MY CHANGE HAS COME

By Pastor Michael Olawore
 New Wine Church, London

Foundation Scripture: John 11: 1-4; 17-20; 38-45; John 12: 12- 17 

Sunday 1^st April 2012

Today is Palm Sunday, one of the most important days in the Christian calendar which marks the beginning of Holy Week, the culmination of which is the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and His ultimate victory over sin and death.  We celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalemon a donkey at which crowds, casting palms on the ground, hailed Him shouting ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel’. This occurred at a time at which Jews from all around the world had gathered for Passover, the commemoration of God’s dramatic deliverance of the children ofIsrael. It is from this event that our observance of Palm Sunday is derived, a celebration of the One who is greater than the great, better than the best, whose height is beyond the heavens, whose age is evermore , the all-time undisputed Champion of love.

The account of the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11 provides the backdrop to the triumphal entry of Jesus and paints an accurate picture of what God wants us to receive today. When Jesus shows up in any situation things cannot stay the same and therefore we can confidently declare, ‘My change has come!” This is the word of the Lord to you today: ‘Your change has come!’

Jesus’ arrival inJerusalemon a donkey, a representation of peace and humility, and is of great significance; indeed, Palm Sunday’s importance cannot be overstated. It is a fulfilment of what God had spoken of centuries beforehand and therefore stands as a reminder of the certainty of God’s word. It represents an unshakeable assurance that the word of God is true. God cannot lie and when God decrees a thing, there is a performance. It is our reminder that the word of God will not fail. The events recorded in John 12 stand as a confirmation of the infallibility of God’s word, a reminder of the immutability and reliability of God’s word. God has sent me today to remind you that the word of God concerning your life will not fail – the word of God concerning you will not fall to the ground, the word of the God is sure, the word of God is unconquerable, the word of God is indomitable; the word of God is living and the word of God powerful! I declare therefore to you today, your change has come!

The word of God works. Irrespective of what you may be going through, regardless of situations and circumstances, the word of God works. This is a simple revelation, your grasp of which will either make or break your destiny. Everything that the enemy does is designed to convince you and those around you that the word of God is ineffective or unreliable. The day that a person concludes that the word of God does not work is the day that he effectively dies. You cannot afford to dance to the tune of the enemy’s lies. Instead, you must come to a place whereby you know, that you know, that you know, beyond all shadow of doubt that the word of God works. There must be something to which you anchor your soul, an unwavering conviction that God’s word is true. It is so important to understand and embrace the reliability of God’s word as what you believe will affect your posture and attitude to what you may be going through. The word of God is not subject to your experience and is not affected or defined by experience and circumstances; instead, the word of God affects your experience and defines what you go through. Every word of God concerning you must come to pass!

700 years before the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, this event had been prophesied by Isaiah (Isaiah 62:11) and echoed 200 years later in Zechariah 9:9 in which the King’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem was declared, some 500 years before the event :‘Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ I declare to you that your saviour is here – your champion is here! Your change has come! When Jesus shows up in any situation, change is inevitable: blind eyes are opened, the deaf hear, the lame walk, fruitfulness comes out of barrenness and the dead are restored to life. Nothing remains the same when He arrives - God is here to bring change to your situation.

Revelation 13:8 tells us that Jesus, the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the earth. This is a profound truth: ever before the need arose, before the fall of man from the garden and the wrath of God that sin invited, God had established our source of victory, redemption and right-standing. From this we can understand that God has covered every aspect of your life. God is not panicking about your situation; provision has already been made for everything that you could ever conceivably require.

Returning to the account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, it is important to remember that Passover was the most significant event in the Jewish religious calendar commemorating the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt an event which drew up to 2.7million people to Jerusalem. Jesus had one week to finish His assignment and no doubt was planning to reach as many people as possible. To get into the mind of Jesus for a moment, He knew that in order for the Jews to believe that He was whom He said He was, there needed to be a spectacular demonstration of the power of God. As Jesus was planning to maximise the opportunity that Passover represented, the enemy was also hatching a plan. Historians have indicated that up to 270,000 rams had been sacrificed in celebration of the Passover and no doubt, the atmosphere was charged with expectation of a move of God. It is in this context that we are told that Lazarus had become sick. From Satan’s perspective, Lazarus’ sickness provided him with an opportunity to undermine Jesus in that if he could kill Lazarus, whom was described as the one that Jesus loved, he could discredit Jesus entirely. This intention underpins everything that the enemy attempts to do to you; he seeks to discredit the word of God and the power of God in your life. In terms of Jesus’ intention to reach as many of the Jewish people as possible, Lazarus’ sickness and eventual death was the ideal platform that Jesus sought on which to demonstrate the power of God, by which the Jews would be believe.

When Lazarus became sick, undoubtedly Mary and Martha, being close followers of Jesus prayed and fasted but nothing seemed to change in the natural and eventually, they sent for Jesus. In these circumstances, it would have been reasonable to expect Jesus to have dropped everything and rush to the scene but he did not, He waited a further 2 days before making His way toBethany. Mary and Martha were undoubtedly disappointed at Jesus’ delayed reaction. They only saw part of the picture – they were so focussed on the situation at hand that they could not perceive Jesus’ plan. You may be going through difficulties and challenges and having prayed and fasted and apparently seeing no answer to your prayers in the way that you expected, you may be tempted to question God’s care for you – do not. Just because heaven appears to be quiet, it does not mean that God is not interested in you. As we can see in this account, everything that you are faced with is a set-up by God.

In the account, we are told that by the time Jesus returned to Bethany, Lazarus had died and had been buried for four days. However, Jesus, on being told that Lazarus was sick had declared ‘This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Even though Jesus had waited, the word of God had gone forth and therefore, the issue had been settled. However, it is beyond question that Lazarus had died – how do you reconcile that with the declaration that had been made? Nothing is too difficult for God; no situation is so hopeless that it cannot be reversed and therefore the issue was and remained settled.

In fact, Jesus, in His exchange with Martha upon His return, settled the issue on three distinct counts: The first thing He established was He confirmed to Martha that her brother would rise again. He used this to introduce Himself as the Resurrection and the Life, saying ‘I AM the resurrection and the life’ from which we can understand that resurrection is not an event but a person, the person of Jesus.  He further confirmed that they would see the glory of God if they believed. The devil having taken Lazarus’ life must have been convinced that he had achieved his goal and would have concluded that, as Lazarus had been buried for four days, there was no way that Jesus could  affect that situation. However, when Jesus comes in to a situation, there is change. We can be assured therefore that regardless of how bad our situation may appear, there will be a turnaround.

The first thing that Jesus asked when He arrived at the scene was ‘Where have they laid him?’The situation looked bleak, if not impossible but Jesus had assured Martha that if they believed they would see the glory of God. Jesus arrival at the scene set the stage for a spectacular contest: in the one corner, the enemy staking his claim of victory at the death of Lazarus and in the other corner, the Champion of Love. Jesus entered the ring and immediately struck the first blow by instructing the onlookers to roll away the stone. Satan thought he had sealed the destiny of Lazarus but as he would soon discover, his apparent victory was short-lived. In every area of your life, where it appears that you have been written off, I declare a reversal. Every negative conclusion that has been drawn about your destiny is reversed. To everything that represents human or demonic conclusions about your life, I declare ‘The stone is rolled away!’

Jesus then delivered a follow-up blow by clearing His throat and with a loud voice, calling Lazarus out of the grave. Lazarus responded to the life and the power contained in the word of the Lord and came out of the grave. Similarly, I declare that every dead area of your life responds to the resurrection power that raised Lazarus from the grave – the grave could not hold Lazarus and it cannot hold you! Every dead area of your life is turned around; I call you out of your situation - you are coming out! When Lazarus came from the grave, he was bound in burial clothes. This represented and symbolised death and the past. It is interesting that Jesus did not instruct the on-lookers to simply loose the grave clothes, but He instructed them to ‘Loose him and let him go’. Jesus not only released Lazarus from Satan’s grip of death but released him to go forth and fulfil his destiny. This was the final knock-out blow for Satan from the undisputed, undefeated Champion of Love! There is a destiny and an assignment that you must fulfil. In the Name of Jesus, I release you today to fulfil your purpose; you must go to all to whom you have been sent.

Thus, we see the conclusion of an exhilarating, power-charged bout in which the power of God was displayed beyond all doubt. We are told that that those who had seen this display of the power of God believed. This provided the background to and trigger for, Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalemin which vast crowds took branches of palm trees and shouted ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’.

In June 2010 we received a prophetic promise of an 18-month window of opportunity in which there would be a spectacular demonstration of the power of God. We are entering into the season of the fulfilment of this promise inNewWineChurch. I declare today a new season in the life of this church.

Everything that you have been through has been about the demonstration of the power of God in your life. It is not about you; it has always been about the power of God operating in your life for others to see. It is important to understand that this is why the enemy fights believers, he wants to put poverty, sickness and defeat on our lives to convince on-lookers to conclude that there is no point in worshipping God. However, be assured that turnaround, change and victory always accompanies Jesus; turnaround, change and victory is a certainty with the undisputed and undefeated Champion of Love. Your change has come!