The Lazarus Experience

UV 1420 /10,000 The Lazarus Experience
And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
John 11 v 43
Jesus has authority over life and death as demonstrated in his commanding the dead Lazarus to be resurrected. Lazarus had died four days before. His body should have started decaying and getting decomposed. But Jesus proved His divinity by reversing the process of death and decay. Lazarus came forth out of the cave in which his dead body was laid, fully alive albeit the grave clothes still on him. Many of us like Lazarus are alive but we wear the clothes of mourning and not of salvation and rejoicing. Our faith limits God’s power. Nothing is impossible or difficult for God even recalling people from the dead. It is a rare occurrence but the Lord can do it if He wills. We need to first imagine it is possible. Then we need to realize that it is not just imagination but reality. “Imagine it is possible” is a phrase found in the dictionary of the believing and wise.

Faith in Jesus is a good root. Hope in all areas of our lives for blessing, enrichment and enhancement is the shoot. Love is the fruit. The three faith, hope and love in due proportion should be present in every moment of our lives and it will in turn produce joy in us. Jesus did this most outstanding miracle of resurrecting the dead Lazarus to show that He had been given the power of resurrection. In Him we have the hope of resurrecting the dead parts of our lives, our relationships, our dreams. The sisters of Lazarus Mary and Martha who were dear to Jesus hoped that He would come as soon as possible so that while he was alive Jesus would heal him. Martha said however that even then when he was dead God would give Him whatever He asked. But Mary the other stakeholder also needed to believe. Jesus declared to Martha, " I am the Resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."

Jesus went through a process before resurrecting Lazarus. He asked the immediate family members of the family of Lazarus – Martha to believe in order to see the glory of God. He first asked for the stone to be removed from the mouth of the grave. This was a logical step for the resurrected Lazarus to be able to step out. He thanked God for hearing His prayers. He explained the reason that He thanked God for hearing His prayers as He was testifying to the bystanders. Then He said with a loud voice, “ Lazarus come out.” We need to believe first in order to be able to experience the glory of God. A “ Lazarus experience “ is the greatest evidence of the love, mercy, grace and power of God. A Lazarus experience is coming back to life from death. In the month of April, a certain man of God gave testimony in the General Assembly of the United Nations of how Jesus resurrected him from death. He had been dead forty five minutes and his dead body placed in an ambulance. At the time he went through the Lazarus experience. Later, a medical check up revealed that all the genetic markers in his body that made him prone to heart attacks were also miraculously removed from his body. He gave his solemn oral evidence of His Lazarus experience before several eminent people like the UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon. I too have had the Lazarus experience when I was revived from death by drowning in the sea some twenty six years ago. The Lazarus experience keeps one from forgetting the presence and power of God even for a few minutes. The Lazarus experience is not just applicable to people who are dead but to various situations in life which seem hopeless or lifeless.

Prateep V Philip