Let’s look at an emergency in the Bible and I’ll elaborate further.

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it” (John 11:1-4 NIV).

I would like you to view Lazarus as yourself and as your baby. Sometimes, not only are we pregnant with dreams, ideas, visions, and desires, sometimes we are the pregnancy. Sometimes we are also the person that is about to be birthed, step out, break out or be unleashed into a new level. Lazarus was sick and his sisters sent word to Jesus. Like those sisters, what is a term often used to describe sending word to God? Prayer.

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days (John 11:5-6 NIV).

Interestingly when Jesus heard what had happened to Lazarus He stayed where He was two more days. Do you feel like Lazarus’ sisters sometimes? You’ve prayed to God about your Lazarus situation. It is dying. It is going under. The bottom is about to fall out. You are desperate and in need of His help, but He does not move. It feels like God did not hear you. But this is not true because the scripture said “Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.”

God may not move, but he heard your prayer. He heard it the first time, and he heard it the millionth time. It’s not that God will not move; it’s that He will not move when you want Him to. I’m sure you are tired of hearing the cliché that says that God may not move when you want Him to, but He will be there on time—which is usually at the last minute. Even so, because we feel God is not moving we think that He does not love or care about us. Sometimes we feel like we may have done something wrong and God is upset with us and punishing us.

That is not true. Remember the 99 in the wilderness? Sometimes we are like those “9x11s.” They were right with God and were placed in the wilderness. God did not forget about them. In fact He trusted them not to go astray. They were mature and obedient. He knew they were strong and dedicated enough to remain where He placed them. In due time He would go back to them and continue to nurture them. Likewise, God does the same with us.

The passage actually started off saying how Jesus loved Martha, her sister and Lazarus. This throws out the thinking that we are going through what we are going through because God does not love us. He does. He loves you very much. He loves you like He loves Lazarus and his sisters. It’s one thing if the scripture said that Jesus loved Lazarus but not his sisters, or loved Martha but not Lazarus and Mary, or loved Mary and not the other two. He loved them all. He loves you too. He loves your dreams and He loves you. He loves the pregnant woman and the pregnancy. He loves the visionary and the vision. Make no mistake about it. You might be in a 911 situation. You might be in an emergency. Realize that it is an opportunity for you to emerge and see God move in your life because He loves you.

After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, (John 11:11-14 NIV)

Sometimes in an effort to speak by faith, we put a positive spin on a negative situation. However, some people don’t get it. So you just have to be straight up with them like Jesus was with the disciples. They thought Lazarus was just sleeping and Jesus got real with them and told them that he was dead!

“… and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him” (John 11:15 NIV).

One reason why God does not move immediately to resolve our situations is because He wants us to believe. If God moved quickly on some of our requests, somehow we’ll find a way to give credit to everyone but God. There is the tendency to think that the situation was resolved because of our quick thinking, our education, our experience, our expertise, our connections, our network of friends—or because we pounded the pavement, made multiple phone calls, fasted 40 days, prayed all night on our face, and blah blah blah.

I’m not saying that we don’t do our due diligence. I’m not saying we don’t make phone calls, work hard, or do what we are supposed to do. I’m not saying that we should not exercise spiritual disciplines like fasting, praying, worshipping and giving, which Cornelius and some of the people in the examples I presented earlier, did. I am saying however, that we should not get caught up on our hard work and spiritual disciplines. Sometimes we overemphasize those activities and disciplines and subordinate God’s role in the resolution of our situation. After all, Mary and Martha prayed to God—so to speak. But their situation was not resolved immediately.

While we should exercise biblical principles like giving, praying, fasting, we should not elevate the principles (spiritual disciplines) over the “Principal” (Jesus). If we do, we are inadvertently saying that we got our blessing from God because of our hard work; whether physical, spiritual or intellectual. May I remind you of the parable of the vineyard? The workers who “worked” longest thought they should get paid more, but they didn’t. Every worker’s wage was determined by the goodness of their employer. Our blessings, resolution to our emergencies, and the birthing of our visions are determined by the goodness of our Father. It’s because of His favor on our lives.

In resolving our problems our Father can and will ask us to do certain things. Then we can reap the fruit of our obedience. However, we should not be presumptuous in doing something because somebody said that’s what they did to get their breakthrough. Let’s keep things in perspective. Moses fasted 40 days, twice, and yet did not get into the Promised Land. In fact I find it ironic that in both fasts he ended up with the “law” (ten commandments), which he broke, “first,” the first time out. The law is about what you can and cannot do. That thinking can influence us to do things whether physical or spiritual in order to resolve our situations. My emphasis is that we do not get caught up on methods but on the Messiah.

So then (God’s gift) is not a question of human will and human effort, but of God’s mercy. (It depends not on one’s own willingness nor on his strenuous exertion as in running a race, but on God’s having mercy on him) (Romans 9:16 AMP).

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days….When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world” (John 11:17, 20-27 NIV).

Jesus asked Martha if she believed that He was the resurrection and the life and she responded by saying that she believed that He was the Christ. That’s not what Jesus asked her. Sometimes we get spiritual with God. He asks us a direct question to see if we believe in Him and we give Him a spiritual answer, which often suggests that we don’t really believe. Hence to help us believe He does not move as quick as we want Him to.

Another reason why God does not move as quickly as we want Him to, is because He wants Lazarus to die. Sometimes you cry out to God saying, “Help me! This relationship, business, or vision is dying!” And God says, “You mean it’s not dead yet? Ok. Tell me when it’s dead.” Sometimes we are trying to resuscitate what God wants to kill. There are visions, situations, activities, persons that God had no part with, in our lives. And they can hinder us from birthing. There are things that we started on our own; things that were initiated by us and not God. God needs those things dead, away, or separated from our lives completely so that He can do a new thing in, and for us.