Raised From the Dead!

What does it mean to be raised from the dead? Is this something reserved solely for biblical characters like Jesus and Lazarus, or is it something that applies to our lives as well?

I believe that I, too, was raised from the dead, and I am not talking about a near death experience I had when I was 8 years old. I refer to the moment I accepted the promise of eternal life by listening to and following Jesus. Before that moment I was as good as dead, or already dead depending on how you want to look at it.  What I had, at best, was a potential for life. I drifted day to day seeking to fulfill the carnal desires that my unhappy shell of a body cried out for to create the illusion of a reason for being.

Yes, I had gone astray, and I lusted for all kinds of things, but I loved nothing.  In one blessed moment I promised my life to Him, and He handed my life back to me, and for the first time in my life, I felt truly ALIVE!

I wonder sometimes how many others are trapped in that box, and have no idea that life truly awaits them.  I had no idea at the time that I was just going through the motions, putting on a show for the world, and professing to be something, when in reality my contribution to the world amounted to less than nothing.  But even in the state I was in, a slave to drugs and promiscuity, my life was of such value to the Creator of the universe, that He sought after me in the darkest of places to bring me home.  I had done nothing to deserve this honor, it was by grace alone.

I once heard it explained this way.  If I had a $100 bill in my shoe, all sweaty and nasty smelling, crusted up with dirt, and I offered it to you, would you take it?  Well you might hold it out at arms length, handle it with protective gloves, or or spray it with disinfectant, but at the end of the day, $100 is $100.  It still spends.  It has value even when it has been poorly treated, abused and walked on.

God sees us like that $100 bill.  He sees past the filth and stench, and values us.  By grace He understands that what is most valuable within us has no ability to function in this world, apart from His presence in our lives, and so He makes a way for us to find Him and be cleansed.  In that cleansing moment, we step out of a waking death and into living life.  In Jesus, we are raised from the dead.

Just in case you are having a skeptical moment and wondering if lynnibug went a little over the edge here, I decided to do just a little searching online to find the testimony of others who experienced a tangible, describable change in the moment they chose life over death.

Sarah D had this to say.

“It seemed that rivers of water were washing over me, and like I was being cleansed. I felt that God gave me this unique experience, because the Hound of Heaven had been after me for some time, and God wanted me to be able to hold on to this experience so that I would have it to cling to during times of doubt.”

Rob Conrad had never given a thought to what the bible was about and admits he was clueless just a week before his own salvation experience.  He responded when told of his mother’s salvation, “Saved from what?”  His salvation experience took place in the work place.  Upon retreating to his office and closing the door, he witnessed a brilliant light followed by a series of winds.  Below is but a tiny excerpt.  I highly recommend you follow the link in his name to the full version.

“God’s presence of  LIGHT  blasted my entire being as a  person might whip a  sheet  outside to shake off  the dust.   Instantly,  any trace of sin  or  guilt  in my concience  was  gone.    The intensity  and  reality of  this  incredible  blast  of  God’s  light  locked  me  into  place  as  I still  was  leaning  back in  my seat  and  with  my  eyes also  locked closed.   My  immediate  awareness of  Almighty  God  was  instantly  recognizable  to   me  as  was  His   unexplainable  nature  of   peace  and  comfort  which  overwhelmingly  saturated  me  in  an  instant….

…After all  of  this took place,  it was exactly 11:15AM  when  I  opened my  eyes.   Although  when  adding  up  the  total  time of  the  actual waves  of  glory  themselves  would  seem  to  be  maybe  10 minutes, somehow   45  minutes  had   passed.      After  just  sitting  perfectly calmly   in   my   chair  in   silence  and   in   total   awe  for  about  5 more  minutes  or  so,    I   finally stood   up  and    walked  back  into my  department,   aglow  and   a   brand   new  man  in  Christ  Jesus.”

Tazzee tells about how she sang in gospel choirs, not because she was a Christian, but because she liked to sing. Her testimony really struck a chord with me because her description of her existence prior to knowing Jesus was so much like mine.

“And when I say partying, I mean getting drunk, grinding, sexing – the whole 9. I was also quick to cuss a person out if they got in my way and my last real fight was my freshman year at Purdue.  My nickname after that was ‘Scrappy’ – so Scrappy was singing the Lord’s praises and cursing folks out on a regular basis.”

Her moment of salvation came later, not terribly dramatic until…

“I went to my first gospel choir rehearsal. We were singing this one song and I just felt overtaken! I mean I just started crying, I could barely stand up – looking back on it now, that was the moment that the Holy Spirit was truly awakened within me…   So that choir rehearsal was the point at which the Holy Spirit was awakened in me. And it was like an instant transformation.”

So I am not at all alone in having had a truly tangible transformation experience when I turned my life over to Jesus.  In fact, these three testimonies came from page 1 of the Google search results for the phrase “salvation experiences“.  There were about 10,500,000 results! I can’t wait to go read some more.

Blessings & Adventure

Lynn “lynnibug” Rios

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