HE WILL CALL YOU OUT

JOHN 11:1–44 (ESV)

“Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha… When Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God…’ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was… When Jesus saw her weeping… he was deeply moved… Jesus wept. Then Jesus… cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’”

To follow Christ is not just to believe in Him but to pick up your cross daily and walk with Him, even when you do not understand what He is doing, because there are moments in life where it feels like He is late, where things have already gone too far, and where what you hoped for seems to have passed. Lazarus was sick, then he died, and Jesus did not come when they expected Him to, yet JOHN 11:6 (ESV) — “he stayed two days longer” shows that what looks like delay is not absence but purpose, because Jesus already knew what He was going to do and allowed the situation to reach a place where it looked final so that what He would do would reveal something greater.

This speaks directly into your life because He knows your situation fully, He knows what you are facing, He knows what feels dead, what feels lost, and what feels beyond repair, and what you may call your “leprosy,” your struggle, your past, or your pain, He already sees clearly and completely, and He is not restricted by it, not by people, not by circumstances, and not by how far things have gone. Even in the middle of sorrow He is present, because JOHN 11:35 (ESV) — “Jesus wept” shows that He is not distant from your pain but enters into it with you, standing with you in what you are feeling while still holding the authority to change it.

But He does not leave things where they are, because when He calls Lazarus out, it is not only about bringing life back but about bringing freedom after it, since Lazarus comes out alive yet still bound, and Jesus commands, “Unbind him, and let him go,” revealing that it is possible to be raised yet still carrying what once held you, still wrapped in old identity, old guilt, old shame, and old thinking. This is where you must respond, because freedom is not only something done for you but something you walk in, and it requires you to let go of what no longer belongs to you and to step fully into what Christ has done.

This is where it all comes together, because Jesus is not limited by your situation and He is not finished with your life, and what looks dead is not beyond Him, what feels final is not the end, and what has held you does not have the authority to keep you when He speaks. When He calls you out, you come out, and when He sets you free, you are free indeed, and as you continue to follow Him daily, trusting His timing even when it does not align with your own, you will see that He does not only bring you out of what was, but He leads you into what is new, not just restoring you to where you were, but bringing you into a life that is fully alive, fully free, and fully grounded in Him, where what once defined you no longer has a hold on you because His word has already spoken a greater truth over your life.