Peter raises Tabitha from the dead.

Acts 9:40-43

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“But Peter put them all out, and knelt down and prayed. And turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord. So it was that he stayed many days in Joppa with Simon, a tanner.” Acts 9:40-43

Peter put all of the other Believers out of the room where they had placed the body of Tabitha. Peter was about to resurrect Tabitha from the dead. The resurrection power found in Jesus Christ is not a community event nor to be a public spectacle. Being born-again is a personal experience of the resurrection power working within our heart and soul. Our resurrection from the dead is individually based on our belief in God through Jesus Christ and has nothing to do with community unity. When it comes to being born-again and resurrected from the dead, Jesus Christ puts the community out to make our relationship with him personal.

Peter knelt down and prayed, the same as our prayers are a personal communion between us and God through the Spirit. God knows the heart and mind of every person and each prayer is personalized, not something that community attendance can help facilitate. Peter turned to the dead body and said, “Tabitha, arise.” When Jesus turns to us, He calls us by name and says, “Arise”. When He says that to us, we arise in the Spirit and we will arise from the grave into eternal life, just like Tabitha who arose and sat up.

Like Peter, who gave Tabitha his hand to lift her up, our Lord Jesus gives us His hand to lift us up so that we walk with Him in the newness of the born-again experience and the resurrected life. In Jesus, we do not need the hands of the members of the community to help us to walk because only Christ can help us to walk in the Holy Spirit. Fleshly hands are very much different than the hand of the Spirit.

Our Lord Jesus lifts us up, like Peter lifted up Tabitha, and He presents us alive to the family of Jesus Christ. That is our born-again testimony to our brothers and sisters in Christ, that no community effort is needed to bring new life in the Spirit and to fill us with the hope of eternal life. Our born-again experience is the Gospel of Jesus Christ written on our heart.

In today’s culture, which is global, they put a huge, huge emphasis on human touch, social love and belonging, feeding a person’s esteem, dignity, respect, and “self-identity”. Instead of putting the community out of the room when trying to heal a person’s heart and soul, they put God the Creator, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit out of the room. They serve the creature instead of the Creator and discard Jesus who is the Resurrection and the Life. Today’s culture lives for humanism, which is the fig leaf worn by those living for the beast that gives them what to speak, do, think, and feel. Humanism is “…an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems…”

The Gospel of Jesus Christ spread to global proportions from the time of Jesus Christ up to the global falling away [around 1945], as described in 2 Thessalonians 2. Today, as followers of Jesus Christ, we will continue to let the light of Jesus Christ shine in us through the Holy Spirit. We will remain in Spirit with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who are being afflicted, imprisoned, and killed around the world. Our Lord Jesus says, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9:4-5 “Do not prattle,” you say to those who prophesy. So they will not prophesy to you; They will not return insult for insult.” Micah 2:6

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11