1. Raise one person from the dead.
Welcome to my list.
It is a new kind of list. It revolves around a biblical teaching. Namely, that rebirth in Christ turns your eyes from the invisible to the visible, from a life enslaved to the physical to boundless freedom in the spiritual. What was formerly impossible is now possible.
What I’m trying to say is this: I, like every typical human, have a body which doubts that resurrection from the dead is possible; but I have been born again, and the spirit within me has thrown off any limits that previously suppressed it.
And look now at all the possibilities!!!
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover. – Mark 16:16-18
I have a theory. If Christians begin developing new kinds of lists and dreams, ones that include overwhelmingly difficult feats, how different would the world be! Truly, God’s power would shake the ground at our feet.
God’s love would come. Nations would fall beneath it. Mountains would be uprooted and planted in the sea. Great winds would take you up in it. Not a leaf would remain on the great trees of Lebanon.
Sounds like The End doesn’t it?
Well it IS the end!!
The end of what is perishable! And the beginning of unsurpassable beauty and life. Earth: remade.
And we ourselves will be transformed at the blink of an eye. The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” – 1 Corinthians 15:52-55
Climbing, camping, scuba diving, and traveling are all great bucket list items but to see TRUE glory our dreams and desires have to grow larger. We must look beyond the visible to the invisible.
In the words of Francis Chan, “Our greatest fear should not be failure, but succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter” (Crazy Love).
I am deathly afraid of that kind of success, a lukewarm life of comfy growth in small things. So, I’ve begun a new list and with it a new kind of prayer: Specific prayer, impossible, audacious prayers that are too big for me. Small and manageable doesn’t qualify. Vague prayers don’t count either. Essentially, I’m praying for God to come and meet my impotence with his omnipotence.
Here’s my current list in full.
For the sake of the gospel and God’s glory I want to…
- Raise one person from the dead.
- Write a book.
- Get married.
- Adopt.
- Do mission work in very hard/dangerous places.
- See my sister Elizabeth fully healed of her seizures.
What’s on your list?
Let me encourage you with a few words written by Mark Batterson, “Prayers are prophecies. They are the best predictors of your spiritual future. Who you become is determined by how you pray. Ultimately, the transcript of your prayers becomes the script of your life” (The Circle Maker).
This is my new prayer list, my list of world-changing, God-glorifying, physics-defying, and life-altering events that I will use to bring God glory.
Lately, I’ve had a thought. I’ve read it in scripture. It runs through me and around me. I see it in the sky and hear it in the wind: do not be conformed to the world (Romans 12:2). Look beyond what is possible.
Pray for the impossible.
Amen,
Zach
