JAC Online

Dead Raising Prayers

by Major Stephen Court

God has a ‘greater things’ end-times package prepared from John 14:12 for all of us.  Since He raised dead people, it only seems reasonable to expect that He’ll empower those faithful to Him to raise dead people, too.  He commanded His followers to raise the dead (Matthew 10:7-9). 

And, praise God, there are lots of examples of this happening around the world. 

For example:

·   Prolific author Wesley Harris, retired commissioner in The Salvation Army, had a grandfather, Major Blanchard, who died in Wales.  As was customary the funeral was held in the home, friends and neighbours filling the living room and spilling over into the yard.  The coffin was open during the service and prayers and Bible reading and just before the lid was screwed down someone noticed the eyelid of the corpse was twitching.  The body was revived and he lived to old age as a well-loved Salvation Army officer.

·   Commissioner Kay Rader, the first American-born international leader of The Salvation Army’s women’s ministries, was dead, “like a stone in a white bed,” confirmed without a pulse by the attending doctor.  Then a warrior of Jesus, Mariah LaSane, stepped into the room and prayed down some glory and the girl was restored to perfect health.[i] 

·   A student at The War College in Vancouver, from Nigeria, was in a meeting not too long ago in his home congregation intended to raise his teenaged friend back to life.  The meeting was a success (not in some figurative or 'spiritual' sense- the dead teen came back to life).

·   Salvo Evangelist Michael Collins recently prayed for a brain-dead patient to come back to life.  He lived, and he now golfs and cruises (not Michael, the former patient). 

Here's an account of a dead-raising miracle experienced by Major Dula from Mizoram, India:

During 1993 while we are ITI Corps Area as Corps Officers, Gilgal Corps (Central Division) invited me with our Corps revival Team for five days Revival Camping in their respective area Bungkawn at Aizawl our State Capital.  By faith we did the works through the grace of God.  Our campers comprised different backgrounds of evil doers totally nearly 100.  The prayer warriors fasted one week without food and Home League members supported much in fasting.  I felt strongly the very anointing of the Holy Spirit.  Unexpectedly, on Thursday one of the campers, a drug addict, passed away (dead) at Corps Officers Quarters.  The matters reach me while I prepared for my fourth Sermon.  I ran towards the spot - the very young lads lying down with cold, women are crying, trying to awake up, but of no response.  We lay down our simple hand in three places and pray to the Lord to bring back the spirit.  The Lord did miracles to us and the very spirit live again.  We praised the Lord with full of tears.  He asked me "Bro Dula, I like to go home and I promise you I will came back in time.  I agreed with the consent of others local Officers.  Afternoon he came back with full bags different kinds of drugs and handed over to me.  He said to us, "God arises me from the dead; I no in need for this devil instruments".  Hallelujah.  Praise the Lord.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today. BY HIS WOUNDS WE ARE HEALED (Isaiah 53:5).

·   Dr. Charles A. Blanchard, former president of Wheaton College, wrote GETTING THINGS FROM GOD, a book on prayer (Moody Press).  In it he recounts this remarkable testimony:

“Friends, about two and a half or three years ago I was in the hospital in Philadelphia.  I was an engineer on the Pennsylvania Lines, and although I had a praying wife, I had all my life been a sinful man.  At this time I was very ill.  I became greatly wasted.  I weighed less than one hundred pounds.  Finally the doctor who was attending me said to my wife that I was dead, but she said: 'No, he is not dead. He cannot be dead.  I have prayed for him for twenty-seven years and God has promised me that he should be saved.  Do you think God would let him die now after I have prayed twenty-seven years and God has promised me that he should be saved.  Do you think God would let him die now after I have prayed for him for twenty-seven years and God has promised, and he is not saved?' '  Well,' the doctor replied, 'I do not know anything about that, but I know that he is dead.'  And the screen was drawn around cot, which in the hospital separates between the living and the dead.

“To satisfy my wife, other physicians were brought, one after another, until seven were about the cot, and each one of them as he came up and made the examination confirmed the testimony of all who had preceded.  The seven doctors said that I was dead.  Meanwhile my wife was kneeling by the side of my cot, insisting that I was not dead--that if I were dead God would bring me back, for He had promised her that I should be saved and I was not yet saved.  By and by her knees began to pain her, kneeling on the hard hospital floor.  She asked the nurse for a pillow and the nurse brought her a pillow upon which she kneeled.  One hour, two hours, three hours passed.  The screen still stood by the cot.  I was lying there still, apparently dead.  Four hours, five hours, six hours, seven hours, thirteen hours passed, and all this while my wife was kneeling by the cot-side, and when people remonstrated and wished her to go away she said: 'No, he has to be saved.  God will bring him back if he is dead. He is not dead.  He cannot die until he is saved.

“At the end of thirteen hours I opened my eyes, and she said: 'What do you wish, my dear?'  And I said: 'I wish to go home,' and she said: 'You shall go home.'  But when she proposed it, the doctors raised their hands in horror.  They said, 'Why, it will kill him.  It will be suicide.'  She said: 'You have had your turn.  You said he was dead already.  I am going to take him home.'

“I weigh now 246 pounds.  I still run a fast train on the Pennsylvania Lines.  I have been out to Minneapolis on a little vacation, telling men what Jesus can do, and I am glad to tell you what Jesus can do.

“Dr. Blanchard was a great educator, a man of national prominence, a scholar, as well as a devout Christian.  It was not hard for him to believe that God had answered the prayer of a wife for her unsaved husband, and that he was brought back in order that he might be saved.  And if it is hard for you to believe, then I ask you in the words of Paul the apostle, 'Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? (Acts 26: 8).

“If such an occurrence is rare, then it is equally rare that a woman should pray like that and believe God.  God still answers prayer for those who trust Him.[ii]

·         On October 16, 1997, Scott Holtz, with his wife Dalit, founder of Rivers in the Desert International ministries, had a similar experience:

“Having just completed revival meetings in Montreal, Canada and on my way to the airport early Monday morning.  The black sedan in front of us lost control and struck a guard rail which shot through the passenger window like a javelin striking this driver in the face and instantly killing her.  We were one of the first cars to arrive on the scene and then 35 minutes later prayer was offered for her and she came back to life!!  In the photo you will notice that she has no right eye after she comes back to life but on the way to the hospital God gave her a brand new right eye!  Glory to God![iii]

·         One of the more famous accounts in our era involves evangelist Reinhard Bonnke:

“During the evening meetings, I mingled with the people on the edge of the crowd while the evangelist was preaching, and experienced that, although it was difficult to see the platform, the message came across loud and clear from the powerful speakers.  There were just a few parts of the site which were not quite so good, and I was told that the massive new P.A. system, which the prayer partners are buying, will mean that the message can be heard even a mile away.  It had been hoped that this would have been available for Ogbomosho, but it was still being processed through customs.  So there will be the possibility of even larger crusades in the future.

“By now, many Christians will have heard at least something of the story of Daniel Ekechukwu, who came back from the dead after three days.  Again, there will be skeptics who will say, “I don’t believe it!” and many of them will be Christians.  I admit it is hard to believe, but when you see him before your eyes, standing on a stage, telling his story to half a million people, you have to believe.  After a serious car accident, the doctors had pronounced him dead, and his body had been embalmed, but his wife felt that God had told her that he would live.  So, despite all the opposition, she had his body taken to a church where Reinhard Bonnke was speaking.  After some remonstrating, the stewards allowed the body to be taken into a side room, where, unknown to the evangelist, Daniel suddenly came back to life.  While Daniel was speaking I saw two people making their way through the crowd, waving their crutches in the air.  Later, one of these, called Peter, told us from the stage that while Daniel was speaking, he suddenly felt convinced that if God could bring Daniel back from the dead, surely he could be healed from the results of his accident.  The crowd was ecstatic when he left his crutches and ran back and forth across the stage.[iv]

·         Evangelist Heidi Baker, whose churches have seen 60 people raised back to life, puts it this way: "Did God forget how to do the impossible? You believe that a doctor can make someone well, but when God does it you want videos before you'll believe it.  Haven't you read the book?"

·         In March 2003, Swiss church planters Bruno Bayer and Dr. Marco Gmuer returned, exhausted but impressed, from a journey to the Mexican highlands.  They had been invited by David Hogan, a Texan evangelist who has worked in Mexico for almost 30 years.  There are many wild rumours about him, including the claim that almost 300 people have been raised from the dead.  Hogan became known in the West through a video series with Dr. Michael Brown in Pensacola.[v]

·   According to the Swedish Christian paper Magazinet the Pakistani/Swedish evangelist Christopher Alam visited Word of Life, Uppsala last week and told following incredible story from Myanmar (Burma):

“A monk had been sick and died but before the cremation the man resurrected and begun to witness about a vision from heaven and hell.

“He says: “Then I died I met a man in white clothes and it was Jesus.  He showed me the heaven and the hell.

“The first man I saw in hell was Buddha.  Jesus took the monk to the side and said: I am sending you to your own people and you shall tell them that they must repent and turn away from their sins and turn to Me; I am the only way to God.  Time is short, I soon will return to earth.

“After this the monk has become very bold, the authorities arrests him time after time but many over all Burma have been saved as a result of the testimony from the resurrected monk.[vi]

What’s the bottom line?  Those of us who do not attempt to get people saved probably never ever see someone get saved in our warfare.  Maybe we don’t see people raised from the dead because we don’t, in western society, normally, ever see any dead bodies (since the West has sanitized the whole process and whisks away the body, quickly out of sight).  Maybe we don’t see people raised from the dead because we don’t pray for people to be raised from the dead.  Here are some Biblical examples and the prayers God’s followers use therein to help you along.

Pray each of these texts into your situation.  The Word of God is the truth.  What God has done in the past He can do in the present.  If Elisha’s dead bones could raise a dead person to life, well, then, God can use all manner of thing to raise the dead today.  Apply these truths, these prophecies, these historical accounts and the precedent they represent, to your lives and challenges.

2 Kings 4:27-37

(back story)

When the Shunammite widow reached the man of God at the mountain’s edge, she collapsed at his feet, clutching them in distress.  Elisha’s servant Gehazi intervened to extract his feet from her grasp, but was rebuked, "Leave her alone! She is a wreck, her soul is vexed, and Yahweh has left me in the dark as to the reason." 

"Did I ask you for a boy, sir?" she asked. "Didn’t I warn you, ‘Don’t mess with my head and my hopes'?"  Elisha turned to Gehazi, "Kit up and head straight to her house.  Don’t stop for small-talk.  Take my staff and place it on the child’s face.”

But the child's mother interrupted, "As surely as Yahweh lives and you are breathing in front of me, I am not heading home unless you are at my shoulder."  So he got up and accompanied her…

Elisha arrived at the house to find the boy dead on his bed.  So, he entered the room, locked the door behind them, and prayed to Yahweh. 

He climbed onto the bed and blanketed the child with his body, eyes over eyes, mouth over mouth, hands over hands.  Stretched out like that, the boy’s body began to warm up.

Elisha left the bed to pace the floors before stretching once more over the body.  This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!

Elisha called Gehazi to have the Shunammite woman come into the room.  Upon her entrance Elisha said, “give your son a hug.”  She collapsed at his feet, embraced her son, and carried him out. 

(pray this into your situation)

Some of the following texts are fairly lengthy.  We encourage you to look them up in your Bible.

2 Kings 13:20-21

Dead soldier was thrown into the grave of Elisha and was given life when his body touched Elisha's bones.

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Vision of the valley of dry bones which become living people when the word of God is preached to them.

Matthew 9:18-26; Luke 8:40-56

Jesus raises a little girl from death.

Matthew 10:8

Preach the Kingdom.  Heal sick people.  Raise dead people back to life.  Cleanse lepers.  Kick out demons.  You’ve received freely.  Give freely. 

Luke 7:22

Jesus replied to the messengers, “Go back and tell John what you have seen and what you have heard.  Blind people see.  Lame people walk.  Deaf people hear.  Dead people are walking around.  And the poor hear the good news.” 

Matthew 27:52

Tombs busted open and the bodies of many saints were brought back to life. 

Luke 7:11-17

Jesus interrupts the funeral procession of the son of a widow from Nain by raising him from death.

John 5:21

Father raises dead people back to life and so does the Son.  The Son raises to life anyone He chooses. 

John 11:1-53; John 12:17-18

The crowd who watched Jesus raise Lazarus back to life was spreading the story all over.  And that drew crowds, itself.  It got so bad that the Pharisees complained amongst themselves, “We’ve lost control.  The whole world is chasing after Jesus.”

Acts 9:36-43

In the city of Joppa, God raises Tabitha from death through Peter.

Acts 20:7-12

Eutychus falls asleep and falls out of an upper window to his death (v.9) and is raised back to life through Paul.

Hebrews 11:35

Widows and mothers received their dead family members back to life again. 

Matthew 9:18,19,23-25

A leader interrupted Jesus’ preaching with some worship and this entreaty: “My daughter just died.  Please come and raise her back to life with Your powerful hand.”

Jesus transitioned His spoken lesson into a prophetic act, followed by His disciples… He was greeted at His arrival by a cacophony of noisy mourners. 

“Make way,” He instructed.  “The girl is not dead.  She’s sleeping.”  The crowd tumbled outside with epithets of ridicule.  But once they left, He entered her room, took the girl by the hand, and she rose to life!

Luke 7:11-15

Jesus, His disciples, and a large crowd, rolled into the city gates of Nain.  They were met by a funeral procession, consisting of the body of a dead man, the only son of his widowed mother and a similarly large crowd. 

The Lord, seeing the widow, poured out His compassion toward her, encouraging her, “Don’t weep.”  When He touched the open coffin, the pall-bearers stopped.  “Young man,” Jesus said, “Arise.”  The dead man sat up, speaking.  Jesus presented him back to his mother.

John 11:1,4-7,14,15,17,19-27,32-44

In the town of Bethany, Mary’s and Martha’s brother Lazarus was sick.  They notified his friend, Jesus, who commented, “This sickness will not end in death, but in the glory of God – and the Son of God will be glorified through it.” 

Jesus loved the siblings.  Yet He stayed away from Bethany for a couple of days before rounding up His disciples to head there.  He briefed them, “Look, Lazarus is dead.  It is good for you that I was not there when he died.  It will solidify your faith.  So, let’s go. 

By the time they arrived, Lazarus had been entombed four days.  A sympathetic crowd surrounded the sisters to support them in their grief.  At news of Jesus’ arrival, Martha went out to meet Him.  Mary stayed at home.  Said Martha, “Lord, if only You had been here, my brother would still be alive.  But even now I know that what You ask God, God will give You.”  Jesus replied, “Your brother will rise again.”  Martha said, “I know that he will rise again on the last day at the resurrection.”  Jesus explained, “I AM the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in Me, even they die, will live.  And whoever lives and believes in Me never dies.  What do you make of that?”  “Yes, Lord.  I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, come into the world.”  …

Jesus said, “Where’s Lazarus?”  They replied, “Lord, come and see.”  Jesus wept… He approached the cave tomb, blocked by a boulder.  “Remove the stone.”  Martha, sister of the dead man, said, “Lord, he’s been dead for four days.  He smells like he wants to be alone.”  Jesus asked, “Didn’t I promise that if you believe you will see God’s glory?”  They budged the boulder out of the way. 

Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thanks for listening to Me.  Yes, You always do.  But it is good that the others are listening in so that they can believe that You sent Me.”  Then He called loudly, “Lazarus, come out.”  And the dead man shuffled out of the tomb, bound by graveclothes.  Jesus directed, “Untie the graveclothes and let him free.” 

(pray this into your situation)

I Kings 17:17-23

The lady’s son got sick and died.  She said to Elijah, “How dare you, you man of God?  Are you dumping the guilt of my sins on me by killing my son?

Elijah replied, “Give me your son.”  Elijah carried the body to his room and laid the body on the bed.  He lamented; “Yahweh, my God!  What’s Your role in this evil that has swamped this lady – the death of her son?”

Elijah stretched himself out over the body three times, shouting out to Yahweh, “Yahweh, my God!  Please bring this boy back to life again!”

Yahweh listened to Elijah and restored the boy’s life!  Elijah took him downstairs and returned him to his mother.  “Look, he’s alive!”

(pray this into your situation)

2 Kings 13:21

The rising heat of fighting interrupted their battle field burial, so they tossed their comrade’s body into Elisha’s tomb.  As soon as the dead body touched Elisha’s dead bones, the man was revived and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and got up on his own two feet.

Luke 8:49-55

“Leave the Teacher alone,” gasped the messenger from the synagogue ruler’s house, “Your daughter is dead.”  Jesus cut in, “Don’t be afraid.  Just believe, and she will be healed.”

They arrived at the home and expelled everyone except Peter, John, James, and the dad girl’s parents.  The crowd was weeping and wailing, but Jesus said, “Don’t weep.  She is not dead.  She is sleeping.”   They laughed scornfully since it was obvious that she was dead.  But Jesus marshaled them all outside and then took her by the hand, and called to her, “Little girl, arise!” 

Her spirit returned and she rose up right away. 

Acts 9:37-40

She got sick and died from that sickness.  Her friends washed her body and placed it in the upper room.  The disciples heard that Peter was in nearby Lydda, and two of tem went to try to get him to return to Joppa immediately.  Peter went. 

He arrived and they took him to the upper room where he was swarmed by the wailing widows waiving Dorcas’s woven wares.  Peter had them leave.  Then he knelt down to pray.  Turning toward the dead body, he said, “Tabitha, arise!”  She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up.

Acts 20:9-12

While Paul preached on, one young man – Eutychus – fell asleep in the windowsill.  Paul continued to preach, and the sleeping man tipped out of the third story window and fell to his death. 

Paul ran down, embraced the body, and said, “Don’t worry.  There is life in him.”  He went back upstairs, ate, and finished his preaching.  They took the by home, alive, thrilled.

One reason most of us don't see dead people raised back to life again is that we don't see dead people.  Another is that we don't pray for dead people to be raised back to life again.  We can be encouraged by the testimonies and the examples today and in Scripture.  Let's aim to obey Jesus' instruction to 'raise the dead'.  (Matthew 10:7-8)