Stop Blocking Your Miracle

You and I are blocking our miracles when human logic trumps what God said. Dr. Tony Evans says getting out of God's way starts when we turn our thinking upside down. In the natural, you see before you believe, but you will not see it in the physical until you believe it in the spiritual.

This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans. Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. The Bible declares the Lord has plans for our well-being to give us a future and a hope. But Dr. Evans says when it comes to receiving God's miracles, we can sometimes be our own worst enemy.

Let's join him as he explains. What I want to talk to you about today and what I want to challenge you with today is to stop blocking your miracle. I'd like to suggest to us today, based on the Word of God, that a lot of us haven't seen God come through because we're holding God up. We are delaying or denying His supernatural presence into our situation and into our circumstances. When you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you entered the realm of the supernatural, which means that you have access to that which operates outside of the natural.

The problem is that we're so tied to the natural, we often mis-resist or deny the supernatural. Our story is a very familiar one in John, St. John chapter 11. It is the story of the resurrection of Lazarus.

I've mentioned that on a number of occasions, but today I want to take you on a little deeper journey into this story. To summarize, Martha and Mary have called on Jesus to heal their brother, Lazarus, who's sick. Jesus has said his sickness is not under death, and Jesus delays going to help their sick brother get better. During the interim of Jesus's delay, Lazarus dies. Jesus shows up too late.

He dies after saying he wasn't gonna die, after they had called on him. We have two frustrated sisters. Martha, the verbal one, says, Jesus, if you would have been here, our brother would not have died. Where were you when we needed you? Where were you when we called on you and, you know, we heard the sermon that things were gonna get better and they've only gotten worse.

Martha, the quiet one, just went home and started weeping, and she too said the same thing. Jesus, if you would have been here, our brother would not have died. That's the scenario of the story up until this point. And if the truth were told, there are many here today who have been disappointed by the Lord. The Lord didn't do what you clearly understood He said He was going to do.

When you thought He was going to be in a hurry, He's taking His time. When you thought He answered your prayer, the answer was the opposite. In fact, if the truth be told, some of us believe God actually made stuff worse by His negligence and by His delay and even by His denial, if the truth were told.

In fact, let's see if we can tell the truth. How many folks here today would dare to tell the truth, God has disappointed me? You've been disappointed with God. Well, join Martha and Mary, because they are disappointed with their Savior.

Now that's where this part of the story that I want to go over meets us today. Verse 38, so Jesus again, being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave and a stone was lying against it. Jesus was being deeply disturbed by the pain, the anguish, the emotion of what He was dealing with in the life of Martha and Mary. In fact, in verse 35, the shortest verse in the Bible, it says Jesus wept. So Jesus cried at the pain. He shared the pain of Martha and Mary. But let me tell you something about Jesus's emotions. While Jesus sympathizes with our infirmities—Hebrews chapter 4— Jesus would never let His emotions govern His theology. He would feel it, but He wouldn't let how He felt about it determine what He did, because His commitment to God's truth had to override His emotions at the moment. So He is crying with her, but at the same—and He's moved by the scenario.

He's anguished about the situation, but at the same time, He now seeks to address the problem. So He comes to the tomb, and when He gets there, He issues a command. Verse 39, Jesus said, Remove the stone. Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for He has been dead four days. Jesus says, Remove the stone. Martha says, Just a minute, Jesus.

What you just asked is impractical, irresponsible. In fact, Jesus, evidently you don't know how death works. He's been dead four days. Decomposition has set in, and the place is gonna smell rotten. She did what most of us do when Jesus issues a command that we neither like nor understand. She enters the conversation with human logic. Jesus, what you're asking is ridiculous.

That makes sense. Move the stone and get all that stench on all of us. What are you asking? And Jesus said to her, Did not I say to you? Let me stop right there.

Can't you hear? I said, Move the stone and you're discussing biology. I told you, Move the stone and you're discussing timetables four days.

What I'm talking about and what you're talking about isn't the same thing. Now, depending on how much talking you want to do, it's to the degree that you delay what God wants to do. And some of us have been talking for years.

We've been talking for days, for months, for years. We've been talking the same stuff, and the facts are correct. Now, sometimes the facts are wrong, but in this case and in many of our cases, the facts are right.

And we will quickly say, But you don't understand. Talking about moving the stone got nothing to do with the reality of this situation. This situation is a dead situation. This situation is a stinky situation. This situation is a trapped situation. That's the situation. Jesus said, What they got to do with what I just said? I didn't ask you about telling me the situation.

I just simply asked you to move the stone. Nothing will block the supernatural movement of God in your life like your logic, your edumacation. Some of us have educated ourselves out of the supernatural. We're just too smart for God, too intelligent for heaven, too brilliant for the kingdom of God, and so we live with our logic, and so we live only in the natural.

Didn't I say to you, Can't you hear, girl? Didn't I say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? He didn't say, If you see, you would believe. He said, If you believe, you would see. In the natural, you see before you believe. In the natural, not so in the supernatural. In the supernatural, if you believe, you would see.

What would you see? The glory of God. What is the glory of God? It's God on display. The glory of God is God revealing Himself as God in your circumstance. The glory of God is when God advertises Himself.

The glory of God is when God puts Himself or His attributes on a billboard so you can see God at work, but you will not see it in the physical until you believe it in the spiritual. But how would we know if she believed? Her belief wouldn't be tied to her feelings, her emotions. Her belief wouldn't be tied to how excited she got in the Sunday church service. Her belief wouldn't be measured by whether she waved her hand in the air like she just don't care. Her belief wouldn't be measured by whether she flipped the pew, said praise the Lord like the service, said amen.

All that would be irrelevant. Her belief was measured by whether that stone moved, because as long as that stone was still there, she could go to church all year, praise God all year, sing songs, join the choir, become an usher, lead a small group. She could do all that, but if that stone was not moved, she was worshiping in unbelief.

A lot of God's children worship in unbelief, because they'll praise the Lord but not touch the stone. The measure of faith is acting like God is telling the truth. You measure faith by your feet, not by your feelings. So if you feel faith but your feet haven't moved, you're faithless. It is obedience to what God says, even when it goes against your human understanding, even when it goes against your college professor, even when it goes against your degrees, even when it goes against popular opinion, even when, I mean, when our kids come in and say, but my friends say, hey, your friends? What they got to do with this? They ain't your mama, your daddy.

I don't care what your friends say. You and I are blocking our miracles when human logic, that even if it's correct, trumps what God said. You have just done what Matthew 13 says.

He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief. So you will be limited. I will be limited. We collectively will be limited to the natural when we do not move the stone. That is, when we do not act on what God has said, whether we understand it, can figure it out like it or not. And that is what often happens with Christians limiting us to the natural, because we can't figure out how God's gonna do this.

We can't figure out where this is gonna come from. So didn't I say to you that you would see with your own eyes the glory of God, but you won't see the supernatural till you believe, and you believe by doing what I told you to do. God is saying, I'll wait. I'll wait until you decide to believe.

Dr. Evans will come back in a moment to further explore that idea. Right now, though, I'd like to let you know that today's message is the final lesson in Tony's power-packed sermon compilation, Your Best You. This five-lesson collection can set the stage for a successful New Year, giving you the inspiration needed to put your best foot forward as you gain confidence in the Lord's presence and provision, and make the most of your God-given potential.

No matter what circumstances you're facing right now, Your Best You can show you how to get your life headed in a new and more hopeful direction. So we're offering you this entire collection as our thank-you gift when you come alongside Tony's ministry with a contribution to keep the alternative on this station. This offer is only good through this weekend, so be sure to make the arrangements today at tonyevans.org, or give us a phone call at 1-800-800-3222. That's 1-800-800-3222. Right now, Dr. Evans is back with more of today's lesson.

Let's join him. Let me tell you something about the will of God. God has a revealed will—that's what He says in the Bible—and He has a secret will. Deuteronomy 29 29 says that the secret things belong to God. He hasn't revealed them.

Now here it is. You cannot get to God's secret will if you've ignored His revealed will. In other words, if He says, move the stone, or whatever it is in your situation He tells you to do, but you have to see what He's gonna do before you move the stone, you'll never see what He's gonna do, because He'll keep secret His secret will until He sees, you believe, His revealed will. So if you don't do what you know He said, He won't show you what He's up to in secret in the supernatural realm. And you can't figure it out ahead of time, because He's the unfigureable God. His ways are not your ways, His thoughts are not your thoughts. Isaiah 55. So you can't figure out, well, what is He gonna do? How is He gonna do this? Before I move this stone, let me try to figure it out.

That's an Excedrin PM headache. Verse 41, so they removed the stone. See, some of y'all missed that. So they removed the stone. Notice, Jesus was talking to her, but she didn't move the stone. They moved the stone. Why did they move the stone, even though He's talking to her?

She needed somebody to help her move it, because it was too heavy for a woman to move. What am I trying to say? What I'm trying to say is, some issues are too big for you to handle by yourself. Some stones, problems, difficulties are too tough. You've done it too long. You've been in it too deep. It controls you, owns you.

You're addicted to it. It's a stronghold, because if you could have moved it by yourself, it would have been moved by now. So there were people who were brought alongside to help her move something she could not move herself.

That's why you need community. That's why you need people around you to help you move stones you can't move, because God won't move until the stone is moved. So if you cannot move the stone, get some people who care about you enough, who are crying with you enough, who love you enough to put their hands on your stone that you got to move. So they removed the stone then. Somebody say then.

Somebody say then one more time. Yeah, in other words, not until then. Not until they did what God said do did the next part take place.

So the order matters. Some of us are asking God when. God is saying then. How long then? Where are you God?

Waiting on then. I'm waiting on you to do what I told you to do so that I can do what I'm gonna do. This is the intercession of God. What a great truth that God stands like a defense attorney between the client and the jury to plead your case about something that's already been agreed on in the spiritual realm. That's why the Bible says he's already been to the end and then he backs up to the beginning.

So he already knows where this thing is going, but faith activates it in your experience. So let's now bring this to a conclusion. We are in a stinky situation, because he's been dead four days and he stinks. We're in a trap situation, because he's been locked down behind a stone that a whole group of people have to move. He's not only in a trap situation and a stinky situation, he's in a dead situation. Are you trapped?

Does the scenario stink? Is the only hope for this thing a resurrection? You qualify. For the supernatural.

Watch this. When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! Notice the specificity of the cry. Not y'all come forth, because then everybody from the graveyard would have got up. It says, the man who had died came forth, bound with hand and feet, with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go, because he was still tied up. Said he was tied up around his legs, around his hand, around his head. He was still wrapped in death cloth.

So watch this now. He was alive, but he was not liberated, because he was still tied up. Now he had a miracle.

The miracle was, what was dead is now alive. So he comes walking out, because he's tied up. But guess what Jesus did?

He called a small group. He said, I want y'all to untie his legs, and I want you to unhook his arms. I want y'all to unwrap his head, because I want the other folk to participate in my miracle. God just doesn't want to do miracles that exclude you. He wants to do miracles that include you.

You are part of the miracle. He did enough to get it going. He says, I want y'all to finish it off so that you can see how I can use people in the lives of circumstances to do what they can do. I'll get him alive.

Y'all can at least unwrap the boy. You and I are participants. That's why 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 says, we are workers together with him. He will do what we can't do. He wants us to do what we can do so that we become partners in the supernatural miracle working process. Dr. Evans will have a final comment about why the miracles God gives us are more about furthering his agenda than ours when he comes back in a moment to wrap up today's lesson.

Stay with us. The thing about serving an infinite God is that no matter how much you know about him, there's always more to learn. So whether you're brand new to scripture or an experienced ministry professional, there's something for you at the Tony Evans Training Center. You'll find online courses covering core concepts of the faith. Working at your own pace and schedule, you'll dig deep into the historical context of the book, uncover the key teachings, and learn how to apply them in real-world situations. There's lots of exclusive content from Dr. Evans to keep you interested and motivated. And an online forum where you can ask questions, get answers, and collaborate with other students. The more you learn, the more you'll want to learn.

Give it a try. The Tony Evans Training Center. A world of discovery anytime, anywhere. You can find out more about the Tony Evans Training Center when you visit tonyevans.org. And while you're there, don't forget to make the arrangements to receive Tony's current sermon collection, Your Best You. As I mentioned earlier, all five full-length messages in this compilation are yours as our thank-you gift when you make a contribution to help keep the alternative coming your way.

This offer runs out this weekend, so don't wait. Contact us today at tonyevans.org or call our Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are available day and night to help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. When you realize you've been driving in the wrong direction, you look for a place to make a u-turn. Well, Dr. Evans says the same is true when you find yourself off course in life. And on Monday, he'll explain why turning your circumstances around starts by turning yourself around and calling sin, sin.

Right now though, he is back with a final comment to wrap up our time together for today. God doesn't do miracles just to show off. He doesn't do the supernatural to flex His muscles. He does the supernatural so that His name will be known.

Many believed on Him. That's the problem with a lot of folk coming to church looking for a blessing. They're looking for what God's gonna do for me. I want a new house, new car, new clothes, new this, you know, do something for me, bless me, I want my blessing, I want my blessing, my blessing. And then after God does something, He gets no notification, no glorification, you're not witnessing, you're not talking about Him, you're not giving Him the credit, you're not responding and giving, you're not doing, you're not doing anything, you're just talking about your blessing. He doesn't just bless you for you, He blesses you for His name, His glory, your impact, your testimony, your ministry. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. When you get your supernatural, you better open up your mouth and you better declare the greatness of your God because only your God can go into your grave and raise you up and give you life. You better give Him the glory, do His name. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.