Kingdom Work
Raising the Dead is Kingdom work.
Western medicine can keep a person alive even when they are dead. We can make a dead man’s heart keep beating and lungs keep breathing and kidneys keep peeing. Making his brain work after he’s dead is hard. So, maybe we are just raising his flesh from death, not really him.
Most places on the earth, things haven’t progressed much past the fact that if you stop breathing, you’re dead. They bury you. Death is seen as an enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26-27). One that we are sometimes given power over.
Jesus interrupted a funeral to raise a young man from death (Luke 7:11-17). Jesus sent disciples out to do mighty works, including raising the dead, as they preached His Kingdom (Matthew 10:5,ff). Peter raised people from the dead (Acts 9:36-43). Paul raised a boy from the dead (Acts 20:7-12).
One day, death will be thrown in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14). Until then, when we can peel death’s fingers off the throat of a person, especially in parts of the world where supernatural things are expected (and not explained away with pretentious answers that attempt to brand them as magicians’ deceptions), people will take notice of displays of power and submit to their Source.
When we overpower a force as unbeatable as death, we have done it with the power that comes from the One Who has taken death’s keys. It is an act of domination of the King over His enemies. We should do it more often. Ask…