Joh 11:43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved him until I set him free.” And “Every block of stone has a statue inside of it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” And one more in reference to his most famous statue of King David “David was always there in the marble, I just took away everything that was not David.” These are quotes attributed to Michelangelo and I love them, for I think he expresses, without knowing, spiritual truths. What he has assigned to a block of stone and the creation of a statue, is the very thing that God does with a human being who discovers Him

We who know Jesus are a work in progress. Paul says in Ephesians that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. This word perform means to complete. The work that He has begun in you, He is faithful to complete it. I want you to sit for a moment and ponder the magnificence of that. Rest in the truth that the greatest artist of all, the one who hung the stars in the sky, the one who laid the foundations of the earth, the one who created you and breathed life into you has not finished His work with you but will finish it.

The Lord has a hammer and He has a chisel. In the process of freeing you from your former self there must be the blow of the hammer down upon the chisel and we must yield to it. The Scriptures also tell us that the steps of a righteous man are ordered of God. Your life is not some series of random events that somehow hold you capture to its surrounding circumstances. No, your life is His and He is faithful to you. The swing of His hammer is the process whereby He is setting you apart. When Jesus cried to Lazarus to come forth, the coming forth was not all that happened. Lazarus was bound hand and foot with grave-clothes. He had to be set free from them. The grave-clothes had to be taken off so that the Lazarus that was brought to life would no longer be bound by death, but released and free to live.

In 1 Peter chapter 2 Peter says that we are stones being built up into a spiritual house. Every stone is shaped by the Master. Peter also says in the same chapter that we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation a peculiar people who have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light so that we may declare the praises of Jesus. When the religious men of the day plotted to kill Jesus, they also plotted to kill Lazarus. Why? Because his very life testified to the Master, the creator of life, the one who rolls the stone away, the one who shines light into the darkness, the one who bids us come out of the darkness and join Him in His marvelous light.

You are a saint such as this. Don’t let the enemy fool you or lie to you. You are God’s creation. He created you, He breathed life into you, He called you out, He raised you up, He healed you, He forgave you, He restored you, he reconciled you, when you passed through the waters He was with you, while you were refined by the fire He was with you, when you were down He raised you up, He died for you, He rose again for you and He ever intercedes at the right hand of the Father. He has not finished with you but He is faithful and true to complete that which He has begun in you and He does it all for His good pleasure.

You are His, you were bought with a very expensive price. He has not forgotten you. Lift your hands towards heaven today and open your heart and let this truth flood into your very being. God bless you my brother, God bless you my sister. Keep on going, there are a cloud of witnesses cheering you. You are God’s work of art and all other works of art are but a mere shadow, a pale imitation at best of what the Lord is creating in you.