Scripture Reference 1 Corinthians 2 : 4-5

⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Kings 17: ¹⁹ “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. ²⁰ Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” ²¹ Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”

Life Lesson: Never allow yourself to think, “This has never been done before and therefore it cannot be done now!” God is the Creator of all things, in fact, God has created and God will create life from nothing! Heb. 11: 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”

Elijah was undaunted in his faith by the sudden and unexpected death of the boy. Tragedies such as this have a way of catching us off our guard and making us feel extremely vulnerable. Many believers are rocked to their core when death comes in an unexpected way and time. Instead of becoming distraught, Elijah does the unthinkable, he asks for the dead child. 

Now, what would possess Elijah to do such a thing? I’ll tell you what or rather who was prompting and guiding Elijah, it was the pre-Incarnate Spirit of Christ at work in him. The fact that no one had ever been raised from the dead before in the known history of humanity was of no issue to Elijah. Elijah did not have to know that such a thing had happened before to believe that such a thing could happen by faith! Here, through Elijah, God was revealing His redemptive purposes for humanity and pointing, through the recorded Scriptures, all believers to the One who would literally embody Resurrection power, the Lord Jesus Christ! Now many of us might complain, “but why don’t we see this more often?” Resurrections such as the one recorded here are not so that we should go around raising all the dead back to life, no they point us to the greater reality that 1. Death is swallowed up in victory through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and 2. Death is never to be thought of as final – life goes on, there is more yet to come! I firmly believe that it was the Spirit of God prompting and empowering Elijah to do what had never before been done! Yes, it had been conceived of once before by Abraham, the father of faith who believed that God could raise his son from the dead after he had sacrificed him, Heb. 11:19! Again it was the Spirit of Christ at work in him that could enable him to conceive of such a thing! What is God inspiring you to believe in Him for today?