Operating in the Lazarus Anointing

“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up” (John 11:11).

Every challenge, every obstacle, every learning curve, every battle, every private win—all of it, the highs and the lows, and the everyday faithfulness and struggles you fought through that no one else saw, have prepared you for the crescendo of victories you’re about to win. This has certainly been the case for me.

Those battles you’ve won in private, yes even those battles that threatened to destroy you, will become the breakthroughs celebrated in public. However, this time, you have authority to take others with you into breakthrough. There’s a harvest of breakthroughs behind your courage. That’s why it’s been so hard. The enemy is not just scared of your breakthrough, he’s afraid of all the other breakthroughs about to break open as you come back even stronger!

Lazarus-style comeback stories are going to become increasingly commonplace as the King breathes resurrection life over promises that have been latent, delayed, or fought hard against. God is restoring your story, taking what the enemy meant for harm and turning it for good. And your voice is part of this process.

When a King Decrees

An earthly king doesn’t just talk about circumstances, he commands and makes declarations that bring solutions and change. A king’s decree is the final say. A king’s decree carries the full weight of his authority and power to back it up.

So it goes without saying that when the King of kings decrees breakthrough and swift change, there is no power in Heaven or on earth that can stand in the way of what God has decreed. His decree releases life-shifting, chain-breaking, nation-shaking power. God is looking for a people who when faced with challenges, bring out their swords, and decree God’s word into the earth.

Jesus said to him, “What do you mean ‘if’? If you are able to believe, all things are possible to the believer” (Mark 9:23 TPT).

Praying like this shifts circumstances. Heaven is not running out of resurrection power or creative solutions earmarked for any obstacle we bump into. I’ve seen God show up when I thought all hope was lost for me. He is doing the same all around the earth right now where a new breed of warrior is arising who knows how to declare on behalf of the King. Knowing this authority to partner with the throne room and speak to dead places in our lives is foundational to seeing Lazarus-style turnarounds and miracles (Mark 16:17-20).

It’s Comeback Time

Where there’s been a theme of attack that has come against you, it’s the sure sign that you’re called to walk in authority in this area and lead others to the same breakthrough. As I write this I just checked the time and it’s 11:11 a.m. A reminder to me of John 11:11 and the power of resurrection life and the Lazarus anointing to bring people’s destiny back to life. The God of Lazarus sparks faith that dead places can live again. Over and over in my life God has given kind, and pretty specific, miracles to emphasize impossible is only impossible when we consider it so.

Bill Johnson says, “We know our minds have been renewed when the impossible seems logical.” This quote stirs faith in me. God wants to use us to do the impossible, and it begins with renewing our thinking and aligning our declarations with upgraded faith.

I often pray, “God, expand what I am prepared to believe You for. Show me more than I’ve seen before. Teach me how to trust You for what I haven’t experienced yet, and release notable miracles that will turn a generation to Your heart. May impossible never be a road block to me when You speak, God, but a challenge to increase my faith.”

God has been highlighting John 11:11 to me for what seems forever now. As I look back it’s been a theme, a kiss from Heaven, and very definitely something that God has been growing a strength to not just recognize God is saying this, but recognize God is releasing this as an authority to walk in. The Lazarus anointing for comeback is for where the enemy has tried to squash, contain, hinder, and kill what God is doing. Yes, real resurrections are happening increasingly worldwide in certain ministries and situations—as the resurrection power of Jesus has paid for everything that the devil has tried to kill off.

What the enemy has thrown at you will not succeed in its intention, as God is releasing new strategies, new breakthroughs, and new power to override all that has come against you. It is essential we speak life, though, especially when the enemy is speaking destruction. Too often because the enemy’s voice is loud, we can be found agreeing with what the enemy is saying instead of partnering with God. The Lazarus anointing requires faith as it is illogical without God’s power to speak life to dead places in our lives.

What God shows us as revelation in one season, is our key to promise in another. Take note when God is confirming and highlighting a revelation to you. Decreeing “live again” is the essence of revival. Over the years, it seemed everywhere we turned God was growing faith in us for the impossible.

Our Car

My husband, Ben was finishing Bible College many years ago now, and to cut a long story short, our car died. And when I say died, I mean died! Living on minimal income, we had fixed the car a thousand times before just to keep it on the road; but this time, it was beyond repair. The cost of repair was extensively more than the car was worth. More to the point, we also didn’t have the money to buy another car.

As we often did, we stopped and prayed as a family. Keely, who was around 6 years old at the time, announced, “God said John 11.” We read John 11 and knew what God was saying, “Resurrection life for Lazarus.” We also had ministry friends who used to joke about calling their car “Lazarus,” as it had come back from the dead so many times! But honestly, Ben nor I could imagine our car coming back from the dead this time. We knew we needed a car, but didn’t have a way to sort out the problem. We just prayed and asked God for a John 11 miracle, with trust that God would work something out, quickly we hoped, but no idea what would unfold.

Ben’s friend owned a car dealership and he offered to tow our car to his lot and look at it to give us an honest opinion. I remember working at church one day soon after and getting a phone call from Ben to come outside quickly. It sounded so urgent, I rushed outside. To my utter amazement, I walked out the front door of the church and there was Ben driving our “dead” car! I had to look twice, okay three times, because I couldn’t believe what I saw! It was even shining!

The owner of the car dealership had secretly decided to repair our car from top to bottom as a gift to us. Literally thousands and thousands of dollars of repairs was done—from big things like the timing belt, steering, alternator, and the air conditioner to little things like even painting the tires and replacing a light inside the car that had never worked. Every single broken thing was fixed or replaced. And here it was in front of our eyes! This man even detailed the car and gave us a $150 voucher to dinner at his favorite restaurant to bless us! I cried. Ben cried. We all cried. Wow God!

I couldn’t believe it! God brought our car back from the dead! God used that car to bless us and to solidify a truth in our hearts—God is the God of Lazarus even today. And our 6-year-old had heard God clearly!

Foreclosure

God used our house some years later to reemphasize the same point. Again, in a hard season—let’s be real, who hasn’t been there—with flared health challenges again that prevented “ministry work” and consequential financial issues, we found ourselves unable to keep up with our home’s mortgage payments. We had used every “grace” option available to us. The bank sent the official notice of foreclosure. We tried everything, as you can imagine—talking to banks and getting extensions on every bill, food parcels; praying and believing for healing, breakthrough and this “attack on every side” to stop.

In the middle of fighting serious health issues, the idea of losing our home was upsetting. And all this was happening after an angel came and stood on the end of our bed and commissioned us into Pour It Out Ministries. The irony of ministry behind the scenes is sometimes, well, ironic. Let me tell you, everyone faces battles, especially when they are taking new ground, but there is grace to take every promise God has spoken, even when everything looks the opposite.

We were praying, believing, and decreeing the God of Lazarus would come show Himself strong. The prospect of losing our home made my heart sick. I knew we’d be okay, but knowing the story of the miraculous way we got the house in the first place, personally I struggled with the disappointment of the loss.

Miraculously my health began improving, and we went to Fiji to minister as part of fifty days of revival. What a wild, glorious, fiery time of miracles and revival broke out. I remember Ben praying out loud with us as we took off on the airplane, “God, we give You our house, and we trust You.” I said it too and I meant it, and familiar peace comforted me. God’s provision didn’t end just because I didn’t understand the current predicament. I prophesied John 11:11 many times in Fiji; and again we felt him saying, “I am the God of Lazarus.”

On our return to Australia from the Fiji revival, I was ready to pack up our home reluctantly, and find a new place to live. Real life has strange contradictions sometimes. By some crazy miracle, though, the lady processing our foreclosure had “forgotten” to process our file and had lost it! After months and months of drawn-out failed negotiations and the final decision that the bank was foreclosing, in a moment, the bank decided to reverse its decision and allow us to keep the home! It was that quick, that simple—and astounding!

After this, we immediately rented out our house, and our little family went on the road in outback Australia ministering and releasing revival in every town and city we went through. We prophesied resurrection power all over Australia from tiny town to major city. God was showing us, teaching us, and growing in us that His resurrection power is for nations.

The Pineapple Revival—Calling Forth Life

We had prophesied revival all over Australia; and so when we planted Pour It Out Church on the Sunshine Coast of Australia, again we decreed the God of Lazarus, awakening a people to walk in the fullness of all God had promised. We burned with a passion for the nation of Australia to see a nation-shifting revival. What God had done over and over in our lives, we decreed He would do in our nation. It was the greatest of joys and honors when revival broke out and we hosted the Pineapple Revival, as it became known.

During the journey of planting a church we grew a lot when facing the inner challenges, heartaches, and joys of pioneering something from nothing. Going from just the three of us, to fifty people to three and a half years later revival breaking out with more than 20,000 people from all around the world coming, it was amazing. The revival continued for more than eighteen months night after night. Multiple thousands upon thousands of people watched online, and so many times we had to rely upon the God of Lazarus. Speaking forth life to dead places is essentially the definition of what Revival is! You can’t have revival, personal or corporate, unless you know your voice has authority to decree life to dead things.

There were many times during the revival when finances, people, circumstances, or the devil said this can’t go any further. For example, the very first week required believing for four times increase of finances to cover the expenses of a building large enough for the sudden number of hungry people coming from all over. After week one, to continue we urgently needed to find a different building in 48 hours to keep going. Despite a desperate search, we couldn’t find a building. People were already arriving from all over Australia. We had no idea how they were even finding out about it.

We were determined that revival wouldn’t end just because, “there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7 NKJV). This is how we ended up at a pub in Aussie World, a tourism theme park and pub that amazingly opened its doors to us. Our incredible team got us moved and set up on the same day in an auditorium out the back of a famous Aussie pub. And the people just kept coming from everywhere, night after night after night.

There were daily impossible situations to solve and believe for as you can imagine—including logistical and practical elements—as the revival suddenly grew from fifty people once a week to multiple hundreds of different people every single night. We were in a regional center where people were traveling to from all across the nation, and nations! We thank God He grew us in the private battles, preparing us for the battles ahead.

Again we had to move buildings quickly. When hundreds were coming every night from all around the world, some driving five days to be in God’s presence, desperate for a miracle, let me tell you, we feel the weight of stewarding well what God was so graciously pouring out. We had 24 hours to find another building. But God. We and our team were praying and believing for impossible to be made possible.

Another Suddenly Miracle

And yes, another suddenly miracle happened. God led us to another tourist attraction, The Big Pineapple, a pineapple farm with a 40-foot pineapple at the front and an old events center in the back. It had gone into receivership years before, so it wasn’t in good condition when we first saw it. It was empty though, which was a huge plus. But my heart sank when I saw that it needed a lot of “love.” We were unsure if we should take it as we only had 24 hours to get it ready for all the people who were now coming from various nations worldwide. Lives were being changed every single night. It was beyond life changing—the love of God and level of weighty glory was something none of us had ever felt before. There was electricity in the room, and God Himself was drawing people in.

A few years earlier, Ben and I had received a word from Patricia King, a well-respected apostolic and prophetic minister, when she randomly pointed at us in a meeting and said, “Toot, toot! The glory train is coming to your house!” Great, we thought, and amen! Little did we know the significance of those words.

As we stood in an empty, old tourism building known as the famous Big Pineapple, we thought, Is this really it, the place to house this revival? As The Big Pineapple was still a working tourist attraction, there was a scenic train that continued to operate on the property. As we stood there asking the question of God, “Is this really the place you have for us to keep revival going?” Suddenly we heard, “TOOT TOOOOOOOOT!” It was like a modern-day prophetic shofar trumpeting out. We both laughed and said to the manager, “We’ll take it!”

That same day, our incredible team with the help of many willing and serving people moved “revival” into a new home. Together, we incredibly made what looked forgotten into a place that was warm and inviting. And the people kept coming! Literally tens of thousands of people encountered God in that Pineapple! What a glorious, miraculous, mind-blowing season of revival that became affectionately known as The Pineapple Revival! To think it all could have ended many times over if God had not shown us that He is still making the impossible possible.

Years later, the local newspaper on the Sunshine Coast of Australia ran a story on the The Big Pineapple. The front-page headline read, “REVIVAL AT THE BIG PINEAPPLE.” Well, I guess “they” caught on! A $150 million dollar redevelopment had been approved to revive The Pineapple to its former glory, and breathe new economic life to the region. What happened in the spirit, then happened in the natural. God’s revival power is evidenced in more ways than one. Incidentally, the same thing happened to the pub at Aussie World after we left, they also approved a multimillion dollar makeover. Revival breathes fresh life.

The Pineapple Revival did the same for people’s lives as it did for the buildings, fresh life was stirred. Night after night we watched as bodies were healed, hearts came alive, hope was restored, miracles happened, souls were saved, and people authentically fell in love with Jesus. There was such a powerful manifestation, a tangible present-presence of God, that it was impossible to be there and not be marked by the contagious fire for God. All who were part of revival, for just a few nights or for months on end, will never forget the raw hunger and passion after God that was stirred.

Night after night we saw little children, as young as 3, lying on the ground after prayer, unable to move under the power of God for over an hour—this wrecks you for the ordinary. These kids became so on fire for God that they became our prayer team. Adults were constantly overcome by the presence of God as kids and youth prayed for them. One of my favorite sermons during this time came from a 3-year-old boy who brought his Bible to church and put it down next to us. He thought that was how people got to have the microphone!

Well, we gave him the mic and his sermon has echoed in my spirit ever since. He stood and yelled with power, “ARRRRRE YOOOOU READYYY!?” Let me tell you, the glory fell. God had spoken through a 3-year-old.

Are you ready? The King is coming!

It was not uncommon that joy would break out for hours as God restored hope that the nation could be won for Jesus. There were many nights when the crowd would spontaneously worship for what seemed like forever as God healed people often without anyone praying for them. I remember a soldier who had a long-term shoulder injury from military service and was constantly in pain. His wife told us how he wept when he was healed in worship spontaneously.

Entire families were restored, people who had known God for decades reported encountering God tangibly in a way they never had before, and this activated people to share God’s love with others. Suddenly people felt compelled to evangelize their world. God became real, more real than real. It was impossible to be part of this and not fall in love with Jesus the King, and be imparted with a bold faith that God knows how to win a nation.

How grateful I am that God taught us and showed us that impossible isn’t the final word, only the King’s decree is the final say. I can tell you this, it’s a John 11:11 season of awakening people, cities, and nations, and calling forth promises back from the grave. Our voice is designed to call forth Lazarus-style comebacks because we need resurrection working power in every area of our lives.

…”Our friend, Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up” (John 11:11).

Perspective Shift Is Important

When Jesus shows up and speaks to “Lazarus circumstances,” people wake up! We can deliberately purpose our voice to show up and speak the same faith declarations. Our words awaken divine purpose and evict the enemy’s interference in whatever circumstance we aim our faith at.

Jesus notably only refers to the situation of Lazarus in the grave as in need of waking up. What a profound perspective shift! It’s important we see our challenges through the perspective of Heaven. Yes, they are real challenges. Yes, we need real solutions. And yes, we have the God who specializes in divine comebacks and releasing life where the enemy has ravaged.

Impossible is not a roadblock for a miracle, it’s the ingredient of the best Lazarus-comeback miracles. Give greater influence to God’s voice, than the voice that wants to keep people’s lives stuck in grave clothes.

What the enemy means for harm, God turns for good. New authority is on you where you have fought personal battles to now release others into the same breakthroughs. It’s been hard because the enemy is scared of not just your breakthrough, but the breakthrough of many others unleashed in your victory. Keep going, friend. You are breaking through.

You [the enemy] intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives (Genesis 50:20).

What God has grown in us is for us, but it’s also for others. For instance, God did not send harm, but as I walked through my challenges, He grew a fire in me to see the God of Lazarus show up in healing, creative solutions, financial situations, and more importantly to decree revival to a region and a nation.

Truly, what the enemy meant for harm, God intended to accomplish what is now being done “the saving of many lives.” The same is true for you. What has the enemy thrown at you? Where do you carry forged-in-the-fire authority to decree life? You are walking into new authority, my friend, and your decrees are releasing the God of Lazarus.

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The King’s Decree for You

“I am releasing resurrection life into every area that has felt dead or dry. I am pouring out awakening into your heart, My child. Resurrection life is flowing in abundance.” –The King

My Prayer for You

The Lord is moving in your life, friend. I bless all that He is doing. I ask for the resurrection power of Jesus to break forth in impossible circumstances, challenges, and obstacles that have tried to hinder your destiny, and I decree nothing is impossible with God in your life. I bless you to truly flourish and live fully alive. Every place the enemy has tried to contain you or keep you in grave clothes, I say, you are rising stronger. May bubbling joy that comes from God be a sign to you, that King Jesus is roaring resurrection life over your promises.

I pray the fire of God brands you, and I decree you are a burning one touched by the contagious fire of God for such a time as now. You are a Lazarus who has been raised from the dead; and I pray anointing on you to now go and do the same for others; bring many Lazarus circumstances out of the grave. I’m blessing your time with the Lord as precious, joy-filled, and powerful. I bless you with Lazarus-style comebacks and turnarounds, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Decree

God is restoring my story and turning what the enemy meant for harm into good.There is no lack of resurrection power and creative solutions for my life.God is working all things together for my good.The same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead, lives in me.My voice is powerful, and I release resurrection life to dry and dead places, situations and people.I speak to Lazarus circumstances and they come out of the grave.I release resurrection life and hope everywhere I go.

Jodie Hughes