Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons.
Give as freely as you have received!
— Matthew 10:7-8 (NLT)
You may know that we at
Adventures in Missions (yep, the World Race is just a part of a greater ministry) believe this happens today as it did when Jesus lived here on earth. And perhaps it’s no secret that we want to cultivate the kind of faith that will see him through on these words, yes, even the “raise the dead” part.
Joel Dutton, one of our missionaries on the
January 2011 V squad, offers a perspective that makes us realize that perhaps not all resurrections are created equal. Here’s an excerpt from his blog post:
Raising the dead… So I know what you are thinking… You read this and you think “miracle”… Yes? No? Maybe? Well when I think of the dead being raised that’s what I think of.
But what if I flip the script? Last week while we were doing door-to-door [evangelism] with a local team, in my lack of understanding of Spanish, I began to flip through Romans and read Scripture while I prayed and interceded for those sharing. This is what I came across:
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
— Romans 6:1-4 [emphasis added]
What’s up, I’m Joel’s flesh… I used to be dead… but every now and then I talk him into breaking out the defibrillator and shocking me back to life for a little fun. I think he tends to forget all the good times we use to have. So I do my best to remind him. It is not too hard, our good times are pretty well documented, so I know it is hard for him to forget.
Coming on the Race, I wondered if I would ever see the dead raised. Last month in Nicaragua, we tried… Seriously… But after reading this Scripture I realized that ever since my walk with Christ began I have been raising the dead on a daily basis.
My flesh is supposed to be dead, yet it still fights for air. I always manage to give it just enough to make it one more day. I go through seasons of death and burial… only to follow it up as a grave robber seeking “riches” from the past…
Paul told the Ephesian church that,
we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
And these very powers will do what they can do raise what Christ crucified — your sin, your old self.
But thank the Lord for empowering us not only to put death our flesh but to live by the Spirit, bringing the new self to life.
My old self has been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me.
— Galatians 2:20 (NLT)
