Every Thursday we on staff at Mustard Seeds pray together. We meet now on that day as the day designated to pray for revival and the out-pouring of God’s spirit in our county.

Today I turned to John 11 and read that passage. You know, the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. There is so much emotion in this chapter. Not only were Martha and Mary and many of their friends and neighbors weeping for the loss of Lazarus, who had died 4 days earlier, but Jesus was deeply moved in his spirit and also wept. He loved these friends Lazarus, Martha and Mary.

Death is an unwanted intruder. Jesus told his disciples Lazarus died so God could be glorified, and so “the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Jesus had to stay away so he wouldn’t short circuit God’s plan. It was very difficult, heart rending for Jesus.

But the thing which jumped out at me was this: when Jesus, having been directed to the tomb in a cave, cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth”, John says “the man who had died came forth.”

The man who had died came forth.

There was no question the man, Lazarus, had died. He was dead. He had been lying immobile in the tomb for 4 days.

But at the command of Jesus, the man who had died…came forth! He came hopping out on his own power! He who had been dead was now alive!

The man who had died came forth bound hand and foot in grave clothes…but he came out. Jesus told those standing there to “unbind him and let him go.”

As I read these amazing words I got choked up, for I saw in my mind’s eye the people of my county of McDowell, so dead spiritually, come forth alive at the command of Jesus! This could happen. We desire it to happen. We have been praying God send forth his spirit to do a powerful, mysterious work in those who are blind and dead spiritually.

We have also been praying God send forth his spirit to awaken and strengthen his church, first of all. Why? Because of that second command of Jesus, “unbind him, and let him go.”

Those who come to Jesus have all sorts of “grave clothes” bound tightly around them. They have old sins to shed and new ways, the ways of God, to learn. We, God’s church, are the ones who have to “unbind” and “let go” the newly alive!

We have to be in the Word, teaching and encouraging one another and then we have to reach out, teaching and serving those coming to Christ.

There is a harvest coming. I pray we, His people, are ready for it. I pray God pour out his spirit on us and the needy world of the spiritually blind and dead around us, wherever we live.