Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and lying on his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh. He went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the child’s flesh grew warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth, then went up and stretched himself out on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. He called Gehazi, and said, “Call this Shunammite!” So he called her. When she had come in to him, he said, “Take up your son.””
(2 Kings 4:32-36)

“They ridiculed him. But he, having put them all out, took the father of the child, her mother, and those who were with him, and went in where the child was lying. Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha cumi!” which means, being interpreted, “Girl, I tell you, get up!” Immediately the girl rose up and walked, for she was twelve years old. They were amazed with great amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and commanded that something should be given to her to eat.”
(Mark 5:40-43)

Elisha knew that the boy could be raised from the dead because Elijah, his spiritual father, had prayed and a boy had been raised from the dead. These were the first two people that were raised. Ever. Abram eagerly expected to see his son Isaac raised from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19), but God provided a sacrifice and he didn’t get the chance. That was the closest raising there was until Elijah. And Elisha continued expecting because he had the same spirit operating in himself that Elijah had. They EXPECTED it, but it was RARE. It isn’t that God had to make a special effort. It was that people didn’t look for it. They didn’t think of it as possible. We see the same thing today. Once someone dies, we tend to think of them as gone. Period. We don’t consider it normal to expect to pray and have God raise them. But it’s always been possible because God is a RESTORING God. A RENEWING God. A GENERATIVE God. And He always will be.

Jesus raised a few people from the dead. He did it because God told Him to (John 5:19). It brought glory to God AND it raised the expectations of the people when it came to Jesus’ own resurrection (Matthew 27:63-64). It isn’t that God is going to raise everyone. It isn’t that everyone WANTS to be raised. It’s that nothing can STOP God. Human thinking. Human expectation. Human reality. None of that matters to God. God MADE creation. God is not restricted or bound by creation. NOTHING is impossible for God. Throughout scripture God does some CRAZY things, MIRACULOUS things, MIND-STUPIFYING things. He does it to get across to us the idea that He is MORE THAN ENOUGH. He is BEYOND limitations as we think of them. Not once, but always. If He did it once, He’s willing to do it again. And again. And again. God is MORE THAN ENOUGH for EVERYONE – if they’ll let Him be.

Summary

There are no limitations with God, only with religion. We look at our track record, our performance, and we think ‘God won’t do that for me’. Or we beg. ‘Oh Lord, in spite of this and that will you please…’ But God doesn’t deal with us based on performance. If He did, no one could be saved because Jesus died for us before we were ever around to do anything. And we were not with Him when we were born. We were against Him. We were selfish. We were sinners. We were ANTI-God people. God continues that. That’s what grace is. He BLESSES us as long as we are aligning with Him – even if we aren’t perfect. He takes our imperfections and mistakes and helps us repent. Helps us change our minds. He corrects us. If we’ll take it, we’ll get better and better. More and more like Him. We’ll begin to walk in our physical lives the way we already walk in our spirits: just like Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). God has no limits and we need to take our blinders off so that we can see it. We need to increase our eager expectations. We need to get excited about it. We need to get expecty about it. God is good and God is great and God is MORE THAN ENOUGH. Always.