Exchange your partial faith for a vital and powerful faith

Marta runs out to meet the Lord before He reaches the village and a very interesting conversation ensues where Marta tells her: Lord, if You had arrived on time, my brother would not have died, but I know that everything you ask of the Father He will give it to you. And Marta then ends up in a positive confession.

And incidentally it occurs to me that what she says is actually the basis of our confidence. When we pray to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ it is because we believe that everything that the Son asks of the Father, the Father grants, that is why we ask in the name of Jesus whom the Father loves.

Then Martha says: yes Lord, if You had arrived on time I would not have died but there is still the possibility of an answer because everything that You ask the Father He gives you. So that's why we pray, because Christ is powerful to assert our requests for needs before the heavenly Father. That is truly the theological basis for all prayer in the name of Jesus.

And then Jesus says and responds to Martha in the face of her positive confession: "Martha your brother will rise again." Here's another interesting thing. This passage is always putting what Christ says in opposition to what people understand that He is saying right? When the Lord says Lazarus sleeps he is saying he is dead but his death is for resurrection, and therefore relatively speaking it is a sleep. The disciples understand: ah, he is sleeping, resting, resting, he is not dead and they think: ah well then everything is fine. Do not understand.

The Lord says: we are going to see Lazarus and Thomas is saying: well, we are going to see Lazarus and we are going to die just as he died too, the Lord says no, they are in the light, there is no need to fear. So here the Lord says to Martha: Martha your brother is going to rise again. And what does Martha answer him ?: "Yes Lord I know that he will rise again" verse 24, "in the resurrection, in the last day" and here again there are two levels of confession.

The Lord is saying: Martha don't worry, your brother is dead but he is going to rise again. Now, today, here. And Martha is saying: oh thank you Lord, I know that He is going to rise again when the dead rise again on the day of Your Coming, on the day of judgment, on the last day, right? that's what she's saying. Two very different understandings. The Lord wants to respond to your need now, here, in a resounding, powerful, vital, real, concrete way. And Marta is thinking of theological birds in the air there, well in a thousand years, two thousand years, three thousand years I know that she will resurrect Lord thank you.

Marta's faith is a partial faith, it is a faith I would say as theological rather. The faith of Jesus is a vital, real faith, present in the moment itself. And I believe that this is the faith that the Lord is inviting us to access as children of God.

There are people who have faith but it is a religious faith. It is a faith like that, yes, we believe in Christ and that gives us strength to resist this cruel world and grit our teeth until we die and then we enter eternal life but we do not expect many things from God here on Earth because this is a valley of tears and here what God expects is that we have faith to suffer, to endure, to be resigned, right? There are aspects of Christianity that that is what they teach people, that God calls us simply to grit our teeth, to resist and that is it.

But what is the Lord calling us to? The Lord says that He has come so that we have life and that we have life in abundance, so that now here on Earth we can enjoy miracles, the power of God, the power of the resurrection, that we live in that power today. The miracle that God wants to do in your life is now, it is here as the resurrection of Lazarus is not in an eternity to come. That is beautiful and it is good, and we are going to resurrect one day in the last day. But here in life today God also wants us to enjoy His resurrection power.

It is like when women go to the tomb of Jesus to anoint His body and that is a pious, beautiful, beautiful act, these women want to attend to the body of Jesus. They think that Jesus is dead, but what happened? That the Son of God has already risen, the stone has been removed, the glory of God's resurrection has entered the tomb and that is why it is not there. And that is why what finds them when they arrive at the tomb of a supposedly dead Christ is an angel who tells them: why do you look for the one who lives among the dead?

How wonderful is this idea right? That we live in the power of a risen Christ, a Christ who wants to perform His miracles today, now in our lives and who invites us to an aggressive posture of faith, confident that we have an Almighty God who can roll away the stone, that It can give a word for the dead to rise again, it can change our marriage, it can change our illness, it can change our sad financial situation, our emotions, revive and bless them.

I believe that God is inviting you through this meditation to believe in Him. To believe in a daily Almighty God who can intervene in your situations now and here. Do not be thinking of a God who only has things for the future, for a day that may not come, no. Believe that God wants to bless you today. God wants to do a miracle in your life today, God wants to heal you today, God wants to provide you financially today. God wants to respond to your need today not in a future to come that you do not know when it will arrive.

Change your religious, theological faith for a powerful and aggressive faith, and current. That is the Word and the call of God for you right now. Do not believe in the resurrection in the last days but the resurrection today, the Christ of the resurrection is with you. God bless you and until next time. Your brother and fellow minister, Pastor Roberto Miranda, says goodbye to you.