Spiritual Strength For Each Day
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).
It must be absolutely clear to us that only those who inwardly accept the dying and the resurrection of Jesus Christ will appear with Him in the clouds. The Rapture, which proceeds from the risen Lord, is an ignoring of death. In other words, when the risen Lord appears in the clouds of heaven, His victory over death will be revealed immediately. Where are our departed loved ones? The moment a child of God is called to be with the Lord—and this only applies to those who are born again—the spirit and soul are in the presence of the Lord, but the body must wait for the resurrection, to receive a glorified body. At that moment, the marriage of the Lamb has not yet taken place. Therefore, the child of God who has died will be first at the Rapture, “…The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). The dead in Christ will receive their glorious bodies first. However, their spirit-soul is with the Lord, and they are unspeakably blessed. Paul reveals his desire “rather to be absent from the body” (2 Corinthians 5:8). At the Rapture, we all will receive a body that is like His glorious body.
