“Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, ‘Tabitha, get up.’ She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up.” – Acts 9:40 (NIV)
Luke introduces Tabitha with a description that is both simple and moving: she was always doing good and helping the poor. This was not a woman of dramatic public ministry or recorded theological teaching. She was a disciple, the only woman in the entire New Testament directly called by the Greek word for disciple, who expressed her faith through clothing the widows who stood around her weeping, showing the garments she had made for them. She was known for what she made with her hands and gave with her heart.
When she became sick and died, the believers in Joppa sent urgently for Peter, who was nearby in Lydda. They did not call for a funeral director. They called for an apostle. The boldness of that decision reveals something about the faith community Peter had been building: these were people who had heard enough and seen enough of the Spirit’s work to believe that death was not necessarily the last word, even for a woman who served tables and sewed garments.
Peter arrived and was taken to the upper room where her body had been laid. The widows surrounded him, weeping and showing him the robes and clothing she had made. He sent them all out. This detail, the clearing of the room, is the same detail that appears in the accounts of both Elijah and Elisha raising the dead, and in the account of Jesus raising Jairus’s daughter. There is a pattern here: the miracle-working prayer that calls the dead back to life tends to happen in a room emptied of noise, of spectators, and of the accumulated weight of others’ grief. Just the man of God, the body, and the Spirit.
Peter knelt and prayed. Luke does not record what he said in prayer, only that he prayed and then turned toward the dead woman and spoke her name: Tabitha, get up. The same pattern as Jesus’s Lazarus, come out and Talitha koum, little girl, arise. Death addressed directly. The Spirit’s power released through a spoken word of faith. She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up. He took her hand and helped her to her feet, then called the saints and the widows and presented her to them alive.
The result was not limited to Tabitha’s household. It became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. The miracle that happened in a private room with all the spectators removed became the most powerful public testimony the city had yet encountered. The Spirit consistently uses the private act of faith-filled prayer to produce consequences that extend far beyond the original room.
Today, is there something in your life or in the life of someone you love that looks dead? A dream, a relationship, a calling, a hope that was once alive and now lies still? Bring it before the Spirit with the same boldness that the disciples in Joppa showed when they sent for Peter. Speak its name. Ask the God who raised Tabitha whether He is done with it.
Prayer
Father, I bring before you the things in my life that look dead, and I ask whether you are done with them. You raised Tabitha through the prayer of one man in a private room. I believe you can raise what appears finished in my situation. Speak the word. Give me the faith to speak it with you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
