Healing through Forgiving Sin

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A few years ago I began listening to number of different messages from Kirby and Fiona Delanerolle, founders of Works of Wonder in Sri Lanka. They have truly gotten ahold of the message of immortality and what it means that we will not die, and are pursuing it with intensity. One thing Kirby touched on that I continue to ponder is that we can minister healing through forgiving sin.

Consider John 20:21-23, “Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.'” I have heard this verse many times both as a child and adult, and even while learning a lot about physical healing in my 20s I never connected the dots, but this very concept is fascinating. Think about this. Jesus didn’t just teach his disciples this at any time–he did it after he died and rose again, after having paid the price for all sin and death for all time . Luke 5:17-26 tells of Jesus healing the paralyzed man AFTER forgiving his sins, but at no point in time did he tell his disciples to do the same until after he rose again. This is significant, and I believe holds a major key to those who still have yet to receive their healing.

It is easy to do an internet search and find articles about healing through forgiveness, but that is speaking about us finding healing by forgiving others for wrongs done against us–not about healing other people by forgiving their sins. In spite of the fact that this is taught almost nowhere, I believe it is an important key to releasing the life of Christ into the earth, and it is one I fully intend to explore.

It makes amazing sense if we really look at it. Sickness is simply death-in-process. The only thing that gives the enemy the ability to make us sick is sin. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Sin causes death, so if we forgive sin, thereby removing it, then death has no hold, and giving healing–a manifestation of the gift of God that is eternal life–should be easy. Forgive sin, heal sickness, repeat as necessary.

I think healing through forgiving sin is THE solution, but it is an important key. We have gotten moderately good at healing some sicknesses, especially in the Charismatic churches, but anyone who operates in healing will acknowledge that we have a long way to go if we want to get the kind of results Jesus paid for with his life. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I do know I am asking some of the right questions. What would happen if we taught people to forgive sins and not just pray for healing? What is the relationship between faith and righteousness? Between righteousness and healing? This subject has so much more to it and this is only the tip of the iceberg. I am convinced that as we pursue understanding not only what it means that Jesus forgave our sins, but that as his brothers and sisters He has given us the authority to forgive the sins of others, we will change the way we deal with people. We will change the way we heal diseases. We can and will change the face of health on this planet, and I believe we can do it in part by healing through forgiving sin.

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Staying The Course To Raise The Dead

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Some of you may be aware that a dear friend’s husband, Steve, died earlier this week. She, being a woman of faith, didn’t wait and wonder what to do—she began mustering up an army of prayer warriors to stand with her in faith to raise her husband back to life through the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. I have been part of that process, and have attempted to keep the Raise The Dead Initiative and DRT groups on Facebook, as well as my own social media thread, updated with where we stand. At the time of writing this, he is not alive YET, so please continue to join us in prayer.

Last afternoon I found myself struggling with the situation, given that it’s been a day and a half and we have no clear results yet. It doesn’t help that I am on the far opposite side of the United States from where my friend and her husband are, so as much as I would like to be more involved, that is made more difficult. I found myself questioning whether it was “over” or not.

Truth be told, I was really struggling with this. When I set my faith toward something, I am pretty forceful about pushing it forward in both prayer and action. Finding myself at a point where I wasn’t sure if I should continue to pray or not was difficult, so I talked to my wife and a good friend both, to help me process what was going on inside me. When all was said and done, I decided that not only is it not over, but I know a woman whose husband is supposed to return to life and remain by her side!! I have a battle to fight!

We all go through periods of doubt when trying to raise the dead. This is entirely normal, and I attribute it largely to the subtle whisperings of the enemy trying to derail our faith, encourage doubt, and get us wallowing in grief, self-pity, regret, and other negative emotions. The key, I believe, is to recognize when these feelings arise, and then either entirely ignore them, shoving them aside until after the fact, or even acknowledge them, and prayerfully send them to the feet of Jesus. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” I believe that taking captive every though also includes taking captive our emotions. If I let myself continue thinking that “it’s over”, then my emotions will eventually line up with my thoughts, and once I do that, I have no room for faith.

I spent an hour and a half on the phone with my friend the night her husband died, as we and some other men and women of faith prayed over the body. I heard her crying at times, quite understandably, because the love of her life had just died. Yet I also knew that if she wanted to stay in a place of faith, she couldn’t let herself be overcome by grief either, so as we continued to pray, I encouraged her in her faith as well, decreeing again and again the will of God for his life, which is that he will live and not die. As I did this, it encouraged her to keep pressing forward as well. Don’t get me wrong—she isn’t weak of will by any means, but I cannot say I would fare any better if anything happened to my beautiful wife either. I would both want and need friends of faith to stand with me as well.

Managing one’s emotional state in this kind of situation is of utmost importance. Many people do not realize that emotions are actually tied into our ability to effectively release faith, as much if not more than our thoughts are. When I want to engage faith for something, I literally stir up my emotions to engage what I am believing for in my thoughts, so that my heart and mind are unified in prayer.

In this situation, I have been trying to listen to the Lord on an ongoing basis to hear what He is saying to me, to receive guidance and wisdom on how to effectively walk this out. All I keep hearing him say are things like “You’re doing great, Michael. You’re doing an awesome job.” When I woke up yesterday afternoon to get some chores done then head to work for the night, I wasn’t in that place, and it took a few hours to get my head settled on right. Why? I was having difficulty discerning what I was feeling.

When things get stressful, it can be hard to know whose voice we are listening to. We have to separate the voices of God, the enemy, and ourselves, and that takes discernment—which in and of itself requires a bit of wisdom. Fortunately, we have been given the Bible which is chock-full of verses that tell us how God works, what He thinks, and His will for us in such trying situations as this, and the more we understand how He thinks, the easier it is to use godly wisdom to discern who is speaking to us.

One of the things I keep reminding myself, and others, as we continue to pray for Steve to return to life, is this:

There is no plan B.

There are two possible outcomes in this situation:

Either my friend will bury her husband, or she will receive him back to life, raised by the power of God.

Obviously, we are aiming for the latter outcome, and the hard part is that only time will tell. There is no special way to know what is going to happen, and it can be maddening to watch, wait, and pray. Yet, that is our task—to pray for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

If this subject has touched you in some way, and you want to learn how you can engage God’s resurrection power for those in your life, check out the resources below. I highly recommend six things:

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. Look for and actively engage opportunities to raise the dead in your area by reaching out to friends when you hear that someone has died.

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Not Before His Appointed Time

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I heard a story recently from fellow nurse who was working in the ER at the time this occurred. She shared how a man had come into the hospital from an accident of some kind, and he was not doing well. The team took the man to surgery immediately.

During the surgery, his heart rhythm became unsustainable. Most likely it was something called Pulseless Electrical Activity (PEA) which is where the node controlling the heartbeat throws off electricity but it doesn’t go anywhere so the heart can’t respond, and a shock to the heart won’t fix the problem. As a result of the PEA, his heart wasn’t pumping blood to the body or the brain—he basically died in front of them. This nurse heard the doctor asking everyone’s opinion on whether he should pronounce time of death due to the circumstances, and in her spirit she shouted “no!”

She began to pray and ask the Lord what to do, when He said to her something to the effect of “it is not his appointed time.” She began to pray silently that he would return to life, decreeing it was not his appointed time to die. The doctor decided to give the man a dose of atropine as a last-ditch effort to see if it would do something useful, but he wasn’t expecting much in the way of results. As she prayed and he administered the drug, the man’s heart jumped immediately back into normal sinus rhythm. The team was shocked and somewhat dumbfounded.

Given the circumstances, the drug shouldn’t have had much (if any) effect on the PEA, so it’s relatively safe to say the nurse’s prayer were effective, if not creating a bona fide miracle. She has since learned to pray for people who have died to come back until their appointed time. A nice lesson and an encouraging story; nevertheless, the man died the next day.

This is the part of the story where if it was a movie, you would hear the sound of a record skipping and the story would come to a halt while a narrator gives off-screen commentary—something akin to “Wait, what?”

The man’s life was saved in order to spend a maximum of 24 hours longer in the hospital doing roughly nothing during that time before dying yet again. I suppose we could acknowledge that he “got his heart right with God” before “his appointed time” the next day, but there’s a problem with that idea—the verse that talks about man having an appointed time to die has almost nothing to do with individuals each having an appointed time to die.

This oft-quoted verse is found in Hebrews 9:27, saying, “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment . . . ” This is usually where people stop, pointing to the verse to say “see, the Bible says everyone has an appointed time to die.” There’s a serious problem here, namely the fact that this is a sentence fragment, which means if we want to understand what this verse is actually saying we will have to continue reading to the end of the sentence. Shocking idea, I know, taking the verse in context with the rest of the sentence. Hebrews 9:27-28 says, “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

The verses in question have everything to do with Jesus Christ dying in our place and removing our date with death entirely, NOT saying that we are all destined to die. Jesus became death for us on the cross so that when we died and were co-resurrected with him in baptism, we became new creations who no longer are slaves to sin. As Romans 3:22b-24 says (again reading the entire sentence for context), “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” We have all been justified, or made righteous, through the redemption Jesus provided us. And as Romans 6 goes on to explain in detail, the payment for being made righteous is eternal, everlasting, immortal life in Jesus.

Romans 6 is a pretty fascinating chapter to read when we understand all of this in relation to context. In fact, it is so pregnant with meaning that it could easily be its own sermon, and all of it is extremely relevant to this issue of an appointed time to die. I highly recommend you take a few moments and read it right now (click here), but let’s look at just a few verses.

Romans 6:9-11 says, “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” This passage lays out the following in plain language:

1) Jesus died once and cannot die again
2) Death no longer has power over Jesus
3) His death was sufficient to cover death for everyone
4) He lives alive and well with the Father right now
5) We are to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in the same way Jesus currently is right now.

In fact, the message is so simple it’s easy to miss what this verse is saying in its simplicity. This isn’t some sort of spiritual message about how we need to think of ourselves in our minds as some sort of esoteric spiritual teaching—it literally means that Jesus physically died, can’t physically die again, physically died for us, and now we are supposed to realize that we are already physically dead to sin, and therefore get to live in our physical bodies, alive and well just like Jesus is.

I cannot begin to explain how irritated I get when I hear people quoting Hebrews 9:27 out of context and use it as an excuse to put their faith in what I call the Cult of Death—a term I use for the majority of Christian denominations that tell everyone that while Jesus died so we wouldn’t have to, and paid for sin so that death would no longer have power over us, that somehow death has power over us and we are incapable of escaping it. Not only that, but the Cult of Death also actively welcomes death as the doorway to Jesus Christ, forgetting that Jesus clearly stated in both John 10 and John 14 that He, Jesus, is the door. You cannot have both death and Jesus be your doorway to eternal life—you will have to pick one, and I highly recommend you choose Jesus.

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Prophetic Bulletin: God is Releasing the Wine of Immortality in 2018

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Over the past few days I have been thinking about an annual conference I plan to host in the future dealing with resurrection, abundant life, and immortality in Jesus Christ. I began to ponder the idea of finding a brand of wine with the name “Immortal” in the title to take communion with. Having discussed it with some friends on Sunday, I decided yesterday (Tuesday) to actually search online to see what I could find. Keep in mind as you read that I am not a wine enthusiast and do not have any idea what is going on in the wine world—the only way I could come across this under such circumstances is by the Spirit of God. What I discovered surprised me greatly, and I realized through this encounter that the Lord was releasing a word to the Body of Christ. The word is this: God is releasing the Wine of Immortality in 2018.

The Wine Industry Advisor published an article yesterday (October 31, 2017), less than two hours before I did my online search for immortal wine. The title is “Immortal Estate to Launch First Wines in 2018,” and as you can imagine, it caught my eye. The article states, “The vineyard is an organic evolution of Hidden Ridge Vineyard, a winery that has produced wines that have earned a rare 100-point rating from internationally influential wine critic Robert Parker.”

The first thing that caught my attention was the name, Immortal estate, but what drew me in further is when I read that the vineyard is transitioning from Hidden Ridge to Immortal Estate. Here’s what that says to me: What was once hidden in the high places, found in the heavens, God is releasing to us as our inheritance—our estate—the revelation of immortality in Jesus Christ. Furthermore, the article says this is an evolution, a natural progression from one thing to another. For those who believe in healing, the natural progression is to begin to believe God for raising the dead for those who were sick and were not healed. Then, as we get a revelation of God’s desire for resurrection, we get opened to the understanding that God gives us power to raise the dead because it is not His will for us to die, and God brings us into the revelation of immortality. There is a natural evolutionary process that God takes us through as we increase in revelation in Him.

If you recall back to the story of the wedding feast at Cana, Jesus turned water into wine, but there is a prophetic picture found in that story that relates to what God is saying today. John 2:1-10 says:

“On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

The Immortal Estate vineyard is a prophetic picture not just of the transition from the current state in the Body of Christ toward the revelation of immortality becoming better known in the coming year, but also speaks of the quality of this revelation God is releasing. This revelation has a 100-point rating. This rating is rarely seen in the wine world because 100 is as high as the scale goes!! God has saved the best until now!

The bridegroom of the wedding provided wine, but the bridegroom Jesus provided even better wine as time went on. The Bible speaks of God releasing new wine in a number of places in scripture, which speak prophetically to God releasing new realms of His virtue to His people in the days to come. Even as God has given us the Azusa Awakening and the renewal of the Body’s use of spiritual gifts, the Latter Rain movement and others wherein God restored a revelation about the function of prophets and apostles, and other movements both prior and post where God has restored various revelation to His body, now God is evolving His church, releasing new wine. This wine of His spirit is the revelation of abundant, immortal life, that we who live and believe in Jesus will never die.

While pondering this word, the Lord dropped another piece of the puzzle into my spirit. October 31st 2017, the day this article was published, is the 500-year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation when Martin Luther nailed his theses to the door of a church in Wittenburg. 5 is the number of grace. 100 speaks to the 100-point rating of the Immortal Estate wine, but there is more! According to this article on Innertech.com, 5 and 100 are defined as:

[box type=”shadow”]5 – HE (ARMS): {h,e,ah} The principle or concept of universal life. The female principle behind creation. The arms hold or bind, as in a covenant or as in love.

100 – QOPH (HORIZON): {q} The exalted state of Aleph. The end of death and the negative. Ancient Hebrew letter pictures a sun splitting the horizon line. The sun sets on death and rises on Life.[/box]

The timing of this word in conjunction with the 500-year anniversary of the Reformation is significant, and it isn’t coincidence. It speaks to the release of grace to end death, and to bind, and hold to us in covenant to this revelation of life and immortality in Jesus Christ, ushering in a new era.

In 2018 we will see a greater release of the revelation of life and immortality that 2 Timothy 2:10-11 speaks about. We will begin to see even more teachers and speakers releasing this revelation of immortal life. New books are getting ready to be published that will spread this message like wildfire. New organizations and ministries will be birthed in 2018 and some will be revealed in 2018 that have been hidden—all of which have the mandate to release the abundant life of Jesus Christ to the nations. God is releasing a mystery that has been hidden for ages, and is bringing His sons and daughters into a greater level of our inheritance. Immortality in Christ Jesus is our birthright, our estate, and God is sparing no expense on His part to release the best things to us in this time.

To read more of this prophetic word and what God has planned for our future, grab a copy of my book “The Gospel of Life and Immortality,” available on both Kindle and in Print on Amazon.

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I Must Become The Answer

I forget what I was doing the other day, but I found myself thinking about what I would do if someone close to me died. I thought that the first thing I would do would be to call my friend Tyler, the founder of The Dead Raising Teams (DRT), who teaches and trains people to raise the dead. Then, I thought about the fact that EVERYONE who has ever heard of him probably has that very same thought. After all, when someone dies an we want to pray them back to life, we all want someone we think can get the job done, right? Then it hit me that I must become the answer.

Its not like this was an entirely new thought—I have had it before about other things, and I firmly believe that relying on Christ in me is a much more effective method of releasing Kingdom solutions in any problem situation. However, there are times where we discover areas where our minds haven’t yet been fully renewed to understand the Kingdom reality God has place within us, and that He has given us power to release that Kingdom and make it manifest in our world.

The truth is that while Tyler is an awesome friend and a really great guy, there is nothing about him that is any different than me in regards to raising the dead other than him being more well-known. We both have the same Jesus living inside us. We both have access to the power of the same Holy Spirit. We both have been given authority over all sickness, disease, infirmity, and death by the very same God of the Bible. So why is he my instant solution?? I must become the answer.

Someone once told me that God’s name “Jehovah Jireh” doesn’t just mean “God provides”. It means “I will become whatever I must become.” In other words, God calling Himself Jehovah Jireh means He is committed to becoming whatever solution we need in any situation. If the problem is lack, He will become our supply. If pain or sorrow, He will become our healing and joy. If death, He is and already has become our abundant life.

At the end of the day, I can’t depend on anyone else, no matter how good of a friend they may be, to manifest the Kingdom on my behalf. If someone in my family dies, I am the designated resurrectionist for the situation. Friends may let me down no matter how hard they try, but God has said that He will never leave or forsake me (Deut. 31:6, Heb. 13:5). He is the friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). At the end of the day, there is only ever God, and me.

I must become the answer, and so must you.

If you want to learn more about how you can be a resurrectionist, check out the resources below. If you want to grow quickly in this area, I highly recommend five things:

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. Tyler’s books are How to Raise the Dead and The Dead Are Raised, and be sure to check out Father Hebert’s encouraging book Saints Who Raised The Dead

3. Join the RDI on Facebook: Raise the Dead Initiative The Raise the Dead Initiative is a group I started to help grow the Body of Christ 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 and Dead Raising Campaign Facebook groups.

4. Look at how you can host or attend a Resurrection School 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 Resurrection Schools 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.

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. Look for and actively engage opportunities to raise the dead in your area by reaching out to friends when you hear that someone has died.

The New Has Come

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Having not shared about immortality recently, I was trying to figure out what to write for this blog post, but wasn’t sure what to say. I asked Holy Spirit what his favorite verse was on the subject, and He told me it was 2 Corinthians 5:17. Not knowing offhand what the verse said, I looked it up. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” I’ll be honest, while the Bible has a vast number of verses that reference this promise from Heaven that we can be set free from the curse of death, this is not one of the ones that has ever come to mind, so I asked Holy Spirit, “What is it about this verse that you like so much?”

“I like how it reveals the Son.” He said. And while that verse doesn’t seem at first glance to do that, verses 17-21 do. They speak about how Jesus was reconciling the world to the Father, not counting our sins against us and making us the righteousness of God in Jesus. So what does revealing Jesus as the Reconciler that have to do with immortality? Everything.

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” Romans 1:17 quoting Habakkuk 2:4 says, “The righteous shall live by faith.” The payment for sin is death, so what is the payment for righteousness? If one goes throughout scripture, righteousness and life are integrally connected. Eternal life comes through faith in Jesus, and the righteous shall live by that same faith. This ultimately means that as 2 Corinthians 5 tells us, because Jesus has made us righteous in Him, that we shall live and not die. All of Romans actually addresses this issue–that we have already died with Christ and the law of sin no longer applies to us. If sin no longer applies, then we no longer are to reap the payment for sin, which is death.

The biggest struggle I find people have with this idea, in spite of the fact that the scriptures clearly say otherwise, is that we have grown accustomed to this idea that we are all fated to die. Jesus died to do away with sin, and as a result do away with the penalty, which is death. John 3:16 states this plainly, saying that God did not want us to die but instead, live forever. We have for centuries interpreted this to mean “everlasting life in heaven after we die” but the verse doesn’t actually say that–it very clearly states that God didn’t want us to die and to accomplish this He sent His Son.

If we go back to Genesis we have to remember the warning God gave Adam: “. . . you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:17). The very FIRST warning God ever gave to His children was to prevent them from dying. We have been incredibly sin-focused as the Church, but God is focused on life and death. The reason Jesus set us free from sin was BECAUSE it kills us and God loves us so much He doesn’t want us to die.

The Church is entering a new period of theological revolution. Much like Martin Luther redefined our understanding of salvation, God is yet again re-revealing who He is and what His purposes are in the earth, not so much doing a new thing, but bringing deeper revelation on what He has always been doing. As this occurs, we will discover experientially what Holy Spirit’s favorite verse on immortality says: that we who are in Jesus Christ have been made into new creations because the old, sinful, mortal version has passed away and the new version has been clothed with immortality. Even as Paul said in Philippians 3:12, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” The apostle Paul pressed forward to attain to this gift of immortality which is in Christ Jesus, having been appointed an apostle and teacher and preacher of the gospel that speaks of that very gift (2 Timothy 1:10-11). The practical revelation of how to walk in this reality is even now being released from Heaven and pulled down into the earth through men and women who have become convinced of what the scriptures say–that we will live and not die. I pray that even as God brings clarity to this plan for immortality, the only plan He has ever had, that you will grasp hold of this revelation and make it your own.

To help better understand this subject and read more on God’s plan for our future, grab a copy of my book “The Gospel of Life and Immortality,” available on both Kindle and in Print on Amazon.

Forerunners and Imposter Syndrome

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I have a friend who regularly reminds me that I am a forerunner. I didn’t used to understand why, but as I have pursued the revelation of life and immortality (get a copy of my book on the subject here) I have come to understand more of why he, a fellow forerunner, always reminds me of that. It’s because he has been there, knows how difficult it can be, and is trying to ease my way.

When I put out my book Faith To Raise The Dead, I had multiple people ask me the question “How can you write a book about raising the dead if you haven’t raised the dead yet?” While writing the book I wrestled with this very idea. What I realized is that lots of people teach things they haven’t done and we consider it perfectly normal and/or reasonable. Science teachers teach about volcanoes, water currents, outer space, atoms and subatomic particles, cellular respiration, and all sorts of other natural phenomenon and physiological processes they have never personally witnessed. History professors teach about cultures they have never actually encountered personally. People teach business courses all the time who have no actual experience running a business. It is actually quite common in higher education to do exactly that, and it happens in the Church as well.

End-times prophecy is a perfect example of this. We have well-known speakers, authors, and teachers who have deeply involved understanding of their subject matter, but at the end of the day it is technically 100% conjecture considering not a single one of them has ever actually “experienced” the end times they are speaking about. People flock to conferences, buy books, and are glued to television programs with these individuals discussing these theories that don’t even really influence our day-to-day lives, but when someone talks about raising the dead, living in divine health, or living forever the first thing many point to is the fact that I haven’t lived it all experientially yet.

The thing about forerunners is that we don’t always have all the details worked out yet, but we are the people who get everyone moving in the right direction to begin with. We are the innovators who spread the message to get the early adopters on board. As with any new idea, invention, etc. the innovators and early adopters face the most ridicule because they are willing to step out and take a risk with no guarantee of return. However, that risk-taking eventually pays off when everyone else hops on board and wishes they had started earlier.

One of the threats forerunners face is Imposter Syndrome—the fear that you risk being exposed as a fraud for what you are doing; that someday your areas of lack will be exposed and people will see you for “who you really are.” As I said before, I really had to fight this idea as an author because I haven’t raised the dead yet, but I realized that I’m not an imposter just because I haven’t been successful yet. I have learned a lot through my experiences as I have pursued resurrection, and God has taught me even more as I have continued on this path. The same is happening with the revelation of abundant life and immortality—God is revealing new levels and aspects of this truth even though I have yet to live in the fullness of this promise that Jesus gave his disciples.

The apostle Paul ran into this same problem, to the point that he repeated himself twice when speaking to the Philippians about this in Phillippians 3:12-14, saying, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Paul was very clear that he had not already attained the fullness of the revelation he was preaching, but he didn’t let it stop him from proclaiming the revelation.

I had a dream the other night that seemed to suggest there are two main ways God gives us a message He wants us to carry. The first is as a prophetic revelation, and this typically comes first. Prophetic messages are often those given by the forerunners, as they are speaking of realities that have not manifested as of yet. The second are apostolic messengers—those who have lived out the message, have struggled through the ups and downs as they have pioneered the experience, and who have become the living embodiment of that which they speak. Neither means of carrying a message is better than the other, nor is either inferior to the other; they are simply different. Apostolic messengers carry the experiences within them, while the prophetic messenger is often speaking of things he or she has yet to attain to. It is important to understand whether a message is prophetic or apostolic as defined above, as prophetic messages are those that place us in greater danger of Imposter syndrome.

Finally, it is important to have our approval grounded in God’s love for us instead of in the accolades found by other humans. If we find our solace in the encouragement and agreement of other people then when discouragement and discord come along we are not going to be able to stand firm and carry the message strong. If we are grounded in the Father’s love and approval of us, then it doesn’t matter what trials or tribulations come our way because we will be filled with an inner strength to hold our ground and lift our standard high.

Is Death a Form of Healing?

I have heard numerous times where people have stated that someone received “the final healing” after they died. It’s a nice idea, but it’s not scriptural. I’m not aware of a single place in the Bible where God said anything close to “I shalt kill thee, and thou shalt reap the harvest of healing blessings as my holy smiting smiteth thee. Yea, verily shalt it be so.” In the Old Testament death carried a lot of despair, pain, and grief with it. While that same despair is not expressed much in the New Testament, that is not because of a heaven-when-you-die reality, but due to the fact that through Jesus’ death and resurrection we have access to that same healing, saving, resurrection power. In other words, death as a form of healing is possibly one of the highest heresies out there, an anti-Christ doctrine in direct opposition to the sacrifice Jesus made through His blood on the cross.

So what does the Bible say about death and healing?

The Bible says a lot of things, but I’ll give you my translation of a favorite verse of mine from Romans 8. “The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will also quicken and bring life to your fleshly, mortal, and perishing body.” If the Holy Spirit is bringing life to our bodies, which are perishing and temporary, then why on earth do we believe that we have to die to get healed? Or worse yet, that those who died finally got healed because they died? I don’t know why we believe it on earth, because I can tell you that no one believes it in Heaven.

I recall a conversation I had with a massage therapist at a former Chiropractor’ office a few years back, and I believe God set me up for this one. This massage therapist is a believer, and I was talking about God healing people, and said something to the effect of “God can grow someone’s amputated leg back. If he could make the whole earth, a leg isn’t hard for him.” As I continued in conversation, I repeated this general statement about an amputated leg growing back at least one more time. Yeah, so as it turned out he had a prosthetic foot. And no, when I mentioned God growing legs back, twice, I was unaware of this, not to mention that this guy didn’t need the whole leg—just the foot. I’ll be honest, I was pretty stoked at this, which was clearly a God-setup. The therapist shared with me that he was looking forward to having a new foot, and my ears perked up at this, thinking that he’d already received a prophecy about God restoring his foot.

My response: “Really? That’s great! When do you think it’s going to happen?”

Therapist: “Oh, well in Heaven, of course!!

I’m not sure what my face looked like at the time, but I might have been just short of a visible facepalm.

Death is not a healing. It’s an entirely new spiritual body, which is not the same thing. I didn’t tell him that, but I did suggest to him that he didn’t need to wait until he got to heaven to have a new foot. After all, Jesus pretty much stated that God’s will was to be done on earth as it is now in heaven. If the therapist already knew he’ll have a new foot in heaven, then the next logical step should be to have one on earth, now, in the same way it is in heaven, now. Well, that’s what my bible says anyway. Furthermore, even if we die, eventually God is going to resurrect us all as it shows us in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 so we won’t be permitted to stay dead anyway.

The idea that death is a form of healing is a false belief that has lived quite comfortably in the church for centuries. There’s another teaching that goes along with it, the common belief that God kills people that he wants to be in heaven. “God must have needed them more than we did” is the common adage. I think we really need to get a new grip on who God is. Honestly. God created all of us out of His immense love. If we read just the first 5 chapters of the bible (chapters, not books), we see that the first man and woman walked with God. And another man, Enoch, did so even after the fall. God didn’t need to kill any of them to be with them. And even when God took Enoch to heaven, He didn’t kill the man—God simply translocated him straight into the heavens. One moment Enoch was on earth, the next he wasn’t, but there was no death involved.

If we want to be scriptural, the only way God is going to take people is if He does it without them dying. Interestingly enough, the last five chapters of the Bible are pretty similar to the first ones, in that man walks with God once more. Furthermore, there is no death there either. When God does things His way, no one dies—He just brings a new heaven and new earth to the present reality and we share it with him. Paul himself stated that “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Note how Paul said still alive, not dead.

Let me share a quote from a friend of mine, Praying Medic, that explains the concept quite clearly. “The centuries old teaching that God kills people that he dearly loves and redeems needs to die a quick death. The church has failed to demonstrate the power and authority Jesus gave to it and developed the teaching that God might have a reason for us to die young or suffer sickness.”

Because the Body of Christ, his Church, has failed on many many many many many many occasions to manifest the Kingdom on earth in the same way it currently is and always has existed in Heaven, we have developed finely crafted beliefs about death and healing to help us explain why people die sick. What we really need to be doing is pressing into a place in God’s heart, a place of faith, and a place of understanding who we are and what we have in Him that sickness, disease, and death no longer have the capacity to exist around us. We have heard stories of men and women of the faith such as John G. Lake, Kathryn Kuhlman, Smith Wigglesworth, and even older saints such as St. Joseph of Cupertino, St. Francis of Assisi, and others, all of whom did great miracles, but they were no different from us. In fact, St. Joseph was known to have some form of mental retardation. The man was a total fool, but he did crazy miracles that have been done by few since.

Jesus said in John 14 that ‘He who believes in me will do what I am doing. He will do even greater because I am going to the Father.” He was pretty clear here. “I’m leaving, you’re staying. The stuff that I did, ALL of it, it is now your turn to do.” He didn’t make some special delineation of those special people with the special anointing, special gift, special faith, or special anything else. He just said “If you believe in me, then here is the list of what you will do: Everything I did and then some.”

Jesus was very consistent with what he said and did. He said that Lazarus would not remain dead and He raised him. Jesus was a problem solver, consistently defeating sickness, infirmity, and death wherever He went—so why do we as His followers think it is our job to give in easily when death comes our way? If we’re not going to heal people, and if we’re not going to raise the dead, the least we can do is recognize our shortcomings and not explain them away with spiritual-sounding words that have no basis in truth. Let’s call a spade a spade and just say that we failed instead of pretending as though the God of Light and Life is doing some special healing by killing people.

I choose a different option. I vote for pursuing the abundant life Jesus promised us in John 10:10 such that if someone is sick he can’t stay sick even if he wants to. I vote for living in such a way that death cannot have a hold on those around me, and even if they die, they can’t stay dead because I’m there. I vote that we change the way we think and speak to encourage the truth that death is an enemy to God and that because we are God’s heirs, it is our enemy as well. This isn’t because I am more special than anyone else, but because Christ in me doesn’t like death any more than I do, and He has promised to give us the power to do something about it. I haven’t arrived yet, but I’m on the journey. Care to come with me?

Oh, and Heresy, you can’t come.

If you want to learn more about the truth behind life and death and the provisions Jesus has made for us to destroy sickness and disease and raise the dead, pick up a copy of my book Faith to Raise the Dead.

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The Goodness in Resurrection

I have noticed that the Lord tends to talk to me a lot about resurrection and immortality when I am praying for the dead to resurrect. It shouldn’t be surprising, I suppose, as God is interested in teaching us in any and every situation, but this particular time I was praying for an older chicken of ours who had died, God decided to speak to me about His nature, and how our perspective and understanding about God’s nature has EVERYTHING to do with success in consistently raising the dead.

Any follower of Jesus Christ can raise the dead; its not a special thing that only special people do. However, while anyone CAN raise the dead, few people will do it on a consistent, ongoing basis with any notable level of success. It comes down to our mindsets and beliefs primarily about God–who He is and what He is like. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” It is of utmost importance to our faith that we believe God is a rewarder. Ultimately, this verse speaks about God’s nature, in that He gives good gifts. Matthew 7:11 juxtaposes that concept of God’s goodness with evil saying, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” In other words, if evil people know how to give rewards and nice presents, then God who is imminently good is far better even than that! If we want to receive good things from God, then we need to believe that He is good!

The next thing the Lord showed me was about his kindness. Think about how absolutely, stunningly kind God is to allow us to raise the dead. Death is a horrible, terrible thing–and while there are streams of thought that talk about it as a transition and “passing through” to another phase of life, let’s be honest–death is horrible. There is often physical pain, not to mention regret, grief, loss, and heartache. There are a lot of terrible things that surround death, and it was never God’s plan for us to die to begin with!! There’s a reason he told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil–so they wouldn’t die. Death isn’t just a phase or a step or a bump or whatever. It is an abomination against God’s plan for us because God has plans for hope and a future and for long life and blessings (Jeremiah 29:11), not death–it’s not on HIS plan for our lives. On the other hand, this kind, good, gracious God gives us power over death to destroy it’s works and to bring those who have died back to life. When I thought about that–about God’s kindness, I was brought to tears. There simply aren’t words enough to describe how incredibly good God is. How kind God is. How loving He is toward us.

I asked God while he was showing me this how we go about raising the dead, and you know what He said to me? He said,

“Anyone who wants to learn how to raise the dead must first be convinced of my goodness.”

How can faith for resurrection be built on anything less? If we don’t believe God is good, and that He rewards us, then how can we expect to receive anything from Him? That is being double-minded, and as James 1:6-7 says, “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” We all have doubts, but God is trying to bring us to a place where we never doubt His goodness–because when we doubt, it’s not that God doesn’t want to give us anything any longer, but doubt is putting our faith in what God WON’T do–and what we believe and ask for, we can have. This is why we so often don’t receive what we think we are requesting because our doubt actually asks God NOT to give us what we want. As we become convinced in the deepest parts of our soul that God is kind, good, loving, and that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” God isn’t good one moment and evil or hard or bad or angry or anything else the next. The Bible says that He gives good gifts, and is the Father of light, which is synonymous with all blessings and good things, and that He doesn’t change. If he doesn’t change, then evil and darkness and anything less than complete goodness simply doesn’t come from Him.

What’s more, in addition to being kind and good, our heavenly Father is all about life–and not just the kind where we just barely get by, but abundant life. If we can’t grasp even the vaguest of essence of understanding of God’s desire for us to live long, prosperous lives, do we really understand the good news that Jesus paid for our sins and defeated death so that we could live? John 3:16 [paraphrased] says, “God loved the world so much that he gave his only heir, his son Jesus, so that instead of dying we would live forever, immortal and unable for death to touch us.” God is passionate about life. He burns for it. He bled and died for it. For us. For you. God can’t be anything other than who HE is, and getting a revelation of His nature is the first step to raising the dead.

God has formed and purposed YOU to raise the dead. He has designed you to transform the world with your love and to step out in big and small ways without fear to remove the blight of darkness from this earth and instead to extend His light. You are the emissary that God has sent to be the solution to the darkness and pain in front of you. You are the solution to the deaths that happen around you. In fact, you may be the ONLY solution because many even in the church perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6), not realizing that God can and will raise the dead. I’ve witnessed it happen. You are salt and light–you are the qualified resurrectionist and God wants to take you to a deeper level, where you are so convinced of His goodness that not even death can stand up in front of you. Go forward and be the game-changer you already are inside.

If you want to learn more about how you can be a resurrectionist, check out the resources below. If you want to grow quickly in this area, I highly recommend five things:

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

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

5. Look at how you can host or attend a Resurrection School 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 Resurrection Schools 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.

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

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Two Audio Interviews: Faith To Raise The Dead

Good Morning Friends!

With the launch of my latest book, Faith To Raise The Dead, I have been blessed to be the guest on a number of radio programs to discuss not just the book itself, but God’s overall desire for us to live in abundant life. Check out these two conversations with the lovely Lisa Perna of Touched By Prayer and my good friend Praying Medic as we discuss resurrection, healing, and much more!

Touched By Prayer – Bring Out Your Dead Praying Medic – Podcast 081: Faith To Raise The Dead