On December 14, 2019, Olive Heiligenthal, the two-year-old daughter of Andrew and Kally Heiligenthal, tragically passed away. Instead of going into mourning, Andrew and Kally reached out to their community at Bethel Church and began praying that God would raise Olive from the dead. According to Bethel's Facebook page, they stated that they were seeking "… a miracle from God to raise [Olive] from the dead. We realize this is out of the norm, but that’s what a miracle is – it’s outside the box of nature and our power." However, after several days of prayer, the Heiligenthals finally ended the call for resurrection.

So what now? Should the congregation at Bethel carry around incredible guilt because they weren't able to raise Olive from the dead? Do we start to believe that God is not as good as He says He is?

On the contrary, Greg and RD firmly share that you have to believe that everything God does is for the sake of His glory, and just like Jesus, you have to say, "Your will be done," believing that God is a merciful and loving God with ways you may never understand because you are not God. Greg and RD also affirm that you have to ask God to refine you through every circumstance you experience, no matter the outcome, and not blame yourself when the outcome is not what you wanted or expected.

The problem comes, Greg and RD assert, when you believe that heaven will come to earth if you pray and believe hard enough, as they did at Bethel with Olive; you are taking God and His will out of the equation. Greg and RD implore the listener to steer clear from the thinking of, "I might have been saved by faith, but it's me who perform my spiritual gifts," as they agree that this way of thinking can lead to over-realized eschatology, or the notion that some of the things that God says specifically about heaven and the future are happening right now on earth.

It's easy to take passages of Scripture such as Jesus telling His disciples that they can move literal mountains with their faith and think that these Scriptures mean that we must do the same today. However, Greg and RD are quick to point out that there is a difference between texts of apostles such as Paul saying, "This is how you need to live to follow Jesus," and stories told in the Gospels showing how Jesus is Lord in every circumstance. A great example of this is the Sermon on the Mount, which should not be taken as prescriptive, Greg confirms, because Matthew put it in his Gospel for the Jews to show that we cannot be righteous before God by our own actions. 

So whether you're a Cessationist or a Continuationist, Greg and RD agree that the point is that every single miracle that has ever been done or ever will be done points back to the cross and the mission of Jesus.

To end the episode, RD and Greg point to an article by K. J. Ramsey about Olive and how, in every circumstance, we must trust God and hold fast to the belief that He is good.