This is a message that I gave in church some weeks ago. John 11.44: ‘He who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings; and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ was different. Read John 20.6,7. ‘Simon Peter therefore also came, following him [John],and entered the tomb; and he beheld the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth, which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself.’
The grave clothes were completely removed in our Lord’s case; whereas in the case of Lazarus, we find that he came forth, bound hand, foot and head with the grave clothes or ‘wrappings’.
I believe that many of us who are born again need to have our ‘grave clothes’ removed. We are still bound by the vain customs and traditions of this perishing world. We have not experienced full redemption. Redemption is a big word; we have to be redeemed not only from sin, Satan and death, but from the world, the law [legalism] and from fear itself. ‘I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears.’ Psalm 34.4
We do not enjoy full liberty. We still hold on to the things of the flesh. We boast about our community, our caste, our denomination, our background, our qualifications, our position in society. We continue to seek name and fame, and are pleased to have ‘fans’ and ‘followers’ [those who praise us and seek to walk in our footsteps]. We continue to observe so-called Christian festivals, which have no sanction in the Bible. We continue to worship household gods, such as the TV or the music-deck. We are proud of our riches and material possessions.
We need to be completely freed from the things of the world and the flesh. That is why the Lord said, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’ Sometimes the unbinding can be very painful. It is not simply a matter of cutting through the bandages; there are times when the medical plaster has to be ripped off! The cross has to cut very deeply into our hearts. We have to realize the depth of sin and sinful attitudes within us. We have to let the Holy Spirit work deeply in us through the power of the Blood and the Cross.
Filed under: Testimony
Thank you, thank you, thank you. You have no idea what we are walking through as a result of graveclothes never having been loosed from my husband. God is beginning to do that work as our marriage of 14 years hangs in the balance waiting for the work of God to be complete in bringing him to full brokenness and full willingness. He is beginning to see what has to be done and how vigilent he has to be in this work of allowing God to remove the graveclothes. If this opportunity is not siezed now, the graveclothes will destroy his whole life and all that is truly important to him including the “call” of God that is on His life.
This morning as the Lord spoke in what needed to happen this morning, God had me “google” graveclothes to find this piece. I’m sure it was important to God for him to know that it is going to be a painful process as we have been “conditioned” to avoid anything that would be painful to us considering it “hurt” instead of “truth”. He has been fasting, praying, and wanting a complete breakthrough from God already having been “saved”.
I will be forwarding this piece out to all my friends in the church as there is a true work that God is desiring to do in the body so that we can be effective siezing the opportunities of God to be the salt and the light without fear. We have been a spoiled and bound generation, not seeing, hearing nor speaking God to our Jeruslem seeking solely for ourselves, our platforms, our books sales and our comfort.
May God continue to use you mightly in this age to speak truth to the capitives that they would be set free! Funny how we interpret the term “captive” to mean everyone outside of the church, isn’t it! Two great books that focus on getting free that is in right alignment with the word of God for the work that needs to be accomplished are: “The Elisha Task”, by John Loren and Paula Sanford and “Breaking the Power of Unmet Needs and Hurts” by Liberty Savard. Anyone who allows these books along with the Spirit of the Most High God to have it’s full work accomplished within them, shall surely be made whole! God bless you Andrew Murray! Go forth and prepare the way of the Lord. Without a vision, people parish, without instruction and accountablity to the truth, we will never have our God encounters to be set free for God to use us as He desires.
Love and appreciate you, Valerie Ricardo
Valerie, thank you and thank God.
I was visiting my site after a long time, and was delighted to see how this blog article has impacted you.
May God heal you and your family, and use you and your husband greatly for the building of the church and for the extension of His kingdom.
Borax
If you want to see a reader’s feedback
, I rate this post for 4/5. Detailed info, but I just have to go to that damn google to find the missed parts. Thanks, anyway!