Grace Notes - John 11 v 14

"Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead." John 11:14

We must face the facts that confront us. Hiding behind a false religious mask, helps no-one.

There is no disgrace or lack of maturity in indentifying and sharing when we are going through difficulties, problems, trials and periods of ill health. Trials are a part of every day life, in a fallen world, where the effects of sin dominate.

The problem is when we are overtaken by our identity with the problem and we forget all that God has provided by grace and has deposited inside of us.

Yes, we have trials and tribulations, but we have all the fullness of God, the same power that raised Christ from the dead living inside of us.

God understands every situations of our life, he anticipated every attack from the evil one and he provided the answer in the finished work of the cross.

We can look and acknowledge the problem and us can look, acknowledge and focus on the grace of God. Keeping our focus and eyes on Christ will give us a heavenly perspective over a carnal perspective.

As Andrew Wommack explains, Christ acknowledges Lazarus was dead, but with his words and the power of heaven called him back to life:-  

Jesus spoke of Lazarus being asleep instead of dead because that is really a much better description. Death, to their carnal minds, would be final; whereas the word "sleep" would not. When the disciples misunderstood what He was saying, He clarified the situation by saying plainly, "Lazarus is dead."

This looks like a contrary statement to what Jesus was going to do (raise Lazarus from the dead) and indeed it would have been if He had left it at that. But He went on to say in verse 15, "I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe." This was referring to Lazarus being raised from the dead and it turned Jesus' statement of a negative fact into a positive confession of faith.

Many people have been confused over this very issue. Many times people will refuse to speak of or acknowledge any situation that is contrary to a promise that God has given them. It is certainly desirable to avoid talking about our problems and there is scriptural precedent for this (2 Ki. 4:20, 26). In this very instance, Jesus avoided using a word to describe Lazarus' situation that would have instilled fear into His disciples' hearts. But when dealing with people who didn't understand, He didn't deny the natural facts.

A true, positive confession doesn't deny natural truth. It just refuses to stop at the natural realm and speaks forth the greater spiritual truth. This is what Jesus did and we should follow His example. Therefore, it is not wrong to acknowledge a physical problem such as sickness just as long as we acknowledge to an equal or greater degree the spiritual truth, "by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Pet. 2:24). Don't deny that problems exist, just deny those problems the right to continue to exist in your life by confessing your faith in God.