When Death Bows to the Power of the Risen Christ.
Brethren, the doctor had already pronounced his verdict that morning. The young man would not live through the day. He lay helpless in his bed, facing the wall, unable even to turn his body.
For weeks, his parents had been lifting him on sheets because he was too weak to move himself. His heart was failing, his strength was gone. and hope had left that household.
But here is what I want you to understand. I had received telegrams telling me I was too late, yet I declared something that will change how you see impossible situations.
I told them, God has never sent me too late anywhere.
Acts 4:30 declares, Now, Lord, look on their threats. and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word, by stretching out your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
Let me tell you what happened next. When I walked into that room, I met complete strangers who had given up.
The young man whispered without turning, I cannot even move. His mother explained how they had been caring for him, how he had grown weaker day by day, how the doctor had sealed his fate with that morning’s diagnosis.
Everything in the natural said this was the end. But listen to what I’m about to tell you. I looked at that dying young man and spoke words that seemed foolish to everyone present.
I said, God is the strength of your heart and your portion forever. If you will believe God, it shall be so today.
You should have seen their faces. They thought I had lost my mind. Here is where it gets interesting.
Our Christ is not dead in some tomb. He is risen. And the same power that raised him from the dead wants to animate your mortal body right now.
Romans 8:11 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.
This is not just a nice theological idea to discuss in Bible study. This is resurrection power that must surge through your being today.
The people in that room had no expectation of miracles. They were waiting for death, not looking for the power of the risen Christ to manifest.
Now, let me share something that will revolutionize your understanding of faith. It was winter, and I told the parents to bring me the boy’s suit.
They refused. Can you believe that? They actually would not bring his clothes because they were expecting him to die within hours.
But I had not traveled all that way to watch someone die. I had come believing God. Abraham understood something powerful.
Romans 4:17 teaches us, God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.
Do you see what this means?
You cannot wait until you see the answer before you act in faith. You must call things that are not as though they are.
The problem today is that we have believers who would be giants in God, but they have no shout of faith.
I find people everywhere going down even while they are praying because they are just breathing sentences without power.
You cannot get victory that way. You must learn to take the victory and shout in the face of the devil, It is done. Think about it this way.
Acts 4:24, we read something remarkable. So, when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord.
That was not a quiet, mumbled prayer. That was a loud prayer of faith. And what happened?
Verse 31 tells us, And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
Finally, I persuaded those parents to bring the young man’s clothes and lay them on the bed.
Picture this scene. A dying man lay there, unable to move, his breathing shallow, death hovering over that room.
I walked over to him with complete confidence in the power of the living Christ within me. I spoke clearly so everyone could hear.
God has revealed to me that as I lay my hands upon you, the place will be filled with the Holy Ghost. The bed will be shaken. You will be shaken and thrown out of bed by the power of the Holy Ghost. You will dress yourself and be strong. I declared this in faith before anything happened.
Then I laid hands on him in the name of Jesus. And you won’t believe what I am about to tell you.
Instantly, the power of God fell and filled that entire place. The presence was so strong that I found myself flat on the floor, completely helpless under the weight of God’s glory. I could not move, I could not speak. All I knew was that something tremendous was happening.
But what happened next will shock you. The place began to shake. The bed began to shake. And suddenly I heard footsteps. The young man, who moments before could not even turn over in bed, was walking over me on that floor. He was crying out, For your glory, Lord! For your glory, Lord! He dressed himself completely. He was shouting that God had healed him.
The father fell under the power. The mother fell. Everyone in that room fell under the tangible presence of the risen Christ.
God not only healed that young man that day, he saved the entire household.
And brothers and sisters, that young man is preaching the gospel today.
Now here is what I want you to think about. What was different about that situation? Why did God move so powerfully? Was it because I am special? Absolutely not.
The difference was that I came expecting the power of the risen Christ to manifest.
I came calling things that were not as though they were. I came with a shout of faith already in my heart.
John 11:40, Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?
Notice the order. You must believe first, then you see the glory, not the other way around.
Most Christians are waiting to see something before they believe. That is backwards faith, and it produces nothing.
Let me tell you about another situation that demonstrates this principle.
There was a prosperous businessman in London who attended a beautiful church with cushioned pews.
He was successful in business but had no peace in his heart. Everything was dead and formal in that place.
But there was a boy who worked for him, who was always happy, always jumping and whistling.
One day, the businessman called him into his office and asked, how is it that you can always whistle and be happy?
The boy answered, “I cannot help it”. Where did you get it? the man demanded. I got it at the Pentecostal mission, the boy replied.
That businessman started attending that Pentecostal mission. The Lord broke him up completely. And in a short while, he was entirely changed.
Instead of being distracted and miserable, he found himself whistling and jumping. His whole position in life had been transformed. Why?
Because the power of God got inside him. You see, the shout cannot come out unless it is in.
There must first be the inner working of the power of God.
John 7:38, He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
Notice it flows out of your heart. It must get in before it can come out. Some people tell me, I praise God inwardly. Listen to me. If there is an abundance of praise in your heart, your mouth cannot help speaking it.
As Jesus says in Matthew 12:34, Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
You cannot keep it contained when the risen Christ is living powerfully within you.
The power of Pentecost came to loose people. God wants us free on every line. People are tired of imitations and religious performances. They want reality. They want to see people who have the living Christ within and are filled with Holy Ghost power.
When all the people come together to pray and praise like those early disciples, something happens. The place gets shaken, people catch fire, they want to come back.
But nobody has any use for a place where everything has become formal, dry, and dead.
Now I must issue you a challenge that most believers will never accept. Here is what separates those who merely attend church from those who walk in resurrection power.
Are you willing to believe God for the impossible? Are you willing to look at situations that doctors have pronounced hopeless and declare, God has not sent me too late?
Most Christians have settled for a powerless gospel. They have beautiful beautiful buildings and comfortable pews and dead religion.
They pray quiet prayers that shake nothing and change nothing. They never expect to see what the early church saw because they have been taught that miracles were only for back then.
But as Peter declares in Acts 2:39, For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.
The promise is not just for the first disciples it is for you. The same Holy Spirit power that raised Christ from the dead is available right now.
Here is your specific challenge: Stop praying weak prayers that have no expectation.
Stop attending dead churches where nothing happens. Start believing for the sick to be healed. Start expecting God to move powerfully when you pray. Start taking your authority in Christ seriously.
John 14:12 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.
Did you catch that? Greater works, not lesser works, not no works. Greater works than Jesus did, while he walked the earth.
You will be tried, make no mistake about that. You will be sifted as wheat. You will be put in places where you will have to put your whole trust in God.
But, as Paul assures us in 1 Corinthians 10:13, No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Every trial is designed to bring you to a greater position in God. The trial that tests your faith will take you to a place where you know that the faith of God will be there in the next test.
No one can win any victory except through the power of the risen Christ within.
If you are sure of your ground, if you are counting on the presence of the living Christ within you, you can actually laugh when things look like they are getting worse.
Because you know something others do not know. You know that our God quickens the dead. You know that he calls things that are not as though they are. You know that what looks impossible to man is absolutely possible with God.
All over the world right now, God is pouring out his Spirit. I was in Switzerland recently, preaching in places where the Pentecostal message had never been heard.
Today there are nine new Pentecostal assemblies in different places going on, blessedly for God. You can hardly get to any place now where God is not pouring out his Spirit on hungry hearts.
As Joel prophesied and Peter quoted in Acts 2:17, And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh.
This is not just a promise for a select few. This is for all flesh. God’s promises never fail. Our Christ is risen. His salvation was not something done in a corner. He went to Calvary to free us from everything that would mar and hinder us.
He went there to transform us by his grace and bring us out from under the power of Satan into the glorious power of God.
One touch of our risen Christ will raise the dead. Hallelujah.
Dare you take your inheritance from God? Dare you believe God? Dare you stand on the record of his word? What is the record?
As Jesus declares in John 11:40, If you believe, you will see the glory of God.
This wonderful Jesus comes and indwells us. He comes to abide permanently. He baptizes us with the Holy Ghost and makes everything different. We are to be a kind of first fruits unto God, walking in his footsteps, living in his power. What a salvation this is!
Every thought of advantage for ourselves must decrease so that Christ may increase. We must live in another state where all things are under the power of the Spirit. This is not about us achieving something great. This is about the risen Christ manifesting his power through yielded vessels.
Luke 12:50, But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished.
He was referring to the cross, to Gethsemane, to the judgment hall. And the Holy Spirit led him every step of the way, right through to the empty tomb, to the ascension glory, to his place on the throne.
The Son of God will never be satisfied until he has us with himself. sharing his glory, and sharing his throne.
He wants to fill you with the same Holy Spirit power that raised him from the dead. He wants to use you to demonstrate that our God still heals the sick, still raises the dead, still performs miracles.
The question is simple. Will you settle for dead religion, or will you press in for the power of the risen Christ?
Will you be content with services that never shake anything? Or will you cry out for the same Holy Ghost power that fell in the Book of Acts?
Remember that young man lying helpless, facing death. Remember how the power of God threw him out of that bed and made him completely whole. That same power is available today. That same risen Christ lives in you if you have received him.
As Paul declares in Ephesians 1:19-20, We can know what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us, who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.
Stop living beneath your inheritance. Stop accepting weakness when resurrection power is available. Stop watching from the sidelines when God wants to use you mightily.
The tide is rising everywhere. God is pouring out his Spirit on hungry hearts all over the world. You were meant to be a demonstration of the living Christ. You were meant to walk in Holy Ghost power. You were meant to see signs and wonders following your ministry.
Not because you are special, but because our risen Christ lives in you.
Father, we come before your throne in the mighty name of Jesus, our risen Lord. We thank you that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is alive and working in us right now.
We declare that we will no longer settle for powerless Christianity. We will no longer accept dead religion that shakes nothing and changes nothing.
Fill us afresh with your Holy Spirit power. Give us boldness to believe for the impossible. Teach us to call things that are not as though they are. Use us as demonstrations of your resurrection power.
May the sick be healed, the bound be set free, and the dead be raised through the authority of the risen Christ within us.
We refuse to live beneath our inheritance. We take our place as sons and daughters of the living God, filled with power from on high. In Jesus’ mighty name, amen.
I believe with all my heart that as you have learned about the power of the risen Christ today, you have been activated into a new dimension of faith.
The understanding you have gained about calling things that are not as though they are is already producing breakthrough in your impossible situations.
Here is what you must do daily: Each morning, before you face your challenges, speak out loud, the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in me. I am not a victim. I am victorious.
Today I will walk in resurrection power. Declare this until it becomes your reality. Speak it over your family, your finances, your health, your ministry. Watch what happens when you consistently call things that are not as though they are.
Now, if you thought that testimony of the dying young man was powerful, wait until you discover the secret that takes you from merely experiencing God’s power to actually partaking of His divine nature.
What is the one thing that opens the door to all the treasures of God that most believers completely overlook?
How does a woman with a massive goiter see it disappear simply by refusing to doubt what God promised?
Why do some believers access limitless power while others remain stuck in spiritual weakness?
We need to discover the righteousness that unlocks every promise of God, the divine nature that transforms your entire being, spirit, soul, and body, and how to position yourself to receive the exceeding, great, and precious promises that change everything.
By Smith Wigglesworth