To the OP, if you had raised this question earlier in the year, I would have
said that while I believe it with my head, as the bible tells of
people being raised from the dead by Jesus. In all honesty I didn't
believe it in my heart. It would have seemed such a massive thing.
But after the most incredible answers to prayer i have seen this year,
I honestly feel now that anything is possible with God.
I have also come to the conclusion that when we are at the most
desperate and we turn over everything to God, for there is nothing else we can
do humanly speaking. That is when God moves in the most amazing ways.
To have faith to pray for a dead person to come back to life, you have to be
desperate, you have to turn that situation over to God. I think also that
you need a word from God that you are doing the right thing and it's not
that person's time to die yet.
That is crucial as there will be a time for all of us when it is our time
to go. But I have also realised there are many times when Satan tries to
cut our lives short. It's this second group of people where I believe
we see healings, and maybe even people could be raised from the dead.
Would I have the conviction to prayer for a person to be raised. Well that
has never been tested for me. I think though that if it was the right thing
to do, we would get a clear feeling that we need to do it and that we would
know it was the right thing to do.
I just felt that I needed to alloborate on this a bit more, as my comments above
were not just based on my opinion but on my own experiences.
Some may have read the testimony about my 80 year old aunt, who
God miraculously healed.
She became ill 9 weeks ago and woke me up the early hours of the morning
needing to go to the bathroom and feeling unwell.
While she looked unwell, she didn't look really ill but I just had a sensation
of absolute urgency that I must call an ambulance, like right now!
When I got through to the emergency services they asked me what was wrong,
well I didn't know, it was just a feeling that something awful was wrong. So i
told them I felt she was unwell and needed urgent attention. I didn't know
what else to say.
Anyway the first on the scene was a paramedic first response car. He asked me
what was wrong and I just told him about her general unwellness. He didn't look
convinced, in fact he looked as if I was wasting his time. But then he took her
blood pressure and it was sky high, well her oxygen saturation levels were very
low. At that point he started panicking and asked for a blue light ambulance
immediately.
At the hospital I was told her heart could stop at any time due to high potassium
levels and it was a case of when, not if. During the first week she was in hospital
the doctors kept pulling me to one side wanting to put do not resuscitate on her
notes and saying prepare yourself for the worst.
But just as I had a strong conviction there was something urgently wrong with my
Aunt which led me to call an ambulance, I also had a strong sense that it was not
her time to die. So I went into hospital each day praying for her and putting oil
on her.
Well she is medically ok now, just waiting for adult social services to sort out a
care plan at home so then she can come home.
One thing they did discover, is when she lays down flat or slumps, her
oxygen sat levels go down and it seems to be a positional thing as she is ok
when sat up a bit more or sat in a chair.
So another amazing answer to prayer. Yesterday the NHS equipment services
delivered a hospital style bed and hospital style mattress to our home free
of charge. It's on loan for as long as we need it. The bed can be raised or
lowered, the head and the base can be raised or lowered and it can also be tilted.
This means she can be propped up in bed and properly supported. The delivery
driver told me the cost depending on bed type is £4000 - £5000!
It cleary wasn't my aunts time to go and God showed me that and is continuing
to answer prayers for her well being.
This is just one of the situations I have found myself in this year where, out of
utter desperation I have just poured out my heart to God and he has just
spectacularly stepped in.
I feel that often when we pray we are not really that serious, it certainly
applies to me. We can often treat God like Santa Clause hoping that if we have
been good enough he will answer, but just shrugging it off when prayers
do not seemingly get answered.
I honestly think that when it comes to prayer, the motives and how serious
we are, is probably far more important than the words. A simple heart felt "help me"
is often all that is needed. Also often we want instant results but God's timing
is better than ours.
So could we raise someone from the dead, absolutely if it was the right thing to do
and under the strength of God.
Sorry I've gone on a bit.... again