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Death has no victory…believe it or not.

I received a call early this morning. A man for whom we have been praying – a married man with children who worked for the Sheriff’s Department in my community – died of last night.

Many people knew him. We thought, “How great for God to heal such a high visibility person. Surely THIS would bring revival to our town as he would share his testimony of how Jesus healed him!”

We were encouraged by the reports of his recent “good days” as well as a vision that one of our friends had in which he was walking and even dancing around his hospital room.

My initial response to the report of his death? “Praise the Lord…he’s healed now.”

God has been dealing with me lately on how deceptive our five senses can be. We don’t “feel” that we walk in power and victory because we SEE ourselves in the mirror each morning. The devil screams, “She/He is risen!” while we groan, “Oh, God….another day.” Perhaps we FEEL pain in our bodies. We say sarcastically, “Yeah, I’m an overcomer…RIGHT! My back is killing me!”

Kids won’t cooperate. No hot water. Not enough milk for cereal. Car won’t start.

Ugh.

You can’t hear anybody exclaiming, “Praise the Lord” for all the bickering in the house.

We are so deceived by these “earth suits” that we wear. They color our attitudes about everything from, well, skin color to gender to the kind of cars we see alongside ours in the parking lot. Since the world seems to revolve around us and our perceptions as we filter them through our senses and our experiences, it’s really hard for us to agree with the statement “Life is not about us.”

Well, it isn’t. It’s about the King and His Kingdom. We work for Him. If you aren’t experiencing any satisfaction in life, chances are very good that’s because life has become too much about you. Some of us may even nestle into a comfort zone so tightly that it starts to define us. We BECOME what we DO. When the company goes under, we crumble, too. In the cases of those who retire from their careers, many don’t know what to do with themselves and they deteriorate rapidly.

I recall hearing about an ex-NFL Football Player who, after winning his second Super Bowl, as he headed for his car after the game, asked himself, “What’s next…win another Super Bowl? And another after that?” Sooner or later, his career as a ball player had to end. Then what? His questions were finally answered when he came to know Jesus Christ.

When we experience death, or know someone who has, the TRUTH is that their body has simply ceased to function. Life goes on for them “sans earth suit.” We weep and mourn because we miss them but, truth is, everybody has to die. I should say it this way: Every BODY has to die.

You see death is simply a part of life. Life itself, for each of us individually, is merely a BLIP on the radar. Remember the song “Dust in the Wind”? Too many of us waste our lives trying to get famous, get rich or get by. We start believing the lie that it’s all about us. We invite strife, discord, pain, criticism, misery, loneliness. We alienate ourselves as we build our empires, big and small. We even do this with church buildings and ministries.

So, why were our healing prayers seemingly unanswered? For starters, I have to keep in mind: A) It’s Jesus’ job to heal, not mine. My job is to obey Him and lay my hands on the sick, anoint them with oil, pray in faith believing until they are either healed or die. B) Healing becomes difficult when I start thinking it has anything to do with me. I know nothing about healing, but I DO know the Healer. They aren’t really coming to ME wanting healing; they’re coming to Christ IN ME.

NOTE: Every person who was ever healed by Jesus eventually died. Lazarus had a glorious resurrection but who knows that he wasn’t run over by an ox cart 6 months later.
A leper who was healed by Jesus but may have died at age 45 from the flu. Perhaps he didn’t seek healing. Maybe the Christians in his region had no revelation of healing or there were no Christians there yet. Then again, maybe the Christians were being persecuted in his town and they fearfully went so far underground that he couldn’t locate them.

A friend recently eMailed me a list of reasons why people aren’t healed, distributed by a very high-profile healing evengelist. Truth is, we WERE healed 2000 years ago when Jesus was being whipped before His crucifixion (“…by His STRIPES we were healed, Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24). We ARE healed and are waiting for the manifestation to appear in our physical bodies today. If that healing comes by way of death, friends, I have no problem with that.

Prayer answered. Mission accomplished. Next case, please.

As a Workplace Chaplain who happens to minister in nursing homes, I deal with sick, dying and dead people all the time. When I heard that this man had died in our town I meant it when I exclaimed “Praise the Lord!” He just graduated. He merely moved along down the path of eternity. We’ll see him again before we know it.

Question is, are YOU ready?