This is fabulous and it will break God out of the box you have Him in, not to mention increase the box you are living in. First a little of my thoughts...
Isn't it incredible that we (I am very much included in this) think and expect so little of God? I read the astounding stories of the miraculous throughout the Bible, yet until recently I never expected to see those things in my life. He even tells us that we will do even greater things!! So where is the breakdown in this message? What has caused us to simply gloss over these stories rather then grab onto their truth and go after the supernatural?
I think there are many reasons. Perhaps somewhere along the way we prayed for something miraculous and saw no answer. Since we hate failure and we can't explain why people aren't healed every time they receive prayer, we have retreated. We carry on with our nice, comfortable church life and ignore the things that we can't explain. This is not good and I don't believe it is what God intended. Or maybe we have just subtly been taught out of it without even realizing. I often wonder what a person with no religious knowledge or teaching would expect after reading the Bible for the first time. Or maybe we just let fear have it's way - fear of failure or rejection. We're believing lies rather than His truth.
I still remember a time this past summer when I heard the news of someone dying. It was a friend of a friend of a friend. But, I had just spent a week or two at the Lakeland Revival. When I heard the news, without even thinking, my first response was let's pray for them to be raised from the dead! I was with a group of Christians and I suspect this thought didn't run through anther person's mind. But I had been immersed in this culture that was chasing after miracles such as these and there had been testimonies of people being raised from the dead. I think many of us in the church have, unfortunately, been surrounded by the exact opposite. I often wonder why I didn't expect miracles like this before, since they are all over the Bible. But I suppose I just trusted the one who was teaching me and neglected to challenge them with questions that now seem so obvious.
With that, here is an incredible story from Washington State: The Dead Raising Team. This team is actually liscensed by the state of WA and they have business cards in mortuaries. This is radical and so powerful, and I believe this should be the normal Christian life. So they are going after not only what we see Jesus model, but what we see Him instruct (Matthew 10:8).
Be encouraged and be stretched.
