Hi all,
Today
I'll share what happens to the human body at the 'rapture', what about
the people already in heaven - and next week I'll cover if the whole
body goes, or is there a bride apart from the overall body of Christ,
and close out this series at 7 weeks, somehow a rather poetic number
considering the subject. lol.
What happens at the rapture?
Paul says
'this corruption (perishable) must put on incorruption (imperishable),
this mortal (part of us) must put on immortality' in I Corinthians
15:50-55 when the Last Trump is blown. But what exactly happens?
Jesus' resurrection is the type and shadow of our own resurrection. Romans 6:4 says Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
Jesus' dead human body was made of earthly material, just like ours.
But when the glory of the Father was unleashed, the power was so
strong when His spirit and soul were reunited with His body, it not only
brought that body back to life, but went beyond that to change the
molecular structure to transform it into a body made of heavenly
material.
Now
Jesus' body is made of heavenly material, and being made of heavenly
material is no longer subject to the lower laws like death, aging and
even gravity. During my teen years I was expressing awe of the Father
and out of the blue, like a father telling something to his son he knew
would excite him, He said:
"You'll
find when you receive your glorified body it isn't subject to the
natural laws of the earth." I asked what He meant and He replied: "If
you want to walk you can walk, if you want to run you can run. If you
want to float you can float, if you want to fly you can fly. If you want
to be somewhere at the speed of thought you can be there." I can hardly
wait!
"Slain in the s(S)pirit"
Our
bodies are made of the earth, and are therefore a poor conductor of the
Spirit of God. Our bodies are like a heating coil on a stove
that resists the electricity flowing into it, and so it heats up. The
more electricity you put into it the more it heats. So it is with the
Holy Spirit flowing into our bodies.
If the Spirit comes on a person heavily, their body becomes affected by it. With a little power
a person may feel lightheaded or sleepy, get 'goose bumps' or chills, seem drunk, wobbly, or even fall down.
Healed of cancer, but 'drunk' in the Spirit
In
1980, my 27 year old boss at the time told me of his Jewish wife who
was scheduled to have a hysterectomy due to tumors on her ovaries which
caused her great pain and threatened her life. The night before surgery I
asked to meet them at a park so I could explain how healing belonged to
her.
Because
she was Jewish I knew believing in healing would not be an issue like
it can with 'church people'. I showed her Christ in the Old Testament,
explained Abraham's covenant and walked her through much of the Old
Testament to Isaiah 53, then into the gospels, showing how Jesus is the
Father's Word made human.
I
did as the Lord had taught me, shared with her the Mark 11 event of the
fig tree withering away from the roots, and told her that would happen
to the tumors when I commanded them to die. She understood and believed,
having been taught healing in her Jewish faith, and now seeing Christ
Jesus throughout the Old Testament and as the suffering servant of
Isaiah 53.
As
I laid hands on her and commanded the tumors to die and wither away,
she became woozy, so 'drunk in the Spirit' she passed out for a time,
and even 45 minutes later she required her husband under one shoulder
and me under the other to carry and walk her to their truck. The next
morning before surgery she made them take pictures again of the tumors,
and to their surprised confusion they were gone, so they released her
with a clean bill of health.
Trances
If
the power is turned up a bit more the body continues to resist because
it is of the earth: Your spirit is made of God so doesn't resist, but
your body is made of earth so is naturally resistant to the Spirit of
God.
Maybe
a person gets 'knocked out' or their physical functions and senses are
suspended which is a trance. During this time they may be like Peter,
who in Acts 10:10-17 was in a trance and had a vision.
I
was ministering in a chapel at a Bible school and one of the ladies on
the platform worship team fell into just such a trance. She stood
completely still, one arm slightly raised, for over 90 minutes. My eyes
were opened to the Spirit realm and I saw a shaft of light from above
encompassing her. Finally the chapel meeting closed and the next
instructor came to teach his class, and I told him to just let her stand
there until the Lord was done with her. She stood like that for nearly
his whole class, then suddenly 'came back' and reported what she had
seen and heard. I've seen things like this dozens of times and it still
amazes me.
If
the power is turned up enough, it will kill this earth-body. That is
what happened in II Samuel 6:7 when the man tried to steady the Ark of
the Covenant which David was improperly bringing into town on a cart
rather than on poles on priest's shoulders (he later repented and moved
the Ark of God the proper way).
BUT...if
the power is turned up beyond that, it not only kills the body, but
goes beyond death to change the molecular structure to heavenly material
- and THAT is what happens when mortal puts on immortality, perishable
becomes imperishable! That is what happens to the living at the
'rapture'. The power unleashed will be so great to many millions of
people, it will raise the dead, change the living, and we will be in
heaven with glorified bodies just as our Lord has now.
But what about those already dead in Christ?
Paul
said that when a person dies they go directly to heaven. In II
Corinthians 5:8 he said 'to be absent from the body is to be present
with the Lord'. In Philippians 1:23 he expressed desire to leave this
world and 'to be with Christ, which is far better'.
But
what part of a person goes? It is the spirit and soul, which are united
as one and only the Word, the Lord Jesus, can divide by critique.
Hebrews 4:12 says "the Word is like a two-edged sword, piercing even to
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is a
discerner (to critique) of the thoughts and intents of the heart...and
all things are open and naked before Him with whom we have to do." The
point isn't being made that He literally divides the two, but that He
knows our thoughts and motives and all our inner being is open and naked
to Him. Amazing that He still wants us, isn't it?
Your
soul is your personality, your mind, your sense of humor, the part that
is renewed by learning to think and be as He is - it is the part people
know when they get to know you. Your spirit is the part that is born
again and can be sensed, for you can sense a meek or gentle spirit, a
sweet spirit, a strong and dominating spirit, etc. We cannot separate
spirit and soul just as no one can separate the Father from His Spirit.
As
Jesus said in John 15:26, the Spirit proceeds from the Father. So too
does our soul proceed from our spirit. These 2 parts are the eternal
part of us; when a person dies it is their spirit and soul that go to
heaven.
What about old people in heaven?
They
look like they do here, but having been to heaven I can tell you that
older people lose all that gravity and earth and the world caused, so
that all people look like they are about 35, yet if they were older when
they died you can tell that. It's hard to describe because there isn't
anything on earth to compare it to, I can only say that which earth
etched in the face is gone, and that which is etched in the countenance
from walking with the Lord for decades remains. Lines of wisdom and a
look in the eyes that reveal age and wisdom, but outwardly about
35...like I said, hard to describe.
The
dead in Christ who are the first resurrected, receive their glorified
bodies. How He does that I don't know, for the question naturally
arises, What if they've been dead so long their body has returned to
earth? The short answer is science tells us matter cannot be destroyed,
it merely changes form.
That
means the leaves you burned in the autumn of 1973 still exist. What
rose as smoke particles went into the air, was carried by wind, a water
molecule latched onto it, and it fell as rain into a lake or ocean. A
body returned to the earth still exists in its most elemental form.
Matter cannot be destroyed, but only changed. Spiritually that is
because God created it, so it cannot be destroyed. But it can be changed
just as those leaves were changed into smoke particles or ashes that
became part of the dirt beneath the fire.
I've
always wondered if He will gather the particles from human bodies
through the centuries that now make up our soil and the bottoms of lakes
and seas, which would dramatically change every landscape, or if that
is not even relevant when giving someone a glorified made-in-heaven
body. Does He need the earthly to change its structure, or does He just
create a body for them? I don't know, but will be fascinated to learn.
Next
week - is there a distinction between the body of Christ and the bride
of Christ? In other words, are carnal Christians NOT going to be
raptured?
Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com
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