Big Healing Book - Acts 20:9-12

Acts 20:9-12:

And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.
And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him.
When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.
And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.

Notes on Acts 20:9-12:

Does this passage give you the right to raise anyone from the dead who dies while you’re preaching? No, though I’ve met at least three preachers now who have done so. Such things are a manifestation of the Spirit, not an act of regular faith.

Mediocre preachers sometimes use this passage to justify preaching long messages. (“Paul preached all night, you know.”) The trouble is, a lot more people might fall asleep listening to their “Babylonian” preaching (they babble on and babble on). If you’re as good as Paul, and you’re talking to people whom you won’t ever see again in this life, maybe you can go all night. Actually, we don’t know that Paul preached all night. He preached until this incident, and then broke bread and talked until morning. We don’t know that his talking was continued preaching. As for you, study and prepare so that you can preach concise messages instead of rambling, and you will run less risk of people being “bored to death” while you preach.