-Timilehin Fasuan
Right from the sentence “the man who refused to die,” it sparked a question: how can one refuse to die? Refusal to die is the art of maintaining the ground of your faith even when all hell breaks loose. It is the refusal to yield, to fear, to sin, or to compromise under pressure.
Hebrews 11:1
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
I could hear a mumbling among the Roman soldiers, “Who is this guy? He cannot die? All his colleagues are already dead; we killed them joyfully, of course, but why is he so difficult? What sort of sorcery is this? We have never seen anything like this before! What have we not done? Why can’t he just die?”
James 1:12
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”
Giving up is the same as dying when you are in the midst of warfare. Your will dies, your faith dies, your passion dies, your motivation dies, your gifts die, your strength dies, your vision dies… everything dies when you give up. The body may give up the ghost when it dies, but what will the spirit give up? – Hope! Faith! Trust! Life! Eternal life, eternal home, eternal peace, eternal joy, eternal glory.
Faith, hope, and trust are the only food that sustains the spirit from dying. They are the coal that keeps the locomotive engine of the spirit going.
Psalm 23:4
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
John refused to die because he stood upon the word of Jesus that he wouldn’t see death. Standing upon God’s prophecy and promises can turn around circumstances even when the tides are not favorable. Death is the last weapon to harm a human with, but standing against it seems to be an eye-opener that anyone who believes in the word of the Lord can stand against anything he refuses to accept. Even when he was brought into the pits of death, he refused to die because his faith was still alive in him, standing on Jesus’s prophecy for him.
The day you truly die is the day you stop trusting in God.
