“Much people of the Jews therefore knew that He [Jesus] was there: and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom He had raised from the dead” (John 12:9).

 They came to see Lazarus! He was a concrete evidence of Christ’s power to restore life to a dead person. People wanted to see Jesus with the fruit of His labours. They knew that Lazarus had been in the grave. They might have been present at his funeral. Where Jesus is, there is no death. He is resurrection and life. If you allow Him to stay in your heart, you will be rejuvenated; your life will be renewed as an eagle’s. He is Life. They came to see the fruit of resurrection operating in a house.

Many people came to see Lazarus. Do people come to see and hear you? Do they see your spirit dead in the body or do they see you at the feet of Jesus? If you have risen from the grave with the life of Jesus, you would sit at the feet of Jesus. You would long to be like Jesus. When Jesus came, Lazarus sat with Him at the table. He was a dead man and not among the living a few days ago. But now he sat with Him and ate good things and heard the living Word.

 I was dead in sins. I was useless for the kingdom of God. I had pride in my heart. I never humbled myself. I was in the grave thinking I was good. I was a negative force among young men around me. Poison was coming out of my eyes. I was causing grief to my parents. I was a whited sepulchre. I knew I was in the grave. But my father prayed to God for me so that my dead ears might hear the voice of the Son of God. Will you not hear that voice? Lazarus heard it. Now he was at the table with the Master eating and hearing Him. Even his sisters did not want his grave opened. But Jesus wanted the grave opened. John 5:25: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” The voice of the Son of God! The word of God has life!

 I was dead in sins. I was useless for the kingdom of God. I had pride in my heart. … I knew I was in the grave. No voice could raise me. My father prayed to God for me so that my dead ears might hear the voice of the Son of God. Will you not hear that voice? Lazarus heard it. Now he was at the table with the Master eating and hearing Him. People came to see Lazarus. Do people come to see you because you have risen? Did they come to see the change? There should not be any wicked words anymore. Jesus is ready to raise us. Before Jesus came, Mary and Martha might have quarrelled often. These two sisters were born of the same parents and brought up in the same atmosphere, but they began to quarrel. Where there is sin, there is quarrelling and pride. You can quarrel in the heart or openly in words. An unconverted heart cannot achieve anything like unity. Quarrels and leaving a trail of unkind words are poisonous. A husband who talks unkind words to his wife drives her fast into the grave.

 God’s word purifies your heart. It is full of love. This strengthens your mind. It straitens your conscience. Your personality unites with that of the angels. If you speak God’s word, you will be a blessing to the world. Do you have Christ in your heart?

 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reapeth corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8). What do we sow—worldliness? Sin? Or a desire to be rich or if possible to get a girl with a large dowry? We do not sow a desire for Christian character or faith. The devil has arrested the progress of the church through the snare of dowry. The love of money is the root of all evil. Christians do not want Christ in their homes. The habit of going to church is just hypocrisy. They do not want to hear Christ. They want Christ if someone is ill. I prayed a few times for healing a doctor’s family when one sister in that house was dying. God told me, “No more healing unless this house repents.”

 Do you know there is much evil in your heart which can destroy you? Instead of being St. Paul, you are like Saul destroying the Church. Saul heard God’s voice once. After that what great potentialities came out of him! He has written great things in this Book. We do not know what great things are in each of us for the glory of God. If you hear the voice of God, glorious things will happen. 1 Corinthians 2:9: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God had prepared for them that love Him.”

 Lazarus is risen and is sitting at the table with Jesus. He is hearing the words of Jesus and eating with the Lord. The sisters were filled with Christ-consciousness. So the resurrection took place in their house. The Word of God in you is faith. Faith is God-consciousness.

 In Bishop Heber College, at Trichy, being a third-year student, I preached to the first-year Hindu students. Even Hindu Professors came and listened, though they were my professors. I demonstrated the truth. For the glory of God I say this. I was the youngest boy in the Christian Hostel attached to Noble College in Machilipatnam. I spent two hours at the feet of God every day. At a student conference, I was selected to represent the college and give a talk on evangelism. Not I, but the Holy Spirit talked for fifteen minutes. I was once dead in trespasses. I was useless for the kingdom of God. But Christ in us will be resurrection to us and give us life.

 Lazarus became a Gospel to others. People came and saw Lazarus and got converted. You can be the Gospel! Once you were in the grave. Now you are living. Believe that Jesus will use you. He is great and able. Do not think of your poor abilities. Live in Jesus. They saw Lazarus and believed in Jesus. By looking at you, people must believe in Jesus. Let us rise from the grave of sin and be with Jesus. The grace of God is wonderful and will transform you. I wonder how God was able and was gracious to transform one like me! Look to Him. How great is our God!

It was 2011, and in Monterrey, Mexico, where I was living, 1,782 people were assassinated in the much-reported drug war. The cartel conflict had grown so thick that by the fall of that year, people were no longer going out at night for tacos, a true sign of a Mexican crisis. It was on one of those fall nights, a pastor friend, Salatial, had a dream. In the dream, Salatial was in a patio full of police, who were all on their knees praying. He woke up startled and wondered, Do I even know a police officer?

In the morning Salatial told his wife about his dream, and, curious about its meaning, they began praying for the local police force.

Salatial ate at a popular lunchtime diner the next week and saw a table of police officers. Thinking it might be a good way to make an introduction, he directed the waitress to bring him their bill. They later charged his table, demanding to know for whom he worked and what made him think they could be bought, and he reflected that maybe that wasn’t the most effective method to make an introduction.

A month later, one October Sunday, he noticed several new faces in the crowd of his congregation. He invited them to come forward for prayer, and eleven men and women lined up in front of the stage. Salatial started on one end and prayed over each new guest. When he reached a man in the middle, he stopped and spoke into his ear, “I know the Lord has saved your life now two times, and he has saved you for this season.” He then continued down the line.

Later, Salatial learned the man was the new director of police for Guadalupe, the million- person suburb of Monterrey where his church stands. After praying over a month for the police, he was so excited to meet his first officer.

He invited him for coffee the following week and shared his dream, asking if the police chief knew of any believing officers who would want to come and pray with him.

The chief responded, “You know I am new here, right? Your last chief was murdered about a month ago. I am just getting to know everyone, but I haven’t found a single one I imagine would be open to your prayer.”

Isaiah 30:21 says, “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it’ ” (ESV). When I hear the word, I know I have only one choice: obedience. Blessing always follows submission, and chaos trails our rebellion. Salatial valued obedience, and sensing God’s voice, he persisted, asking regularly if he could visit the headquarters. Finally, the chief relented. He invited the pastor to share for ten minutes the next Saturday at the change of the shift during the 6:30 a.m. roll call, explaining this way he could see all the men and women at one time.

When Salatial arrived the first morning, he walked through a patio to get to their main room and recognized it instantly as the same one from his dream where he saw officers on their knees. Emboldened by this realization, he spoke for five minutes, sharing the basics of the gospel. No one blinked or moved or raised his hand, but Salatial left with a full heart.

For the next three months, he continued going every Saturday, speaking for a few minutes about integrity and reminding them that they represented God’s justice on earth and not to hurt those whom they were to protect. They were well-crafted, powerfully delivered, and prayerfully considered messages, yet he still wasn’t seeing any impact. Lord, is this what you had in mind?

He sensed the Lord speaking to him: Add worship.

What? He must have misheard.

Add worship.

Really, Lord? Praise and worship? Not only do these people not know our songs, but they have probably never sung together before.

Ever since those first days when I moved out of the country and felt my fledgling steps weren’t adding up to much, I’ve found comfort in Zechariah 4:10: “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin” (NLT). I have to constantly fight my results-oriented nature and trust the outcome of living amen is his to measure. When he says step, I need to step and not glance around to see if it makes sense, makes progress, or makes me look good. He is looking for my obedience, and he sees that as the outcome of my faith. Salatial focused on his call, and so the following results can get credited to God.

Despite his reservations, the following half dozen Saturdays he brought a guitar--wielding worship leader, who basically sang a solo in front of the group for a couple of minutes.

Then in January 2012, during worship, one of the sergeants fell down, appearing to pass out. Everyone in the room, trained as first responders, rushed over, but Salatial stepped in front of them, quickly explaining he recognized the sergeant was “overcome in the Spirit.”

Regardless of how your church worships or what doctrine you assign to this experience, the testimony remains. Although this has never happened to me, I don’t doubt its reality. This guy was overwhelmed by the Spirit, a Spirit previously ignored.

It was all the encouragement the police chief needed. He asked Salatial if he would come every day, not just on Saturdays, and teach a class on leadership, using the biblical character of David as a reference. “I think they are listening and maybe even internally responding, but they lack the leadership skills to exercise their faith in front of others,” the police chief said.

During the following month they met daily, and God gave the police force of Guadalupe great victory in the war against the cartels, so much so that the military, who had been called in for peacekeeping responsibilities, was reportedly frustrated. Why was this suburban police force making more arrests than anyone else?

After twenty-eight days, a ceremony concluded their leadership class, and the police chief announced to the station what everyone already knew: in February 2012, not one officer’s life was lost in Guadalupe. Not everyone understood what it was this pastor was offering, and they didn’t all believe in God, but they all wanted whatever good juju he was bringing, and they immediately invited him to continue coming every day.

This is when it gets good—when the community of God acts, as Paul wrote, like a colony of heaven. When a group of people come together for a common goal outside of themselves, even in the secular world, we see results. When that group is fighting to advance the gospel and there is room for the Spirit to move, the results are supernatural. As Salatial sat across from me in a coffee shop, detailing the early stages of this story, he lowered his voice for dramatic effect and said, “This is the week in the story when the anointing went boom.”

He continued, “I couldn’t keep the pace. I still had my church responsibilities and my family. I knew I needed to get help from other faith leaders in our community.” Salatial gathered a group of pastors and shared what had been going on. He needed their help, and he didn’t want them to use social media to announce what they were doing. He didn’t want them to invite the men and women into their individual churches. “This is the church, and I just want you to go and speak the truth.” They passed around a calendar, split up the dates, and made plans to love the police force in their community.

About a month later, it was Salatial’s turn in the rotation. He arrived three minutes late, and, in his absence, a police officer had walked to the front, filling the “pulpit” and sharing his heart. As Salatial rushed through the door and heard the officer’s testimony, he stopped, stunned.

This ministry was growing roots.

All through the summer and fall, major shifts were happening in Guadalupe. The crime rate dropped, the arrest rates rose, area pastors served police families, and people once again went out at night for tacos.

A new mayor was elected that fall, and he gathered some of the community leaders into his office. “One of my first responsibilities in office is to give the keys of the city to someone. I have an idea of who deserves it, but I have gathered you together to talk details.” He looked around the room. “Should it be you, Chief? Or you, Pastor? Should it be a volunteer organizer? Who deserves the credit for this massive shift in our community? As my first act, I want to publically recognize them.”

No one said anything for a moment. Then Salatial spoke up. “Sir, if you are looking for who deserves the credit for what’s happening in our city, it’s Jesus. If anyone deserves those keys, it’s him.”

Incredulous, he said, “You want me to give the keys to the city to Jesus Christ?”

“Yes, I do,” maintained Salatial.

“If you want to claim credit, claim it for God” (2 Cor. 10:17, The Message).

On December 8, 2012, the mayor stood in front of his new constituents and announced, “It’s for this reason, that I, Cesar Garza Villarreal, mayor of Guadalupe, give over this city of Guadalupe, Nuevo León, to our Lord, Jesus Christ.”

The crowd went wild, jumping to their feet and applauding.

In the front row sat dignitaries from other municipalities around the city. They watched with shock as the citizens of Guadalupe cheered for Jesus Christ and looked around at each other, commenting, “My ceremony is next week. I think I will give the keys to Jesus Christ.”

By the year’s end, numerous other large suburbs of Monterrey had given over their cities in public ceremonies to the authority of Jesus. At this point, there were more than 140 pastors involved, and services were being held in police stations all around the city and even in key prisons and public schools.

Still, the downtown city police force of Monterrey remained unengaged.

Salatial recounted what happened next. “In February [of 2013], I received a call from the police chief of Monterrey, asking if I was free for the 6:30 roll call the following Saturday. Of course, I went eagerly. I am not going to lie; seeing hundreds of officers stand at attention while I walked through the basics of the gospel was a bit intimidating.”

“What did they do?” I asked.

“Nothing, really. They didn’t blink, raise their hands, or smile. I am not even sure they all really listened while I shared.”

I paused, not sure how to encourage him. “Now what?” I asked.

“I’m planning on waiting a few weeks, and then I’ll bring a guitar.”

In June 2013, the Monterrey mayor stood in front of a televised audience of millions on the steps of the capital and shared these words: “I, Margarita Alicia Arellanes Cervantes, deliver the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, to our Lord, Jesus Christ. For his kingdom of peace and blessings to be established, I open the doors of this city to God as the maximum authority.”

— Adapted from Start with Amen by [Beth Guckenberger] Copyright © 2017 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. www.thomasnelson.com.