Coming to know Christ in His word: Praying with John 11:20 – Healing 2025

Summary

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The Word of God is living and able to transform us. God speaks to us through Scripture and often works to transform us in ways we do not see immediately.

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Reflective Study Guide Questions

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Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword

Heb. 4:12

1. Mary discusses the different Greek translations of our English word, “word.” Scripture, as the Word of God, is living and able to transform us. How might knowing this influence your attitude toward Scripture?

2. In the Lectio Divina passage, Martha tells Mary that Jesus is calling for Mary. How does it make you feel to know that Jesus calls for you in this way as well?

3. In the Lectio Divina passage, Mary falls at the feet of Jesus. This image can show us what it might look like to feel broken but be fully surrendered to Jesus. When was a time in your life that you felt this way?

4. Mary shares an anecdote about the butterflies she raised and how she missed them flying away. She compared it to the work God does in our lives that we often are not able to see until later. What work has God accomplished in your life that you did not see until later?

Text: Coming to know Christ in His word: Praying with John 11:20

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Hi, welcome back. My name is Mary Bielski and we’re going to go deeper into the Pray More Healing retreat as today we’re going to talk about intimacy with Christ, coming to know Him in His word. But let’s start.

Opening Prayer

First start off with prayer. Father, son, Holy Spirit, and amen. Heavenly Father, I praise you. I thank you for the gift of just coming to know you in prayer, who you are. Ask that you would reveal yourself as we chew and eat the word, the bread of life, and come to know you. Ask this in Jesus mighty name. Father, son, holy Spirit. Amen.

The Word

Awesome. Well, thank you for these weeks that we’ve been journeying. Last time we spoke, we talked about the transformation process. Today we’re going to go into intimacy, which is the way that keeps us staying on. On the table as we talked about last time, I’m going to spend some time with, uh, some prayer with Lection Divina teaching you a little bit about that.

Going a little bit deeper, uh, I’m going to give you some homework, like a good old coach as well to, to really help you encounter the word. Um, a couple of thoughts before we go in is, within the scriptures, it talks about the word, um, of God. We know in, in John’s gospel it says, um, that in the beginning was the word, the word was with God.

The word was. Was God, that Christ, the eternal word, was eternally God from the very beginning. And that word became incarnate in Christ Jesus. That the word, uh, and the translation, the Greek for that is logos. Most of us, probably, if you grew up in the church, would have heard that term. It’s the, it’s the ordering principle.

It’s a Greek terminology that they would’ve known in that timeframe of. That all things are ordered to a purpose at an end. It’s what holds all things. That sustains all things. It’s the principle that actually the truth that holds all things in Inc. Congruency and Christ is that, and God became flesh.

It’s him holding that revelation and all of who he is. And, um, we see also throughout, so that’s the word of God. We also see throughout scripture that it uses the word of God, um, is a different Greek word. And what’s interesting in English is that we have one word. Word. Uh, but in the Greek language, uh, they have different translations of word.

And another translation you’ll see when Jesus is in the, the, um, being tempted in the desert by its Satan. And he tempts him in many different ways. And Jesus combats that with the sword of the spirit. With the word of God. And he says, this line in Matthew 4:4. There’s other places he uses the translation of Rhema.

He says, um, A man cannot live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Now, that word is a different translation. It isn’t logos. It’s “Rhema” which means the utterances. These speaking of God in a specific time and circumstance, this is really important for us to understand because throughout the scriptures, like for instance, even in John six, if you look at the translation right after the Big Bread of Life discourse, he says, the, the word of God is life.

Right. He, says the word that there actually is the Rhema word he was saying in the circumstance, people are grumbling. They walk away. He’s saying like, no, no, no. This word that I speak is life. The bread, like he’s talking about this truth that I speak is life. And so understanding that translation in the Greek is, is important as weas we look at the word of God.

’cause I want to teach us how to pray in the word, uh, of God. Um. But also that we’d be asking the Lord to give his, his Rhema word today, the  utterances his. His word becomes, as it says in Hebrews, his word is alive and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, able to pierce and divide, um, soul and spirit, bone and marrow, able to perceive the thoughts and intentions of the heart, right?

Lectio Divina Stages

That this word of God is actually the living word of God in the scriptures, but it actually is living. It’s not just dead words. It’s Christ himself that comes to be speaking through scripture. And we have a part to play in that as we show up, as we meditate. The early church would do this quite extensively and meditate on the world word, and that’s what we’re going to be doing today with Lectio.

It’s the divine readings. We’re going to be reading the word three times each time we’re going to go deeper. So if I were a coach or a, uh, doing this with you, which I ironically am, I would throw you an apple. The first stage. You grab the apple, you’re just going to look at the apple. You know, like, okay, it’s the first time we read to the scripture.

You’re going to look, just listen to the scripture, get familiar with it, kind of see what it looks like, where it is, the context. Get to know the story. The second time, we’re going to go a little deep deeper, and I’m going to hand you a knife and you’re going to cut a piece and you’re going to put it in your mouth.

You’re going to taste it. So the second stage, we’re going to read and go a little bit deeper, and we’re going to find a phrase or a word that stands out, or what I say is highlighted. Um, drawing our attention. Uh, it feels a little weightiness, just kind of it just draws our attention to a word or phrase, the spirit in your own heart.

Just what stands out to you. And that’s kind of when you’re going to put the Apple piece in your tongue and just taste it. Like, okay, there’s, there’s something specific that, that God is kind of highlighting here, and then we’re going to go a third time through the word. And the third time is actually the, the really important meditation contemplation where we’re actually chewing on the apple.

We’re actually taking in the nutrients for tasting the texture. We’re understanding it. This, this discernment. Um, this is talking about even the renewal of our mind in, in Romans two. I have such an important concept that says that we could discern, I think I’ve said this in another video, that to renew, to be transformed by the, by the renewal of your mind.

That but by you, by discern the will of God, what is true, acceptable, and perfect. The discernment is because you would know the difference between what’s good and what’s not. You would be in the word. And the word would form us and begin to, to form our mind and how we see and how we think, and give us those new lenses, which we talked about in that first video.

That’s just the renewing of the mind. It’s the transformational process, and I will get into the prayer. It’s so important that we are people of the word and a prayer. You know? Again, all these things I’m talking about identity. We don’t go and just it poofs on us. It’s, it’s bestowed like on. The identity is given to us in relationship just like Jesus, who goes off the desert.

The father said, this is my beloved son, to whom I’m well pleased. When he gets baptized, the Jordan, the Father speaks his identity, the word of God speaking our identity back to us. And sometimes we need to spend time to receive and hear that word and get it gets rooted in us, right? This is the power of the word.

The other part of that transformational process is renewing our mind, letting us start to think like God, taking the lies out, taking them. Captivate says, it says in second Corinthians 10, five, we destroy every lofty opinion that rises up against the knowledge of Christ. Everything that doesn’t look like Jesus, sound like Jesus.

I grab it and take every thought captive to obey Christ. Meaning that we have a part to play. He’s going to give us the salvation, but the soul, the, the spirit has been redeemed and our Holy Spirit lives in us. But our, our thinking and our carnal ways has to be brought into authority under Christ, and we need to renew our mind.

He says this over and over. Paul talks about taking off the old self and the new self. There’s a participation process, and this is what prayer does. It brings us into that process with the father, where he kind of shines a flashlight on our heart where things aren’t aligning. Where we need to shift our attention, where he can, can love us in places that we aren’t loved, that can challenge us in places that we’re not listening.

Corinthians 3:18

And all of the above it, the beautiful part is sometimes he’s doing it without us knowing it. Um, last story and then we’re doing this, um, a number of, um, one of the, one of the scriptures that I really love, I love scripture, as you can tell, um, is in second Corinthians, 3:18 where it says we all would.

We all, um, with unveiled faces, we talked about in the first video about Revelation being an unveiling. And in this specific chapter, Paul is really talking about the veiling in the Old Testament that’s been unveiled in the New Testament in Christ. And now we see the God of the universe, we understand. So he says, we all with unveiled faces, behold the glory of God like a mirror.

We behold who he is and see who we are, and we are being transformed into that same image from one glory to the next. Beautiful. The, the Greek word for transformed is metamorphoō which is the Greek word for metamorphis, which is the same process of a caterpillar being transformed into a butterfly. We become new that now heaven and earth weds into the human heart, and it’s not just who we were dead before, but now.

Christ to me, the hope of glory. We become this new creation where now Christ lives in us and how we think and how we see all gets transformed and the word becomes the place of one of those transformations where we behold him. We can behold him in the Eucharist, we can behold him, and he can behold us being with him. As we unveil the word, we’re going to do this three times. I’m going to do it quickly. I felt the Lord say do, um, a little bit of Lazarus because we talked about Lazarus at the last session and about the power of, um, him transforming us in the grief, the grief sometimes that we speak.

John 11

So this is John 11. I’m going to start off, um, in the second portion of this. Okay. And we’re going to start off with Mary. We’re going to start off in, let’s say, chapter 20. Let us begin. It says this, when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, this is after Lazarus died and everything unfolded, he says, when Martha had heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him while Mary sat in the house.

Interesting. Two people, Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you would’ve been here, my brother would not have died. Even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Jesus said to him, your brother will rise again. Martha said, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day. Jesus said to him, I in the resurrection of life, he who believes in me, though he dies yet shall he live and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God. He who is coming into the world. When he said this, she went and ca, when she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying quietly the teacher is here and he’s calling for you. Oh, I love it. And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went in.

Mary’s already praying in the house, just saying, now Jesus had not yet come to the village. But was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, um, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go over, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb, to we there.

Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him fell at her feet saying to him, Lord, if you would’ve been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved and spirit and troubled. And he said to him, where have you laid him?

They said to him, Lord, come and see Jesus. Jesus wept. So the Jews said, see how he loved him, him? And then it goes on, and this is the part where it says, remove the stone. We’ll stop right there. So beautiful. I’m going to do this two times. The third time, I’m going to have you do a little bit on your own in journal, but let’s go back to 20.

Second Time

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him. While Mary sat in the house, Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you would’ve been here, my brother would not have died, and even now I know that whatever you asked from God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection, but the last day, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection life.

He who believes in me, though he dies, yet he will live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God, who he who is coming into the world. When she had said this, she went to call her sister Mary, saying quietly the teacher is here and he’s calling for you again. I love that Jesus is calling for Mary. love it. Um, now, Jesus had not yet come to the village. But was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly, go and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to wheat there.

Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell to her feet saying to him, Lord, if you would’ve been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved and spirit and troubled. And said to and said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see, and Jesus wept.

Did you just think about what words, this is the second phase where you find the phrase or the word that stands out. Maybe it’s Jesus wept. Maybe it’s he called for you. A simple sense that God’s calling for Mary and her grief. If you would’ve been here, a sense of anger in your heart, where, where were you in the season rose quickly, the idea of a response. Maybe you’re in a season right now that you, you haven’t been rising quickly. You’ve been complacent. This call to rise quickly to the Lord fell at his feet.

This idea of totally being surrendered and broken, so many words, one word can carry the mystery of God. But I want you and your time from prayer. I’m going to have you do the third time by yourself. Start off with John 11, verse 20, with Mary and Martha. And I want you to read that third time as we go through.

Watching the Butterflies Unfold

Because I want to be intentional about the time and I want you to allow him to break the bread with you. And the third session, as you read this, I’m going to give you some homework because I’m going to teach you how to eat and I’m, many of you are already probably advanced in the kingdom. You’re not babies here. He just wants you to grow more. There’s revelation to encounter him. As we behold his face, as we chew on his word, he transforms us from glory to glory.

Um, I had a, a couple weeks ago I bought some butterflies. Hang with me. I’ve been very obsessed with transformation my whole life. I’ve been in inner healing, bought butterflies because I heard they were for 30 bucks. You can see the whole process and I was like, okay, I’m going to do this. because my friend’s daughter did it. She’s like in middle school and I thought it was kind of cool. I’ll do who doesn’t want butterfly, but they’re ugly Caterpillars. And so the last, this is actually about five weeks ago, so just so you know, this is recent.

I began to watch these caterpillars who were kind of nasty, ugly unfold, and I kind of was beholding them. I don’t know if they were beholding me. I’m like, oh, and then all of a sudden, one night they were in there all overnight. They like kind of were in the cocoons, and then one day, one had hatched. It’s overnight just God doing something when I wasn’t even looking.

And then three hatched, and I was like super stoked because they had hatched on my birthday. I was going to release them. This is what God does in our life as things unfold. He’s transforming us from glory to glory, one word, even Lazarus in his tomb. And, um. The crazy part about all this is sometimes we see it, like I woke up in that morning and I got to see them.

I didn’t see them hatch, but I got to see them flying and talk about their colors and I was kind of geeking out. Well, um, I was going to release them on my birthday, which is about two weeks ago, and, uh, they had all released. I was super excited. I was talking to my friends about it because it was kind of like a interesting thing.

Like I’ve been, I don’t know, I’m raising some butterflies around here, people. And, uh, I got really busy on my birthday and lo and behold, they were sitting out, they were in this container that, that it comes with, and they were sitting outside and I was going to release ’em on my birthday. And, uh, my prayer was it to be a prophetic act, meaning I was going to do something in the physical that was going to speak about what God was doing in the spiritual.

And so I was kind of excited. And in my birthday I got super busy and I knew, I felt like in my spirit I should do it on my birthday, but I’m like, I’ll just do it tomorrow, just like Jesus and Lazarus. I waited an extra day and a storm came and it killed my butterflies. I’m super upset. This sounds so lame. Just hang with me. I was kind of bummed. I’m like, Lord, this is going to be like this epic story. I got to release the butterflies. I had bought 10 $30 on these things and hatched them and did whatever I fed them with. You got to put little water and feed it. It’s long story, but like that, not a big deal, but still.

And I was like, Lord, what are you, what are you saying? And I was like, okay, maybe you’re teaching me about obedience because I didn’t release them on the right day. What does that mean? That they died? Like how many times did our stories we’re like all excited for God to do something and then he doesn’t.

My, if he would’ve been here, God, if you would’ve been here, the storm wouldn’t have come and something would’ve been released and, and um, I left them in my garage and I just kind of left them. I left it open. Because I was like, well, let’s let the air come in and all this stuff. And long story short, I came back a day later and they were gone.

They had, they had lived, uh, I knew they, they weren’t on the ground dead, they just weren’t moving. So maybe they were just startled, but they definitely flew out. I did a lot of investigating and I was like, gosh, that’s crazy. But God, I didn’t get to see it. I didn’t get to see the resurrection. I didn’t, and Jesus just is saying today, the process of, I think, I feel like for this healing, for this intimacy call, we don’t always see how the seeds grow.

And the mystery of God. Sometimes when we let them sit, when we sit in the word and we’re not doing anything, we’re not looking at the butterflies, we’re not paying attention. We’re just sitting and waiting. He does the work without us seeing. He starts resurrecting us as we sit in prayer. As we don’t see it, we don’t.

Or sometimes it’s mundane and you’re going through the motions, just praying, and all of a sudden, the next day life is in your heart. Next day, the butterflies are coming back to life and you don’t know how. You don’t know why, but only by grace, when we abide in him, it sets apart for him. We could do nothing. But when we abide in his word, life begins.

Closing Prayer

Let’s end with prayer. Heaven only. Father, I thank you so much for this time for prayer, this time for intimacy to know your word, to eat, your word, to live your word. And that every area of our heart would break through into freedom as the truth that sets us free.

Ask you to bless those listening today as they go deeper into John’s Gospel and read one last time, God’s word for them and the resurrection of Lazarus, and for us to continue on a road to seek only your face. We ask this all in Jesus’ name, Amen.

About Mary Bielski