The first meeting of the 2009 Pastor's conference is just ending and we're raising up our expectations of the things that God will do in this week with and among us the staff and the 11 Ukranian church leaders that have joined us.

This evening we talked about Lazarus and how we do believe, but only to a point...

Lazarus was a man like us and he lost everything, even his life. He didn't know that Jesus was going to come and raise him from the dead, his sisters didn't know that Jesus would raise him from the dead. How far past hope did they fall? They knew that if Jesus had been there earlier Lazarus wouldn't have died. They believed. They had faith, but it had a point where it stopped and didn't continue in that way.

Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go." John 11:43-44 NKJV

Elijah calling down fire from heaven and slaying the prophets of baal, such a powerful victory of God...

Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, "The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!"1 Kings 18:38-39 NKJV

Jezebel doesn't get discouraged at her prophets being slaughtered, nor does she repent, but hardens her heart against God and against Elijah and even after such a victory Elijah is the one to become discouraged. It wasn't what he had expected from God.

Let us expect and continue in that. Holding fast to the solid rock of Jesus. By faith... two words that are the begining of every great conquest of God. Let us not be like Martha and not be like Mary, but continue to trust the Father who truely is faithful. There is no too late.