Laurie Hopkins

Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. 

Many of the Jews believed because of it.  

But the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus because his resurrection didn’t suit their purposes. 

There are people in your life who will seek to kill that which has been resurrected in your life because it doesn’t suit their purposes.  

Everyone is not and will not be happy about the resurrection you have found in various areas of your life.  

You must learn to focus your eyes on Jesus and Jesus alone in order to maintain the joy of the resurrection in those areas. 

“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.” Matthew 7:6  

Not everything that is going on in your life is for public consumption.  

There are times when you must carefully protect that which Jesus has brought to life within you. Learn to share with Jesus in the quiet place rather than with everyone else in the very public places. 

Mary didn’t just take her vessel of oil and sprinkle it on the feet of Jesus.  

She didn’t just measure a little bit out and use that to anoint His feet.  

Mary knew what the Lord had done in her life and so she broke the vessel that held the oil and in breaking it, ensured it would be used for nothing else but for anointing the Lord.  

“And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.” 

When the vessel was broken, the very essence of what it was poured out and touched everything around it.  

We are that vessel.  

When we allow ourselves to be broken before the Lord, all that we are pours out and fills the room with the fragrance of who we have become in the presence of Jesus.  

It is not good enough to allow just a little of what Jesus has done in us to escape from our lives. 

It is necessary to be broken vessels, allowing all of the fragrance to pour our – 

not just to anoint the feet of Jesus, but to allow that fragrance to touch those around us. 

The fragrance that will fill the room comes from broken vessels that have been touched by the very Hand of Jesus. 

As I departed from a building this weekend, there was a sign on the outer door that said “push to operate”.  

I thought that was interesting.  

It is a door, it is meant to let us exit the building, that is its purpose, however, it requires some action on our part.  

We could stand in front of that particular door all day and wait and it still wouldn’t open until we pushed on it.  

The work that the Lord is doing in our life it somewhat the same, it requires activation or action on our part.  

For the man that was blind from birth, Jesus put clay on his eyes and sent him away to wash in the pool of Siloam. 

That required three fold action on the part of the man.  

The sign on his door may have looked like this: 

Believe Jesus can and will heal you; go to the pool of Siloam; return to Jesus in order to operate in this miracle. 

He could have stood there all day with that clay on His eyes, in the very Presence of Jesus, and the door of that miracle wouldn’t have opened.  

But I would suggest that even as he believed in his heart and took his first step away from Jesus toward the pool that his miracle began to come to fruition.   

What door are you standing in front of today?  

Do you see the sign on it, “push to operate?”  

What action does your door require?   

Do you need to start by believing the door will even open?  

Do you actually have to begin pushing?  

If God has already placed it in your heart, go on and push that door.  

If you aren’t sure that the action looks like, get into the Presence of Almighty God and ask – 

He will guide and direct your steps.