I don’t know how to wake the walking dead

A lot of days I feel like I’m walking in some weird version of the twilight zone, and everyone around me is dead.

Maybe that’s a mean thing to say, but I’m just telling the truth. I mean seriously. One day, if you have time, sit somewhere and just people watch.

You will be amazed.

People are rushing off somewhere. People are looking stressed and like the load of life will break them at any moment. People are lost in thought about secret issues, bills, and just the stress of life. People just look dead inside.

People need to wake up to who Jesus is and what He has to give us.

But if you ever saw a zombie, a dead person, and tell them that they are dead, will they believe you?

Nah. I doubt it. And so it is with the spiritually dead people, too.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 New Living Translation (NLT)

³ If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. ⁴ Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

The dead will never understand that they are dead.

I know I didn’t.

I’m far farrrrr from perfect, but I still consider myself to be a Christian and woman of God. I stumble, but I’m still aware of my salvation and that it is Jesus who saved me. However, prior to my salvation, the Good News was hidden from me. I would sleep around and feel no guilt. I would lie and wouldn’t give it a second thought. I’d be mean just because I could be. But as soon as I became saved….I mean saved FOR REAL, the veil I was hidden behind disappeared. I started lookin’ at people and things differently. When I slip up, something is prompting me to repent. When people lash out, I question who hurt them in their past or what they are struggling with to make them that way. When I get really short with Ethan, something inside tells me to apologize. When guys approach me, and they claim to love Jesus, I intently look at if what they are saying matches their lifestyle.

I got woke.

“But, Key,” you may say, “Can God wake me, too?”

Yes, my God can bring to life any dead person, thing, or situation.

Any Christian that calls themselves a real Christian (yes, the shade, lol) knows all about the story of Lazarus. If you don’t or you need a refresher, in your free time, crack open that Bible and read John 11. The story is awesome. To make a long story as short as I can (which is always hard for me to do, ha) the homie Lazarus was a friend of Jesus and he was sick. Lazarus’s sisters did the smart thing and sent word to Jesus about Lazarus’s illness in hopes that Jesus would hurriedly come to the rescue.

He didn’t though.

He chilled where he was hangin’ at for two more days before heading to check on his homeboy. Now at this point, I’m sure Lazarus’s sisters, Mary and Martha, were probably a bit heated. Their brother had died and in strolls Jesus two days later (I would be BEYOND hot if this was my brother with a healer as a connect who didn’t come through in time..I’d have all kinds of questions and comments). Movin on.

So Jesus has words with Martha, and some powerful words I might add. So I’ll let you read them:

John 11:20-27 New Living Translation (NLT)

²⁰ When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

²³ Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

²⁴ “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”

²⁵ Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. ²⁶ Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

²⁷ “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.”

Don’t miss this. Jesus CLEARLY says that ANYONE who believes in Him will live and never die. It gets better, though.

John 11:39-44 New Living Translation (NLT)

³⁹ “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them.

But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”

⁴⁰ Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” ⁴¹ So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. ⁴² You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” ⁴³ Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

This dude was DEAD. I mean, he was dead dead. But Jesus, my Lord, called him by name and woke his dead butt up!

If he can do that for Lazurus, he can most definitely do it for me and you.

Yes, we do live in a dying culture. Sex is running rampant and on every screen-death. Porn is so easily accessible-death. People are lying and cheating and feeling no remorse whatsoever-death. The church is starting to look just like the world-death.

It’s time we start speaking life into these dead people and situations. It’s time we go to the One who can call us out of death.

I really adore God. I do. I have my days where I mess up. I have my days where I doubt Him and even get mad at Him. I always go back to Him though. He’s my reason for living. He’s my life and I can’t ever go back to the dead life I had when I’ve experienced true life in Him.

He knows we aren’t perfect, but He is and that should be enough. I beat myself up constantly about my failures. I’ve beaten myself up bad just this year. But my God covers all bases. I not only have Him, a new heart, and a new spirit, but I got the body of Christ who loves me and holds me accountable. I’m so grateful that God places me on the minds of other believers. Just last week, my friend, who is beyond kind and wise, Aileen, read this and texted me this because she thought of me:

“Jesus Christ did not come into this world to make bad people good; He came into this world to make dead people live.”

She said she saw that quote from Lee Strobel. I don’t know if he himself said that or someone else, but Lee Strobel himself was once dead. He was once an atheist and after investigating and deep diving into Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, he became a Christian. Christ woke him up.

I wish I could shake people awake sometimes. I wish I had the power to save every single one of my family and friends. I wish I could be the one to tell the whole world the truth about how life changing Jesus Christ is. But, I’m not Jesus. I am only a simple vessel for Jesus that can only reach a limited amount of people. What’s crazy is that even though I am one person, one vessel, I can do something that works wonders–pray.

This is now the prayer of my heart for not only myself and the family and friends I love so much, but for EVERYONE.

Ephesians 1:18-20 New Living Translation (NLT)

¹⁸ I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

¹⁹ I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power ²⁰ that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.

We, God’s people, have power unlike we will ever know or realize, but we gotta be hooked up to the Power Source. He’s the only One that keeps us living! We have to pray that people wake up to the truth, and we as believers have to remain alive, too. We gotta wake up, people! We gotta get undead!

Lord, thank you for waking me. I was dead for so long, but you took time to call me, your daughter and apple of your eye, by name, and now I am forever changed. I mess up BIG time. I get busy and I forget You. I go through really really rough patches in life, and I feel like even right this moment, I’m going through one. I go back to bad habits. I feel like I fail You so much. You, however, continue to love me, shower me with grace, and stand at my door waiting on me to talk things out with You. You whisper to me the truth of Your Word and I am reminded that I’m not alone, that You got me covered, and that Your plans for me haven’t changed. You don’t give up on me, not ever. I can’t believe You love me like You do. It’s a love that I don’t deserve, but that I’m soooo grateful to have. I pray that You continue to change my heart. I pray that You change the hearts and minds of people everywhere, too, because I know in You, there is life everlasting. I want the world to experience what I feel for You and what You feel for us all. I want this world to just…wake…up!