Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, is one of my favorite people in the New Testament. He might be called the senior professor and academic dean of the school of “less is better and nothing is best.” He learned personally that God will bring your something to nothing so He can work miracles through you.

Do you remember the story of Lazarus? Mary and Martha sent Jesus a message about their brother’s serious condition, and Jesus’ reaction was unusual by human standards:

The two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, the one you love is very sick.” But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God. I, the Son of God, will receive glory from this.” Although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days and did not go to them. (John 11:3-6)

When each of my girls took her first tottering baby step, my hands were only inches away and ready to catch her at the first sign of a fall. All three of my daughters ultimately moved on to bigger and more adventurous journeys after their first solo step in life, but they didn’t have the benefit of my more mature viewpoint on childhood development.

My oldest daughter cried out in alarm as she watched her new sister venture away from the safety of my hands for her first multiple-step journey: “Daddy! She’s going to fall. Aren’t you going to catch her?” She didn’t know what I knew. She knew her sister was about to take a tumble, but I could see the end from the beginning.

FALLING IS NEARLY AS IMPORTANT AS WALKING

While I knew there was a 100 percent chance my second daughter was going to fall down in her tottering journey, I also knew that falling is nearly as important to the maturity process as walking. My little toddler would survive the fall and clamber to her feet again even stronger than before.

Imagine the reaction of Jesus’ disciples when He decided to linger for two more days after Mary and Martha’s message arrived. The disciples probably felt better when He reassured them that Lazarus’s sickness would not end in death, but they thought death wasn’t part of the package. They had no idea their friend’s destiny would take him through death’s door and back again.

In God’s-eye view, Lazarus’s life was destined to become a prophetic preview of Jesus’ journey into the jaws of death and His miraculous return from the grave. In the disciples’ view, and in the viewpoint of the grieving Mary and Martha, Jesus’ reaction was beyond comprehension.

Will God let His friends get sick? Most of us understand that God doesn’t cause sickness or evil in any way,but Jesus plainly said He would get glory from Lazarus’s death. The answer is that God does not get glory from sickness, calamity, or death. He gets glory from our healing, deliverance, and resurrection from the dead through divine intervention. Our heavenly Father truly sees the beginning from the end.

FROM EARTH’S POINT OF VIEW, JESUS ARRIVED TOO LATE

In the earth-level viewpoint of every human witness, Jesus arrived in Bethany too late to help Lazarus—he had been dead three days. From eternity’s vantage point, it is impossible for God to be late. As I said in The God Catchers:

He is the perpetual present, the Eternal I Am. He is not limited to the past or the future; He lives in the constant state of being. Can I tell you what it means to me? In the realm where Jesus lives, in the realm of perpetual life, Lazarus wasn’t dead. .

In the constant state of the presence of God, your kids are already back at home with their knees tucked under your table. Your career has already been rearranged. It is in the waiting and worshiping process that He says, “Do you trust Me?”

God can never be late; He doesn’t even wear a wristwatch. He’ll reach into the past to pull your promises back into your present if necessary. He’ll resurrect something you thought was forever lost. (p. 87)

God does not live in time, so nothing is irretrievable or beyond the redeeming reach of His arm. Realizing this should help you understand why God is more interested in developing your character and pursuing His purposes than in meeting any kind of earthly time schedule.

“God, You’re late.”

“No, I am never late.”

“But, God, the church has gone down to nothing. We’re going to fall. Aren’t You going to catch us?”

“Falling is as important to your maturity and destiny as walking. Remember, I am never late. ‘Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.’2’ Remember how My Son ‘planted’ His life in death, and realize that nothing is irretrievable or impossible for Me. Do you trust Me enough to wait on Me in the midst of your pain?”

WE LIKE RENEWED STRENGTH; IT’S THE WAIT WE HATE

We love miracles and dramatic testimonies of God’s faithfulness, but we don’t like the process He uses to dial down our resources until we get to the place of where only He can do it. We especially dislike the wait. And we don’t relish the relinquishment of control. God’s Word still says, “Those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength,”3° regardless of the way we feel. If you don’t have enough strength, perhaps you haven’t been a good waiter.

The rugged territory between having enough and not having enough features the same geography as the place between the already promised and the not yet received. If it were up to us, we would choose the easier path and live on one side or the other. It isn’t up to us.

God put us in the middle on purpose. He carefully plants us in places of destiny where our pain, our faith, and our passion collide with His abundance, faithfulness, and compassion. Everything you’ve longed for is already promised and paid for in full, but perhaps it hasn’t been delivered yet. Heaven’s blood-certified check is in the mail.

By God’s design, you and I are positioned and pressed to constantly put a demand on His infinite resources. The day we feel we can handle things without tapping God’s resources is the day we begin to wither and fail. Don’t worry—you can never overdraft heaven’s limitless resources.

IS YOUR MOUNTAIN BIG ENOUGH?

If your faith is too weak to accomplish your assigned task, it’s probably because your mountain is not big enough! If you feel God has already brought your something to nothing and you still see nothing but failure ahead, take heart. An even greater destiny awaits you than you previously suspected.

Lazarus, you’re not sick enough. It isn’t time for Me to call you out of your cave because you’re not dead enough. You thought I would come before they wrapped you up and sealed you in the hold, but I still couldn’t come—even after one day had passed. Even after two days. You will have to endure three full days in the grave of your insufficiency, and then I will come.

God will wait until your dreams, your flesh, your ambition, and your ego are so dead that they stink! That is when He says, “Now is the time for a resurrection. It is too late for the hand of flesh to save and restore anything. No one else is going to get the glory but Me, for I am the only One who can do this.” That, my friend, is the virtue of zero! Less of me equals more of Him. None of me equals all of Him!

God’s Eyeview p. 36-41, Tommy Tenney, From GodChasers.network, The Ministry of Tommy Tenney

Contact information for this ministry:

GodChasers.network
P. O. Box 3355
Pineville, LA 71361 USA
318-44-CHASE
www.GodChasers.net