Pastor Edgar Mayer;
For more sermons and other writings check out pastor’s homepage: http://www.geocities.com/mayeredgar
It
Is In The Book
Edgar: “He is risen.” Congregation: “He is risen indeed.”
Edgar: “He is risen.”
Congregation: “He is risen indeed.” We
like doing this on Easter. This is a Sunday of celebration. The Bible says in
Romans 1:1-6: “ … the good news of God .
promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his
Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of [King] David, and who
through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by
his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord … “ Then one more verse from the same chapter –
Romans 1:16: “I am not ashamed of the good news because it is the power
of God for the salvation of everyone who believes … “
Something awesome happened here. “ … through the Spirit
of holiness [he] was declared with power to be the Son of God by his
resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord … “ It happened 2000 years ago in Jersualem. A dead man
whose tortured body was removed from a wooden cross only days earlier became
alive. Someone – Jesus –conquered
death and with that astounding victory then – so the Christian faith – he opened the way to the resurrection for us
all.
Do you believe that? There are many that
do. There are many that do but – on
the other hand – only a few actually agree
with the Bible verses which I just read. Let me explain. Most people like to
entertain the nice idea about an afterlife in heaven – especially when a
loved one dies – and especially when we think about our own death. It is nice to hope and dream about a
pleasant eternity and if you want to be a bit more sophisticated, it is a
satisfying or interesting academic pursuit to theorize and speculate about the
spirit world.
However, the good news of salvation – at least according to the Bible – is far more confronting than any nice ideas
about eternity. According to the Bible death is a far worse enemy than imagined
because death is a punishment for sin – our own sin and what we have
inherited from a sinful human race. Death
is punishment – the cruel extinguishment of life on earth – and under normal conditions – without
the good news of Jesus Christ – death is
further the extinguishment of any life – any communion – with God in
eternity. We are to be cut off from him
for ever.
For a sinner – and the Bible explains that by nature we are all
sinners and thus by nature we are all objects of God’s wrath because he is holy
and we are not (Ephesians 2:1-10) – death
remains a permanent condition or – to be even more precise – there is something far worse. Death gives
way to death. There is an eternal death waiting for those without God where the
demonic powers of darkness are given free reign to punish with their hatred the
image of God in every lost soul. I read from the Bible – Matthew 10:28 – Jesus said: “ …
be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
What do you think? Does this rightfully belong
to Easter Sunday when we say with joy:
“He is risen indeed.” Or are you now bowing out of this kind of radical Christianity – saying:
“Wohoo. This is fundamentalism. This is taking the Bible far too seriously.
I like the thought of heaven but not hell. God cannot be like that!” And yet, the good news of Jesus Christ is
precisely such good news because we are saved from such a bad situation. Life
on earth can feel – for many already does feel – like a life lived in hell. What makes you
think that it will get better instead of worse?
“ … through
the Spirit of holiness [he] was declared with power to be the Son of God by his
resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord … “ Jesus saved us. Jesus conquered death for us. Jesus overcame the curse
of our sin. When he died, he died the death that we should have died. He
himself never sinned but then volunteered – out of love – boundless love – to suffer the consequences for our sin on
his own body and flesh – suffering the agony of death on a cross – for us.
Today could be an important day in your
life. Jesus means to save you now from a life of sin in eternal separation from
God. What you are asked to do is to put your faith in his sacrifice – as I read earlier in the Bible – Romans 1:16: “I am not ashamed of
the good news [no matter how radical it may sound – no matter what anyone else
may think about hell and all this talk about sin] because it is the power of
God for the salvation of everyone who believes … “ Please, if you are not a Christian, this is for you today: “It
is the power of God for your salvation when you believe.”
Now we change track. Even those that
seem able to follow the good news so far many a time still struggle with taking
everything in. Jesus still manages to come too close in too confronting ways. “He is risen.” “He
is risen indeed.” But is he really alive right now? The Bible reading from before –
Romans 1:1-6 – said: “ … through
the Spirit of holiness he was declared with power to be the Son of God by his
resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord … “ This means that Jesus Christ was raised back to life – declared
with power to be the Son of God – and is
therefore now – at this present day – Lord
– our Lord (possessing power): the master of our lives and the master of
everything. The Bible says –
Ephesians 1:19-23: “ … God exerted power in Christ when he raised him from
the dead and seated him at his right hand … far above all [other] power and
dominion and every title … God placed all things under his feet … “ He is our risen Lord. Do even the more
advanced Chritians believe that? How real is the resurrection from the dead
allowed to be?
Jesus Christ is risen indeed – right – but
what about the other stories in the Bible – before and after Jesus’
resurrection – where other dead people
came alive – not to eternal life but further life on earth – yet nevertheless testifying to –
pointing to – the life-giving power of
God – encouraging faith and commitment? What are we doing with these stories? I make reference to a few – 1
Kings 17:17-24: “ … And Elijah stretched himself out on the child three
times, and cried out to the Lord and said: ‘O Lord my God, I pray, let this
child’s soul come back to him.’ Then the Lord heard the volice of Elijah; and
the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived … “
2 Kings 4:32-37: “And when Elisha came into the house, there was
the child, lying dead on his bed. He went in therefore, shut the door behind
the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. And he went up and lay on the child,
and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his
hands … He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up
and stretched himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the
child opened his eyes … “ Luke
7:11-15: “ … Then Jesus came and touched the open coffin, and those who
carried him stood still. And he said: ‘Young man, I say to
you, arise.’ And he who was dead sat up and began to speak … “ Matthew 11:4-5: “Jesus … said to them: ‘Go
and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind receive their sight
and the lame walk … the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel
preached to them.’” Acts 9:36-42:
“ … Dorcas became sick and died. When they had
washed her, they laid her in an upper room … Then Peter arose and went with
them … Peter put them all out, and knelt down and prayed. And turning to the
body he said, ‘Tabitha, arise.’ And she opened her eyes … And
it became known … and many believed in the Lord.” Acts 20:7-12: “ … as Paul continued
speaking, [a young man] fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.
But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, ‘Do not trouble
yourselves, for his life is in him.’ … And they brought the young man in alive,
and they were not a little comforted.”
We could add further Bible stories but
these ones suffice. What do we think about them? Are they real? As Jesus is risen indeed, are all of these other people risen indeed? Do
we really know the God who raises people from the dead back then and maybe even
now? Is our concept of the resurrection really more than a nice philosophical
principle – an idea? A nice sentiment. How real is
your God?
An American missionary in Africa (Heidi Baker) – living right now and working right now
– an educated woman – a sane woman – with a PhD in theology and international
contacts – she reports from her mission
field that there – out in the African sticks – in the name of Jesus people are being raised from the dead. She further
reports that when she shares these miracles with Westerners, many of them look
at her funny and say: “Can you prove it? Can you prove it? Do you have
pictures? Do you have a video?” But
she doesn’t have a video camera and simply responds by saying: “It is in
the book. Did you read the book” – meaning: It is in the
Bible that these things are meant to happen even to us. And she is right.
According to the Bible – Matthew 10:5-8 – Jesus said: “ … As you go, preach this
message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse
those who have leprosy, drive out demons … “ This is not a difficult Bible text. The content is pretty straight forward:
“ … preach … heal the sick, raise the dead … “ The missionary was right – “it is in
the book” – but most of us now –
sitting in church – struggle big time.
It is one thing to say on Easter morning: “He is risen indeed” and in the comfort of a familiar pew work up fond memories of an event
that supposedly happened 2000 years ago (a nice religious story), but it is an altogether different matter
when the dead are raised up even now and thus we are confronted with the risen
Lord Jesus Christ whose resurrection power is invading our space right now.
The missionary from before is asking us: “Why is God so small in the Western world
[original:
The following is the testimony of
another missionary – David Hogan – an American from Texan doing pioneer work
among Indian tribes in
I
began to seek Heaven after that. Like I have said, I am not a man of
fancy words. But my heart is so thirsty,
I want Jesus. I want His great gifts. All of them! I will not be lacking in any
gift. Period. I have the right to ask, I am a son
and not illegitimate. I have the right to my daddy’s reserves. And so
I went to Him. I went to the Bible and
I began to find out from Genesis through Revelation, all the prayers in the
Bible. I took them all and studied every one of them. I took them apart and
studied them from every angle using commentaries. I wanted to know why when
then men of the Bible prayed, their words did not fall
to the ground. Then I studied fasting.
Because the two things that move Heaven are prayer and fasting. If you can
submit your soul in prayer, and your body in fasting, God hears you. So I
looked through the Bible, and this is my opinion that I am about to share with
you, in my opinion the hardest thing I
could come up with, the most difficult thing I could find in the Bible for God
to do was once a human being is dead, to bring that person back to life again.
So I decided that through the Old Covenant and the New, that
that was a thread of God’s power that was in both covenants. And so I decided
that I was going to seek Heaven until the day came that I could walk up to a
dead person and touch him and watch him get up from the dead. That is what I
decided to do. I decided that it doesn’t matter if I have to fast until I turn
into a bone, I don’t care. If I have to pray 24 hours every day, I have to have
the great glory of God that it takes to change the world around me while I’m
still alive. I’m going to have it. So
that is what I did, I sought after that.
I
was called many things by people around me. I was “too immature, too young, I
didn’t understand, I was too zealous, I was over-zealous, I
was under-zealous”. I was called everything. But it didn’t stop me. Once I
figured out that from Genesis to Revelation there was a common flow through all
the prophets, apostles, and men of God – they all went towards God from the
same direction. You cannot get Him any other way. When I decided that was
right, that is what I did. And I still do the same things. And so began an ordeal of year after year after year of prayer and
fasting, diligence, hours and hours and hours per day fasting, praying, seeking
Heaven, and reading and studying and meditating on the scriptures. Thousands of
hours of riding in a truck on a bumpy old road, beating up and tearing up
vehicles, and motorcycles, and horses, myself and people around me, all of us
getting hurt and getting over it. But I would not be satisfied until I, with my
own hand, could see something that could not be faked. How do I know you
even had a headache before they started praying for you?
So
I sought Heaven, and the response was wonderful! … How is it
possible to call upon a God whom you can’t see? Occasionally, we are allowed to
feel His presence, thanks be to God forever! How is it possible to call upon a being whom you’ve never seen, at least most people have not seen
Him, and have Him respond? Because it says in my Bible here, let me read it to
you one more time since you aren’t grabbing this yet, “All things whatever that
you ask for in prayer, believing, you can receive it.” You can have it. It’s
yours. You must understand, I prayed to
Heaven for four and a half years to be able to touch a dead person and have
them be raised up. I was around a lot of dead people, because where I live
is not the same as where you live. Where you live, you call the coroner (person
who verifies the death), the ambulance comes and takes away the body and you
never see it again until the funeral, then you put them in the ground that is
all. You have “embalming”, and the whole process of arranging the funeral can
take several days. It is not like this where we live. The family takes care of
the body. Every family takes care of their own dead. So there are many
opportunities to touch people that are dead …
The
monsoons came. It was my first year with monsoons. I didn’t understand monsoons
then, but I have a good understanding now. There was a knock at my gate. I went
outside to find one of the young men standing there. “Mr.
David, you are a good athlete and an excellent swimmer. Please get your swimming
equipment and come to the river. One of our friends has fallen in and we can’t
find him”. The monsoons cause the rivers to swell-up very fast. They are
very treacherous and very bad. The boy
had been underwater for an hour. I grabbed my equipment and ran down to the
river. I stripped down and dove into the river. The water was muddy, murky, and
scary. In Spanish it is called a “remolino”, where the water flows backwards
from the current. In English it is called a “whirlpool”. There were four of us in
the water, and they were certain that the boy was down in the water. Every time I would come up for air, there
were over a thousand people on the edge of the river, and they were screaming
orders to us. I’ve learned many lessons in the things I have faced
throughout the years. Don’t tell me where to go unless you are going to get
into the water with me. That’s another thing you don’t do to guys like me. If
you’re going to get into that water with me and suffer and understand, and you
let it beat on you, I’ll listen to you. But if you’re going to stay on the
riverbank and act like you know everything, and say that we don’t know
anything, even through we are putting the little knowledge that we do have into
action and you are not, shut up. I mean that in a good sort of way.
Eventually,
we found him tangled up in the “willow” trees. Do you all
know what willow trees are? It is a tree that has long, skinny limbs. When they
are covered in water, the limbs are like tentacles. If you go by, it just wraps
you up and won’t let go, and it is scary, especially when it is black under the
water. The tree grabbed onto me, but I
was able to break all the limbs off and get away, thank you Jesus! I was scratched a bit, but that’s ok. Because while I was trying to get away from the tree, I touched the
body of the boy. I broke him loose and brought him up. OK, we had a
little boat. We put him up into the boat and were talking about what to do with
him. We decided to take him out of the river, so we did. There were many people
on the riverbank trying to give us advice. We got him out and laid him on the
riverbank. And right in the middle of
all that confusion, the mother was screaming and the daddy was wailing, it was
difficult, I don’t like being near that, but you have to be sometimes. So we
laid the boy down there, and right in the middle of all of that, Jesus spoke to
me to pray for him, “I WILL raise him from the dead!”
You are right. It was an awesome moment. But I
disobeyed. Oops!
I’m standing there watching all of the confusion and hurt and pain. Do
you understand what I am at for the
By the time I had gone back home, the
demon that was riding my back had finished his job. I was useless. I began to
“blubber” (cry uncontrollably) and became confused and doubtful. The
condemnation was huge. All kinds of other demons had settled in on me and
became a cloud that I could not see through. I could not sort through the
emotions and it grasped onto my spirit, because I had submitted to it. Because of one thing – the fear of man. They can take their
intimidation and go back to the hell they came from. No more for me. No sir! I
won’t “eat” that anymore, it is a bad and sour pill. That is why I seem
aggressive to you. That is why I seem overpowering and intimidating. I won’t
allow certain things that have “eaten my lunch”, to even come to the table with
me. They are not even allowed to sit with me. They can go to hell, and right
now is a good time to go. Yahoo! And I am serious. Oh,
I can feel the
devil’s aggression on me. Can you feel it?
So
I went through a month of the most miserable days of my life. And
finally, thanks be to God for a good woman, my wife is
really tiny, but she’s really feisty (full of energy and aggressive attitude).
She’s a good lady. She came marching in to the room, grabbed me by the shirt
collar, and she said “Hey! Listen to me!” But I didn’t want to. I was “rolling in
the mire” (mud) of it. I didn’t want to hear her, I
didn’t want to hear anybody. She said, “This is what you are going to do.” I didn’t have a choice,
I wasn’t the king anymore. She said, “You will either get up
and win souls like Jesus told you to do, and you will let the devil fall
off of you, and you will forgive yourself, and you will let God forgive you, or
let’s go home!” That was God talking to me. She was the only one with enough
courage to tell me. I looked at her and I said, “OK”. So I got up, and go a few tracts. I went
outside and started my old 454 Positraction, 456 gears, tuned headers, tuned
carburetors, started up my old 4-wheel drive truck and I went to a village and
came back feeling a little bit better. The next day, she helped me to get into
the truck again, and I was a little bit better, until finally after another
month, I was running at full speed again. But
now I have the most valuable lesson of all in my experience. I am a failure
without obedience to the name of Jesus. Yahoo! That makes me powerful! Because now I
know what the bowels of failure and hell truly mean: total destruction for the
human body and soul. Total destruction of what little
ministry that exists. You must realize this: Jesus is your source, Jesus
will sustain you, without Him you can do nothing, but with Him you can do
anything! …
I
was in a village called “Kla-klapango”. I was there with my fancy 4-wheel drive
truck. There is no electricity or water from pipes. I’m happy to be there. The
smell of the jungle and the heat hits me because my air conditioner is off now.
A little Indian man ran up to me, a
little man about this tall, and touches me on the shoulder. He said to me “Brother
David, Mi hijo esta para morir.” This
means “My son is about to die”. I
said “I must first go and preach the gospel, then I will go and lay
hands on the sick.” Does your Bible
say in Psalm 107 verse 20, “God sent His word to heal”? The word has to be preached first. That is
just my opinion, OK? It isn’t always
that way, but this time it was. So he and I went to church. I turned on my
little kerosene lantern. You have to understand the environment: grass roof,
dirt floor, new “baby” church. I was winning! I had a
few converts where there used to be none. I have a couple of new believers in a
place that for thousands of years was controlled by a demon. And now there is
the light of the gospel there with the ability to take ownership of everything
it touches. The oppression and the pressures are very real, and they don’t feel
good. But it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t stop the power
of God! Do you understand? The little church service was good. I began to pack
again to go home because I had finished what I came to do – preach the gospel. That man that came with me had sat with me
through the service and listened while I preached. Now he said to me “Brother
David, you must come and pray for my son.” I said “OK.” We started hiking through the jungle. The
scene was awesome! I was the only American within hundreds of miles. The
trees were gigantic, and the smells of the jungle were wonderful to me. There
are houses scattered around, but it is quiet and you cannot see them. I only
knew they were there because a dog barked. It was dark like a cave because the
trees block the light. And my little kerosene lantern gave us some light in the
darkness. It reminded me of the gospel. Darkness surrounds us, and we walk into
it with a little light. The gospel is power, and it helps people to see how to
walk down the trail. It is wonderful! As we kept walking with the local men, we
started up a mountain and I heard a woman wailing. I didn’t know what the sound
meant. But the closer we went to the
man’s home, the louder the noise became. We came close to the house and the
Indian brother went inside because it was his house. He stayed inside for a
moment. He came back out. Now responsibility “hits” me. The little Indian man
was very angry and stood with his face in mine and said “My son is dead!
Now YOU are going to heal him.” This
was intimidating. How many of you have read the latest book on how to raise the
dead? There isn’t one. Scripture
verses began to run through my mind. Fear grabbed me again. Doubt and unbelief
were there. This time was different than the last time. This time I don’t have
the direct commandment from Jesus to me “Raise the dead”. I didn’t hear it this time. Uh-oh, now things are complicated. Is it the
will of God or not? Will it be the submissive, or permissive, or perfect will
of God? Is the devil in him, on him, or around him? Who cares? Throw him out!
Ok,
now things are going to get more complicated, and I am going to attack some
more of your favorite religious dogmas. I went inside the hut. The hut was
small because they don’t waste things there. I bent down to go inside the door.
The house is made of sticks. The man made the house by gathering sticks from
the jungle and tying them together with “bejuco”. What is
“bejuco”? (someone responds from the crowd) Vines! How
did you know that? Vines from the jungle. There is a
certain kind of grass in the jungle, if you cut it on one of the 5 days of the
full moon, the grass roof will last for 40 years. If you cut it on any other
day, the grass will rot in less than 1 year. It is because Jesus made it that
way. He is amazing! So I get inside the house
and there are two or three candles burning. The first thing I see is a woman on
the middle of the dirt floor, holding something, rocking back and forth, and
screaming. Her 9 year-old son’s body is stretched out. He has been dead for 4
hours. I looked over by her right side, and there were two black-magic warlocks
(witches) standing there. Standing
next to them are two spiritist healers (witches). Two elders from the town were also there. They hate Jesus – they are
antichrists. There were many demons there. When the woman, who is a Christian
sister, looked up and saw me – I looked very concerned! There was a dead boy,
warlocks, spiritist healers, and antichrists there. It is time to be serious!
So what should you do? Pray, believe, receive, what? “All things whatever.”
Is this true? Are you starting to
understand how I think? I believe the Bible. Scriptures from the old and new
testaments began to go through my mind about how different people were raised
from the dead. I didn’t know what to do because no one had written a book about
this, except the Bible. I now know that the Bible is the only book I need for
this kind of situation. I didn’t know
what to do. I didn’t have a direct command from God. I did not have an angelic visitation, I did not have a finger write on the wall. I
didn’t even have a bird chirping. I had two black-magic warlocks, two spiritist
healers, two antichrists, and all of them were chanting evil spells against
me! If I were a typical American, I
would think “The spiritual “airwaves” are not clean, so I can’t pray. Praise the Lord.” (crowd responds in
agreement) If I were to wait for the “spiritual airwaves” to be clean, I would NEVER pray! I do “pioneer”
work. No Christian has ever prayed there
before. So all the “airwaves” are
polluted by the demon powers. Why do you think we have the Holy Spirit? Let
me share some important information with you: There is not a devil big enough to stop Jesus! (crowd
responds) Yahoo! That is really the truth. Isn’t it? That
is the truth. Your emotions do not have any authority in the situation. Don’t
listen to your emotions or you will always be in trouble. What the devil says –
whether it is in your mind, or spirit, or what you are
seeing or feeling or tasting or touching – has
no authority over what the word of God says. What those warlocks were saying
had no power over the word of God. They cannot – can NOT – stop Heaven. Yahoo!
I
remembered what Jesus did. Scriptures began to run through my mind. I thought
to myself, “Jesus probably did it right.” It’s very easy. Here is what to do. I’m
going to show you. You can never say that you haven’t been taught what to do,
because I’m going to show you. This hand
was on the little boy’s head. The mother had gone back into a corner and was
whimpering. I have my hand on the boy’s head, and my big hands usually cover
up their little heads. Then I decided to
see if he was only half-dead. Maybe I could find a faint heartbeat. That would
be easier! I looked all over that boy for a faint heartbeat, a pulse, and there
was nothing. So I said, “He must be all the way dead.” So I
began praying. Usually when I talk about raising the dead, there are many
questions that people have. But I’m not going to give you the right to ask, so
don’t even think about it. Don’t raise your hand, I’m
not going to listen. The questions are always the same: “How did you
pray? How long did you pray? What did you pray?” Why is it important what I prayed? The name of Jesus is what is important. The
method I used was probably wrong. But Heaven gives us grace and mercy and
we give the glory to God. This way the situation usually is ok. So I began praying for him. I prayed in
English. That didn’t work. I prayed in Spanish. Uh-oh, that didn’t work. I
prayed in Indian. Uh-oh, that didn’t work. I prayed in “tongues”. Uh-oh, that
didn’t work. That was all of the languages that I knew. What should I do? I
told you already, I can’t give the credit to anything but the name of Jesus. I
can feel God’s spirit on me now and I feel like He is carrying me away. I think
I was so nervous that I was praying a few words in one language and then in
another. But in every language, the name of Jesus was there, and that is what
is important. “How long?” I have no idea. I know that I began to
sweat a lot, but it was a hot night, around 38 degrees Celsius at
I
don’t know why God came into the room and through me, or however He did it, to
heal that boy. I don’t feel qualified or adequate. I don’t feel like I have
enough Bible knowledge. But that doesn’t seem to bother the Holy Spirit if I
feel that way, as long as I call on the name of Jesus in faith. As long as I
believe that “All things whatever you ask in prayer, believing,
you shall receive.” That is what I
believe. That is what the Bible says. Listen to me. I didn’t know what to
do next, because his eyes opened and he looked at me. Almost all of the
children are afraid of me because I am so big to them. But this little boy was
in perfect peace. I picked him up - this is wonderful – this little boy who is alive, who was dead for a little over four and a
half hours. You remember what the Bible says, that when Jesus raised
children from the dead, He always brought them to their mother. And He usually
told them to give the children something to eat. So I took the little boy and –
those warlocks and spiritist healers are now like this (his mouth is wide
open). (crowd responds) YEAH! JESUS! JESUS! Jesus.
Jesus! YEAH! Yahoo! Jesus! JESUS! YEAH! …
Is this messing with our minds and
current faith? I hope that it is. Jesus is risen
indeed and we need to make this our own on a whole different level. The Bible
says – Romans 1:1-6: “ … the good news of God . promised beforehand through
his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human
nature was a descendant of [King] David, and who through the Spirit of holiness
was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead:
Jesus Christ our Lord … “ Easter
Sunday is an awesome day. In Jesus Christ we have a risen Lord who is alive
right now and who is asking us to put our faith in him right now. Hear again
the other Bible verse – Romans 1:16: “ … the
good news … is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes
… “
David
Hogan’s testimony from before touches on many other valuable points such as the
importance of prayer and fasting, desperation and diligence in seeking the
gifts of God, etc. We will do some more preaching about these points at
another time.
As a matter of interest a Danish pastor
did the European thing and compiled statistics from David Hogan’s mission work.
According to his figures it takes on average 6-8 hours of prayer by the bedside
to raise the dead – when they are
successful. [Who among us ever prays that long?] Sometimes it can take more than 20 hours and at other times only a few
seconds. They have now prayed for about 2300 dead people to be raised. 328 have
risen from the dead and the number is continually rising. David Hogan
personally has been the main person praying at 27 dead raisings. He has
experienced many more not getting raised. They have about a 14% success rate.
Wow! It’s in the book but not
necessarily in our own lives. If you do the research, you will discover many
more such testimonies and sometimes detailed scientific accounts of dead people
being raised in the name of Jesus. One more prominent case involves a Nigerian
pastor who died in 2001. In his case a death certificate had already been
issued. He had been in the morgue, embalming fluid had been injected into him,
rigor mortis had set in but then his wife – by faith – took him in his
coffin to a church rallye where the coffin was placed in the basement and there
he came back to life. I quote from an investigative report: “Here are
some hard facts that won’t go away. For two days Daniel did not breathe, his
heart had stopped beating. It was in a hot climate, not suspended animation in
an ice chamber. He had been injected with a harsh chemical to keep back
mortification. As a corpse he was carted around for hours, pulled about, and
lay in an airless narrow coffin for hours. He should have had severe brain
damage, but he is alive now without any ill effects.”
It is in the book and yet, it is
mind-boggling that some Christians around the world (in
I close with one more encouraging story.
Heidi Baker – an American missionary
in Mozambique – is at times teaching in
their five bible colleges and when she is teaching in these bible colleges (there
are no buildings – they simply sit in the dirt), she likes to ask her class this question: “How many of you have
raised the dead.” Now this year in
January she was sharing that when she was last in
He said that he lived in a Muslim
village and there was a woman who really hated him. She was involved in
witchcraft and hated him – and he hated her. She had come into his hut and
ripped up his Bible. One day he was so happy because she died. She had hated
him and he had hated her. And one day he was so happy that this mean and
horrible woman had died. She had made his life so miserable. (At this point Heidi was wondering whether she
should keep translating such a wonderful Christian testimony of grace to her
English-speaking visitor.)
However, the pastor (Bible student) continued.
A bunch of people were carrying the dead body of that woman right over to where
he was. So he hid behind a tree. They knew that their church was raising the
dead on a regular basis. Therefore he was hiding from them. He had no desire to
pray, no faith, he hated that woman. Yet, they found him. He said: “Rats.
Rats.” They charged him: “You
said that your God raises the dead. You pray for her.” He answered: “No.” They
pressed him: “You pray for her.” He answered: “No.” They
eventually made him. He prayed: “Jesus. Jesus.” And the woman got up and she said: “I saw Jesus. I am so sorry
for what I have done to you.” She
became a preacher in that village and now the whole Muslim village bows their
knees to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah! God can even use a hateful
Christian – who doesn’t want to pray
– who hasn’t prepared with a 40-day fast – who is hiding from his ministry
behind a tree – God can even use such a
person to raise the dead and prove to the world the truth of the Bible – Romans 1:1-6: “ … the good news of
God . promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding
his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of [King] David, and who
through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by
his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord … “
If today you are here and you are not
quite sure yet about what is in the book, take the
step of faith now. Draw closer. Let this not just be religious but let it
become real. Jesus is risen from the dead indeed and – Romans