Monday, January 5, 2009

Why Aren’t There Christians Praying for the Physically Dead to Be Raised?

Dear Pastors and Christian Friends,

As I consider my more than 40 years as a Christian, I do not recall ever seeing anyone at a funeral or at a hospital asking God to raise someone from the dead. Why is that? Have I just been in very barren places and praying for the dead to be raised is more plentiful than I know?

Did not Jesus stop a funeral procession at Nain (Luke 7:11-14)? The mother and the funeral party and definitely the dead man, had no idea that Jesus was passing by and there’s no indication in the scripture that they knew Jesus was capable of such a thing, and in His great compassion, He raised a young man from the dead, his mother’s only child.

Did not Jesus say, greater things than these ye shall do? “I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these, because I am going to the Father,” John 14:12. Does the word of God not say “Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?”- Acts 26:10.

With God all things are possible! Why are we not drawing on the power of God for the physically dead to be raised?

Fear? Have we become so drunk with the world that we have taken in the images of horror movies that we are afraid to say to a lifeless body “rise in the name of Jesus!”?

These horror movies/images are they not an instrument of Satan to delay us from our destiny?

It’s time to Defy the Lie!

Are we not to snatch people from hell (Jude 1:23)? Praying for the dead to be raised is one way of razing hell. I woke up thinking about this as one of my pastor friends last night told me that a professional contact had been quickly cremated as part of a religious belief system. It gave me pause as I remembered another recent cremation. It’s as if the mind-set has been established to quickly get rid of the body, so just in case there are those who would dare believe and ask God to raise the dead, there would be no body to raise. But of course to God, a cremated body is no problem; He will call the body to be raised whether lost at sea in a “watery grave,” in fire, or wherever or however.

As we prepare to “Shine in 2009,” isn’t it time to begin drawing on the power of God to raise the dead, heal the sick and achieve that, which is impossible for man? We are crying out for jobs, and houses, and cars, for the economy to be fixed and our comfort. Are we crying out for the THINGS, more than the people—more than for souls to be saved? At the least as we cry out for the things, can we not at least cry out for all the souls involved so that they may be saved?

As we pray for the dead to be raised, sick to be healed, souls saved from hell and the things we desire, let’s start believing God at a level we’ve never considered. What does “thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven,” look like?

A major key to asking for the impossible is to deal with the day-to-day demands as “we are to love one another and the fact that the world will distinguish us by the love we have one for another.” Where is the love?

I won’t write a treatise, but I would like to ask all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to ask the Lord to equip us to accomplish “greater things than these ye shall do.” Let’s not drop praying for the dead to be raised, the physical as well as the spiritual.”

There are practical considerations as we prepare our minds to accept new horizons. We must deal with media. Here’s a link to a study, “Trojan Horses of Race” that says TV news creates racism and perpetuates it in our community:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=627381

When’s the last time you heard of a civic or religious group meeting with local TV executives making them accountable and asking at the least for more community shows and public service announcements to balance out the negative of the news department? When’s the last time you have heard of a group challenging a station’s license. They are making money off of public airwaves and our minds. They can be held accountable.

It’s time to create our own messages and distribute them via the Internet and broadcast media. It’s time to create opportunities for writers, producers, camera operators, editors, artists, etc. with the real world view-“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Personally, I want to live the possible 120 years (in divine health—“his eyes did not dim,” etc.) as described in the Bible and at the least the 80-85 years. I want to see our young people (as in Psalm 144:11-15) live long-lives and not take drive by shootings as the way it is. What would happen if we Christians prayed for a child in the street and he/she was raised from the dead?

“The kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.” Isn’t it time we violently take people back from death. We won’t begin to do so unless we at least think about it. Get the images in our mind. “As a man thinketh, so is he.” Imagine it; prayer teams storming the hospitals, accident scenes, suicide-bombing incidents and wars, raising the dead in the name of Jesus! “You can’t die without Christ, raise up in the name of Jesus!” or "Rise up Christian in the Name of Jesus, You've still got work to do!" How awesome!

Feel free to pray for me to be raised from the dead, if I haven’t reached my 120 years! Feel free to pass this inquiry on to any believers in Christ. If you know of people praying for the dead to be raised in balance with all things that pertain to life in Christ and in the context of authentic Christianity, let me know.


With Love in Christ,

Jackie Wright

415.525.0410 (cell)

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