resurrect His church in power and victory.

     The Lord said, before restoration can come, a resurrection has to take place.

I will be teaching from the book of John chapter 11 verses 1-44 and will be going into detail concerning some key words and giving the meaning to better understand what the Lord is saying to us. Let's being with verse 1

     Verse 1:  Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

The word "sick" in this scripture means: To be feeble, diseased and comes from a word that means strength less.

And the word "Lazarus" means:  To desist, to despond, cause to despair, one that is desperate and to be of no hope.

In Proverbs 13:12 it says:  Hope deferred makes the heart sick.

The word "Lazarus" in this verse is representative of those in the body of Christ that have become despondent and distant to the voice of the spirit.  They have allowed the enemy to bring death to their hopes and dreams because they choose to walk in despair.  They have been looking through the shroud of death that has distorted their view; therefore they have become feeble in their faith, they see no hope and the enemy has put a death sentence of them.   

The word "Bethany" in this verse means:  House, a place of unripe figs or unfruitful.

Bethany, which was a village that lay East of the Jordan river, was known as the house of misery, because of it's location that was said to be a lonely situation and also because of the invalids who congregated their.

Spiritually speaking, Bethany represents the place that we the body of Christ can sometimes find ourselves in.  Remember one of the meanings of Bethany represented a place of unripe figs or unfruitful?  It's interesting to note that the fig trees leaves are figurative of the outward manifestation of life in the tree and a faded leaf shows a lack of moisture and nourishment, thus becomes an emblem of adversity and decay.

The fruit of the tree, the fig itself meant productiveness and was a token of peace and divine favor.  "Now hear what the Spirit is saying".  The fig tree differs from most other fruit trees in that it's fruit is green and inconspicuous and concealed among leaves until near the time of ripening.

Can you perceive what the Spirit is saying to us?  You see, the Lord has hidden, protected and concealed away a people that have been tested by fire, trained by the Holy Spirit, died to self and are ready to be reveal unto a lost and dieing world.  They will show forth the fruits of the Spirit in power and authority.  They will speak forth the word of God with boldness that is tempered with grace because of where, what and how God brought them out of their darkness of death and despair and resurrected their lives for His glory and for their Divine destiny and purpose.

     Verse 2:  And it was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

     Verse 3:  The sisters therefore sent to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick".

     Verse 4:  But when Jesus heard it, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it".

The word "sickness" in this verse means:  Weakness, an active disease, bondage's and strongholds.

And the word "death" means:  Cease to function or perform with power.

Body of Christ, the sickness, the bondage's and strongholds that seem to be controlling your life, weakening your faith, testimony and depleting you of power will not bring a death to your life physically or spiritually.  Yes, the Spirit has been cutting away at the flesh and pealing away at the layers to expose the sin and sickness so He can work His glory through you and a resurrection of life and power can take place in you.  Lord, be glorified in our lives.

     Verse 5:  Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

     Verse 6:  When therefore He heard that he was sick, He stayed then two days longer in the place where He was.

The word "stayed" in verse 6 means:  To make your abode in a given place, state or
relation.

And the word "two" has a spiritual significance that can either mean:  Difference, opposition, enmity or division.

Some of us in the body of Christ are in a state of indifference, division and our hearts have been hardened because of a lack of grace and unforgiveness.  Our relationship with Jesus is not where is should be because we have lost our first love.  We have sought for more power financially, more status and the approval of man rater than the approval of God.  When
things become difficult and opposition comes we want to blame everything on the devil or on God and not look at ourselves and the condition of our hearts.  We haven't got to thepoint of wanting Jesus and power of the Holy Spirit enough to say, Ok Lord, what ever it takes, You lead and I'll follow.  Remember:  The Holy Spirit will stay right where you place Him in your lives because He is a gentleman and He won't force himself on anyone. 

Next week part II.

Blessings,

Elma Garlock

The Soul and How It Affects Our Lives Part III

  Let's continue with part III of our teaching on "The Soul and How It Affects Our Lives" and talk about verse 24 of James chapter 1.

     Verse 24:  For he beholdeth himself,and goeth his way, and straight-way forgetteth what manner of man he was.

     So we see ourselves with clarity and realize who we really are because the word of God has exposed and shined the light of truth on those flawed areas in our lives. As long as we continue looking into the Word of God we have a check and balance process going on but if we lay it down we soon forget who we really are and the picture becomes distorted. 

          Verse 25:  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

     The word looketh in verse 25 means:  To bend over for a better look and look into.

     And we look into what?  The perfect law of liberty which is the new covenant through Jesus that brings us perfect liberty and healing of the Soul as Psalms 19:7a says:

          Psalms 19:7a  The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the Soul.

     The perfect law of the Lord is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus who has set us free by transforming our old nature and is continuing to change our character through the truth of God's word as John 8:31 & 32 tells us:

          Verse 31:  If you abide(stay, take up residence) in my word, then you are truely disciples of Mine.
          Verse 32:  And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

     In order for us to walk in the truth, we must first know what that truth is.  If we look up the simple word "truth" this is what it means:  Unconcealed.

     So walking in the "truth" means that sometimes you have to uncover things and they could be things that you don't want to uncover or maybe never realized there were things that needed to be uncovered in your Heart and Soul.  But it's not until you allow the Word of God to reveal and uncover those things, deal with them, become open, transparent and honest with yourself and God are you going to walk in truth, liberty and freedom in your Heart and Soul.

     Beloved walking in, depression, oppression, anger, bitterness, resentment and  unforgiveness is allowing strongholds and bondage's to keep you captive and walking in darkness.  If you are walking in any of these area's then you're not walking in freedom and truth and your Soul is not prospering.

     We need to remember that we have a Soul, and we are responsible for what we do with that Soul.  We can know the truth, walk in it and be prosperous or we can live a lie, stay in our bondage's and live with our strongholds and miss the freedom God has ordained for us to walk in.

     God is giving us a choice as Deuteronomy 30:15, 16 & 19 tells us:

          Verse 15:  See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;
          Verse 16:  In that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandment's and His statutes and His judgements, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.
         Verse 19:  I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and cursing:  Therefore choose life, that both thou and they seed may live.

     Hear what the Spirit is saying and see through the eyes of the Spirit.  Let Him show you in His word so you can perceive the truth, know the truth and enter into that truth that will bring life, healing and prosperity to your Soul. 

Blessings,

Elma Garlock