After moving to a very small town in Ohio earlier this year, the nearest countryside is about a two minute drive away. And that’s not an exaggeration. That should just tell you how small of a town I’m living in. One of the things I see on a near-daily basis as a result, is roadkill. Squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, a lot of deer, and the occasional stray cat or unrecognizable bird. And as often as I can remember to do it, I command life into those bodies each time I pass one. Why? Because all death is an enemy, and we should live accordingly.
I haven’t done it in a good number of years, but from time to time I used to stop, put the roadkill in the bed of my truck, and continue to pray over it for 2 to 3 days. When I was still married, my wife and I had a house rule at the time that three days was the maximum that I would keep them. Not because Jesus was in the tomb for three days or any other pseudo-spiritual reason someone can think up for a three day time limit. No, this was purely practical. After about three days, the level of decay that the body underwent became enough of a problem that we agreed that if it hadn’t risen in three days, I would let it go.
Now, I understand that to most people this seems like extreme behavior. But what if it isn’t? What if we as the Body of Christ have gotten so complacent with death that we stopped giving it the level of attention that we should have been giving it all along? I’m not saying everybody has to go pick up roadkill and pray for it and if they don’t they are somehow neglecting the gospel. That would be a ridiculous assertion to make. What I am saying is that I think we have become so accustomed to death that we generally don’t give roadkill a second thought.
Sure, if we can see that it was somebody’s dog or cat we might say a quick prayer for the family, but what if praying for peace for the family wasn’t the solution that God wanted us to offer? What is God was actually just wanting us to reverse death? It’s not that crazy of a proposition. The Bible tells us in Romans 8:11 that “the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead quickens and gives life to our mortal bodies.” It is this same Holy Spirit that empowers the gifts of the spirit. The same Holy Spirit, by which we work miracles. By which we prophesy. It is the same Holy Spirit who transfigures our bodies. Why would it be strange that the same Holy Spirit is still in the business of raising the dead?
Now, maybe roadkill is a bit too extreme for some reading this. While I disagree, I can accept that some people feel that praying for animals to be raised from the dead is too much. But how many of those who think roadkill is too extreme have even prayed for a person who died? And how many other limitations are we going to place on when we decide to stand against death? Let me tell you the ones I most commonly see: If somebody is too old, they deserve to die. If we arbitrarily think the person might not want to return to life, we let them stay dead. If we think they have too many injuries or disabilities, we decide it’s OK for them to be dead. I would argue that we are far more comfortable with death than God ever intended. Far more cavalier about it. Far too accepting.
So what am I suggesting the standard should be? It’s actually extremely simple, doesn’t require special memorization, and is really straightforward to apply. The way we can know when we should reverse death is if it is present. It’s that simple. If death is there, we reverse it. Every time. Every situation. It doesn’t matter the age, the physical circumstances, what we think we arbitrarily believe the will of the deceased to be (none of which can be concretely tested by any reasonable prophetic standard and pass). There are no special provisos or side clauses that give us a way out. If death, loss, or destruction is present, it’s the job of a son of the Most High God to fix it.
But Michael, that’s a really high standard.
Yes, it is. What’s your point?
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I didn’t make that standard up. Jesus did.
If somebody can show me, and I mean truly and unequivocally show and prove to me that there is a circumstance of death, loss or destruction that the shed blood of Jesus on the cross was not meant to solve, that the power of God was never intended to reverse, then I will back down on that standard. But they cannot and it’s impossible to prove that, because Jesus’s standard about life and death and His work on the cross is absolute and doesn’t leave room for compromise.
There is no “yes, but what if. . . “. Our job is to fix it. And yes, that’s going to get inconvenient at times. But that just means we need to get used to being inconvenienced.
As an RN, I currently work in an ICU. I am surrounded by more death now than I have been at any prior time in my nursing career. And I still pray for life in every situation even when it seems hopeless or pointless because Jesus didn’t give us any other standard. Jesus didn’t say “only pray for life if you think it will matter” or “when situations look really hopeless, it’s OK to just give up.” Jesus stood in front of the tomb of his friend who had been dead for multiple days and even then it still wasn’t too late. There is no time, situation, or circumstance in all creation where it is too late for Jesus to do something. That doesn’t mean outcomes always goes the way I want or expect them to that doesn’t mean I always receive the answer I am praying for. My failure to fully steward what Jesus accomplished says nothing about what Jesus accomplished and says a lot about my ability to steward it. But one thing I do know for certain is this: according to Jesus all death is an enemy, and we must live accordingly.
If you want to learn more about how to walk in resurrection power, pick up a copy of my book Faith to Raise the Dead and its sequel The Gospel of Life and Immortality.
