LIVING WATERS from Lightbearers

…whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Mark 11:23 NKJV

The young man of God was faced with a dilemma. What do you do when your young daughter falls over and dies? He had gotten filled with the Spirit when our international schools director had sent him an article about the Baptism that I wrote. Then he led his whole village to the Lord and started a church, getting everyone filled. Finally, when he heard I was around, he travelled with his team from northern Uganda to southern Uganda just to greet me at brother Medad’s conference. So, we invited him to be a part of an immersion style Holy Spirit training we were doing in Kabale, down at the Rwandan border. He came, and one afternoon Apostle K preached on raising the dead, a subject he was well qualified for since I think at the time he had raised ten, unique situations that were under extraordinary circumstances. So, with his daughter lying dead before him, no breath, no pulse, he remembered what he was taught, did it, and she looked up at him!

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. John 14:26 NKJV

Paul has two interesting resurrection situations – one where he himself is apparently killed and raised, and one where a young man falls asleep and dies by injury while he is preaching. The problem from a study approach is that there isn’t a lot of details involved in each incident, so we are going to have to look in other areas of the Word and infer what happened here. We also want to talk about the spirit of death, and how to deal with it. We want to do this because just like our young friend in the incident above, we are going to deal with death.

First, the incident where Paul raises Euthycus.

Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, “Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.” Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed. And they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted. Acts 20:7-12 NKJV

…speaking the truth in love…Eph 4:15 NKJV

So may miracles flow out of the preaching of the Word, whether to one or to a crowd. The healing of the woman with breast cancer came during a Holy Spirit seminar I was teaching, and the kid with polio was after I preached a Sunday service. The willingness to fight for what is right regardless of the circumstances is a mainstay of Christianity. Sometimes you have to push through old limits to accomplish what has to be done, but that is the essence of growth.

Concerning Euthycus, John G Lake tells the story of a little African baby with a broken neck who was apparently still alive. He was in a hut in a village at midnight when Letwaba, one of his indigenous ministers brought in the baby for prayer. Lakes medical training declaring the baby beyond help overcame his faith, and he told the man of God to take the baby and minister to it, not wanting his minister to see his unbelief. The minister went out with the baby, while Lake prayed alone in the hut. Some hours later, Letwaba came back in smiling and Lake said, “How is the baby?” The man of God said, “Oh, Papa Lake, the baby is fine! Perfectly whole!” Lake was astonished. He demanded to see the baby, and the neck was perfect. The baby was whole! Sometimes you have to push through your own unbelief until the light shines, and the will of God is done.

In raising Eutychus, the scriptures don’t tell us how long Paul bent over him in prayer before Paul was able to say ‘his life is still in him.’ Young believers tend to give up if a miracle doesn’t occur with a single command. Paul went down, fell on him and embraced him. It doesn’t say how long he embraced him, with the whole gathering in prayer. Whatever killed him most likely was a head or neck injury, not a heart attack or being physically impaled. Here is the key – you pray until the light comes on.

When it says he fell down and embraced him, it made me think of another record where a young man got raised. Read this carefully!

When Elisha came into the house, there was the child, lying dead on his bed. He went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands; and he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm. He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 2 Kings 4:32-36

One thing you notice about Paul and Elisha is they had no self-consciousness. They were focused. When I’m self-conscious, whether I ‘haven’t prayed enough’ or some other excuse, I’m toast. But when I have really ministered effectively, it’s always been when I have engaged and gotten ‘lost in the moment.’ Your love has to be greater than any fear. When I get there, I’m powerful. Do you see it?

Elisha had something that Paul may not have had in these comparable situations – the promise of God for the Shunammite’s sons’ life! God didn’t give the Shunnamite a son just to have him die prematurely. Elisha goes down, walks back and forth through the house, the eyes of his heart focused on the Lord, until the Lord brings the light and the deliverance. If it was me walking back and forth I’d be praying in tongues with my eyes on the Lord, lost in the moment. When you’re this focused, you ignore everything else.

Derek Prince tells of him and his wife raising a young woman, one of their students in the Kenyan school, from the dead. The girls body lay on a bed, and Derek knelt on one side and Lydia on the other, and they were lost in silent prayer. The Spirit spoke to them individually and simultaneously and they looked up at each other. They knew to command her and she would arise. She did. Are you seeing a pattern here?

Now, its quite possible that Paul went down, embraced Euthycus and he came alive – Bam! Bam! Bam! But we don’t know that! We know that Paul was anointed like crazy – he preached all night long – and when you’re anointed like that, you still tell the story thirty years later (My same friend who has raised ten from the dead also preached for seven hours one time – dude is a legend! Another example of God surrounding me with people who are better than me). What brings that level of anointing? Prayer in the spirit. Paul prayed more in tongues than the whole Corinthian church (1Cor.14:18). Oral Roberts would pray in tongues for five hours before he preached each night. The result? One million healings, eight million salvations. The day before the healing of ‘polio boy’ I prayed in tongues from 630am until 330pm, finally stopping when God said, “You are ready…!” If you want the miracles, pay the price.

Now let’s talk briefly about Paul getting raised.

Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing (Grk. NOMIZO: to declare by law or custom) him to be dead. However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. Acts 14:19-20 NKJV

I’ve met a number of people who were raised from the dead. One guy was raised at his wake when a nail was pounded into the coffin and everyone fled, screaming (the neighbors had something to talk about that day!)! One other guy had been dead for seven days in the Rwandan genocide, and after he arose, he still suffered from the wounds that killed him. When I met him he could barely walk. This is where the spirit of death, a demon, comes in…

The spirit of death either kills people or simulates the symptoms of death until it kills the person. As long as the spirit of life is still in the body (Gen.2:7), regardless of breathing or not, pulse or not, that body is still alive. This explains a lot of the stories you hear. I have a friend who is a mortician who let me work with him one night when a body came in. It was amazing to see and handle a body in which the spirit of life had departed. He handled it with great love and respect. Me? I was a little woozy. In Euthycus case, the spirit of death may have been masking the life that may have still been in him. Do you get it?

I was doing a yoga workout once on a video until Holy Spirit said, “Stop! Don’t do the next pose!” The next pose, which I didn’t know about, was the ‘death pose,’ where you simulate being dead. HS didn’t want me going there. What we’ve learned in ministering is to ask HS about the presence of the spirit of death, and if we sense its presence, to command it to go. You can do this in a hospital or other places where people tend to die a lot, and things will change. I believe this is in part what happened when the disciples gathered around Paul’s lifeless body!

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Rom 8:11 NKJV

The other thing that astonished me about this record is that Paul got up, seemingly perfectly whole. I think if I got hit with rocks, I would be one giant bruise from head to toe, the amazing purple man. One study I read said that much speaking in tongues enhances your immune system, the body’s ability to heal. This confirms what Romans 8:11 says. I believe Paul got healthy quick because he prayed much in the spirit!

Dear one, this obviously is not a subject that will be preached on Sunday morning, but it surely must be taught in the discipleship class. We have authority even at times by Holy Spirit’s unction (as He wills …1Cor12:11) to raise the dead. The key is to be prepared.  We are going to need it – many of us will find ourselves in situations like the young man of God with his daughter, where someone’s life hangs in the balance. Ask HS to prepare you, even using your imagination, and you will be ready to make a difference. I’ll tell you about my resurrection story next week. Love you!

Remember dear one, we must be about our Father’s business…