(Below is an excerpt from Pastor’s book, “How to Find Life in Dead Situations”)
All around us are dead situations; situations that, except for God’s grace and a miracle, nothing can be done. As a minister, I face these kinds of situations quite often. Maybe it is a marriage in which one or both partners have given up. Some are frustrated, because it seems hard to find the right job. Some need healing in their body. But I am telling you, Jesus is greater than any circumstance you face.
I am convinced that some of the greatest healing that needs to happen in the Body of Christ is the healing of emotions. Some people are so wounded that they have never been restored. Some people have had a divorce and its 24/7 instant replay. You say one wrong word and it raises all of the hostilities of the past. I was on an airplane once around New Year’s and the flight attendant was very cheerful and had on a party hat.
“Well, everybody’s happy,” I said to the man who was sitting beside me. He replied, “Yeah, she’s just like my ex-wife, she got happy occasionally, but she always got over it.” There are situations all around us that need resurrection. Some churches are dead. Some people’s attitudes are dead. Have you ever seen the expression on someone’s face when it looks like they have died? There is no life. It is like life is so boring and they are just going through the motions. There are a lot of dead situations, or potentially dead situations that surround all of our lives, but the Bible tells us that God has the answer to dead situations.
Jesus said in John 11:14, “. . . Lazarus is dead.” But the first report is not the last report. And I am telling you the last report is not the last report when your faith is in God. Dare to face a dead family situation. Dare to face a dead relationship with a child. With God many times there is the reuniting of relationships that were dead, or that were strained. Dare to face a dead situation God’s way.
“Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.” (John 11:1-6). It was very interesting that Jesus took His time and said it was for their benefit that they might believe. “Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already” (John 11:17).
Lazarus has already been in the grave four days. Then Martha said in verse 21, “. . . Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I 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… (John 11:21-26). Continue reading with verse 37, “And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?”
The Bible tells us that Jesus said, “And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go. Many Jews believe because of the things He did Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.” (John 11:43-45).
This is a powerful story and the more I read it the more I realize it can show us how to find life in dead situations. Now, when I say a dead situation, I mean something that is impossible. The first step that I would share for victory is; dare to face a dead situation. Dare to face it – do not run from it; do not hide from it; do not let it ruin your day or your week, but dare to face a dead situation.