My wife tells me that I flit from thing to thing and idea to idea—and she’s not entirely wrong. It’s just that in my moving from one subject to another, whether in prayer and contemplation, writing, or otherwise, I tend to circle back around to the same subjects over and over again. The subjects of life and immortality are some of these ideas that I keep coming back to, so the other day I was spending some time in prayer and discussion with the Holy Spirit while driving to work. As I did so, I began to inquire about how we can practically engage the revelation of immortality in Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 1:10-11) to live and not die.
One point I made was that we know that this is enacted in part in our thoughts and words on an ongoing basis. As Proverbs 18:32 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” The things we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts alter our reality, and we receive the results of that fruit, whether nourishing or poisonous. If we speak death over ourselves, it should be no surprise when we grow sick, old, and die. Likewise if we spend even a few minutes each day praying and decreeing life in our bodies then we can expect to live healthier, more vibrant lives. Nevertheless, this can’t be the only piece to that puzzle, as if that is all there was to it, then we’d be there already. As I pointed this out, Holy Spirit nudged me that this is indeed an important step in the process that I have been neglecting, and that is partly because in some ways it seems almost too simple to be true.
I was reminded of the story of Naaman, the commander of the King of Aram’s army. He contracted leprosy, and sought out Elisha the prophet to heal him. He got angry when Elisha didn’t even meet him in person, and sent a messenger to tell him to wash very specifically in the Jordan River. Naaman got very angry, complained that many other rivers were better, and left in a rage. His servant spoke to him and said something that showed great wisdom on his part. “Naaman’s servants went to him and said, ‘My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!’ So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.”
Sometimes we write off the simple things because they seem too simple, and I have been guilty of this. Nevertheless, while speaking life over ourselves daily is a useful and important habit to build, if that was all it took, I wouldn’t be asking the Holy Spirit how we can walk in this reality, as masses of people would have been doing this for centuries and living thousands of years at a time. So, we continued chatting briefly, as I began to ask more questions about how we can live this out and have it work for us here and now without having to wait for decades of speaking life over ourselves for this revelation of immortal, abundant life to work gradually over time.
Well, Holy Spirit asked me an interesting question, saying “Since you have been set free from death, the question really becomes ‘how much life do you want?'”
At first glance this might sound a bit strange, but the scriptures confirm that we have, indeed, already been set free from sin and death. Romans 8:1-2 says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” If we think about it, that means that we have literally been set free from anything that should cause us to die. I will point out that “set free from” doesn’t mean we are incapable of dying. It simply means that we are no longer forced to.
This has puzzled me for a while, actually, as I have thought to myself that we already know that Jesus has already paid for all sin, sickness, poverty, pain, disease, and death for all time. Therefore, it seems odd that people still die. After all, if we have been set free from sin and death, shouldn’t we stop dying? I think the question “How much life do you want?” answers this.
In theory, we are not supposed to die, but if we want to die, we can. Likewise, if we want to live, we also can. God gave the children of Israel these choices in Deuteronomy 30:15, 19, which says, “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. . . This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live . . .” The same choices God gave to the Israelites, He has given us in Christ Jesus. So while we shouldn’t die, we still can if we want to. The key difference between the Israelites and us is that we have received an upgraded version through a perfect sacrifice that has wiped out all of our sin, and therefore removed the right of death to destroy us. However, we still have the ability to choose death if we still want to.
Not only that, I believe both the world and the Church have been duped into believing that death is our only choice. A large part of this is attributed to what I refer to as a worldwide death-consciousness, the collective understanding of almost everyone in the world that we are all fated to die, and this collective consciousness carries an energy with it that pushes us all slowly toward death. Because we have been swindled into believing the lie, we confess the lie, live the lie, and teach the same lie to others, only further perpetuating the myth of mandatory death. The Bible tells us something far different, and Jesus said many times over that we can live forever.
Kobus Van Rensburg, a prophet and teacher and former senior leader of SpiritWord Ministries (https://spiritword.org.za/) received this same revelation many years ago, that he had a choice whether to die or live. With this revelation in hand, even during his battle with cancer, he was pronounced clinically dead on six different occasions and was resurrected each time, until finally dying more permanently on December 21, 2013. If nothing else, he demonstrated that we can choose life time and time again, and as we choose life, we can receive it in place of death. While many have mocked him for his beliefs, few can say that they defeated death after dying on six separate occasions.
All in all, I am left asking myself the same question “how much life do I want?”, and I encourage you to ask yourself the same. Do you want to enjoy and experience all God has for you without old age, pain, and health problems? I welcome you to continue with me on this journey as we pursue and apprehend the abundant, immortal life of Jesus Christ.
To read more on this and related subjects, pick up a copy of my book “The Gospel of Life and Immortality,” available on Amazon in both Kindle and in Print.
