Page 5 - Preacher of Righteousness Magazine | Mark Barclay Ministries

T his is one of my very favorite passages of Scripture, for sev- eral reasons. When I read it, it
two-and-a-half packs a day before I found deliverance in Christ.
TAKE AWAY THE STONE
reminds me of a young Mark Barclay who had just met Jesus Christ and became born again but was still bound. I do not have time or space here to tell my whole testimony; however, I do want to tell a portion of it to encourage you and to explain the heart of this text.
My first pastor told me to never defile the temple of the Holy Spirit and that my body was that temple.
Let’s get back to John 11. I want to break down this text and show you some simple yet powerful, life-changing truths.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:16
JOHN 11:39
When I was first born again, things began to change on the inside. At the time, nothing changed on the outside.
I looked the same, walked the same, and even pretty much sinned the same. But I didn’t want to anymore. The difference was in my heart.
God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of
“Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.”
1 CORINTHIANS 3:17
“If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
This is so powerful. This is our duty. Jesus did not command the stone to be removed. He commanded the disciples and friends of Lazarus to remove it. This was significant in my life. How would Jesus call Lazarus from the tomb if the stone was still in place, covering the entry?
I should give you a little background here. Perhaps it will encourage some of you to keep trusting God until all things are new. I was raised a sinner. I smoked my first cigarette at about nine years old. I drank booze since as young as I can remember. We were a drinking family, so there was always alcohol
at the house left over from the night before. Alcohol was always in the vehicles, as well as in the cabinets and the refrigerator. Many people say there is no way I could have been a childhood drunk. Sure there is! In fact, when I was a little toddler, my drunken relatives and their friends would put alcohol in my bottle, just to watch me stagger around and fall down.
To this day, I still remember my very last cigarette. The day I smoked my last cigarette, my mind went ballistic. It was like it yelled and screamed, just like it did after my first cigarette long ago. “You can’t stop,” it screamed. “You are going to kill us! We will have a nicotine fit. You light up another one right now.”
It was a great pastor and an anointed church that Jesus used to get Mark Barclay free. It was Jesus who called me from the life of death and eventual- ly hell to a life in Christ and eventually Heaven. But He commanded His disci- ples to roll away the stone from my old lifestyle. Think about it—truly born again but still bound.
I remember so vividly being in our family doctor’s office when he told my mom, “Mrs. Barclay, he is bleeding inside. You must get him off alcohol immediately, or he will not see 19, 20, or 21 years old.” I can’t tell you how that scared me. As we said in those days, it scared me to death. But in all my fear, I was never able to shake loose of alcohol, nicotine, or rage.
I was truly born again. I was truly regenerated. That is why I found myself in such a battle. Some of my critics try to say that I was just in condemnation. But the truth was so different than that. There is a massive difference between feeling condemned and beat- ing up yourself over something, and a driving, passionate desire to want to live for Christ and offer your body as a living sacrifice.
VS 43
LAZARUS, COME FORTH
When Jesus called forth Lazarus from the grave (after the disciples rolled away the stone), he came forth. But the Bible says he was still bound in graveclothes, just as I had been. This is significant. I was regenerated and converted inside but still living the life of the grave. Again, I was not con- demned, nor did I feel condemned. I was thriving and alive inside but still couldn’t shake off all those worldly habits and bondages.
I can still remember the feeling of smoking my very first cigarette. Wow! My brain told me to stop. It yelled and screamed at me to stop. I felt my fingers burn, my throat closed, and my eyes watered. As strong as my mind yelled at me, I forced myself to continue. My mind screamed at me, “Stop! Stop right now! You are
killing us.” I ended up smoking about
ROMANS 12:1-2
My answer was, “NO!” I was so determined to do my part to make my body the temple of the Holy Spirit that I would do anything, absolutely any- thing. It’s amazing how your mind will misguide you and lie to you. That’s why we must force it to comply with the Word of God, the Bible. We must bring our mind to the Word of God for a good bath—often.
I truly believe there are Mark Barclays everywhere in your life and mine—baby Christians who want to be free and offer themselves to the service of the King.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your rea- sonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and accept- able, and perfect, will of God.”
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