I believe that some die that God might show forth His Glory. Here is what the Bible says about us!
2 Tim 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Who gives a spirit of fear? Satan.
What does God give? Power, Love, and a sound mind!
Where do we get the Power, Love and sound mind? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is not a possibility but a promise. If anyone in the world should have all the above it is the Children of God. As children we can ask the Father anything that is according with His will in Jesus name and He will do it for us.......according to His will.
1 John 13-15
13: These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. 14: And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us: 15: And if we know that he hear us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. …
"These things I have written" was penned by John and thus set into eternity by the Holy Spirit that they shall not fail or be made void. This is a promise that will not be broken. Vs 14 says "and this is the confidence that we have in Him". Do you have that confidence that God will manifest His will when we ask? What if the answer is no? Are we embarrassed if His will is no? Lets take another look at the possibility of His saying "no". At least you now "know" His will.......right? Before praying the prayer of faith you knew nothing.........right? Now you know. Period. Let others scoff about "spirituality", you now know the will of God. They had a spirit of fear or a lack of faith to offer up the prayer that could of "glorified your Father in Heaven. You were bold in the faith to offer up prayer to know the will of God and give advantage to Him glorifying Himself.
In fact this is one of the commands of Jesus:
Matthew 10:18
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
The key word here is "freely". You have "received" these promises freely. Received is a word of promise. It is past tense. You "have (positive acclimation) received".
Many may think that this has been "dispensated" or it is just a suggestion of what to do. If this is no longer applicable then neither is salvation. If any dot or tittle has failed in the Word than the whole Word has failed and any promise that fails then all promises fail. Hear is a strong warning about your allowances in Scripture:
Luke 8:18
Take heed therefore how you hear: for whoever has, to him shall be given; and whoever has not, from him shall be taken even that which he seems to have.
Here is the time to ask "what have you received"? Nothing? If so then you haven't asked, sought, knocked, or tarried, or, you are none of His. All His mature children "freely have received" that they might glorify their Father in Heaven.
With this all said lets look at a couple of the Biblical examples having to do with raising the dead.
Luke 7:13-15 (KJV)
13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.
14 And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.
15 And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.
13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.
14 And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.
15 And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.
Matthew 9:25 (KJV)
25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.
25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.
| Mark 5:41 He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). 42 And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. Luke 8:55 54 And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. 55 And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat. There are more and here are some of there verses: Acts 9:36-42, Acts 20:9-12, Acts 14: 19-20, John 11: 43-44. |
In Scripture we see boldness to act on the promises of God in the area of "raising the dead" but what do we "practice" today? Quite frankly I have never seen this practiced in any church I have been in (not saying that all churches don't practice this command).
Here is a question that needs to be asked:
How many "men of God" have been "set to rest" without the "faithful" crying out to God to know His will in the matter? Better yet, how many of our children have died and not one prayer was offered up to God about His will on their behalf? We seem to give up our dead to readily to the "Devourer" with out even the possibility of giving God the chance to Glorify Himself and relieve our grief, let alone defeat the workings of satan. How many have you buried without petitioning God first? Now that the question has been asked, how do you feel about reflecting on this? This is not to "beat anyone up" but to make us all realize that we are sore afraid to enact our inheritance for our benefit or the benefit of others. Does our fear and lack of faith deny us the "power of God" in our lives or are we just to lazy to fight for our own. Do we accept death so readily that we are defeated with no options? According to the Bible we do have an option, the prayer of faith! Only then will you know the "true will of God."
A pastor in our area in Michigan had died and his death was a great loss to the community. He had spent many years uniting the local churches to be of one spirit and support one another. He tried to have them put down their differences and work as one in an outreach to the community. He started out Pentecostal and was at the time of his death pasturing a Methodist church. (He left the Pentecostals because he never seen many miracles and didn't like the separation that speaking in tongues caused). Regardless all the minister's in the area came for his funeral and met for fellowship before the showing. After the pastor was "laid to rest" I came home to hear about it from my pastor (a full gospel preacher, very tender to God), ( I was away for work). In the mist of him telling me about the tragic loss I asked him if any of the more than 20 pastors that attended had petitioned God so as to raise him up. He didn't react but said no they hadn't thought of it. I then said that how did they know that satan hadn't devoured him because of the singular work he was doing in the area of uniting the churches? He thought about it for a moment then realized that they really didn't know the will of God in the matter nor took advantage of the promise above stated. This is just an example of what point I am trying to make.
What about children?
Seems to me that Jesus and the prophets raised up children more times than adults. Does that tell us something? If children are a gift from God and His heritage then why do we give up on assuring their continuance so helplessly? We all believe in "training up a child", then why not know the will of God in keeping that child to manifest that training? Children are the "inheritance of the Lord", are we to believe that His inheritance is discard-able without knowing His will? "If your fathers can give you good things being evil, how much more your Father in Heaven will give you good things." Aside from the gift of Christ, and Godly wife (which is needed to procreate), children are the next gift from God, "blessed is the man who's quiver is full."
There are two reasons that Christianity suffers to continuance:
First is that we no longer let God open and close the womb.
Second is that we don't consider children a blessing over having the "things of this world."
I have heard too many brothers and sisters in the Lord say that "they can't afford to have children", but Jesus said "when I return will I find faith on earth" comes in to play here as to "where a man's heart is there is his treasure." Many clearly show that there hearts are not where scripture wants them to be and all of Christianity suffers for it. If God our Creator who has commanded us to "fill up the earth" with His inheritance, then "fill up the earth with the knowledge of Christ", how can that be done without His inheritance? If we can't even obey such a basic command how can we "claim the promises" to manifest His Glory? My wife and I agreed to have 3 children when we were married. We were saved 9 yrs later. That perspective about 3 children was changed by the Holy Spirit and we had 9 out of 13 pregnancy's. The first 4 miscarriages we didn't know what to do because of grief and lack of understanding. Also no one in the church had a clue to give advise on the matter. Everybody's view on the matter was that "it was God's will or they wouldn't of died." By the time the 5th one came along God showed me to pray and not give up till I had His answer. After almost 3 hours of the most intense prayer I have ever offered I had a peace and the victory is shown in our youngest son present with us today. He's 19 this month. If I would have been aware of such a victory there would be with my wife and I possibly 13 children today. The ability to handle the 4 losses is that I will have my family complete when I get to heaven and we are all reunited.
Did you ever wonder why the grief of the loss of a child is so great? Could it be especially painful because the outcome could of been different.
I know that in writing this there will be mixed reactions and emotions, but I would be remiss not to open this door of faith and challenge those that read this that there is hope.
Here is the key to this presentation, faith and maturity. These are the two greatest applications that we need in the church today. Most will disagree with scripture because of "lack of faith", and "maturity". We know better and history backs up our beliefs (or really unbelief's) because this just does not happen any more. We seldom (or never have) heard of it in the church's and the student is to be "as his master". Lets face it our masters need to go back to Bible Faith School and raise the bar some here. Then they will encourage seeking God on these matters and indulge us in the hope that God can still raise the dead in accordance with His will. Are we really so afraid of the will of God? Would we be terrorized if the loved one arises from the coffin? Are we serving the God of Creation or just a god of convenience? Is not the reason for sacrificing Jesus Christ to manifest God's plan and love to the entire world? What is more effective? Preaching the Gospel with words or as Paul has so passionately put it "when I come I don't want to hear your word but see "The Power". It is better to preach the Gospel with words and after "heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons" than to just preach and realize that the only power (and thank God it's there) is that God's word will not come back void. In many areas of faith we have sunk into uselessness.
For sure we are saved but our hands our bound by lack of faith to preform the Gospel not just speak it.
Remember what Jesus said to His disciples when they returned rejoicing over the victories they had over the devil after being sent out? They came to him rejoicing; but so did the man with the demon possessed son; only he was grieving. The man explained to Jesus that His disciples tried but couldn't cast the devil out and Jesus replied: "oh faithless generation, how long shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you." How much farther down that road are we today? If Jesus would come to one of our church's what would He say to us? Would it be that we have been given the "mustard seed" of faith and like the foolish servant have buried it in a stoney place (the heart)? Oh wait (another point) He couldn't say that in most church's because He would not be a member, and non members can't participate in teaching, preaching, voting, choir, or many other things. I guess being the Head of the Church wouldn't hold water over membership. But more of that in the proper post.
So in summery:
The raising of the dead is necessary because:
It proves the power of God over death and that Christ was raised from the dead. If it can happen now then it happened then, and visa versa.
It gives proof of the promised resurrection in the rapture.
It brings hope to those suffering the difficult loss of death on what is the will of God?
It's a sign to both believers and unbelievers that Jesus Christ is Lord and that the Gospel of Christ is the only teaching with power.
What do you believe? What will you do from now on? Where is your faith challenged to?
If life is so precious that we go broke trying to stay alive at the hands of the doctors, then why not, at the hand of God, ask if death is convenient for that day.
Think on these things.
Love in Christ
J&E in Tn
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