Death, Where Is Your Sting?

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Today's Passage: John chapter 11
Memory Verse (s): 1 Corinthians 15:54-55

These days, I see a news story or hear of someone's death and casually wonder what it would be like to pass from this life to the next.  But it wasn't always so smooth and carefree for me.  Not too long ago, I actually used to be filled with dread over dying myself, or losing one of my loved ones.

I don't know if this morbid fear was a leftover spirit of oppression from walking through a civil war and seeing death all around me.  I think it became even stronger when my father was killed in 1994.  But wherever it came from, it felt like it was here to stay, especially when my babies were little.  Whenever I thought of what they would be like at their milestone years, this fear would overtake me, filling me with this inner turmoil that I couldn't shake for quite some time.  My thoughts seemed to be consumed by the possibility of not being able to see them grow up, or of having to raise them alone.

Then one day, I really got a revelation of what death was in the spirit realm.  The real meaning of death -- the first death -- was separation from God when the first Adam sinned.  Well, the second Adam fixed that by erasing every curse when He placed Himself on the tree for us.  Now, I walk in the perfect love that drives away every fear of physical death, because it's the only thing standing between me and the Father now.  Everything I live for at this moment in time propels me -- and my loved ones -- into an unavoidable head-on collision with our destiny, which is to never be separated from God again.

I believe that when Jesus cried for Lazarus, it was out of frustration that he would have to be subjected to tasting the physical death.  But when He raised him up three days after Lazarus had been dead and embalmed, He was teaching us that this type of death is only temporary.  Like a teeny prick of a needle when it enters your skin, the pain fades and is replaced by healing.  As I go through the process of re-training my soul to once again long for the things of heaven, I'm beginning to look forward to leaving the constraints of this earth and plunging headfirst into my promise of everlasting promise with my God.

Prayer: Father, nothing can compare with seeing Your face and being forever with You.  For too long, I was deceived by the enemy into thinking that this life was all about what I could have and experience down here.  Now I've caught a glimpse of Your glory, and my heart is beginning to long for Your Presence.  May I never again take Your presence for granted, but look forward to being embraced by Your beauty.  What an awesome time of worship that will be!  I truly can't wait!  In Jesus ' Name, Amen.