You Will Do Greater Things Than I

When I saw this request: "How does one go about doing the tough things Jesus told us we could do, like He did: Raise the dead? Such as He did with Lazareth and Jairus' daughter."

This is a great question...clear your mind of your pre-concieved notions and take a fresh look at the Great Commission:

Matthew 28:16-20

16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you ; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

I believe every follower of Jesus longs to do the things He did, but some of us are afriad. Afraid of humiliation. Afraid of embarssment. Afraid to look stupid.

But Jesus said, All things I have commanded you. Not some. All .

There has been a lot of talk about love and forgiveness, and that's good. That's very very good. But, it's not extraordinary. It's really no different than any other great moral teacher. King of Kings, Lord of Lords and God of gods is an extraordinary claim.

What are some of the things Jesus said?

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. John 14:12 

"Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." Matthew 10:8 

Jesus said do it ... but how?  

Revelation 1:5-6: ..Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

A king is only a king if he acts like a king.

I can list some principles for Royal living and some bible verses to back them up. But unless you go to God and make it part of who you are, it's just information. Information without transformation only equips you to argue with people who disagree with you.

God Is Good - He cannot be anything except good. Psalm 86:5: For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.

God Wants Intimacy With You - God is Passionate about his relatoinship with you - If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. John 15:7 ... "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love." .. John 15:9

Walking in Extraordiary Authority - It is a kingdom principle that you can only operate in the authority that you walk under. See the story of the centurion in Luke 7.

Risk Offense and Embarassment - Take a look at Matthew 15. Rather than take offense the woman continued to ask for God's mercy. (See also 2 Kings 5).

Refuse to Embrace Disappointment, but Accept God's Invitation to Victory - It's not going to work 100% of the time. The disciples couldn't cast out a demon in Matthew 17. (See also 2 Timothy 4:20, Philippians 2:27) Even Jesus had to keep trying once (Mark 8). Jesus reminded us about the importance of not giving up in Luke 18.

Agreement - Individual intimacy with God is good and necessary. But not enough, we are a body.

Matthew 18:15-20 18 Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.

Some of the claims I'm about to make, could be mistaken for bringing myself glory. And believe me it's tempting. When you see that God has truly given you this authority, this ability it's SO tempting to take credit for it yourself.

Bill Johnson, the man in the YouTube videos I've attached to this Hub taught me many of these things. He is not a faith healer. He teaches the body how to be faith healers. We can all be faith healers.

There are people in "Real Life" who know who I am. I don't hide too much behind the BDazzler monkier. But, the story I'm about to share is very personal to many of the people involved. I pray, sincerely that I treat each person with the respect they truly deserve. Each member of the body is vital. Each person is imporant. God doesn't "need" our help. He wants our particpation.

The story I tell below is told from the only point of view I have ... my own. In truth, my role in this story, is minor. I was there. I personally particpated, I will report what I saw as I saw it. But, in spite of the way the narrative reads, I was not at the center, and I was one of many people prayed. But, I have been asked to chronicle these events. I'm refering to each person in this story by nickname, and I assure you, this story is true. There were seven of us who were in intimate agreement in prayer in these events: By nicnkame: Myself, Zman, Wolf, Crown, Compass, Champion and Forgiven.

I know others were there praying. But these were the seven I was praying with.

Here's the bold claim. My friend Lonnie died. But he got better.

I've included a link to Lonnie's testimony at the end of this hub.

It was Saturday February 16, 2008 and we had a full day planned. God had been doing a lot and we were going to go to Crown’s to celebrate. Still because we are human there were some issues between friends. Some things that we didn’t really know what to do about, but knew they weren’t quite right. But we were working through them, or not.

I had been doing some volunteer work that day, and I didn’t have time for one more interruption. My day was planned. I would work, rest, relax, process what was happening with my relationships with my friends …

I had a voice message from Crown that Lonnie was in the hospital again! He was just done with Chemo, things were supposed to be on the mend. He’s stopped breathing during the night and his wife, Dawn had found him, performed CPR and called 911. He was rushed to the hospital. He was in critical condition. He'd been not breathing for at least two hours. Maybe as much as four.

SIGH, Dawn (Lonnies Wife) didn’t need this AGAIN. I would stop by and give her a little encouragement and get on with my day. I finished my volunteer work and drove to the hospital. I have to admit, it was mostly out of duty, not love. When Lonnie had gotten sick, I challenged the cancer in front of God and everybody at church, and was sure that somehow there would be a victory, but I was tired of it. Every time we prayed it had gotten worse!

When I got there it was more serious that I had thought. They were talking major brain damage. The pastor and Lee (Lee was healed from Parkinson's disease, see the link to his testimony below) were there and several other people. The enemy was clearly accusing God to Dawn, and making a very strong case against God’s goodness. People were trying, with various degrees of success, to both acknowledge the depth of Dawn’s pain and the truth of God’s goodness. But the enemy was making a strong case against God and the battlefield was Dawn’s heart and mind. I was grateful to my sense of duty, because now I was therefore love.

I texted Compass to bring in reinforcements and to get them there fast. While I knew that ultimately the victory will be God’s, the question was, will we win, this battle. So many hearts, so many choices, so many people. So much at stake. So many of us declaring the goodness of God and talking about healing and miracles and Lonnie and Dawn had been on the forefront of all that! The thought that was lurking in all our minds, with the enemy whispering … “God’s going to make fools of you, by letting this one die… He set you up.”

I was asked to pray for Dawn to shield her and strengthen her against this attack on her mind. So, I did. I don’t remember what I said or what I felt, but it seemed pretty weak and pathetic at the time. I was sure I’d fought greater battles against the enemy and had sent him running with his tail between his legs, but this seemed almost pro-forma, and I didn’t see the enemy flee at all.

The women continued to pray for Dawn and encourage her. Soon, she began to declare he knowledge of the goodness of God.

The word came back from the critical care unit that they could not find a pulse or blood pressure. No brain activity. Sometime during that time Crown, Compass and Zman arrived. Champion could not come physically, but she was texting and calling. She was with us in Spirit.

They started talking about having Dawn sign a Do Not Resuscitate Form, and that even if he lived the brain had been without oxygen for so long that he would never be the same again. Lonnie would not be Lonnie. He would simply be a shadow of his former self.

Maybe never speak again.

I called Wolf. I told him we were going to either heal him or raise him from the dead, but he wasn’t going to stay dead. Wolf started asking me questions like, “What if he doesn’t want to be raised” … This is an important role Wolf has played in my life. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should do it and that includes “good things” like calling people back from the dead.

Understand that we must be under Jesus' authority when we do these things.

He wasn’t convinced that this was something we should do. I was just as sure that it was. When he heard that determination in my voice, he began to instruct me on love and power. He told me that if we focus on the power and not the love, then we would lose him.

What happened next, was deeply personal for many people involved. We had to be brutally honest before God. Nothing was hidden.

Forgiven came out to join us. I anointed everyone’s hands with fragrant oil. We were all holding hands and praying silently. Wolf was providing some verbal guidance on the phone. I was distracted. My love for these people holding my hands was distracting me. The stuff I was planning that day was distracting me. Wolf’s voice was distracting me. Then I remembered that Wolf had told us to focus all our love.

At some point I heard Wolf ask Compass to pray. I don’t remember what she said, but I do remember just how much love I heard in her voice. Love for Dawn. Love for God. Love for Crown. Love for each of us.

I know Forgiven prayed. I think Crown prayed. I don’t remember if I did or not, or what any of us said, except to know that it was a general declaration of God’s goodness and our petition to God for Lonnie’s sake.

I heard Wolf say, “Lonnie, come forth!” …

Not long after that ZMan finally spoke. He said, “God said, ‘Don’t pray past the miracle”.

We stopped. We were in agreement that something had happened and whatever it was, God was happy with it. We didn’t know whether Lonnie was alive or dead. But we knew it was good.

We went to the cafeteria. We were all hungry. We needed to be with each other, and just enjoy one another’s company. We talked, we ate. On the surface, it looked like just a group of friends enjoying each other’s company. But we knew we had all been through something extraordinary, and the ordinary was a necessary part of it.

When we went back to the waiting room, everyone was excited and high-fiving each other. It seems that in a heart beat, they went from being unable to find a pulse to Lonnie fighting the doctors. One of the nurses said that it had gone from a “worst case” to “best case” scenario almost instantly.

The medical staff was in agreement that whatever had happened was beyond medical science.

There was nothing magic about this, nor were there any "rites". There is no magic formula for raising someone from the dead. The key was walking under our King's authority in love.Love for God and love for each other.

Not just love. Love in action. Love that risks looking stupid.

Post Post Script

Lonnie's book just came out.  I'm making it available on this hub. A variation of this hub starts on page 16 (I think).  What's exciting about this book, is it's about how the Body came together.  I've seen the proof copy, I've ordred four copies myself.  If you really, really want the book, and money is really an issue, send me a private message.  Yes, he's selling the book, but the important thing is for people to know the truth.