REMOVING STONES

You can’t just talk faith but you have to walk faith

As the power of the Lord removes what we cannot

Are you delaying obedience due to doubt?

Recapping John 11 when Jesus first hears of his friend Lazarus being sick he tells the sisters Mary and Martha that “this sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s son may be glorified through it”(John 11:4). Jesus waited before returning to Judea. Upon his arrival Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Martha goes to Jesus and tells him “ if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21). Martha goes and gets her sister Mary who goes to Jesus who also cries out “ if you would have been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:32) They take Jesus to the tomb where Lazarus laid dead with a stone as the entrance Jesus instructs to “take away the stone” (John 11: 39). Martha warns of the odor due to Lazarus being in there for four days, but Jesus replies saying “did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the Glory of God?” (John 11:40).

Here are a few ways to not give into our fleshly feelings and remove the stone:

1. Trust in the Lord Jesus:

    As Jesus informs in John 11:39 to “take away the stone” He also tells us to “remove the stone”. Jesus will not tell us to do anything that He will not give us the power to do. Whatever we trust in God to remove is within our ability to let it go and give it to Him.

   
   

2. Obedience Unlocks supernatural miracles in the Lord's time: 

   As we see in John 11 Mary and Martha wanted Jesus to come when they called and lacked faith in who Jesus was and what Jesus had said. Instead of being obedient they had blamed, and even questioned Jesus. Once they obeyed Jesus and removed the stone was when Jesus performed the Miracle bringing Lazarus back to life. As believers we are to not be moved by our emotions yet stay in obedience and trust in the Lord's timing as He is not subjected to our timing, but we are subjected to His.

   
   

3. We are to let all dead things go:

   As believers we are no longer defined by what we were as Jesus calls us out of all dead places to life. Jesus shouted in a loud voice in John 11:43“Lazarus, come out. ” We should get our affections off of people, places, and things and place them on the Lord. We must take off the grave clothes as mentioned in John 11:44 “The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face Jesus said to them “take off the grave clothes and let him go.” Do this so we may walk in freedom for we are not bound to the things we were doing when we were dead. 

   
   

4. As believers we must know that Jesus may have been the rejected stone, but He turns into the Cornerstone: we can not build anything without our Cornerstone Jesus, for we were once dead, but now we are a living stone. Colossians 2:13 points out that “when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcised of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ”. Jesus called us out of darkness, out of a dead faith and into His marvelous light. Jesus is our foundation and in order to see a miracle we must take action to remove the stone!

For It is not meant for us to carry burdens alone, as informed in Psalms 55:22 we are encouraged to “cast our burdens on the Lord, and he will sustain you”. As believers acknowledge our need for the Lord, remove that stone

so our breakthrough may occur.