I keep thinking about my precious sister (in the Lord), in her new body! She passed last Tuesday, and is now part of that “great cloud of witnesses.” She and I used to talk and joke about our “new” bodies when we leave this earth whether in death (or the rapture).
I think about Jesus in His new body after His death on the Cross – when He came back to His first disciples to show Himself to them, just as He promised to do, and then send them the Holy Spirit to replace Himself with them. (Remember that Jesus in body form could only be in one place at one time, but in Spirit Jesus could be will all His disciples at the same time – all over the world.) “The Spirit is the Lord, and the Lord is the Spirit.” He is the HEAD of His world-wide Spirit-filled Body.
I believe that Jesus returned (in bodily form) to ‘visit’ the 500 disciples who gave witness and written testimony of Him returning to them, to confirm His Word to them about His “resurrection” from death to life (first-fruit of it). He returned in His NEW eternal body, which looked like the body they all knew Him in, the voice as well. “My sheep KNOW my voice, and they follow Me.”
At first some of His disciples didn’t recognize Him, but only because of their simple unbelief, and because of His quiet gentle way of showing up to them, not because of how He looked the same. As He spoke to them, they immediately put 1+1 together. Ha! But in the case, 1+1 = ONE!
Jesus died at the age of 33. Why not 90? Why not 50? Why, as they call it, in the “prime” of life, when we look our best, feel our best, can physically do our best, etc.? Every wondered? If you think that after you die – you’re just like the wind without a body, well I read something very different from the Word of God! If you think that after you die and go to Heaven – there’s nothing important to do in eternal life, or that you are just one of the group that hangs out at the THRONE of GOD singing songs and playing instruments, well that’s not what the prophets talk about in God’s Word (the true prophets that God gave visions to and were told write it down).
As I near the end of my life on earth, I ponder, and I talk to the Lord about going to be with Him, and seeing all the others I knew and loved that are with Him in glory. I love thinking and imaging what He meant when He said, “I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full.” “I go to prepare a place for you.” “In My Father’s House are many mansions.” “No longer will there be any curse; for there will be NO MORE DEATH.” “He will wipe away every tear; for there will be NO MORE crying or mourning or pain – because the OLD ORDER of things has passed away. BEHOLD all things have become NEW!”
“Blessed and holy are those who share in the FIRST resurrection… (By death or rapture: 1 Corinthians 15:51-54, 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18, Isaiah 57:1, Revelation 10:7)… The SECOND death has NO POWER over them,…” (Revelation 20:6)
What say you? Will you be apart of His FIRST resurrection of Spirit-filled disciples of Jesus Christ, those asleep (in the grave) or still living on the earth, very much alive – when the Lord calls us up to be with Him forever?
We can’t even begin to understand what HEAVEN’s GLORY is like. I know that God has allowed a few to have a glimpse, like Apostle Paul who gives his testimony of both his false-belief, his born-again experience, and then later about God taking him up to the “7th heaven” to see what God wanted him to see as God’s witness and writer about it. And, Apostle John, who wrote the book of Revelation, was shown visions about the future that God had him write down while John was imprisoned before he died. Others since have told their testimonies of coming back to life after seeing something of Heaven, and then writing out their testimonies.
I remember my husband about 13 years ago, who was on his way out from dehydration, telling me how he saw and felt the amber brilliance of Heaven’s outer dimension drawing him, but then hearing me (at his side after he collapsed in my arms) crying out the Name JESUS! JESUS HELP! And back he came! I’ll never forget that. Neither will my beloved husband. We have both heard the Lord’s audible voice speak to us. “My sheep know My Voice!” We have each seen a vision or two as well, from the Lord who is faithful to keep us on HIS PATH and PURPOSE.
I’m so thankful to our heavenly Father and to His Beloved Son for all we have to look forward to – eternally with HIM, and with the GREAT ETERNAL FAMILY of ALMIGHTY GOD, our EVERLASTING FATHER.
I am so very thankful for the Word of God, so that we can KNOW the history of mankind from the beginning and even throughout Christ’s second coming to the earth, for His thousand year reign on earth. But from then on (eternity) we can’t fathom. Thus, the Bible ends with telling us: “He who testifies of these things (ALL biblical prophecies) says, ‘YES, I AM COMING SOON.'”
I’m so VERY thankful for the TRUTH that ‘sets us free’ from all the false-beliefs (lies of Satan – the Lord’s #1 adversary); free from all the false-gods (man-made); free from our fears about dying, suffering, and what comes next after death; and free from ‘wasting’ this life – haven been given every opportunity from God’s Word and His Spirit – to know the Truth, the Way and the Life: Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord, KING ETERNAL.
Death is part of life, right now, until God lifts His curse of death on mankind. Imagine what God our Father intended for Adam and Eve before they rebelled in the Garden of Eden against God’s AUDIBLE words to them, so that death then entered the world, where man was to live without any death. Because of the fall of Adam: “ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD.”
And yet, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in HIM shall not perish but have eternal life….Whoever believes in HIM is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the Name of God’s one and only Son…. The Father loves the Son and HAS PLACED EVERYTHING IN HIS HANDS. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life with God, for God’s WRATH remains on them.” John 3:16-18, 35-36
Says Jesus of Himself with ALL authority and power: “I AM the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in ME will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in ME will never die. Do you believe this?”