Hi!
Ever
hear the saying, “Everybody
wants to get to Heaven, but nobody wants to die!” I've
laughed over it, but that statement is true. Few people in their
right mind ever want
to die, and they'll go to extreme lengths to keep on ticking.
Jesus
Christ isn't dead, but he has
left us His will. And His will is for you NEVER to fear
death: “Therefore,
since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also
partook of the same that through
death He might
render
powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and
might free those
who
through fear of death were subject to death all their lives”
(Hebrews 2:14).
This
leads to a question I received by e-mail this week from a totally
sincere non-charismatic friend of mine:
If healing is so available through the
Holy Spirit today, why do
those who believe Christ still heals,
ever die?
Two
passages of Scripture tell us why some wonderful Christians have gone
home at a time both you and I would say was far too early, and yet
some demonic monsters – Adolph Hitler, Beverly Allit, Joseph
Stalin, Karl Marx, Idi Amin, Mao Tse'Tung, Karl and Ilse Koch, Pol
Pot,, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. - lived or are living FAR too
long.
First, Hebrews 9:27: "It is appointed for men (human males and females) to die once, and after this comes judgment."
The Greek word for "appointed" here refers to an "appointment." If you and I had a lunch appointment together for a certain date and hour, we would both expect the other one of us to keep that appointment. In just that same way, an individual's “death appointment” is set in Heaven BEFORE THEY ARE BORN. “God's ways aren't our ways” (Isaiah 55:8), and we Christians have no idea in the world how He does that. Only by knowing the character of God can we trust His system is right.
First, Hebrews 9:27: "It is appointed for men (human males and females) to die once, and after this comes judgment."
The Greek word for "appointed" here refers to an "appointment." If you and I had a lunch appointment together for a certain date and hour, we would both expect the other one of us to keep that appointment. In just that same way, an individual's “death appointment” is set in Heaven BEFORE THEY ARE BORN. “God's ways aren't our ways” (Isaiah 55:8), and we Christians have no idea in the world how He does that. Only by knowing the character of God can we trust His system is right.
Now,
here's good news: That appointment can be changed if the reason is
vital enough in God's mind. I'll get to that in a minute, but I'll
give you a hint now: GOD ANSWERS MEANINGFUL PRAYER.
Here's
more good news: No one will die BEFORE their appointed time. Idiotic
as it might sound, you could go up to the top of the tallest building
in your country and jump off. If it wasn't your “appointed
time” yet, you wouldn't
die. You would most likely be horribly crippled for life. Pain would
stick closer to you than flies to flypaper. Your face might well look
like a flat iron. But you wouldn't die. You couldn't
if
it wasn't your God-appointed time.
Think
about awful moments in your own life that took you to the brink of
death, only to be counted among the living. I've had “terminal
illnesses” twice; was hit by a car and thrown into the air, landing
on my back on the sidewalk; sitting in a car stopped at a red light
and run into by a 16-year-old kid who had just got his driver's
license and was driving more than 70 miles an hour and never applied
his brakes; fallen down three flights of stairs; and thrown from
horses three times. You might say I am “accident prone.” But in
all my life I've never had a broken bone, and I've had no surgery
since they promised me ice cream at the age of 5 if I'd have my
tonsils out. Here I am at 76 feeling younger than I often felt in my
younger years. My appointment with death has not yet arrived. It
could come tomorrow, but it sure doesn't feel like it will. I mean,
there are fatal
accidents. An elephant could fall out of an airplane and squash me.
My
mom lived with perfect health except for asthma to the age of 91. I
had a
Granddad
that I never got to meet who worked hard as a builder for more years
than I've lived and, like me, seldom even had a cold. Then one day
when he was 95, he came home sick, went to bed, and died three days
later. I think I have Designer genes!
In
Psalms
139:13-16, King
David tells us about our appointed time to die. “For
you
formed my inward parts, you wove me in my mother's womb. I will
give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works and my soul knows it very well. My frame was
not hidden from You when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought
in the depths of the Earth. Your eyes have seen my unformed
substance, and in Your book they were all written, the
days that were ordained for me when as yet there were none of
them."
The Book mentioned in Verse 16 refers to the Book of Life, where every person ever born anywhere in this world throughout any time in history from Adam on, has had their name recorded in this Book - Exodus 32:32; Daniel 12:1; Luke 10:10; Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15. Study these verses and you'll see that those who aren't born again in Christ - (Christ died for all Old Testament believers too) - have their name blotted out of this Book the exact second they die.
The Book mentioned in Verse 16 refers to the Book of Life, where every person ever born anywhere in this world throughout any time in history from Adam on, has had their name recorded in this Book - Exodus 32:32; Daniel 12:1; Luke 10:10; Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15. Study these verses and you'll see that those who aren't born again in Christ - (Christ died for all Old Testament believers too) - have their name blotted out of this Book the exact second they die.
A
vital question at this point is “What about babies who die still in
their mother's womb or in their early formative years - the aborted,
preemies, the starved, stillborns, SIDS, cot death, or children who
die of anything before they really understand about Jesus Christ and
the urgency to receive Him? The answers are clear. Study these
verses: Matthew 18:3, 19:14;
1 Corinthians 7:14.
King David, who was wiser than most
and that's why God chose him to write many of the Psalms, lost his
first baby, the one he conceived in adultery with Bathsheba. David
had fasted from the moment he knew his baby boy was sick, right up to
the minute he discovered he had died. Here's what happened:
“But
when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David
perceived that his child was dead; so David said to his servants, 'Is
the child dead?' and they said, 'He is dead.' So David arose from the
ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he
came into the House of the Lord and worshiped. Then he came to his
own house and when he requested, they set food before him and he ate.
Then his servants said to him, 'What is this thing that you have
done? When the child was alive you fasted and wept; but when the
child died, you arose and ate food.'
He
said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I
said 'Who knows, the Lord may be gracious to me that the child may
live. But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back
again? I will go to
him, but
he will not return to me.'” See
what I mean about “wise?” David knew his baby went to Heaven and
after his own death, he'd join his son there.
No age limit is given, but two verses in the Old Testament reveal that there is an age of accountability. Babies from the womb on and children too are too young to have reached that age. So are the mentally challenged - Down's Syndrome, Autism, Aspergers Syndrome and the like. Deuteronomy 1:39 and Isaiah 7:16 both say that in their formative years, a child does not know enough “to refuse evil and choose good.” Those are the years when each parent is promised in Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way they should go. Even when they are old they will not depart from it.”
No age limit is given, but two verses in the Old Testament reveal that there is an age of accountability. Babies from the womb on and children too are too young to have reached that age. So are the mentally challenged - Down's Syndrome, Autism, Aspergers Syndrome and the like. Deuteronomy 1:39 and Isaiah 7:16 both say that in their formative years, a child does not know enough “to refuse evil and choose good.” Those are the years when each parent is promised in Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way they should go. Even when they are old they will not depart from it.”
I
will stay on the subject of death, but I need to answer a question
that will undoubtedly arise after what I've just written. The
question is: “Aren't all babies born
sinners?” The answer is no. However, there are two verses - Romans
5:12:21 and
1
Corinthians 15:22 - some
Bible teachers wrongly attempt to use to teach that all newborn
babies are
sinners from birth. They quote Psalms
51:5, “Behold,
I was brought forth
in iniquity, and in
sin did my mother conceive me.”
But
in that verse, the iniquity
and sin
clearly
belongs to David's dad or mom, perhaps both; but NOT to David at the
time of his birth. In Psalms
51, David
is repenting of adultery with Bathsheba (as well as murder). Adam had
no earthly mother or father and was never “born” at all. Instead,
Genesis
2:7 tells
us God “formed”
Adam
as an adult. What that passage and single verse confirm is that sin
is
always a choice and all who grow past the age of accountability are
held accountable for it. While they may appear to be sinning from
their cradle to the age of accountability, God does not hold them
accountable for any of that. They are under grace, just as all
Christians are, until a humanly indeterminate age when they can
recognize clearly the decision to receive Christ or not. All three of
my children were born again by the age of five.
Some
try to force 1
Corinthians 7:14 to
mean that unclean
children
refers to "unsaved children." But that isn't the case at
all. Nowhere in the Bible does "sanctified"
mean
"saved." The Greek word "sanctify"
means
"to
set apart by God for His special attention." That
verse clearly refers to a born again spouse married to an unsaved
spouse, and declares that the born again spouse "sanctifies"
the
unbelieving spouse and their child or children by their Christian
witness. And God is promising the believer that He is giving His very
"special
attention" to
draw the unsaved spouse and their innocent child(ren) to know Him.
Innocent babies and children born into homes where both the husband
and wife are unsaved have far less of an advantage. But they are
still innocent until they reach the humanly indeterminate age of
accountability.
So,
back to our subject - What can get God to extend the “death day”
and give us more time to live? We see the answer in 2
Kings 20. In Verse
1, Hezekiah, a godly
king, is pronounced mortally ill by none other than the prophet
Isaiah. Isaiah directly tells him, "Get
your house in order for you shall die and not live." Now,
do you remember the penalty in the Old Testament for a prophet who
gave a false prophecy? - DEATH!
That's a vital fact. Isaiah would have never prophesied death to King
Hezekiah on his own. GOD had spoken. And if GOD tells you you are
going to die, you'd better have your will instantly ready.
Stunned by Isaiah's pronouncement, Hezekiah immediately turns his head toward the wall and literally falls apart. He sobs to God in prayer that he desperately wants a different verdict. He also reminds God, "in truth and with a whole heart, I've done what is good in Your sight" (Verses 2-3). And he begs God to give him a longer life so that he can keep on serving Him as king.
Now here's the most amazing part of what happened: God hears His prayer and grants him his request. God tells Isaiah to return and totally reverse his prophesy to Hezekiah. In obedience, Isaiah does. He speaks for God and tells Hezekiah, "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I WILL HEAL YOU. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord." However, God still sets a “death appointment” with Hezekiah. We all have one unless we are going to be here when Christ comes back for His Bride. In Hezekiah's case, God extends it by having Isaiah prophesy again: "I WILL ADD FIFTEEN YEARS TO YOUR LIFE." … “ADD FIFTEEN YEARS” to what? "ADD FIFTEEN YEARS" to Hezekiah's original death day.
So, what should we learn from Hezekiah about praying for ourselves or others if a doctor pronounces a death sentence? And though I'm going to concentrate on you, these things are the same thing to do if you're praying for a terminally ill family member or friend. You should learn that as a Christian you should NOT wait patiently to die if you have a great desire to live in restored good health. Cry out to God passionately that you want to live and not die. Crying is fine, pleading is fine, and so is shouting or stomping your feet. God understands your innermost being and your outermost too, so don't try to hide your real feelings by being “nice.”(Hebrews 4:14-16). Don't just roll over and play dead. Passive people are seldom healed (Matthew 7:7, 23:37.) Tell the Great Physician that you want an extension of time in good health JUST LIKE HEZEKIAH RECEIVED (Isaiah 1:18.). Remind Him of anyone, or more than one, still on Earth who need you to be here for them. But that's only half of what to do.
Stunned by Isaiah's pronouncement, Hezekiah immediately turns his head toward the wall and literally falls apart. He sobs to God in prayer that he desperately wants a different verdict. He also reminds God, "in truth and with a whole heart, I've done what is good in Your sight" (Verses 2-3). And he begs God to give him a longer life so that he can keep on serving Him as king.
Now here's the most amazing part of what happened: God hears His prayer and grants him his request. God tells Isaiah to return and totally reverse his prophesy to Hezekiah. In obedience, Isaiah does. He speaks for God and tells Hezekiah, "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I WILL HEAL YOU. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord." However, God still sets a “death appointment” with Hezekiah. We all have one unless we are going to be here when Christ comes back for His Bride. In Hezekiah's case, God extends it by having Isaiah prophesy again: "I WILL ADD FIFTEEN YEARS TO YOUR LIFE." … “ADD FIFTEEN YEARS” to what? "ADD FIFTEEN YEARS" to Hezekiah's original death day.
So, what should we learn from Hezekiah about praying for ourselves or others if a doctor pronounces a death sentence? And though I'm going to concentrate on you, these things are the same thing to do if you're praying for a terminally ill family member or friend. You should learn that as a Christian you should NOT wait patiently to die if you have a great desire to live in restored good health. Cry out to God passionately that you want to live and not die. Crying is fine, pleading is fine, and so is shouting or stomping your feet. God understands your innermost being and your outermost too, so don't try to hide your real feelings by being “nice.”(Hebrews 4:14-16). Don't just roll over and play dead. Passive people are seldom healed (Matthew 7:7, 23:37.) Tell the Great Physician that you want an extension of time in good health JUST LIKE HEZEKIAH RECEIVED (Isaiah 1:18.). Remind Him of anyone, or more than one, still on Earth who need you to be here for them. But that's only half of what to do.
Continue
reasoning with
Papa God. Prayer
is communicating your heart with God through Christ, and God
communicating with you.
Remind Him clearly how you have served Christ with a whole heart. The
devil will instantly try to remind you of any time you've failed to
do that. Tell him to go to hell where he belongs. You are forgiven of
your sins – past, present and future – and Jesus Christ, your
“Lawyer," (1
John 2:1)
knows that.
You
may be an intercessor here on Earth, or be serving Christ in a myriad
of other ways that would make your service to others greatly
missed.. The point is, explain with your own reasoning why you have
great purpose in remaining alive. Then expect
Him
to heal you.
Reasoning
like “I don't want to get my hopes up,” or “but I know others
who were greater Christians than me and they died,” sets up the
kind of doubt that will rob you of your miracle. You aren't anyone
else. And as for your hopes, even if your symptoms become worse, keep
your hope and faith in Christ to heal you. Believe Him to do the very
best for you always, but NEVER assume His very best would be to take
you Home. Rebuke pain or paralysis passionately too. Christ took ALL
your pain and infirmities on the cross, as well as all your sin (1
Peter 2:24), and
pain or infirmities have no more right to you than sin does.
Knowing
the character of God and His great love for you, if He
can see your reasoning (as He did with Hezekiah), He will re-set your
death date to a later time and heal you.
If
you study the healings in the New Testament where someone was dead or
nearly dead, their walk with God, or the walk of their friend who
interceded for them, seems to have been an intricate part of the
determining factor in their healing (Luke
7:12-15, 8:40-42; John 11:1-3; Acts 9:36-41, 20:9-12; James 5:13-15).
I
have also found that
to be true during years of praying for the terminally ill in
hospitals as well as in meetings. He who is the Alpha and Omega
infinitely knows what would happen in each person's life if
He changed their appointment to a later
date and hour.
Can
I give you any other Scriptures to give you hope for healing? Yes:
Isaiah 1:18a, Genesis
18:23-32; Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:24; Luke 1:38; Acts 9:36-42 and
there are more following this article.. At Bethel Church in Redding,
California, ten people were raised from the dead at the church or
through ministry teams away from the church while Georgia and I were
there. I'll tell you about one of them.
A ministry team of students from the
School of the Supernatural had gone to do church and street meetings
in Tijuana, Mexico. Upon arriving there, the pastor said, “I'm
sorry you weren't here yesterday to do healing. One of the women in
our congregation had a very sick baby, so sick it died.” One of the
team members spoke up and asked where the baby was now. The pastor
answered, “I think the baby is still at the woman's house. Or she
may have taken it to the morgue by now. She was distraught yesterday
and I knew her keeping her baby one more night would be alright.' The
team asked for the lady's address and the pastor gave it to them.
They were immediately on their way and soon were knocking at her
door. One of the team described what happened after that. “A
red-eyed lady who had obviously been crying a lot, opened the door.
We knew it was the baby's mom. I speak Spanish and I told her we had
just learned about her baby. I asked if we could see it. The lady was
startled and confused about why we'd want to see her dead baby. I
told her, 'Jesus Christ rose from the dead and He's ready to raise
your baby from the dead.' She still looked confused but she led all
of us to a room where we saw a rolled up rug. The baby was wrapped in
it. She said that she was just about to take the baby to the morgue.
I asked her if she'd unwrap the rug. She hesitated, then did. The
baby wasn't breathing and her body was very pale. We didn't care how
that little girl looked; we just wanted to bring her back to life. So
a couple of us laid hands on her and the whole team prayed. For maybe
five minutes, nothing happened. But all at once, that baby took a
deep breath and opened her eyes. Her mother gasped and started crying
again while she reached down and picking up her baby. We stayed at
that house maybe fifteen more minutes just praising the Lord. That
baby's mother was the loudest of us all!”
Bethel
continually has people flying in from all over the world who have
been pronounced by their doctors to be "terminally ill,"
and in MANY MANY cases these people are healed when they're prayed
for. GOD ANSWERS PRAYER.
Jesus told His motley crew of apostles in Matthew 10:1 that without any hesitation they were to "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons" (Matthew 10:8). And remember that Judas was one of the twelve who went out and did what Christ gave him authority to do. Imagine! Judas Iscariot could raise the dead and cast out demons as long as He was under Christ's authority!
Jesus told His motley crew of apostles in Matthew 10:1 that without any hesitation they were to "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons" (Matthew 10:8). And remember that Judas was one of the twelve who went out and did what Christ gave him authority to do. Imagine! Judas Iscariot could raise the dead and cast out demons as long as He was under Christ's authority!
Memorize
John 14:12-14 and
keep it in your heart. Also Hebrews
13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and
forever."
PRAY
IN FAITH BELIEVING GOD WILL CANCEL THE TERMINAL ILLNESS. “But
they must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts
is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that
person ought not to expect anything
from
the Lord, being a double-minded person, unstable in all their ways.”
It
may sound harsh, but this is absolutely true: NEVER PRAY ABOUT
ANYTHING
THAT YOU DOUBT GOD WILL DO (Matthew
8:5-10, 9:2-7, 22, 28-29, 15-28, 21:22; Mark 1:15, 2:5, 5:34, 9:24,
10:52, 11:24, Luke 1:20, 5:20, 8:48, 50; John 1:7, 3:12, 4:42, 6:29,
10:38, 12:44, 17:21; Acts 3:16, 14:9, Romans 1:17-18, 4:19-21, 10:17,
15:13, 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, 13:2; Galatians 3:5;, 6:16; Ephesians
4:13; 1 Thessalonians 3:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:11; 1 Timothy 6:11;
Hebrews 4:2, 6:12, 11:1,6,11-12, 13:7-8; James 1:17-18, 23-25,
2:14-26.)
Jesus
Christ LOVES to do miracles and heal people. Georgia and I stepped
out of our “comfort zones” many times while we were at Bethel,
ministering healing to people we saw who needed it in malls, the post
office, restaurants, Wal-Mart, and even on the street. We still do
that. But we had never prayed for someone to be raised from the dead
until one morning I got a phone call from Graham, a security guard at
Bethel whose wife had just died. She'd lived longer than a year with
terminal cancer and I'd prayed for her healing several times. Our
friend asked, “Would Georgia and you come as quickly as you can to
my house? I want you to join me in raising her from the dead.” We
were honored and excited to do it. When we arrived, Graham led us
straight to their bedroom. She was lying in her bed where she had
died. The three of us immediately laid hands and prayed for probably
twenty minutes. There was no response. After a bit more time, Georgia
and I went back home. But the next day Graham called us again from
the funeral parlor. She had not yet been embalmed and Graham said,
“Let's pray for her again.” We were there quickly. Again, the
three of us laid hands on her corpse and prayed passionately for the
Lord to return her to Graham. We had only prayed five minutes or so
this time before I distinctly heard Graham's wife's very familiar
voice. She said, “PLEASE don't pray me back. I'm in Heaven and I
want to stay here.” The three of us stopped praying because we now
knew her
will.
As
Kris Vallotton, the principal of our faith-building school, told our
class, “It's tragic that so many Christians will practice
everything from playing a musical instrument to hog-calling, but they
won't
practice
using their gift of faith that our Lord has given them so that it
will grow. King David first killed a lion and a bear before he knew
he could topple Goliath (1
Samuel 17:36.)
To start believing for something like raising the dead, lay hands on
the sick and let Christ heal them with the power of the Holy Spirit
within you. If cancer seems too big for your faith, start by laying
hands on someone with a headache and praying for it to go. And if at
first you don't succeed, try try again. In fact, unless you make at
least three mistakes in ministering to people this year, we won't
allow you to graduate!”
I
echo this statement by Randy Clark, who often ministers healing along
with our former pastor, Bill Johnson. “Lay hands on 200 people for
healing and you'll be hooked for life.” When you start seeing
people you love being healed because you dare to do that, you'll be
preparing yourself to pray away the MUCH BIGGER CHALLENGES in life
that come at you like Goliath came at David. If you don't
do
that, you can be assured that, the devil at some point will see that
life absolutely overwhelms you. Start stepping out of your comfort
zone TODAY and keep it up. You'll be eternally glad you did.
O.K.
What if you do all the things I've mentioned and you still die? Then
death will be “swallowed
up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54.) “To be absent from the body
is to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8.) “Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of His believers” (Psalm
116:15). Those
truths are why the apostle Paul wrote, “For
me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). A
terminally ill Christian CAN'T lose. So follow the above instructions
only if you have a deep desire to continue as a totally re-charged
miracle who keeps on ticking.
In
Christ's love, Ray Mossholder