Whose Faith?

Luke 7:13-14,
"And when the Lord saw her, he had
compassion on her, and said unto her,
Weep not, And he came and touched
the bier: and they that bear him stood
still. And he said, Young man, I say unto
thee, Arise."

LUKE 7:11-17

This example of the widow's son being raised
from the dead is often used to demonstrate
that Jesus produced many miracles without
any faith from those receiving the miracle,
but by His faith alone.

But, the prayer in Mark 6:5-6 shows that
Jesus could not (nor would not) do many
mighty works in His home town because of
the people's unbelief.

Many scriptures reveal that faith must be
present to receive from God.
(Mark 11:23-24; James 1:5-7)

So, whose faith was present here?
First, the mother of the boy responded to
Jesus in faith. For this woman to allow Jesus
to interrupt the funeral procession and tell
her to stop weeping has to be seen as a
positive response.
These people were no different from
mourners at funerals today.
If she had rebelled at Jesus' intrusion, the
crowd would have sided with her because of
pity, but none of these reactions are
recorded.

Jesus was in command.
It cannot be proven that a dead person
has no choice in what happens.
We may take it for granted, but the
scriptures don't state that.

A person doesn't cease to exist at death;
he simply leaves his body.
The person is still very much alive.
Many people who have been raised from the
dead have mentioned that they had a choice
in whether or not to enter their bodies again.

Although this principle cannot be verified by
scripture, it cannot be ruled out by scripture
either.
In any case, to be consistent with the rest of
scripture, some degree of faith had to be
present in either the person receiving the
miracle, or an intercessor
(in this case, the mother).

Reach out in faith to receive your miracle today.