Jesus after the Last Passover meal took His disciples and began to download powerful insight to them. He then said:

 

“These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.”

John 16: 1

 

The word “stumble” comes from the Greek ‘skandalizo” meaning to offend, to entice to sin, or stumble. In our walk with the Lord there are times when the Lord will do something that can potentially offend us and if we allow it, cause us to stumble.

 

If we go to John chapter eleven, we see the account of the raising of Lazarus. The chapter begins with the sister telling Jesus:

 

“Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”

John 11: 3

 

The expectation is that because Jesus loved Lazarus and everyone who was sick and came to Jesus and was healed, surely, He will heal Lazarus. I imagine Mary and Martha were fully persuaded that Jesus would heal their brother. I don’t think it ever crossed their mind that Lazarus would die.

 

Then Jesus said:

 

“This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

John 11: 4

 

Now they have a promise from Jesus Himself and listening to it we can interpret it to mean, he will not die. But as we read the story, Jesus delayed His coming for two more days.

 

“So when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.”

John 11: 5

 

From our natural perspective, this is hard to understand because we assume that if Jesus loved him then Jesus would have immediately set out for Judea to pray over Lazarus. What we have to understand is the purpose of Heaven and how the devil was seeking to get Jesus to operate strictly on emotions.

 

Jesus at the right time explains that Lazarus has died, and they are to go to Judea. When He arrives in Bethany and is near, Martha hears and runs to meet Him.

 

“Now Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would have not died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give to You.” Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into world.”

John 11: 21-27

 

Martha recognized who Jesus was but because of everything, she assumed it was too late. Had Jesus just come in time! I am sure in her mind she thought about it many times, but she loved Jesus. Martha had a knowledge of the Promises, and she was learning to know Jesus the Word, but like so many her knowing of Jesus was not great enough for the challenge she faced.

 

We must never settle but continue to press forward with Him. If we stop for a minute and go to John chapter six, we see how Jesus first feeds the people supernaturally. Upon seeing this the crowd chases Jesus and wants to make Him King. Jesus has the people in the palm of His hands, yet He then offends them. Why? Because like Martha, they were walking in a knowing about Him, but a knowing of Him. That is, except for His disciples. Jesus said to the disciples:

 

“Does this offend you?”

John 6: 61

 

The words Jesus had just spoken challenged everything they believed. We need to get real with Him in the Secret Place and allow Him to minister to us. He may not reveal why He is doing what He is doing, but He will reassure us of His perfect love. Jesus then added:

 

“What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.”

John 6: 62- 64a

 

Isaiah revealed how His thoughts and His ways are not ours. We need to learn His language and His ways because when we do, we will find that in every situation, He has a perfect plan.” Jesus didn’t pull back from saying what He had to say and what He had to do. But He does everything in perfect love.

 

Martha, then ran off to get Mary. Jesus remained where He was awaiting Mary. The Lord will wait on you too. Where? In the meeting place, we have with Him.

 

“Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.’ Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’

John 11: 32-34

 

Mary is broken, and I am sure struggled to say her words to Jesus. The crowd then gives their opinion.

 

“Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?”

John 11: 37

 

The last time you need when you are in such a situation is the voice of the crowd. The enemy will do everything to develop that offense and cause you to stumble. We must get alone and seek His face. We may not understand what has happened, but we need to hear His voice.

 

Many times, we get offended because we were trusting in someone, or someone’s promise and a person failed us, and we blame the Lord. This may be a pastor or leader. We must hear what the Lord has to say. The crowd was seeking to bring Mary and Martha sympathy. But Jesus came to bring comfort.

 

Sympathy makes us feel temporarily better but comfort ministers to the heart.

 

That day there was a massive spiritual battle going on and Jesus knew it.

 

“Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself came to the tomb…”

John 11: 38

 

Jesus went to the site that spoke of defeat groaning in the Spirit. The Lord loves to turn the sites of our defeat into monuments of His victory. Those sites we dread because they remind of us the past and all the enemy did to us. Those are the sites we want to run from, but He wants to redeem and make them declarations of His love for you.

 

Jesus was not interested and still is not interested in what the crowds are saying, He only seeks the voice of the Father. We need to run to Him and not from Him because of an offense. He will meet with us and He will in His great mercy minister to us.

 

The accuser of the brethren wants the offense to cause you to stumble and fall. Jesus wants to redeem to the place that you know He has chosen you and He is for you.

 

“Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, ‘Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.”

John 11:39-41

 

The words of Mary, Martha, and the crowd were all of defeat. They were operating naturally. But Jesus was unmoved and noticed how He watched how He spoke.

 

“And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me. Now when He has said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth.” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Loose him, and let him go.”

John 11: 42-44

 

Jesus always can redeem every situation. Jesus was coming to the end of His ministry on earth. We must know that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because he has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted…”

Luke 4:18

 

The anointing is to heal the brokenhearted. That anointing breaks every yoke. His anointing comes on human flesh to do what the flesh can’t do but only He can. The Lord always has a bigger plan, and we must trust Him. We may not know all the details of what has happened or why, but we will find out one day, that God didn’t fail.

 

We are in a fallen world and fallen things happen for several reasons. But if we will humble ourselves before Him and trust Him-

 

“Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, and pity His people. The Lord will answer and say to His people, ‘Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, and you will be satisfied by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.”

Joel 2: 18, 19

 

Listen to these promises on how the Lord wants to set you free from the oppression of the enemy. When we get offended, we open the door for the enemy to oppress us and steal from us. But if you understand what the Lord did for us in Christ and you get your eyes on Him, He will deliver us.  We must keep our ears open to hear His voice and trust Him. Though He slays us, we will trust Him. Why? Because He is perfectly good.

 

“For now I will break off his yoke from you, and burst your bonds apart.”

Nahum 1: 13

 

“Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand: That I will break the Assyrian in My land, and on My mountains tread him underfoot. Then his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden removed from their shoulders.”

Isaiah 14: 24b-25

 

“You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy; they rejoice before You according to the joy of harvest, as when men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For You have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.”

Isaiah 9: 3, 4

 

And listen to this one:

 

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”

Galatians 5: 1

 

 

Lifechanging