The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” John 11:44 (NIV)
Jesus has already destroyed the devil who had the power of death and has freed us from the bondage of the fear of death. Hebrews 2:14, 15.
Yet today many believers live, walk, even pray, and minister in terror of the devil, death, hell and the grave! Why?
Though freed from the hold of the defeated enemy and given authority over him the majority of Christians are still putting on the grave clothes that tell them that they still belong to the grave!
What are grave clothes? In the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11 we see that Jesus dealt with the work of the devil which was death. Lazarus came out from the grave after Jesus called him out. But the man was still bound by those tight stinking grave clothes. The grave clothes were tied all around him by people and not the devil. So these were the work of man in response to what the devil had done which was Lazarus’ death.
The grave clothes that believers should take off include the man-made, man taught religion, and mindset that we continually have to struggle to gain or deserve God’s approval. We take off that by renewing our mind with God’s mind or Word that says we were sinners but now we have been saved by Grace. Ephesians 2:5, 6. We are now the Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21
Another man made, man taught, religious, grave cloth is the teaching and belief in generational curses. The truth of God is that Christ became every curse including the ones that are generational on the Cross and the blessing of Abraham came upon us who were gentiles. Galatians 3:13. Every believer in Christ lives and walks in and under generational blessings. Ephesians 1:3. Jesus did not take off Lazarus’s grave clothes, He told other people to do it. God will not renew our minds for us. He has set people in ministry in the body of Christ under the anointing of the Holy Spirit to preach and teach the truth of His Word that sets every one free from the lies that keep them walking in bondage.