DIVINE ENCOUNTER (RENEWAL FELLOWSHIP)

P.O.BOX 3625, WARRI 

Delta State Nigeria, West Africa.

 

Topic:  OUR RESURRECTION HOPE IS NOT'RAPTURE' PART 3A

TEXT:               1 TUES. 4:13-14.

 

THE RISEN SAINTS WITH GLORIED BODIES 

ARE IN TILE CITY OF GOD.

 

As the Lord keep witnessing to our Spirit the truth we are sharing in these article, we often receive question as follows:

 

"if there are no dead bodies in graves waiting for resurrection, where are people like Elijah, Enoch, and in fact the saints of old and those that have been dying (sleep in the Lord) since then?".

 

Again, let us go to the word of God for an answer; In the book of Math. 27:50-53, we are told that the saints that lay down their physical bodies, before the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, rose with Him in a glorified body to become one with Him in His Body, the church: "And the graves (where they were buried‑cemetery) were opened and many BODIES OF THE SAINTS which SLEPT AROSE and came out of the graves alter I‑his resurrection and went into the Holy city and appeared to many". Now, it is already clear to us that the body with which they arose from their graves is not the same with which they were buried, because we know that when you saw a natural body you reap a spiritual body. 1 Cor 15:44. SO WITH WHAT BODIES WERE THESE SAINTS RAISED?. If the word says they rose after Jesus resurrection, then of course Jesus nature of resurrection must be their pattern. The body with which Jesus rose is a glorified body, a body without limitation for we are told that as the disciples were together with the 'doors shut' for fear of the Jews " came Jesus and stood in the midst" (Jn 20:19). How did He come in, yet the doors were shut?, because He is now putting on a body that can take any shape He desires, that is, Ile appear in any (other) form‑mk 16:12. He gave further evidence to the nature of His body when He appeared to the disciples at Jerusalem as they were discussing about Him, having appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus " ....And just as they were telling about it, Jesus Himself was SUDDENLY STANDING THERE among them, and greeted them. But the whole group was terribly frightened, thinking they were seeing a GHOST! "why are you frightened?" Ile asked "why do you doubt that it is really I ? Look at my hands! Look at my Feet! You can see that is I, myself! TOUCH ME and make sure that I am not a GHOST! FOR GHOST DON'T HAVE BODIES, AS YOU SEE THAT I DO"

LK 24:33‑37. TLb.".. for a Spirit hath not FLESH and BONES, as Ye see me have" KJV. So you see, it is a body with "flesh' and 'bones' but not with 'flesh' and 'blood'. It is a body that does not depend on natural food for the manufacturing of blood for its existence, neither doest it depend on vehicles etc for its movement. This body of resurrection is completely spiritual. It can appear and disappear at will. Therefore to state that the resurrected bodies of the saints appear to many in Jerusalem (holy city) is nothing strange, should that be the meaning. But the truth of the matter is, the Jerusalem that they went to and appeared to many, and that they are now having their existence in, in glorified bodies is not the Jerusalem in Palestine where people go to for religious pilgrimages, Otherwise they too would have been seeing these saints of old. But rather where they are NOW, is the Heavenly Jerusalem, the church of Jesus Christ, His body where all of us, born of His Spirit are now having our existence as well. It is a realm of existence in God, wherein there are both Celestial (spirit bodies of the saints of old) and Terrestrial (natural bodies) as we are now, sharing the life of God and ministering to one another. Some of which you see as 'angels' in dreams etc.

And so we read "But You have come to mount Zion, to the CITY OF THE LIVING GOD, THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM. You have come to thousands of angels gathered with joy. You have come to meeting of God's firstborn children whose name are written in heaven You have come to God, the Judge of all people, and to the spirits of good people who have been made perfect (the resurrected saints of old) You have come to Jesus, the one who brought the new agreement from God to His people, andYou have come to the sprinkled blood that has a better message than the blood of Abel " Heb 12:22-24

NCV. Now, can you imagine those you arc sharing fellowship with as a child of God? (1) God himself, (2) thousands of angels (3) meeting of God's firstborn children (4) the spirit of the redeemed. (5) Jesus Himself, Amen. Therefore the word says in Heb 13:1-3 "keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters (that is those you can see physically as one in the family of God). Remember to welcome strangers, because some who have done this have welcomed angels without knowing it (these arc those that take up a body and appear to our physical eyes from this sate spiritual realm of God's city called the heavenly Jerusalem as angels oil missions. see Heb 1:14. Some of which appear to Abraham (Gen 18:1-8) and Lot

 (Gen 19:1-3). Remember those who are in prison as if you were in prison with them. Remember those who are suffering as if you were suffering with them" who are these? what prisons are they? Friends, these are the saints of old, the heroes of faith of Heb 11, who could not come to perfection in God in the flesh. Firstly, they could not attain to God's perfection because then tile blood of Jesus that inaugurated the city of God had not been poured out, and the blood of bulls of sacrifice in their days cannot make one perfect as touching the conscience Heb 9:9. People like Solomon who could not be satisfied with one wife, but will rather choose to have a thousand women in order to satisfy his "Lust of the flesh" and even his father David who must even kill to have another man's wife, satisfying "the lust of the eyes" certainly needs our love and assistance as we minister love to them in the spirit through the body of Christ. For they ought to be in spiritual bondage to the flesh realm prison. Just like those who died, not believing, in the days of Noah 1 Pet 3:18-20, 4:1-6. This is why we read "All these people are known for their faith ,but none of them RECEIVED what God had promised. God planned to give us something better so that they would be made perfect, but only together with us. since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from the grandstands (in order to get perfected through our exemplary Christian life). Let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back, and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up "Heb. It: 39-40,12:1 NCV,TLB. Now you can see why the angel who communicated the context of the book of 'Revelation' to John refused that John should worship him, because lie (the angel ) was a 'FELLOW' and once a prophet "You must not do that " I am (only ) a fcllow servant along with yourself and of your brethren the prophets, "Rev. 22 :8,9 AMP. what does that mean? it simply means we are all sharing the same fellowship even as ministering servants in the body of Christ, who was once a prophet, now ministering in the spirit. And this is only possible because the life of Christ was in them before they dropped the flesh. People of God, this is the portion of those who 'slept in Jesus', the hope of which Paul was presenting to the brethren in I Thess. 4:13-14.

 

TOPIC: OUR RESURRECTION HOPE IS NOT 'RAPTURE'   

UNDERSTANDING THE TERM "DISEMBODIED SPIRIT" OR "TO BE FOUND NAKED"

 Already we have seen that there is a resurrection for every soul that drops the flesh in death and that no single soul is in the cemetery. Again that there can only be ascension into the presence of the Lord God or resurrection into confinement of a hellish realm. Please compare the illustration of Lazarus and the rich man in Lk 16:19-31. The word says "And it came to pass, that the bear died, and WAS CARRIED BY THE ANGELS INTO ABRAHAM'S BOSOM; the rich man also died, and was buried; AND IN HELL (hades realm of the departed spirit) he lifted up his eyes being in torments.." Lk 16:22- 23. They both had a resurrection which is the state for every man, but into different locations of spiritual existence. There was no waiting till some days by the word of God. The question now is, with what bodies were they existing in these realms?. Who is a disembodied spirit?, and what does it mean to be disembodied?. And so we read "For I know if this earthly tent in which I live is taken down, 1 have a building in heaven which comes from God, a house not built by human hands but eternal. For in this one I am sighing, because I long to put on, LIKE, A ROBE, MY HEAVENLY BODY, my future home and if l do put it on, 1 shall not find myself to be disembodied. For 1 who am still in my tent am beneath my burdens, because I do not want it to be put off, but to put on the other over it, so that my dying body maybe absorbed in life (immortality). Now it is God Himself who has put the finishing touches on me the Spirit as the first installment of future bliss" 2 Cor. 5: I-5 . Williams ".... for in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven; if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked, ...." KJV. ".... For we know that when this tent we live in now is taken down... when we die and leave these bodies... We will have wonderful new bodies .... that is why we look forward eagerly to the day when we shall have HEAVENLY BODIES, which we shall put on like new clothes .... we wouldn't like to think of dying and having no bodies at all .... for we shall not be merely spirits without bodies ...." tlb 

FACTS FROM THE ABOVE QUOTED VERSE OF SCRIPTURE.

 While dropping our physical body in death is not God's mind and will for us, there is the very possibility of our putting on a new body clothing, without literally dying (just like Enoch did not die but was translated. Gen. 5:22-24, Heb11;5) The new body we receive (put on) whether while alive or in the spirit realm is OUR HOUSE FROM HEAVEN, which is the plan of God for us and that is what we also lost in Adam, through the introduction of sin. Meaning when we receive this new body of heaven , whether alive now or in the spirit realm, then we are not "FOUND NAKED" or "DISEMBODIED" or MERE SPIRIT WITHOUT BODIES". Conclusively then, to be "NAKED" or "DISEMBODIED" is to be found without the body of Glory. Not necessarily that such a spirit is just floating without a body to exist in. For the illustration of Lazarus and the rich man quoted above shows that they must both have existed in different bodies because of the different realms they found themselves, for "... God giveth it (every seed) a body as it hath pleased Him, and TO EVERY SEED HIS OWN BODY "1 Cor 15:38. Understand that man's soul (his personality) is designed to be covered with a body. Therefore the body is the house of man, hence man is spirit, soul and body. I The. 5:23. So you see, Moses and Elijah are not `naked' or `disembodied spirits', that is why they could appear unto the apostles of Jesus talking with Him (Mathl7:3) It is in the body of glory the house from heaven, that they appeared with. 

Jesus appearance to the disciples was with a body of glory (Lk 24:36‑39) Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive and with the body of glory house from Heaven.Mk 12:26-27. Even the saints of old, (Heb. 12:23) are with bodies of glory.

 Now observe this, when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, we are told they became `NAKED' Gen 3:6‑7. The children of Israel were NAKED. ".... For Aaron had made them NAKED unto their shame among their enemies (Ex. 32:25) for worshipping a golden calf. What are we seeing here? They lost the presence of God which is His covering (lsa. 4:5- 6) and so they became vulnerable to destructive forces.