By Kathy Johnston
The obsession with Zombies and The Walking Dead is a real thing. Seriously, what in the world? I can’t believe what comes up when you google “Zombie”, or “Walking Dead”.
I’m not a fan, but I find it interesting the fascination with everything Zombie, including movies, wildly popular TV shows, video games and more!
The fact is though, spiritually speaking, there’s more truth to this concept than we realize, and there are walking “dead” people all around us!
Looking at it from that point of view, I just spent about 3 hours with a “corpse” last week.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, she definitely has flesh and bones, a pulse and a heartbeat. She’s absolutely a living, breathing, thinking, physical being. But in reality, she’s a corpse. Dry bones.
She spewed out bitterness, hatred, resentment and anger toward me, her family and mostly toward God. She declared her hatred for anything and anyone to do with Christ or his body, the Church. She vehemently and openly rejected him saying, “I will NEVER have anything to do with him…until my dying breath.”
These were frightening words to hear coming from someone’s mouth.
After she left, all I could think of was that she was a walking dead person. A zombie. “Living” in a tomb, walking around aimlessly, enslaved by sin, with no hope, and blinded from seeing the true condition she is in.
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Oh what a wretched place to live!
I couldn’t help but think of the words of Paul, as well as other verses in the Bible, that refer to people being “dead” without Christ. Paul is speaking not just of the physical body but also of the spirit. A person’s spirit is dead until it is made alive through Christ. Dead means dead! It’s clear there is no hope of life without Him.
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses…(Colossians 2:13)
If it wasn’t for the living breath of God, the resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ and the power of his indwelling Holy Spirit, we all would be in the same state as this walking “dead” woman. Apart from Christ, we are dead. There is no hope of life without Him. And that’s a fact according to God’s Word.
Paul reminds us of that in Ephesians 2:2-3, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
But notice the two very important words in Paul’s next sentence:
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-6)
I struggled with the realization that there is nothing in my own strength that I can do to help her in this wretched condition she “lives”. I can’t “fix” her. She has NO hope, no joy, no peace, no life, no future. In her words, “All I have is what’s right here, right now. I’m fine with going to hell, because I don’t believe in it anyway.”
Her only hope comes from the breath of life that comes from the Holy Spirit.
Her words made me think of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37. Now I know that this particular prophecy was written to the nation of Israel, but the principle still applies to us in the reality of God’s Holy Spirit breathing life into those who were dead.
“Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:5-6)
I’ve been praying that the Holy Spirit would show me ways that I can demonstrate his love to her, to “display the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor 4:4)
But more importantly, He has called me to pray specifically that the god of this world who keeps her blind to the truth would lose his grip on her, and that the Holy Spirit would breathe life into her so that she would know that He is Lord.
The truth is, there are walking dead people all around us and they don’t even know they are dead. And unfortunately, most of the time we are too busy with our own lives that we don’t even think of the eternal state they are in.
God’s word tells us this; “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:12-13)
Knowing and believing this truth, how should we then live?
- Pray that the Living God would pierce our own hearts, dividing between soul and spirit, exposing our innermost thoughts and desires, and then repent of those areas where we have not surrendered to his Lordship.
- Pray that God would open our eyes to see others the way he sees them.
- Pray for those that are dead in their sin to be made alive in Christ
- Pray that God would breathe life into them so that they could live!
- Understand that you too were once as they were but are now made alive in Christ and have a glorious hope in Him.
- Don’t keep this good news from them! Ask the Holy Spirit to help you walk in obedience by sharing the Good News boldly to those who are perishing.
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. (Mark 16:15)
Grace Enough 