By Eric Elder

You can read about at least ten resurrection stories in the Bible, stories where someone has been physically dead and then been raised back to life.

- Elijah raised the son of the widow (1 Kings 17:17-22)

- Elisha raised the son of the Shunamite woman (2 Kings 4:32-35)

- Elisha’s bones touched a dead man who was raised back to life (2 Kings 13:20-21)

- Jesus raised a widow’s son (Luke 7:11-15)

- Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8:49-56)

- Jesus raised Lazarus after Lazarus was dead for four days (John 11:1-44)

- God raised Jesus from the dead (Matthew 28:5-10)

- God raised many others from the dead at the same time He raised Jesus (Matthew 27:50-53).

- Peter raised Tabitha from the dead (Acts 9:38-40)

- Paul raised Eutychus from the dead (Acts 20:9-12).

Let’s take a look at this last story, since we’re looking today at Acts, chapter 20. As the Apostle Luke tells the story, Paul was speaking late into the night in the city of Troas. He was to leave early the next morning, so he stayed up all night speaking to the people:

“Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘He’s alive!’ Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted” (Acts 20:9-12).

Faith resurrects. Not just a spiritual resurrection that will happen when those who believe in Christ will be raised to new life in heaven, but faith that even resurrects people who have died and then come back to life here on earth.

This doesn’t mean that just because we have faith in Christ, we can, or even should, raise everyone who dies back from the dead. God does have a plan and He’s limited all of our life spans for a reason.

But it does mean that all of us who have put our faith in Christ--and have been filled with, and empowered by, His Holy Spirit--have access to the same life-giving power that raised Jesus from the dead. Paul, who raised Eutychus from the dead, also wrote:

But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you” (Romans 8:10-11).

Paul was sharing a spiritual truth, but it’s a physical truth as well. Paul knew from his own experience that the Spirit of God could literally bring people back from the dead.

If God calls you to pray for someone to be raised from the dead, by all means and by faith, do it! But God also wants you to use that power of faith to pray life back into all kinds of situations and circumstances in the world around you.

If you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and you need God to breathe life into something you’re facing today, call on the power of God’s Holy Spirit that lives within you--the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead.

If you’ve never put your faith in Christ to forgive you of your sins, do it today. You will be raised to a new life with Him here on earth, and you can be assured that you’ll be raised to an eternal life with Him in heaven.

Let’s pray...

Father, fill us with Your Holy Spirit--the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead--and give us the faith to call on Your Spirit to pray life into everything around us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.