A few months ago I spoke at a church in Maryland about faith, spiritual laws, and miracles, and one of the examples I gave about the law of sowing and reaping was related to raising the dead.  If anyone could have heard my thoughts as I was speaking, they might have laughed.  I was explaining to the congregation (along with it being interpreted into French sentence-by-sentence) how I am passionate about the abundant life of Jesus Christ, as well as His power and subsequent command to us to raise the dead.  I explained how on infrequent occasion will pick up fresh roadkill to “practice” praying for the dead to be raised, and as I was sharing this, I realized that I probably sounded very silly and maybe should have picked a better, more acceptable illustration to explain the law of sowing and reaping.  As I thought about it later, however, I decided that while another illustration might make the idea more readily accepted by others, the truth is that the only reason I pray for roadkill is to become more proficient at raising the dead.

Some of you readers might also find this somewhat strange, but let’s be honest, I only do it because it works.

But wait Michael, you haven’t raised the dead yet, so how can you say it works?

Simple:  The Bible says it quite clearly, and it is a spiritual principle that is actively and visibly functioning in all creation, so it is impossible to deny its success.  Galatians 6:7-9 says:

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.  Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.  Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

This passage is possibly the most clear of all the passages on sowing and reaping in scripture, as it quite succinctly explains how it functions.  From this, we can see three keys to the law:

1. It makes a mockery of God to think we can sow and not reap, as it is a spiritual law inherent in creation.
2. Our sowing and reaping will bring either death or life
3. If we do not give up, we will reap a harvest sooner or later

This past week or so has been a bit emotionally trying for me, as I have spent some of my time praying to raise a 27-week gestation premature baby from the dead.  I never quite realized how traumatic that could be.  Don’t get me wrong.  I get upset and have to fight internally to keep myself out of a place of grief any time I pray to raise the dead, but this one was different somehow.  I think part of it was that I could see how much pain and suffering this death was causing the family, and I recognized that this precious little baby had a long future ahead of her that was just stolen.  All in all, the situation was rough but we continue to pray and believe for this life to be returned to this small child.

In this process though, I really had to look inside and ask myself “Why do I do this?”  I mean, think about it.  As one of the Portland Leads for the Dead Raising Teams, I get contacted occasionally to pray to raise the dead for total strangers.  Why do I willingly subject myself to adding other people’s emotional pain onto my own when I don’t have to?   I spent some time this past week thinking about this, and what I settled on is basically how I began this blog post:

I am passionate about the abundant life of Jesus Christ.

In fact, I am so passionate about it that at times I go out of my way to enact spiritual principles such as the law of sowing and reaping found in scripture to accelerate the process by which I apprehend living out of that reality—one where I don’t just give lip service to believing that Jesus raises the dead today, but where it actually happens when I pray for them.  Some people may find this strange, but the truth is that when things go south, everyone wishes they knew someone who operated in miracles.  I personally don’t believe we as Christians have the luxury to hope we know someone else who can get the job done.  We owe it to ourselves and those around us to walk in the miraculous at a level such that if someone dies (or any other problem rears its ugly head), that when we show up, so does Jesus and His abundant life to reverse the situation.

I never want to have another encounter with a mother where I hold her lifeless child and fail to release the life of Christ in the situation.  I won’t shrink back, mind you, but I never want to have to share in that kind of pain again unless it is just long enough to wipe it away by the resurrection power of Jesus.  Sowing and reaping is, I think, one of the most basic but also most overlooked keys God has given us to walk in everything He has commanded us to do.

I talk about this more in my book Faith To Raise The Dead, along with many other subjects including faith, authority, God’s will to raise the dead, and a host of other practical things that come up in this process.  The book covers common questions related to raising the dead, as well as give a glimpse of where God wants to move us as the Body of Christ in this area.  If you have ever had thoughts about this subject and haven’t quite known how to proceed, I encourage you to get this book, dig into all of the scriptural teaching found within, and see where God decides to take you.

If you want to get more involved in stepping out in faith to raise the dead consider doing any or all of the following six steps:

1. Sign up for our Raise the Dead Initiative mailing list here to receive updates and connect further.

2. Get some books.  I have written two books on the subject:  Practical Keys to Raise the Dead and Faith to Raise the Dead.  Practical Keys is a series of excerpts from Faith To Raise The Dead, all of which give practical advice for when you are actively praying to raise someone at that time.  Faith To Raise The Dead goes more into theology, but has a chapter devoted to resurrection testimonies, an appendix in the back of faith-building scriptures to help you pray for the deceased to return to life, and I answer a lot of common and even difficult questions surrounding the subject.

Tyler Johnson, founder of the Dead Raising Team has written multiple books on the subject as well:  How to Raise the Dead and The Dead Are Raised. Be sure to check out Father Hebert’s encouraging book Saints Who Raised The Dead for pages upon pages of uplifting testimonies about saints in history who have raised the dead in Jesus’ name.

3. Join the Raise the Dead Initiative on Facebook.   The Raise the Dead Initiative is a group I started to help the Body of Christ grow in this area, and I will eventually develop an RDI teaching curriculum to train believers to pray for and raise the dead.  You may also be interested in The Dead Raising Team (DRT) and  Dead Raising Campaign Facebook groups.

4. Look at how you can host or attend a School of Resurrection in your area. Contact Tyler Johnson via his website at http://www.oneglance.org/ to arrange the event.  Tyler is an awesome man of God and good friend who regularly teaches Schools of Resurrection to help transform our understanding on the subject of resurrection life. He has Dead Raising Teams around the world who are ready to mobilize in their area to release the abundant life of Jesus Christ.  You can also head over to Gumroad to buy and download a complete Resurrection School Audio Series.

5. Watch/listen to David Hogan’s YouTube Series on the subject of Raising the Dead: Session 1 —  Session 2 — Session 3 — Session 4

6. Pray for and actively engage opportunities to raise the dead in your area by reaching out to friends when you hear that someone has passed away.