This blog is based on a message by Aida Garcia.
On a day when many were honoring mothers, the word that came forward was not a typical Mother’s Day message. It was deeper than that. It was a call to remember who Jesus is, what He does, and how He meets us in places that look beyond repair.
The message was simple and powerful: Jesus is the resurrection and the life. And because that is who He is, no area of our lives is too dead, too delayed, too far gone, or too ruined for His power to touch.
Starting in John 11: Lazarus, Mary, and Martha
The foundation for this message is John 11, beginning with the story of Lazarus.
John 11:1-2 introduces Lazarus of Bethany and identifies Mary as the woman who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair. That detail matters. It points back to a life transformed by repentance, humility, and devotion.
Mary is remembered as the woman who came to Jesus broken, aware of her sin, and willing to lay everything at His feet. That picture is not just about her. It is a picture for all of us.
When we come to Jesus in true repentance, He cleanses us. He washes away sin. He does not hold our past over us. What was old is put away. As far as the east is from the west, He removes our transgressions. He is not asking us only to make Him Savior so we can get to heaven. He is calling us to make Him Lord.
That means worshiping Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. It means living at His feet, not just visiting Him in crisis.
When Love Looks Like Delay
In John 11:3, Mary and Martha send word to Jesus: “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”
Then comes a surprising response. In verse 4, Jesus says:
“This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
And then in verses 5-6 we read something that can challenge us if we are not careful:
“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.”
He stayed because He loved them.
That is not usually how we interpret delay. We tend to think if God loved us, He would move immediately. If He cared, He would change it now. If He heard us, He would fix it fast.
But sometimes the delay is not rejection. Sometimes the delay is love. Sometimes Jesus waits because He is doing something deeper than the immediate relief we are asking for. He is drawing us to seek Him, trust Him, and keep standing when everything in us wants to faint.
When the answer seems slow, do not assume He is absent. Stay after Him. Keep panting after Him. Keep holding on to eternal life and to the promises He has given.
Do Not Read the Situation Only in the Natural
When Jesus tells the disciples in John 11:7 that He is going back to Judea, they immediately focus on the danger. They remind Him that people there had wanted to stone Him.
They were reading the moment in the natural.
Jesus answered in verses 9-10 by speaking about walking in the light. The heart of His response is this: if the Father is leading, then obedience is the safe place. If God has called you to go, then He will keep you. If you walk in fear and shrink back from His light, you stumble.
That is a word many believers need right now. We cannot let fear lead us. We cannot make decisions based only on what looks dangerous, difficult, or impossible. If the Holy Spirit is leading, then the right response is obedience.
There may still be pressure. There may still be resistance. But God’s call comes with God’s keeping.
Dead Is Not the End When Jesus Is Involved
Jesus tells the disciples in John 11:11 that Lazarus is sleeping and that He is going to wake him up. They misunderstand Him and assume Lazarus is just resting.
So Jesus says it plainly in verse 14: “Lazarus is dead.”
Then He says something remarkable in verse 15:
“And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe.”
Why would Jesus say that? Because He was after more than a momentary healing. He was revealing Himself. He wanted His disciples to know Him in a deeper way. He wanted them to learn that when things look darkest, He is still Lord. When circumstances smell like death, He still has power over the grave.
The issue was not only Lazarus. The issue was belief.
Even Thomas, though physically walking with Jesus, responded without faith. In John 11:16 he said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” That statement reveals how easy it is to be near Jesus and still not truly see what He is saying.
It is possible to hear His words and still let fear, logic, and hopelessness interpret everything for us. That is why our eyes must stay fixed on Him.
Martha’s Growth and the Word That Holds You Steady
By the time Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been in the tomb four days.
Then Martha says in John 11:21-22:
“Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”
There is grief in her words, but there is also faith. Martha has grown. Earlier in the Gospels she was the one distracted and troubled with much serving while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. But here, there is a seeking heart. Here, there is revelation. She knows Jesus is not limited by what has already happened.
That is where the Lord calls us too.
Seek Him until you receive a word from Him. Find out what He says about the situation. Stand on that word. Do not stand on appearances. Do not stand on emotions. Do not stand on timelines. Stand on what God has spoken.
When the Holy Spirit gives you a word, it becomes an anchor. That word cannot be stolen by changing circumstances because it was given by your heavenly Father.
“I Am the Resurrection and the Life”
John 11:25 is the center of everything:
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.”
Jesus did not merely say He could perform resurrection. He said I am the resurrection. Resurrection is not just something He does. It is who He is.
And this was said even before His crucifixion and resurrection. He was already declaring His identity. He was already revealing that life flows from His very being.
This means that every dead area in our lives is subject to His power.
- Dead hope
- Dormant gifts
- Fruitless places
- Spiritual apathy
- Emotional wounds
- Things that seem buried and sealed away
He can revive, restore, redeem, and transform. But we tap into that resurrection life by staying in His Word, in prayer, and in His presence.
Why His Presence Matters So Much
The Word of God is powerful, but this message emphasized something important: if we are not spending time in the Lord’s presence, we do not receive from the Word as fully as we should.
There is something that happens when you sit quietly before the Lord, when you listen for the Holy Spirit, when you hunger for what He is saying. Then the Scriptures come alive. Then what is preached becomes personal. Then a verse is no longer just a verse. It becomes a living word quickened in your spirit.
That is how many people grow. Not by racing through chapter after chapter with no inward response, but by taking hold of the word God highlights and standing on it.
When the Holy Spirit quickens a truth to your heart, stay there. Pray it. Speak it. Meditate on it. Obey it. That is often where resurrection life begins to manifest.
Take Away the Stone
Later in John 11, Jesus comes to the tomb and says, “Take away the stone” (verse 39).
Martha responds honestly. There is a stench. Lazarus has been dead four days.
That detail matters because it confronts the kind of situations we tend to give up on. Not the mildly difficult things. The things that stink. The things that have been sitting too long. The things that feel corrupted, decayed, and impossible to clean up.
Yet Jesus is not intimidated by any of it.
Sometimes in our lives, things creep in gradually. We do not realize how bad they have become until there is already decay. But when we turn to the Lord, He is able to transform what we could never fix in our own strength. He does not stand back in disgust. He steps in with redeeming power.
Then Jesus says in John 11:40:
“Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”
What It Means to Believe
In this message, belief was not treated as passive agreement. It was described as active trust.
That is a needed distinction.
Many people say they believe in Jesus. But active trust is different. Active trust seeks Him. It follows Him. It prays. It stands on His Word. It refuses to let go when the answer is delayed.
Belief, in this sense, is not casual. It is living, pursuing, and expectant.
God is calling His people out of lukewarm Christianity and into a life that pants after Him. Why? Because resurrection life is not meant to stop with us. When His life is formed in us, the world sees Christ. The world encounters healing, redemption, and restoration through His people.
Go In and Take What’s Yours
One of the practical exhortations in this message came from the truth that “the gates of hell shall not prevail” against the church. Those gates are not there to keep the enemy out. They are there to try to keep the people of God from going in and taking what belongs to them.
The strong word that came was this: Go in and take what’s yours.
That does not mean striving in the flesh. It means refusing to surrender ground where Christ has promised life. It means not letting the enemy steal in areas where God has already spoken truth. It means recognizing that where there is lack of knowledge, there is often perishing. Hosea says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” and that is why knowing God and knowing His Word matters so deeply.
If there are places in your life that are decaying, do not ignore them. Bring them into the light. Take hold of the promises of God. Let resurrection power move there.
Paul’s Cry: “That I May Know Him”
This message also pointed to Philippians 3:10, where the apostle Paul says:
“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.”
That was Paul’s desire even late in his ministry. Not simply to know about Christ, but to know Him. To know the power flowing out of His resurrection.
That is the call for the church now.
We must know Him personally and experientially.
- When you are sick, know Him as healer.
- When you are in need, know Him as provider.
- When you are troubled, know Him as Prince of Peace.
- When something has died, know Him as resurrection and life.
His names are not theory. They are revelation. And when we stand on who He is and what He has said, resurrection power is released.
Resurrection power always brings life. It always brings transformation.
A Word for Mothers and for Families
Though this message did not begin as a traditional Mother’s Day sermon, it carried a powerful word for mothers.
Motherhood is a weighty calling. You are shaping lives. You are pouring into sons and daughters. And the best way to do that is by leaning on the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, who quickens, leads, and gives wisdom for what to say and what not to say.
There was also encouragement for mothers praying over children who are far from God, lukewarm, or wandering.
Scripture was brought forward as a promise: the seed of the righteous shall be delivered. And alongside that came the reminder from John 10.
Jesus says in John 10:14, “I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.” Then in John 10:16 He says:
“And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.”
That is a promise to hold onto when praying for wayward children. They may not be in the fold right now, but Jesus knows how to bring His sheep in. He knows how to speak in a way they will hear.
Keep praying. Keep asking the Lord to send laborers across their path. Keep standing on the Word. God’s Word does not return void. It accomplishes what He sends it to do.
And there was one more important encouragement here: yield to the Holy Spirit in prayer. Let Him pray through you. When the Holy Spirit is leading prayer, you are not trying to force something in human effort. You are aligning with the will of God, and God cannot fail.
When Something Has Died in You
The closing application of the message broadened the story of Lazarus into the realities people carry every day.
Lazarus had a mother. She raised her children, poured herself into them, and yet one of them died. That is a sobering reminder that even when you have done your best, life in this world is not always neat and pain-free.
Sometimes as a parent, or simply as a person walking through life, things become so painful that something dies on the inside. It may be hope. It may be joy. It may be confidence. It may be peace. It may be a dream. It may be something wounded by disappointment, loss, regret, or grief.
But the heart of this message is this: God is able to resurrect whatever has died in your life.
He can go in like an expert surgeon. He can cut away infection, shame, bitterness, and hurt. He can bring healing where there has been hidden pain. He can restore life where there has been numbness and loss.
If we trust Him, if we believe, if we let Him into the sealed places, resurrection power can meet us there.
How to Respond to This Word
If this message could be gathered into a few clear responses, they would be these:
- Seek Jesus wholeheartedly. Do not settle for casual Christianity.
- Stand on the Word He gives you. Let His voice define your situation.
- Stay in prayer and His presence. This is where the Word becomes alive in you.
- Refuse to let delay shake your faith. His waiting is not the same as His absence.
- Believe with active trust. Pursue Him, obey Him, and hold fast.
- Expect resurrection life. Jesus is still bringing dead things back to life.
Application Questions
- What area of my life feels dead, buried, or beyond repair right now?
- Have I allowed delay to make me doubt the love of Jesus?
- Am I reading my circumstances only in the natural, or am I seeking God’s perspective?
- What word from Scripture has the Holy Spirit quickened to me that I need to stand on?
- Where have I been passive in belief instead of living with active trust?
- Are there “stones” in my life that Jesus is asking me to move so He can bring resurrection power?
- How can I more intentionally give time to prayer, the Word, and the presence of God this week?
- If I am praying for a child or loved one who is far from God, am I continuing to stand on His promises?
Jesus is the resurrection and the life. That is not poetry. That is reality. And where He is welcomed, death does not get the final word.
