LAZARUS COME FORTH

So it was in the days of our Lord's earthly ministry, and it continues today. For "a great multitude of the powerless, blind, and sick waited for the moving of the waters at the pool of Bethesda" (John 5:3), and yet when Jesus, the Son of God, spoke His word of command, "Take up your bed and walk," only one obeyed and was sustained. All those sick and afflicted among God's people would have been raised just as completely healed as the man who obeyed the Word, if only they had believed. This presents to us the picture of the countless multitude of God's people today who are sick and afflicted, waiting for the moving of the waters of death to set them free, bound in the strong chains of a negative faith, while here and there the saint dares to believe God's word of promise and is miraculously set free.

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Thus, it is not affliction that keeps God's people in captivity, but the sin of unbelief that keeps them in prison. Probably the greatest challenge to our Lord Messiah and the power of His Word was manifested in His earthly ministry. He stood before the open tomb of Lazarus, with the smell of rotting flesh emanating from the visible dead figure of the inner man. Here Jesus, the Logos, veiled in flesh, proved Himself and His Word by overcoming even the power of death and exclaiming, "Lazarus, come forth!" We will delve deeper into the story later and see that the one who was dead for four days was resurrected through the regenerating power of God's Word. Distressed reader, since God has "sent his Word and healed them," and you are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, both in the Bible and among yourselves now, what is to prevent you from being baptized or fused with this Word of life, and being completely freed from your physical and spiritual defeats?

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Your suffering stems from your failure to grasp the full significance of your Savior's sevenfold redemptive work on the cross. If you could see His sevenfold suffering pictured in Isaiah 53:4-5 so that you might obtain full and complete redemption, then you would know (have faith) in your purchased possession, which is divine health for both body and spirit. Samson, his eyes blinded, chained around the neck, walking on the endless millstone in that prison of his enemies, suddenly remembered that the power of God, through faith, was at his disposal. Then, with faith released, he defeated the enemies who had overthrown him and earned a place among God's heroes mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Our Lord's primary reason for desiring your deliverance through faith in Him and His Word is that the work of the devil (1 John 1:1;8) might be destroyed from your life and that the reproach of sin and sickness might be taken away. Because sin or sickness in your life stains the honor of His name, and He guides us in paths of righteousness, which are paths of victory, for His name's sake (Psalm 2:3). His eternal purpose of having a people in His image and likeness is the reason He provided healing for all—so that we could glorify Him in our bodies, wich are the human temple og God. 

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Yes, Jesus Christ is still our Divine Healer, for the apostle Pau) wrote in Hebrews 13 :8, "Jesus Christ the SAME, yest(Today, and today, and forever." Afflictions are but sin manifested in the flesh, and for that reason the medical profession is unable to heal cases of long standing affliction, It all dates back to that time when your eyes and thougths were on some troubled waters, in your life and failing to discipline your thinking you entered into the the sin of unbielief, expressed in mental Distempers, as worry, fear, hate, suspicion, greed, rebellion against God, tec. Thus your sickness began from within. You must look to the Lamb of God, and live, by judging yourself in repentence, even taking God´s side againt yourself, in those thoughts and acts of unbielef. 

 

Somewere you have lost your God´s conciousness, or consciousness of your indwelling Healer, the indwelling Spirit of the Logos.  Adam would never have been defeated, if he had ot become self-conscious.  The apostol writes in 1. John 3.12 “ Beloved if your heart condemn us not , ( in doubts, fears, mental unbelief) THEN HAVE WE CONFIDENCE (faith) toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight”. This brings you into the place of victory in Christ. Failure to belief in God´Word, and act upon it, ushers thousands of Christians each year, into the preence of their Lord, with the last act of their life, in the earth, one of disobedience and sin. 

 

They fail in obedience to God's command when sick, when it says in James 5;14, "Is any sick among you (believers)? Let (a command) him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the na me of the Lord; And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord SHALL RAISE HIM UP; And if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." And in churches where this command is DENIED and REJECTED you WILL NOT see Jesus Christ confirming His Word, with the "SIGNS FOLLOWING," as He promised to do. For in His last great commission to the Church given in Mark 16;17-18" He PROMISED, "And these SIGNS SHALL FOLLOW them that BELIEVE (have faith); In my name SHALL they cast out .devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they SHALL LAY HANDS on the sick, and they SHALL, RECOVER."

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This brings up the question, of How can these things be? By obedience strictly to the written Word of God, He gives us access to the Law of FAITH. Jesus the great Teacher SHOWED MAN HOW this Law supercedes all other laws, being a creative Low of God. Christ BELIEVED the earth into existen~, He BELIEVED light to appear and the sun, and moon Have lighted the earth ever since. He BELIEVED the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the lepers cleansed, the dead to live; the storm to cease, and five thou- sand man fed trom a few loaves and fishes.

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This POWER He has left in 'the Spirit of Christ that indwells our hearts by faith, and when we come to the end of our flesh-like and see His full work of atnement we are so coscious of His mighty Presence in our hearts that we can also BELIEVE the lame to walk the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and do every miracle that He did, for He has promised that we will be able, thru the same Law, to do all that He did. With this Law of BELIEVING operating in our hearts, we stagger no longer at the promises of Almighty God, the invisible becomes visible, and F AITH becomes the title-deed or spiritual substance to the things we havee hoped for: "ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE TO HIM WHO BELIEVES."

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We now come to the Bible story of Lazarus being raised from the dead, as recorded in the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of John. The setting for the scene is at the little village of Bethany, outside of Jerusalem. In the humble little home of Lazarus, lived his two sisters, Martha and Mary, and our Lord had stoppea here many times to rest and  fellowship with them. In this strange human drama we see that the great Teacher Jesus, suffered even before He was nailed upon the Roman cross, for here in this home, he MUST teach them, together with the disciples, and us, the SEVEN STEPS OF FAITH, that lead to certain victory over the powers oí the enelny. He MUST teach them and us, HOW TO LOCATE what faith we have, and determine WHOSE faith, it is.

 

He was show through this trying experience, for his brothers and sisters, that human faith is mental, and always negative, and it becomes paralysed with fear, when confronted with a human impossible situation. But God´s believing faith, being Christ centred and Word based is heart felt, and never wavers in the face of even seemingly defeat.

 

 

Martha's FIRST STEP OF FAITH was taken when she rushed out of the house COMING TO JESUS. Her brother had been dead and buried,and it was the fourth day, and Jesus their brother's dearest Friend, had not come when she first sent the word that Lazarus was sick. She must have realized that she could not trust human friendship for it often falls short of what you expected,' and leaves you hurt and stunned in disappointment. This test of her faith, was also a real test to her love for the Lord, could she come to Him now, after He had seemingly failed them in the hour of tríal? Yes, she KNEW that some how

God had a purpose in it all, and she comes to meet her Lord, in the way. This teaches us our first step of' faith, that when all friends have failed, we will find our risen Christ waiting for us to turn away from all human aid, and come unto Him with our troubles, and perplexiing problems.

 

The  SECOND STEP OF FAITH towards final victory is seen in Martha's statement, as she comes into the Presence of the Lord, and still seeing him only though the vail of her sorrow, "Lord, if Thou hadst been here my brother had not died." "But I know that even now, whatsoever Thou will ask of God will give it thee." Here we see in her heart, awakened faith, which though still weak, does  have a note of hope in it. She like countles of millions of Christians seeks relief thru the prayers of "better" people, as their pastors, priests, etc. Martha here acknowledged Jesus as Lord over her spiritual needs, but failed to see in Isaiah's atonement, prophecy, Jesus as Lord over her phisical needs, as welI, even as our denominational Christians today. 

 

Martha's THIRD STEP ' OF FAITH, as Jesus helping her to "locate" her faith, said:' Thy brother shall live again." Jesus knew full well that she believe in the final resurrection, and in His power to, in that day, bring her brother's dead decomposed body back together for translation. So why should her faith waver at the thought of this same Jesus, doing it then. Each of you afflicted readers also KNOW and have faith for the finalresurrection, and God's power to gather the dust of your dead body together for translation, so why can't YOU BELIEVE HE CAN DO IT NOW? It is because your FAITH is still flesh-bound, and you are still living within the realm of reason, still in the third dimension, when as you climb the faith ladder, you will pass out of the limitations of the five human senses, that now hold in bondage your believing power, and release you into the fourth dimension, the realm of faith. Martha stood in the Presence of t he Logos, clothed in flesh , even as you have His Spirit of life abiding in your believing heart, and are continually within His Presence. Had she so soon forgotten that the Words of this same Man from Gallilee, had raised the dead daughter of Jairus, and the only son of the widow, in the funeral procession at Nain?

 

THE FORTH STEP OF FAITH for Martha came as Jesus said , "1 am the resurrection and the life; he that BELIEVETH IN ME though he were dead, YET SHALL HE LIVE. And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?" As the good shepherd leadth his sheep into the green pastures, He was leading her, in the paths of BELIEVING, to where she could find REST by the side of the still waters of HisWord. He was inviting her to RECKON WITH HIM upon the WORD, for Jesus knew that she, like us, could have the promises that she could BELIEVE FOR, in the Word of God. 

How human unbelief bars us from God's provided possessions, for each of us, hindering His indwelling Spirit from operating in miracle faith, and from rolling away the reproach of sin orsickness, from our lives. Martha had not yet broken thru the invisible line of demarkation, that runs thru very life, that separates the flesh from the spirit, and she still could 'only see in her Lord, the Christ of the next world.

 

 

THE FIFTH STEP of FAITH, beco mes a trial of faith, in which she must accept or reject . Him in His fully diety. In the sweet rest of the Presence of this Messianic Friend, her faith had stradily mounted, until here it breaks the last fetter of the self-life and she cries out: “Lord, I BELIEVE THOU ARE THE CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD." His full redemptions has dawned upon her at last, and now faith sweeps her into the heavenlies and her laborings, doubting, fears, and sufferings are past, for Martha, has at this point entered into the REST OF FAITH, or the place where the believers faith actually rests, in "What saith the Word of God." This is the place of COMPLETE COMMITTAL that some call "praying thru."  From this point you have no more doubts, fears or  worries, even though the problem might even look more impossible than ever before. You have given your problem, in faith, to Jesus, and He does not have problems so it is SURE TO COME TO PASS. 

 

She was now reckoning with, not an earthly priest, or human friend, but with the Son of God. whose Word of honor is at stake, and who will move heaven and earth to bring His Word to pass. Martha KNEW that Lazaruswould live again, and she KNEW that hé would LIVE THEN. They had by that time reached the tomb that held Lazarus's body, and our Lord's 

 

SIXTH STEP or trial of faith, came as He commanded," Roll  away the stone." 1 can see Martba running to' the mouth of the cave and laying hold of the stone that sealed her brother in. She KNEW the Lazarus would step forth alive. This is BELIEVlNG FAITH. Suffering readers who are afflicted and bound in some tomb of suffering, what is the "stone" that you need to roll away, that you migbt step forth well and

whole again? It is hater or bitterness for sorne one who has wronged you? Ask God to show you, and roll It out of the way. FEAR is the STONE that holds more than any other, in tombs of afiliction. 

 

You BELIEVE that you are NOT going to get well, and that NEGATfVE BELIEVING is poweriul enough to hold you. Your testimony either holds or RELEASES you, for it SHOWS what is in your heart. Do .you hold yourself afiliction, by constantly testifying for the devil, bytelling everyone of your condition, of what the doctor says, or about bow imposslble your condition is'? Stop allowing the devil to fool you, you do not have to suffer on thru the years until death releases you; God's Word says you can be healed NOW, and you can accept your healing, by the authority of God's Word, in the merits of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, your Redeemer. 

 

Begin to thank Him for the purchased possession, Divine Health, that He suffered for, that you might have,when you BELIEVE. Praise Him until the Holy Spirit brings life to materialize the Word, and as you see it materializing then praise Him until it

is completed. Praise opens the gates of heaven, and rains the blessings down With the stone rolled away, the rushing stench of the dead, only entrenched Martha's faith, more in the Word, and  she EXPECTED each moment to SEE Lazarus arise

and leap from his tomb of death. But our Lord must first lift up His voice unto the Father, even BEFORE Lazarus had shown any sign of Iife, as He continued to lead Martha and us, into the way of God-faith.

 

The SEVENTH STEP of FAITH, becomes an act of love, as with a heart overflowing with praise for Him who has provided complete victory over every defeat and distemper of life. As Lazarus came forth  still bound in the grave clothes of the dead, our Lord spoke forth another and final command " Loose him, and let him go." Here we see the one delivered, desiring to be completely freed from all worldly entanglements, which invite doubts, fears, worries, and the mental upsets that brought on the trouble before. In this place of victorious faith , one casts aside the dictates of the will, that genders to a walk "in the flesh" and obeys their Lord to "Walk in the Spirit," in the' way of holiness, where one's life is completely santified or set apart unto God's glory. For those' who walk in the flesh, have an earth-bound faith that BELIEVES only what it SEES, while in the Spiritled walk, one's walk with God in the BELIEVING way, where one BELIEVES and then SEES.

 

In this new atomic age, advancing science, after six thousand years, is within sight, of the place where God's people have been all the time. Science operating within the realm of reason, for centuries would not believed anything it could not see, but has advanced into the deeper secrets of God's farflung universe and ha ve found that ALL MATTER in the universe, is composed of the tiny atom, which with its whirling' elekctrons, is a miniature universe, in itself. They now know WHY THE CLOUDS float, and many other questions that for years puzzled them. It is because every different thing is formed thru different arrangement of atoms. 

 

Thus science can now SEE HOW IT WILL BE POSIBLE in a few years for them,thru science to cause INSTANT healing of almost any disease or affliction, thru learning HOW to form the different arrangements of the atoms. Dr. Panl Henshaw, one of the leading radio-biologists, who helped peefect the atom bomb in the last war, working at Oak Ridge Tennissee, recently stated that ihe tiny atoms, composing living cells, can now be guided by atomic energy, thru high energy radiations, such as alpha., beta particles, gamma rays, and neutrons. Thus being able not only to guide these living cells. but also actually to "rnark" or "tag" them by substances used in the body, by incorporating radio-active atoms into them, and definitely llnd accurately followiing their course thru the body. Thus cells that are DESTINED TO FORM SKIN, BLOOD, BONE, OR TISSUE, can by means of radlation microsurgery, be caused to assume un usual proliferative ability and to FORM NEW AND REMARkLE PARTS OF THE BODY, where needed. 

 

Thus in the near future, they expect to be able to change the arrangement of the atoms in the sick or aiflicted body into the arrangement of well healthy atoms, for

BOTH ARE COMPOSED 'OF ONLY ATOMS. So dear sick or afflicted brother or sister, why should your faith stagger any longer atO the promises of Almighty God who is the First Cause of all creation and who formed each atom·  "If science is coming within sight of this miracle blessing, why not BELIEVE God and RECKON IN FAITH upon the Authority of His Word, and FAITH is the Law that will make that change in you NOW, for BELIEVING FAITH, instantly changes the arrangement of these atoms, as it did in the dead purifying body of Lazarus, four' days dead, changing them back into living strong healthy cells. The WORD of the Lord oí all creation calls unto you, "LAZARUS COME FORTH."