The other day I was asked by someone if I would try to raise a cat from the dead. After being asked, the look on my face told the story of my faith. If I could translate my face into words, it would be, “What in the heck? Are you serious?” My faith does not include such acts. I have experienced a lot of death in my life. Too much death. Too many dead bodies of friends and family have I looked upon in the last few years. But I have never once tried to raise someone from the dead. Is this evidence of a weak faith? Should I? Should I be attempting such things? Should I express my faith with this kind of assurance?
In a moment of intense transparency, a young missionary friend of Tim Kimberley (executive director of the Credo House) told Tim a story just a few days ago. The story was about the death of an neighbor’s infant child. I am going to post this story and change the names. Please read it carefully. We pick up after they heard about the death.
My wife went over to the neighbor’s house to pay her respects. She came back weeping. Just seeing the baby lying there dead, seeing the mother sitting there alive yet devoid of any real life, any real hope, that is enough to make anyone weep, especially those of us who have the life of another and the hope of heaven. Next it was my turn. I went over to the house and saw the people gathered. It’s very reminiscent of what I’ve thought it would have looked like in Jesus’ day. Some people were surrounding the baby and others were attending to the physical needs of those gathered by cooking food. I shook hands with the men and then went in to see the dead baby and her mother. My heart broke. No, it shattered. Then, I prayed. In fact, I started praying once I heard the baby had died and kept praying up to that point.
My prayer asked God a simple question, “Should I?” Should I pray that this baby would be raised from the dead? After all, Jesus told us we would do greater things than He did. Miracles would be done according to our faith. So, my “should I?” was really a question about my faith. Do I have faith enough even to stick my neck out there and ask this woman if I could pray for her dead child to be raised to life??? We’re not talking about a pray-in-your-head thing here. I knew that wouldn’t do. So, should I? While standing there with tears in my eyes, I felt the Spirit say go ahead (or what I thought was the Spirit). So, after a moment’s hesitation, I spoke to the mother. I told her I believe there is a God that can raise the dead. I told her there is power in the name of Jesus. I asked her if she believed too and if I could pray for her baby. She said yes. So, with everyone looking on, I knelt before this beautiful, lifeless child and begged God to raise her from the dead in the name of Jesus. You know what happened? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I was left with only being able to say that no one understands the mind of God or His will…truly empty words in my mouth and heart (not to mention the mother’s).
So, here is where I am. I’m left with doubts, fears, and even anger. I prayed. I trusted. I put my neck out. What’s more, I put Jesus’ name out there and He didn’t show up. Yes, I’ve heard from others and even my own western theological mind to remember all the reasons we give why God doesn’t answer our prayers. “It wasn’t His timing,” or “It wasn’t His will,” or “He has something better in store,” but all I hear is the scream of my heart asking, “Why didn’t You hear me?! You said You would! Where are You? Are You even there?!” The baby is still dead. The mother is still lost in hopelessness and despair. And now I look like a fool and the name of Jesus is a joke.
Is the problem that I don’t believe God can do those sorts of things? No, I think I still believe that. Do I believe God isn’t real or, as Nietzsche said, that He’s dead? No, if I’m honest, I don’t think that. The real issue is I wonder why God didn’t do what He said he would. I think I’m mad at Him and not about Him.
This email is raw. I usually don’t write things like this. After all, there are unwritten rules in our faith. But my faith has been rocked to the core and I know, regardless of where I end up, I will never be the same. So, I ask you to pray. Pray for me? Sure. But I’m not even sure how to ask you to pray. Please pray more for this baby and mother. These people are dying…literally and spiritually. They need to know, just like my heart needs to know now. It’s just my biggest fear is that an answer will never come. Where is Jesus when you need Him?
Friends. simply put, this is as real as it gets. Don’t laugh, jest, or judge, just learn. What do you think? Should we pray with faith that God will raise someone from the dead? If so, what does this look like?
126 replies to "Should I Pray for God to Raise Someone from the Dead?"
This is something I’ve struggled with as well, but for my own healing from MS. I know people have been healed, I know God can do it. Yet little by little my legs are being taken out from under me, keeping me from doing things with my kids.
Early on, half my body was numb, and the medication took it back until there was just some slight numbness in one hand. I sat on my stairs at home, alone, and asked God, why can’t you just get rid of this last bit? Not a cry for help, just a question. It went away. I wiggled my fingers and touched the front and back of my hand, and indeed it was completely gone. Fifteen seconds or so later, it came back. My thought was this was God saying, “I *can* do it, I’m just *not* doing it”, with an implied “yet”.
That was how I considered it for years after that. The past 3 or so years, I have, however, been really to be rid of this. It’s come and gone a number of time in the past 25 years, but this time it’s hanging on and I’m really ready to be healed. I’ve talked to folks to speak about healing and get the impression from them that God does not give good gifts only to immediately take them away, and that my experience with the temporary healing was not from God. Fair enough, and I can see their point.
But I’ve had so many people praying for me, and, as I said, people who have a healing ministry. I believe I’ve had some slight progress, but not sure if it’s real or in my imagination.
Not everyone gets healing, to be sure, and who am I that I should get it while others don’t. But I sometimes ask the question the other way; why do some do and I don’t. Thorny theological questions.
So my question is similar to “should I pray to raise the dead” from a faith point of view. Why won’t God do this? I’m not having a crisis of faith, just, as the writer is, a little disappointed, because I know it can happen.
Sir you are so wrong ur faith is so weak and limited , I don’t blame u because u are walking the normal way that humanity are, perhaps in time god will send I the holly spirits to guide u more deeply but u must commit to it . It’s not easy given , god knows how deep u are wanting it .
So I say to you and the world out there today , you are only limiting gods power of what he can do ,, ask u shall receive, everything possible with god as long u say in Jesus name only ,, but miracles are not easy granted ,, only the strongest faith will be heard ,,,Only , with so much love and trust in Jesus that he can do the impossible but again humans as u with this mentality sir won’t enter gods miracle not everyone said god oh god enter gods heaven or will be granted what he is asking for,,,only the unshakable in faith will get it and can hear gods answer and will witness miracles in Jesus name 🙏
,, but u must need to claim to be able to get that miracle for someone u love so deeply ,, our job is to pray and let god do his work but u see when u lose someone older ur prayer to him won’t be the same as if that boy is younger or perhaps under 25 of his age ,, my point is god knows your love and the desperation of your need for him I know deep in my faith if u claim and keep claiming without small inch of doubt with full of trust for Jesus full believing in ur heart not one inch of ur doubt then god sees ur desperation and when he sees u everyday for years praying non stop without hesitation standing ur ground , staying bold with god and god sees u ,, you are still
The same suffering u need that son or a daughter u can’t live without them I know god will see and has an exception for that individual human amen in Jesus name only or nothing will happen ,,, and I’m not here to judge you Sir ,, I’m only answer u to educate u about faith but the blind faith and probably u can go preach to those pastors who are acting like Robots but I don’t blame them but only blame their search their lack of faith as Jesus said not by site but by faith and faith doesn’t come easy u need to pray so hard to ask the holly spirits to come to u to fall fresh on you to mold you to melt you to use you and fill you in Jesus name amen ,, some of camer as a gift I’m not judging you because I’m only human only god will and god already knows how human are so weak he always forgive us as he even forgave his students but one of them specifically when he doubted him looking at him but still didn’t believe that was jesus in the flesh with his wounds but then Jesus said ok let me ask him to touch my flesh so he Believes ,, so for that reason I don’t get upset when I come across human as ur self or even Joel osteen or any pastor speaks the word of god they are all motivators ,, I forgive them and pray for them for not believing deeply that could happen but only who has pure faith in Jesus Christ miracles will happen and will start happening I don’t feel or never seen any human as my self and make no mistake I’m no body but the dust on Jesus robe and I have been praying with a father for his son got hit by a car he was 21 years of his age I have been praying with him for his son for 3 years for one miracle because his dad not accepting it but claiming. Only when u claim and stay still strong in ur faith to see that holly miracle that never happened yet in our generation and when It will happen then god will shock u and the world by telling all of us “ you see when u have pure faith with pure asking and unshakable trust that will happen but only when u get to that stage with your transparent faith and I know you might be asking me joking ” oh well how that going ?
did god answer both of ur prayer yet ?
Or u might say to me Tell us when Jesus will perform ur miracle ,,,
So my respond to you ahead of time that” “”never test god and our job is pray and ask keep asking never surrender or give up with god he only knows the time no matter how long it takes , I’m talking only the one who has so pure faith unshakable one , only when god sees his dad reach his pure faith then the surprise will happen ,,, I’m just a vessel with his dad to get him to come to god as he used to be , his dad were lost and now he was found again 3 years ago ,,,
now , it will be between god and his dad ,, we will never know the time or day only god will surprise him , his dad has to keep praying ftom his heart constantly without hesitation and god will know how in need his son to him because there are unique situations with god he knows he is watching his dad what he does and how bad he needs his son
He already tried to commit suicide But failed because I had to step in ,, but again it’s gods doing I know god sent me to him in the right time ,,
I told him he will never see his son again if he sins like that and his son Vrej were so pure as human he was such a good kid he goes to church he is so kind and gentle but mostly he loves god and I’m sure u are going to tell me “ maybe god wants him up there it was his time ,and his will,,I do believe that but i also do believe if god did that I know he will make an exception it depends on his dads situation , god had mercy on us and still and without it where would we be ,?
we are talking about our god almighty king of kings the ruler of every thing , the giver and the taker ,,, we are nothing we are so small like an ant 🐜 on earth he can change anything he wants ,,, so u can tell me all u want about what his students said from the Bible ,
u can translate what ever u want from that Bible that’ u guys destroyed it by changing the meaning of it , u can change what ever u like from the Bible but you are not god and you can’t figure god out but only who has blind pure faith in him , a specially who has the gift from the holly spirits as my self to believe so deeply and he said it to us he gave us a huge hint ,, ask u shall receive ,, everything possible with Jesus ,,,, but no one ever got it yet until I’m telling you and the universe change ur attitude towards god ,, change ur thinking with god stop analyzing the scripture trying to figure it out trying to invent different ways with what god meant
It’s simple and clear but i guess I found out by a dream a long time ago but didn’t bother telling anyone because most of humanity are hypocrites,,, it’s not simple at all after all and not everyone pray fur a miracle will get it ,, only the strong only who has deep trust in Jesus because Jesus is the way and life , and who ever come to my father must go through me
Brothers and sisters I only tell you the truth it’s the only way by “FAITH”
So I’m sure u are saying to ur selves after reading this let us get a hold of that guy so we can educate him but I tell you the truth I tell u go on move on brothers and sisters pastors,, leaders and motivators ,, go on pray And keep ur faith stronger then strong practice it but mostly it’s from a gift From childhood it came from my mother who prays every hour ever day she will be cooking praying where ever she does she prays sometimes I ask my dad how did u put up with. It as a joke but he smiled saying son when u are in love with Jesus as ur mom and me I’m in love with the one in love with Jesus then you have no other option but stay with her and Jesus
but that was the best thing ever happened to me son.
so I hope u learn Something out there and have a blessed day , and I pray for you because strong faith must be practice and pray for it to grow or sometimes its a gift given from childhood sincerely G
I am a Pentecostal minister, but personally I would not pray (aloud, with others present) for God to raise someone from the dead unless I had some very definite assurance from God that He was telling me to do so. What would that feel like? I don’t know…but I believe if God is able to raise the dead, He is also able to tell me ahead of time in a way that I would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was Him.
My theology can handle the fact that all are not healed or raised from the dead – but not everyone’s can, and for that reason, if others were present, I would have to KNOW it was God to avoid hurting their faith. For the same reason, when I pray with people for healing, I never pray in a way that promises healing. Am I praying in faith? Yes, but I’m not going to promise them something God hasn’t promised.
I believe God can raise the dead today, just as He did in the New Testament – but even in the NT, people being raised from the dead is NOT common. I have no problem praying for the dead to be raised, but I wouldn’t pray aloud or let others know I was praying without ABSOLUTE assurance from God – not a feeling, or a prompting, or anything whatsoever subjective – ABSOLUTE assurance.
I’m not sure I agree with the assumption that we can raise the dead. In Matthew 10:8, when Jesus says “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.” He is speaking to the Apostles. It is debatable whether that applies to us today, and worth mentioning that many ancient manuscripts omit ‘raise the dead’.
When Jesus said we would “do greater things than He did”, it is an assumption to think He means we can raise the dead. It could be argued that the “greater things” he refers to is spreading the Gospel through the whole world, saving souls. All will perish, that is certain. The greater thing is to be raised to eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. As He says in Matthew 9:5 – “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?”
This is correct. Jesus was speaking to the Apostles he had chosen to build the early church. Signs and wonders were given to them in order that those whom they went to knew that God sent them and they spoke the truth. We can see that before the book of Acts is closed, that miracles had already ceased, as they were no longer needed. The Apostles had already completed the commission Christ gave to them at his ascension, which the church erroneously believe applies to them too. It doesnt nor did it ever.
God does has not nor will not give the working of miracles to individuals since the Apostles, nor is the office of Apostle in use since then. We have the complete canon of scripture, something the early church did not yet have, to lead and guide us into all truth, including how to be saved.
Anyone who believes that they are called to the great commission, have the power to do signs and wonders like Jesus and the Apostles did, up to and including raising the dead, are deceived and do not know their bible. False teaching in the church has lead and leads many down a path towards their own destruction, and this foolish and vain teaching is but one example of the nonsense spewed from the pulpit today.
If you ask me, I would say that we need to spend less time trying to flaunt authority we were never given and more time repenting of sin and working with the Holy Spirit to become more like Christ, starting with learning how to read our bibles and doing what we are commanded to do.
If God wants to perform miracles today, that is his perogative, but it is not the duty of any of us to be doing them, nor will we. The best thing we can do is to share the gospel when opportunity presents itself and to pray that God’s will be done, then trust his sovereign will for the outcome. If he does the miraculous, praise him. If he doesn’t, praise him even so.
Hebrews 13:8 says that Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. This means that the command in Matthew 10:8 still applies.
That’s definitely a stretch and a misapplication of the scripture. The context of that verse is of Jesus’ teaching and availability of sacrifice to believers. Not of His commandments to the Apostles.
There are only a couple of options:
1) pray and hope he answers
2) Don’t pray
That’s the irony of prayer, if he answers we shout glory, if he does not we say humbly who are we to question God who does as he wills. The stickler is then why pray at all. I feel it’s not so much about what God will do externally but what he does internally. I feel so sad for it can shaken our faith if we do not face the reality of this…bad things happen to good and bad people.
Jim, two questions:
1) Do you think we should pray for God to raise the dead every time someone close to us dies?
2) Do you think we should pray *with faith* that God will raise someone from the dead?
YES & YES! ALSO ANN- He DID NOT TELL US TO WAIT FOR Him TO TELL US TO RAISE THE DEAD He JUST SAID DO IT! MATTHEW 10:8, JOHN 5:21, HEBREWS 11:35
Yes I too ask can we pray to ask God to raise the dead- to return someone back to life for a longer time-
Let’s pray and with faith in God’s promises – then why can’t we hope for a favorable answer? Yes we must be open hearted and faithful!
Let’s pray together for miracle of loved one’s return to life. Amen
Praise be The Lord- We thank and praise God for this gift of faith.
Amen,we are living in the last days,signs,wonders and maricles need to happen because if they won’t see they won’t believe.
When a Christian such as a Saint who is well past their own personal “3 score and 10” and it hurts them all over their body just to get up in the morning, and with or without any specific life-threatening disease when their heart just gives out, I think it would be doing them a major injustice to bring them back to the exact same life without healing all their other ills. But regardless, if someone who isn’t saved and the prompting of the Holy Spirit won’t let you alone about praying for them, then for your sake and theirs you had better follow the leading of the Lord! Even in any degree of pain a person who is facing an eternity in hellfire, you will be doing them the greatest disservice possible if you don’t bring them back even if it’s only long enough to get them saved. If they come back, then I would think God would have prepared that person’s heart to see the need for the Blood of Christ to be applied to their lost soul!
Can we pray for someone to be raised from the dead as we feel led (yes, I said “feel”)? And can we pray also that God’s will would be done (even as a Calvinist who believes that his will WILL be done)?
Just some questions 🙂
This is a tough one. On one hand, men ought always to pray and on the other hand there are some things we KNOW won’t get answered but we pray anyway because it’s just – well, what we “do” as Christians. Honestly, I feel as though i woukd have more faith to pray for someone to come back to life depending on the circumstance surrounding the death (accidental, infant).
To answer the question posed to Jim I would answer this way:
1. No
2. Yes
My answers may contradict but that’s where I am at this point.
I don’t think Jesus ever intended “praying in faith” to equate to “I’ll do what you say” or “if I don’t do what you say, it’s because you didn’t have enough faith.”
I think we risk putting our faith in our faith, rather than in Jesus Christ.
Whose faith is stronger – the man who stays true to God even when God “doesn’t come through” or the man who stays true to God “because” he came through? I would say it takes greater faith for the former.
If God tells you to pray (or even if you just *think* God is telling you to pray – right or wrong), then pray. If you are only praying to test your own faith or to prove something, then don’t bother.
For me, in reality, I wouldn’t make a spectacle of the prayer. I would pray to myself and not draw any attention. maybe because I’m chicken. Maybe because that is consistent with my personality. But it wouldn’t be because of a lack of faith.
But there are people, I think, who ARE called to make a spectacle of the miracle (it’s called “the gift of miracles” – ever heard of it? 🙂 ) I don’t have the gift of miracles, but I believe some people do.
Does that mean there are dead people who could have been raised if I had prayed, but I didn’t? Could be, but I seriously doubt it.
Follow the leading of the spirit, and hope. If he told you to pray and you prayed, regardless of the outcome, you did the right thing.
Aloha Mike,
I think you did the right thing. You stuck your neck out and prayed according to the light that you had been given. I think also in situations like praying for the dead, it is wise not to make too big of an introduction – know what I mean? In other words, perhaps something like this: “I am going to ask the Father to raise your child from the dead. God has the power to do such a thing if He chooses to. I don’t know if He will do so now, but I am willing to ask. Will that be okay with you?” Then when you pray, you leave room for both possibilities — a miracle or a message. I tried to put myself in your shoes. I know that for me, my pride would have been wounded. Because God did not come through, I would feel embarrassed. It would not be so much that God did not show up, but He did and I was expecting Him to make me look good in the process.
Thanks for your transparency. I always enjoy devouring your blogs! They feed well my spirit!
I do believe God’s will is as important as our faith when it comes to miracles. Paul was not told he needed more faith to get rid of his thorn in the flesh; he was told no. I do believe that God heals, but there seem to be only a small number of cases where He has raised the dead. I would pray for it if I felt God leading me to (I never have). But it would be with the clear reservation of committing it to His will and that even if I felt led I might be mistaken. And I would make that clear to any observers if there was any.
“He takes NO pleasure in the death of anyone” “COSTLY in the sight of Abba is the death of His kind ones!”
“He takes NO pleasure in the death of anyone” “COSTLY in the sight of Abba is the death of His kind ones!” YESHUA HAD COMPASSION=ACTION! EMPATHY OR SYMPATHY DOES NOT REQUIRE ACTION.WE ARE TO MIMIC YESHUA IF HIS SPIRIT LIVES INSIDE OF US WE SHOULD SHOW COMPASSION AND RAISE PEOPLE BACK TO LIFE DEATH IS AN “ENEMY” IT SYS SO IN THE SCRIPTURES SO OBVIOUSLY IT IS ABBA’S WILL ALWAYS TO DESTROY THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL & DEATH IS FROM THE EVIL ONE!!!
Extrapolate…. If this were the norm for Christians then the World would be full of the Risen dead, no one in the past 2000 years would have stayed dead as everyone grieving would run to their local Christian to raise their loved one from the dead. Everyone would have that much faith because we’ve all seen it happen.
I’m pretty sure that is not God’s plan or will. What would be the point of Christ’s Return and the Resurrection?
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
“for we walk by faith, not by sight-” 2 Cor 5:7 even 5:8, “we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”
(Not implying that the death of the baby is preferable; not the direction I am heading. The baby’s death is a hard thing and my heart goes out to the family.)
“For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?” Rom 8:24 (also 8:25, 26)
I like a definition of hope I once heard (maybe from Swindoll), “Hope is desire with expectancy.” In what lies the hope of the believer? Is it not the death, burial, and resurrection of the Christ, our Lord Jesus and our resurrection (I Thess. 4:14)?
I concur with Fred that much of what was given for the Apostles to perform was for a time. Those miracles were to demonstrate that Christ was King while the Kingdom was being offered. Were those not the signs for which the Jews were asking (I Cor. 1:22), yet they rejected the King? So, the Kingdom was not established because the conditions were not met for it. God then appointed Paul as an apostle giving him the ability to perform signs and miracles to demonstrate the authority and validity of his message (the Gospel of the grace of God), which was an invitation into the Body of Christ. The implication of being a member of His Body is where our hope lies. Paul did raise the dead (Acts 20), but could he have not healed Epaphroditus (Phil 2:25-30)? What about Paul directing Timothy to drink wine for his ailment in I Tim. 5:23? Was Paul unable to heal later in his ministry? Has Paul the Apostle been raised from the dead? No (at least not yet). Should we then lose hope? No, but Christ. Again, faith is not by sight. Is it not trusting in the reliability of the Lord?
Michael,
I think it much more important to pray for the living, in that they will know God’s saving grace through Christ before it is too late. Praying for Christians to be resurrected after they they have died and already gone to the Lord, is a moot point, IMO.
I know (granted, on a second hand basis) of several people who’ve been raised from the dead. One in particular who was declared dead by the attending EMT’s. Not sure about the others but, in the case of the EMT death the “respondent” was raised by his son – ie: the one there who loved him the most. Whenever Jesus raised someone, as God incarnate, He was THE one in the room who loved that person more than anyone else present.
If we juxtapose John 13:34 (“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”) w/ His assurance that “greater works than these shall he do” it might shed some light on the how of these miracles.
I don’t know if the mother in the above story was praying, in faith or otherwise, along w/ the woman telling it, but it would certainly seem to be a necessary component for it to happen. I mean, think about it: a group of people gathers around “the dearly departed” and the ONE closest to them isn’t in earnest prayer? Calvinist or not, such a scenario makes apparent the will of God for, even Jesus couldn’t raise the dead by merely standing there and wishing it might happen.
And…back in the cave I go…TTFN 🙂
To those who would say these kinds of miracles were for a different time and purpose (when Christ was physically here and the 1st ring disciples), I was going to ask aren’t there cases today when people are raised from the dead? I think there are. @Mike Ducharne told of one in #12.
I just don’t think it happens very often.
I have a bad case of man flu. It is obvious to everyone who sees me. Even got some sympathy from the people surrounding me. They feel sorry for me. Should I call the 111 and ask for an ambulance?
It is clearly in line with what St Johns (that’s the name of the Ambulance services in my neck of the woods) Vision statement “Enhanced health and well-being for all….”. In another paragraph they claim that one of their values is “Empaty – Acting in a way that is sensitive to the needs of others, and is compassionate and kind. How could they not come and pick me up? That would be the kind and compassionate way to deal with my situation wouldn’t it? They are there to serve aren’t they? I am sure I have the right to do it. That they have an obligation to me.
What did I forget? Even though St Johns are there for me, 24/7, it does not make me an authority calling the shots. It does not justify my own interpretations of their role in society, their position, mission, values etc, to suit my objectives. Does it? Hmm…. It is by grace they help us, with no expectation on compensation. No, I don’t think I should call 111 and ask for an ambulance if I have the flu. If I am dying, yes, flu, no.
Death is ugly. It is sad. But in comparison to eternal death it is merely a flu. I think praying for dead is equal to loss of eternal perspective.
Apologies for a terrible analogy, but I couldn’t think of a better way to describe what I believe is the relationship between God and I. God is my savior, that’s what the analogy is meant to illustrate. I am not saying I believe I was created by a Medical Team, even though I was born at a hospital. If you see what I mean.
Oh, one more thing. Does St John need me to help them to create an image of being nice, helpful to attract more people to use their services? And thereby grant my request for help? I do not think so either.
Cheers
@Hman … “that’ll preach!!”
AWESOME analogy – perhaps the best analogy of our relationship to God in regards to faith I have ever heard!!
I’m going to hang on to it and use that on myself. 🙂
Let this audience, as well as any wider audience who happens by here, realize that many here scoff as healing and resurrect of the dead and when called on it simply ignore the counterpoints.
NO ONE thinks that Lazarus, who was clearly raised from the dead, is still alive today. ALL healing and resurrections from the dead are temporary in light of the 70-120 years we have on this earth. Lazarus, Jairus’ daughters and many lepers, all completely and excellently healed by Jesus, all later died.
How many unsaved people are out there because WE AS A CHURCH haven’t told them the Good News? “How will they hear without a preacher”…
How many sick people are still sick because no Christian prayed for them yet?
Praying for Christians to be resurrected after they they have died and already gone to the Lord, is a moot point, IMO.
by mbaker on Sep 12, 2012 at 10:13 pm
Good thing you didn’t try to convince Paul, Jesus or the young man who prayed for a drowned 2 year old a few weeks ago from my church of your opinion!
Lazarus’ sisters, as well as the rejoicing Christian family of that 2 year old in AZ wouldn’t believe it anyway!
He will raise us all.
I always pray for God to have mercy.
Reading the verses after Matthew 10:8, it occurs to me that very very few today have the faith of the Apostles who were sent out and raised the dead. I mean no disrespect with what I am about to write, but in the story above it seems like the faith of the person who prayed for the child to be raised was a bit shaky from the start. The story is full of doubt from beginning to end. Personally I don’t pray for God to raise the dead because I don’t have enough faith, and I recognize that. Lord I believe, help Thou my unbelief.
Minimus,
We must remember that even the people raised from the dead by Jesus and the apostles still eventually died. Raising the dead in a physical sense is not the same as resurrecting someone eternally.
Believe me, I can readily identify with that mother in the story. I did not become a mother of a living child until I was 39 years old after having lost several children. So I do know full well and first hand her grief. Would I have wanted my children to live if it had been at all possible? Of course. But I believe they are they are whole and healthy now in heaven, and I will be reunited with them someday, but if I were not a Christian I would have no hope of that.
Raising people from the dead so to speak, if they go into cardiac arrest is different. We can give them CPR. That does not mean they are necessarily healed however. And would we even want to raise terminally ill patients to undergo even more pain?
We must remember that while Christ raised folks from the dead and performed other miracles His main mission was to preach the Gospel. That should be of greater concern to us too.
Respectfully, this young missionary should only doubt his own thinking and use of Scripture, not the Lord. The apostles didn’t just have faith (it was often weak), they had “authority” to do these miracles (Matt 10:1). It is presumtuous to think we have this authority. We may ask anything in prayer, but we have no authority to insist God perform miracles. All the miracle workers in the N.T. were either apostles, or people upon whom the Apostles laid their hands. Only the Apostles could confer this authority on others. For example, Philip received the power to perform miracles from the Apostles, but he couldn’t pass it on to others (Acts 8). When the Apostles passed from the scene, so did this authority. When Jesus spoke of “greater works” He obviously meant spreading the Gospel… no one even claims to match His power over nature (walking on water, calming storms, etc.)
I have a couple problems with this whole issue. First is that there are many recorded cases of supposedly “dead” people coming alive in the morgue. One happened in my city a number of years back. No one prayed for them to be resurrected. It just happened. Second, I can’t get past the mental image of someone hearing a testimony of a loved one being “raised from the dead by the power of prayer” and the listener asking why didn’t their loved one get raised from the dead. I recall something very similar to that happening in my church. A lady stood up and gave a testimony of her complete healing by prayer from a very serious cancer. A lady in the church suddenly started crying uncontrollably. We found out later on that one of hre young boys asked why grandpa had died of his cancer when they had prayed for his healing. That’s tough stuff, folks. CMP’s post raises a very, very serious issue: What do you tell folks when God chooses NOT to raise the dead or do a miraculous healing? I really wish that church’s would have folks give testimonies of times when God choose not to heal and how, instead, God got them through it. I’ve never seen that in church. Has anyone here? Instead we have all sorts of testimonies to God healing folks and raising the dead and even I sometimes ask “Why didn’t God answer my prayer when my cousin died of cancer?” I prayed in faith and even had some elders with me when we prayed. We layed on hands. We had faith and my cousin Lori had faith, too. Then she died. I wish that I had an answer and when I see Lori in Heaven I’ll be sure to ask.
Hi,
very sad and human circumstance. The sense I get from the OT and the NT is that we are to ask “in faith”–and faith in God is directly related to faith in what He has promised to do. The next issue then is: Did God promise believers in the New Covenant (Christians) that He will raise people from the dead? From what I can see, He has not. Then, to do so may place us in the realm of having faith in [our] faith, not faith in the promises of God.
My Mom was healed, after I prayed for her, from brain cancer, after she died and went to be with Jesus.
I prayed for my grandmother TO die. It was her time and she died immediately when I prayed that.
It was God’s will, that Jesus made very clear.
I have yet to pray for the person I know that needs to be raised for the dead. I hope it happens.
But we responsible Christians must put healing and dying in the PROPER perspective of the ENTIRE Bible.
Sometimes people are SUPPOSED to go.
Sometimes people are NOT SUPPOSED TO GO YET. We MUST act accordingly!
Joni Erickson Tada had many people laying hands on her and asking that she would be healed, but she was not. Her ministry has spanned, I think, 40 years and she has touched a multitude for Jesus. I doesn’t hurt to pray any prayer. We just have to humble ourselves when we get the answer “no.”
I don’t think praying for resurrection is a normative Christian practice. There has been a handful of cases in Scripture where people were raised from the dead, Elijah, Elisha, Peter, Paul and of course our Lord Himself. But in all these cases I would argue they were given this special gift as a sign of authentication of their ministry.
David, a man after God’s own heart, did pray for his dead infant. The Bible is replete with people who died if this was a normative practice there would have been more examples of praying for resurrection. And then there is (Hebrews 9:27) Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment
Finally unless you have received the power of sign gifts then all your prayers are the same in the sense that it is under the providence of God. Your prayer is or is not answered fully depends on your prayer’s confluence of God’s will and economy.
So many good answers!! Lots of good perspective on this topic
I struggle with this one ,.,,, especially in light of the teaching of so many of the “healing ministries” ….
But I think Rich Wilbur had it right …. pray, but allow God to be God …. we don’t know the future so how can we pray as we ought? …. so for me, I can pray for my “wants” – even those things which seem vital to me – and God is both gracious with my foolishness and generous in His dealings with me, but – I have to trust that God does indeed know best, and that He loves me and those I love, and that He is always and unfailingly good.
For those things which I don’t understand, especially those that tear my heart out …. there is only one answer, and that is the Cross.
Shalom.
So, CMP, what’s the right answer? 😉
How do we know if we’ve “received the power sign gifts”?
Are we not to “eagerly desire spiritual gifts” (1 Cor 14:1)?
Thanks for hosting a great and deep discussion.
Jim Zeirke,
You’ve made some good points. I’ve noticed that as well.
Someone last week was thankful for a Christian being released from prison and called that “God being faithful” and “not forsaking the righteous”. I objected immediately. If someone isn’t released, was God not faithful?
I think God’s faithfulness is his abiding with us. In Psalm 73 Asaph describes God’s faithfulness this way:”I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
My first reaction upon reading this story: great sadness and sympathy for the family. My heart goes out to them.
My second reaction: what pride, arrogance and foolishness by this “young missionary friend”! No Christian in 1,900 years has raised someone from the dead, but he figured that God would choose him at this time?
Who would teach someone this type of outlook/perspective?
This story should be taught as “an Example of what NOT to do” in the “Missionary 101” classes at every American Protestant seminary.
Pete, that was a very negative, faithless comment you made. “we” don’t heal people, Jesus does but he has to have vessels to use. I have seen a man paralyzed from the neck down in a hospital bed for a year miracously healed in an instant. His wife prayed and prayed. one day as she walked into the hospital she heard a voice say “Tell your husband to get up and walk”. She told him and he immediately got up and walked. Her son is Cody Custer PRCA bull rider. Go ask him if you don’t believe. In another case man’s 17 year old boy drowned. I learned about it after the funeral was already over. When I was told, I heard the Lord say to me “he didn’t ask”. He (the Lord Jesus) was sharing his profound sadness with me that the father didn’t have the faith to ask. I am certain that this boy would have been raisef to life if the father had only asked. Jesus said would he find faith on the earth when he returns? If you can’t even ask, what kind of faith do you even have? Peter, this is the test. And that pastor passed while you did not. Jesus’ bride will be perfect in both faith and holiness. The short answer is YES pray to have people/animals restored to life. YES, YES,YES PRAY! Better to pray and ask and be faithful to what you know is true than to double back and deny God beecause you fear what man thinks.
Hello Kate,
Please since you do hear from God can you kindly ask Him why He did not answer all my family’s prayers for my sister as she is presently lying in a morgue?
Or wiill He still raise her before the burial date?
I’m so sad and hopelessly depressed please help me.
I’m sorry to hear that. However, if she hasn’t been buried yet , believe God can raise her from the dead. If you are a believer in Christ ,the bible says if we believe in Jesus, and the works he did we (his followers) will do GREATER WORKS. This doesn’t mean great, as in more miracles than Jesus because he did way more miracles in his earthly ministry, than there is recorded in the word see (John 21:25), but rather greater in the sense of more powerful, more amazing miracles. To not agree with this point of view, would be to suggest that the Lord is insecure and would be offended by us doing greater than him. This is not true of the nature of a “true teacher” a teacher’s desire is for the students under him/her to far exceed him.
That’s the true nature of Christ! The word also goes as far as to say, that the same spirit (the Holy Spirit) that raised Jesus, from the dead is alive and working in us ,as his followers. Simply put we have resurrection power living within us- meaning we CAN RAISE THE DEAD! , the only question is , are you willing to believe that it’s possible? Finally, throughout history ,there have been hundreds of accounts, of christians raising the dead. In my opinion, that is too low a number considering the fact that Jesus promised, we’d do GREATER WORKS! and that we have Holy Spirit living in us- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE to those who believe see (Mark 9:23).
More over, what I’m about to give you isn’t a formula, for that isn’t the nature of God, to work in such a way. Rather what I’m giving you is a suggestion, that the Lord impressed on my heart, to give you Jucci.
Here goes:
– Go to the morgue, where your sister is and request to see her/ be with her body, privately for an hour.
– Believe that God wants her raised from the dead, more than you do.
– Lay hands on the corpse and “bind the spirit of death” within her and command her “spirit” to come back to her body , in JESUS NAME!
– Keep your hands on the body and pray in the spirit.
– Keep calling life, into her body, through the Holy Spirit.
Pray that God would send a believer, with faith in Jesus’ resurrection power to help you pray over your sister, in the morgue.
I’m sorry, if it’s too late! :'( believe me, I know the feeling. Just please never stop believing! and trust that she’s in a better place. ♥ Mark
Thanks Aaron. As I said, I really wish that churches would invite testimony from folks who did not receive the healing, folks whose earnest prayers were answered “No”. Seeing that woman’s sobbing and wailing really changed me. Before that I ate up all of the testimonies of healings and answered prayers and never once gave a thought to those who experienced no answer or a negative answer and heard these testimonies as a condemnation of their faith. “If only I was as faithful as that person God would have healed my mother.” Something like that just tears at me now. Aren’t testimonies of God’s faithfulness during hard times when His answer is “My grace is sufficient for you” just as important andmoving as testimonies of the very rare miraculous healing?
Does anyone know of a church that does this? Anyone have a link to testimonies of unanswered or negatively answered prayer?
Pete,
Your ignorance of history is shameful and shocking.
Have ANY scripture, even one, to justify your worldview?
@Minimus
Can you show me one example in the last 1,900 years – since ~ 100AD – of a Christian bringing someone dead back to life?
I’ll make it easy for you…how about anyone in the last 500 years, since the Protestant Reformation?
If you cannot…then what point are you trying to make?
There was this Muslim convert who went to India as a missionary. When a woman went to her with a dead baby (the father had apparently thrown the baby against a wall), she cried out to God ” God, this woman has come to you in faith” ….that was all she prayed, and there was instant miraculous healing that took place there and then…..she couldn’t even believed her eyes. She did admit that that was the ONLY time she had witnessed such a miracle. I personally believe, and all Christians should, that God certainly has the ability to do anything; however faith lies in accepting whatever the outcome cos we trust in His goodness. What’s good for us physically may not be good for us spiritually. Afterall, we all die one day; what we should focus on is sharing the good news with people, and being a testimony for the Lord. We do our part, what we can’t do, we trust that God would take care of them. The Bible says “delight ourselves in the Lord, and He will grant us the desires of our hearts” God is all knowing, He knew all that time that it was necessary to heal the Indian baby, for reasons known to Him; I realise when God does things, it’s for a greater purpose. Marolyn Ford is a wonderful testimony that God is very much alive and He can do great things, but always according to His great purpose.
BTW, Marolyn Ford had her blindness restored after years of bedside prayers (no faith healer involved) and after her doctor examined her eyes, her retina were still detached, but she saw. Sometimes God is quite humorous.
Let’s use this forum to encourage one another to walk close to God, to lift one another up, instead of putting each other down. Christ is the reason we are here, don’t allow satan to have victory in any way.
So I’m not the only one who’s struggled with this. My co-worker died one early Monday morning in front of me about 4 years ago. OK, she was really pronounced dead some hours later on, but she was fine when I was talking to her, then she said she was feeling funny, then started having seizures, then went stiff, then all was confusion. I wanted to pray for her vocally, not just silently, why didn’t I? I still feel guilty about that. I prayed like crazy for the Lord to spare her as the EMTs arrived and wheeled her out, unconscious. What a loss. But He took her anyway. Why? Because He wanted to I suppose is the only answer we’ll get now. But I should have prayed vocally I keep thinking. Why didn’t I? I have my suspicions. Rats!
John,
I hear you. However I don’t think it matters much really whether we pray vocally or silently, since God is in control of the outcomes, in all of our prayers. I think it much more an issue of His sovereignty in determining those things.
Does that mean we shouldn’t pray for the best outcome? Not at all. We pray according to God’s will since that is what He says in scripture. This after 25 + years in prayer ministry.
Even Jesus did that. So no personal guilt should be ours. We simply do as we are bidden.
Some thoughts on healing;
I have actually met a man raised from the dead. He was older, and a family patriarch (what patriarchal really means, a grandfather with grown children and their spouses living together with them, not nuclear families all living in their own households) in India – his family was Nepali, but from Bhutan (where Nepali’s are a persecuted class of citizens). His family was new to Christianity, he got very sick, they prayed – he had 9 kids (I think, 11 or 9, I can’t recall) – he got sicker, they had the doctor come, he died. They took his body to the hospital, then had it released so they could pray. They prayed for hours and hours and hours, all his kids, grandkids, their spouses, etc. I think it lasted over night. He was taken to (heaven? somewhere otherworldly) and met Jesus. Jesus told him he needed to return to earth. Jesus was in a human-looking state, not a Revelation-looking state.
Anyways, he, with a death certificate issued by a certified doctor and the body returned (it is customary in the east to return bodies of deceased loved ones quickly), came back to life. No one family member raised him. No one family member gave up praying.
His family is completely dedicated to Jesus now. Their old Hindu/Buddhist lifestyle is purged, the run orphanages in Nepal and Sikkim (India). The family gave up a lot of wealth and prospects for the gospel (they were a quite well-to-do family, rare for Indian refugees).
I also remember reading about John Wimber (Vineyard founder) who felt called to pray for the sick (this was rare outside of Pentecostalism in his time/place). He began to pray, and his congregation would get sicker! He began to feel defeated and discouraged. He felt called to continue praying. Eventually sick people did get healed, but not before God showed him it was through obedience, not visible results, that he was to pray.
Not prescribing a formula, just some thoughts to share.
Thank you for your post; honest and raw. As a calvinistic charismatic I have struggled with this very issue over the years. Because of my theological bent, I can often theologize myself into unbelief. Yet I have seen God heal people, deliver others (this more often), and seen incredible workings of God’s Spirit yet not to the degree as I would hope. There are many possible reasons and even more explanations but this is not a time for that. It is a battle for many of us not to let unbelief and cynicism rule our hearts in regards to more demonstrations of God’s power in our lives and ministries. Grace and Peace.
My friend (and pastor) Alan preached on this just the other week. He had a very similar situation of praying for a 4-year old boy who had choked, and nothing happened. He spoke of the feeling of being offended by God.
He then told of another of our friends being on holiday in Spain and seeing a “kerfuffle” and finding a group of women wailing around a baby that had choked. They prayed for the child, and then the child coughed and started to breath again. He (Alan) said that he struggled again with being offended by God for allowing it to happen to his friend, but no him.
It’s worth listening to it in his words:
http://www.whiteinchchurch.org/sermons/?sermon_id=39
(The 2 stories begin around 28:45 if you want to skip to it)
I re-read my first post and it came across online as overly-harsh. I apologize for that.
God is not bound my His own rules. He has the power to do anything.
Having said that…the world-wide witness of The Church, since the 1st century AD, has been:
* To pray for the sick
* To pray for good weather and harvests
* To pray for the salvation of our souls
etc. etc. etc.
The witness of The Church has not been:
* To pray for someone who has been dead (Lazarus dead) to be made alive (temporarily) again
* To pray that poisonous snakes will not harm us (in direct contrast to Luke 10:19)
* To pray beforehand that someone who willingly jumps off of a building will be saved from death
* To pray for Satan
Our thoughts determine our lives. Either the Holy Spirit, or the evil one, are putting thoughts into our heads. The Church can help us to determine these origins. Those who have left the family of The Church may lose their way.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.” This needs to be carefully interpreted and applied through the authority of The Church.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega”. If we always try to remember that Jesus Christ is not bound by time – only we are – it puts our short lives in perspective. He has already “been through” the present. He is waiting for us in “our future”, as the Omega.
Pete, authority of which church?
Pentecostals regularly pray for children who have died, the Vineyard’s I attended were fine with it. Very occasionally children do get raised up, usually not. Sad, and difficult to understand why it sometimes works, but not always, but there it is. I have been to Anglican and Baptist churches that would also pray for a dead person.
On an added note the Hebrew word ‘Sheol’ (translated grave) was referred to only for untimely deaths (pre-old age). So raising a man from Sheol (Lazarus) was different from raising him from the place of rest to Jesus’ disciples and followers (so there is the practice of the early church, raising ppl from Sheol, not old-age death).
Reading your comments reminds me of a friend of mine who was part of a group of people praying for a sick child and she ended up dying.
Everyone questioned God, asking “Why?” I asked the Lord the same thing, especially since one of the people who decided to join this group in praying wasn’t a Christian and people thought it would be the ideal witness to her if the child was restored to full health.
This woman was a friend of mine and I sat at her kitchen table and we talked about the situation and I found out that the parents were very angry at God when their child fell ill. How could He bless that situation?
Now, I’m not saying that the mother in your story did anything wrong but my point is that there may be circumstances you are not aware of that influence God’s decision to intervene.
And you know what? The Holy Spirit told me to commend the unsaved woman for praying for that child and I ended up leading her to the Lord only minutes after she expressed her disappointment in that situation. God’s ways are higher than our ways.
Bless you, Brother in Christ, and keep stepping out in faith. As the Scriptures say, “Despise not the day of small beginnings”. Ask God to develop the gift in you, to mentor your in your desire to see people raised from the dead, because I believe you will see your miracles!!
I believe that people can and do get raised from the dead by the power of God as a result of prayer of the saints.
I imagine it is faith-crushing to see that the dead is not raised after prayer.. but I also believe that failure is necessary. Perhaps this is the failure that will be monumental in shaping the young missionary’s character faith…
Check this out:
“John Wimber once told me that he prayed for about a thousand people to be healed before he saw his first healing. He believed in healing because he believed the Word of God, and he felt a burden to see healing released again to the body of Christ like it was in the first century. However, it took great perseverance for him to experience his first breakthrough. That is because God wanted to use him in such a great way in healing, not only being used to heal thousands himself, but he had one of the greatest ministries ever in releasing others into authentic healing ministries.
A basic principle I’ve learned is that anything which happens too fast or too easily is usually insignificant. Study the significant ministries in Scripture and most had to go through a hard and long preparation for their callings. One common factor you see with those who walk in great callings is that they do not give up. I don’t know of anyone else who prayed for a thousand people to be healed, enduring a thousand disappointments, but not giving up, except for John Wimber. You may also not find another person in history who released so much healing into the body of Christ in their time.
Likewise, the great revivals in history were almost always ignited by a person or group who got such a burden for their nation, or city, or church, that their heart would nearly break, driving them to intercession until there was a breakthrough. In the classics, you read a lot about “persevering prayer,” and “contending” for long periods of time. This kind of “burden” is almost always found at the root of all great ministries.”