Topic: Alive in a dead place
Text: Mark 5:1-9
Minister: Pst Steve Folorunsho

Alive in a dead place is all about trying to reconcile life and death co-existing.

LESSONS DRAWN FROM OUR PASSAGE

1. Existing but not living: the scripture explained this scenario in Isaiah 38: 18-19. This means he has life but not living. It is living a life that does not hope or celebrate God. It is a point that the truth of God does not count for you and

cannot penetrate.

2. He did not choose to exist in a dead place: he was a captive at a dead place so he did things that were not convenient nor normal. The bible explained it in Romans 1:28. When a man refuse to retain God, God will allow him do things that are not convenient. Psalm 23: 4 explain that sometimes God makes us to walk through a dead place for a reason and the good news is that we are just passing through. It is not a permanent place and God is with us.

God also takes some people to visit a dead place like in Ezekiel 37: 1-2 for a purpose and the purpose is to raise a mighty army. God is bringing a mighty miracle out of your life. If God brings you into a dead place, it is for a purpose and that purpose will bring glory to His name.

3. Dead and decay became normal: everything to him that was normal became dead and decayed. This man’s normal was redefined by his location and experience. All he saw became death and decay and that became his normal.

Some people’s normal is failure, some its misfortune while some others is disappointment etc. Their normal had been redefined to the wrong thing by situations and experiences. Ezekiel 12:21-25 makes us to understand that God can break such yokes and by His grace as many that their normal had been redefined to the negative, the Lord will break such yokes.

4. Shut out from the living: he belonged to the living but because he was stationed in the grave, he was shut out from the living. Everything that was positive and normal could not reach out to him or manifest in his life because he was shut out. Some people are actually in a dead place because of their perception. They just have a perception that brings them out of the reality of God’s word and God will deliver them speedily in Jesus name!
5. Then came He that liveth and was dead: Revelation 1: 17-18 gives us a description of He that liveth and was dead. The man’s situation changed when Jesus showed up. He is the one that liveth and was dead. He changes situations when he appears. You cannot come out of a dead place except you recognise and encounter the man that liveth and was dead. Jesus is the one that liveth and was dead and He is able to bring you out of your dead place.