The passageway to new life

2 Kings 13:14

Elisha had become sick with an illness from which he would die.

Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, wept over his face, and said, “O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!”

• (Skip to verse 2 Kings 13:20)

Then Elisha died, and they buried him.

And the raiding bands from Moab invaded the land in the spring of the year.

2 kings 13:21 So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders, and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha;

and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.

The passageway to a new life

After Elisha the prophet died, he was buried in a cave or tomb. Moabite raiders attacked Israel every spring, interrupting a funeral.

Fearing for their own lives, the burial party put the body into Elisha’s tomb. As soon as the body touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man came to life and stood up on his feet.

The men who had placed the body of the dead man in Elisha’s tomb saw a miracle right before their eyes: the man was raised from the dead. The men left Elisha’s grave with experience.

This miracle was a foreshadowing of how Christ’s death and resurrection turned the grave into a passageway to new life.

In 2020, on July 1st One of the sweetest women to ever walk the earth was in St. Bernard’s Hospital fighting for her life.

My mother was there, and the hospital policy was no one could see her. COVID was bad; when you went to the emergency room, 100 plus people were waiting to be seen. A male nurse called me, telling me my mother had died and they had brought her back to life.

I was sick with COVID; my brother Ben was sick with COVID; Max was sick with COVID; and my family was in a pickle.

They had told us no one could come to the hospital, but they knew what we didn’t know: that our mother was going to die.

They called me the second time. My mother died, and again they brought her back to life.

Telling me the details as the oldest, I made the hardest decision a man can make and told them if my mom passed again to let her go to be with Jesus.

No more than an hour later, Mom stepped through the door of eternity to see Jesus. Covid took her life, but she is alive forever more with Jesus.

My Story: I never get tired of telling my story. My life was in danger; I just didn’t know that it was hard to see it coming.

It’s not like a car wreck where you can’t see death; once death lays its chain on you, it just overtakes you.

The following is what I have gathered from my wife; I’m still finding out details of this experience that happened in my life.

My wife said I got up from the bed and told her if she didn’t take me to the hospital, I felt I was going to die. Instantly, my wife got me in the car and drove that chariot to Jonesboro to St. Bernards.

I’m telling what she remembers, not what I remember; I see it because we have been there so many times.

The chains of death had gripped me; I was a dying man; without Jesus, I would not survive.

My kids say I called them and said goodbye; my wife says I never called her and said goodbye; I don’t remember calling anyone to this day.

I love my wife more than any living soul on earth. They placed me on the vent; I have the scar in my mouth to prove it. The picture to this point looks dismal; my mother had passed, and it looked as if I was next. I’m no better than anyone else.

I was alone, hanging between life and death. At this point, no matter what you have in the bank, no matter what you own, it means nothing. Death had laid its chain on me.

I couldn’t fight; it was in God’s hands now.

My wife, you pastor’s wife, sick too and not willing to let go, took to prayer for me; my family prayed; my church faced one of the greatest battles we have ever faced; they had to put their faith in God and believe for my life.

Sister Linda Williams, one of our mothers of faith, called my wife and told her to speak life.

When she did, there was a spark, and in the realm of faith, a spark is all you need.

The spark had happened at that point. I was going down, but the spark turned the tide. The Holy Spirit opened a passageway to new life.

It was like a funnel; many were dying all around me, going down the funnel to eternity, but instead of going down the funnel, I was coming back up the funnel.

My wife would drive to Jonesboro every day and sprinkle her mustard seed and pray.

The devil wants you to go down the funnel to eternity, with or without God. He wants to kill you and separate you from your family.

The devil doesn’t want to just kill you; he wants the whole family. There is a path that leads to destruction, and there is a path that leads to life.

I ask you, which way are you heading? Which way are your kids going? Where will you find eternity?

If you’re not there to fight for them, to stand your ground in faith, your family can face eternity without God.

It’s bad to lose your life, but who is going to point the way to Jesus in your family? Who will fast and pray if you’re not there?

I don’t know how many days I was in the vent; they began to wean me off the vent until the day they would remove it completely.

I don’t know the details of this process, but I was not going down the funnel; I was coming up.

At this point, I can say I was at the point where I had gotten into the funnel.

This is where I can start to tell you what God has done for me.

A male nurse had a space-looking suit on and was shaking me. Mike Mike startled me as I awoke from my coma.

The first thing he said was, “Mike, do you want to talk to your wife? I had no idea what I had come through; I didn’t know how close I had come to death.

I had lost 40 plus lbs., and I stank. I couldn’t stand the smell; I smelled like death.

When they face-timed my wife, she looked like an angel to me.

The passageway to a new life

Don’t face eternity without Jesus; you can’t break the chain of death; only Jesus can do this for you.

Death is the devil’s most powerful, terrifying weapon against us.

At the cross, Jesus defeated Satan on our behalf, and with the empty tomb, Jesus destroyed the devil’s most powerful weapon, death.

Satan, our accuser, is now powerless to condemn us. With Jesus, you have found the passageway that leads to life eternal.

Will you receive Jesus as your savior? Can I pray for you?