TEEN TREE OF LIFE
Receiving A Glimpse Of
The Resurrection Life Before We Die
Part 2
November 10, 2019

Before you begin, ask yourself a very important question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins? If you answered yes, you will need to be sure that you are filled with The Holy Spirit. How do you do this? You name your sins to God The Father in His Son’s Name. This is called rebound. As a Christian, you must rebound any time you sin. This is taught in 1JOHN 1:9: If we confess [name] our sins [directly to God], He [God] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if you have never believed that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins, all you have to do is say to yourself that you believe in Him and you are saved! The Bible verse which teaches us this is ACTS 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”

At this moment in time, we’re living in what is called the Church-Age. The Church-Age began with The Baptism of The Holy Spirit, which is one of His Seven Salvation Ministries. At the moment of Salvation, the Church-Age believer is entered into union with Christ by means of The Holy Spirit’s Omnipotence, making him or her a part of the Royal Family of God forever. This process is called The Baptism of The Holy Spirit.

Our Lord prophesied The Baptism of The Holy Spirit in the Upper Room Discourse just before He ascended into Heaven. We learn this in ACTS 1:1-5 (The Message Bible) Dear Theophilus, in the first volume of this book I wrote on everything that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he said good-bye to the apostles, the ones he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. After his death, he presented himself alive to them in many different settings over a period of forty days. In face-to-face meetings, he talked to them about things concerning the kingdom of God. As they met and ate meals together, he told them that they were on no account to leave Jerusalem but “must wait for what the Father promised: the promise you heard from me. John baptized in water; you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And soon.”

The Church-Age ends with what is called the Rapture of the Church. This is when Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comes back in the clouds of the air to take His Church (His Bride) out of the world to be with Him forever. Anyone who dies during the Church-Age (before the Rapture) is first going to have an interim body in Heaven and will keep it, until the Resurrection of the Church (the Rapture) occurs. The apostle Paul describes what’s going to happen at the Rapture in 1CO 15:51-55 (The Message Bible): But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand. We’re not all going to die—but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes—it’s over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal.

The Rapture could occur at any time. Only God knows the exact day and the hour. The Resurrection of the Church, like our physical deaths, is completely out of our control. Just as we have no control over the time and manner of our death, we have no control over the time and manner of the Rapture. 1TH 4:16-17 also describes the Rapture: For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

At the Rapture, all Church members (both dead and alive) will receive their resurrected bodies in place of their interim bodies. This is one of the perks of being part of the Royal Family of God! In fact, one of our many privileges includes having a resurrected body ahead of any person from the Old Testament who is born-again. As members of the Church-Age, we’ll actually be first in line to receive our resurrected bodies – in line right after The Lord Jesus Christ! How’s that for an honor??

All members of the human race will be resurrected. Believers will be resurrected in an incorruptible body and will spend Eternity in Heaven with God. Unbelievers will be resurrected in a human body; but they will spend eternity in the lake of fire. This is taught in REV 20:11-15 (The Message Bible): I saw a Great White Throne and the One Enthroned. Nothing could stand before or against the Presence, nothing in Heaven, nothing on earth. And then I saw all the dead, great and small, standing there—before the Throne! And books were opened. Then another book was opened: the Book of Life. The dead were judged by what was written in the books, by the way they had lived. Sea released its dead, Death and Hell turned in their dead. Each man and woman was judged by the way he or she had lived. Then Death and Hell were hurled into Lake Fire. This is the second death—Lake Fire. Anyone whose name was not found inscribed in the Book of Life was hurled into Lake Fire.

So, the process of the Resurrection Life – before the Rapture occurs – is this: first, we change over from the physical body to the interim body; then finally we change over to the resurrection body. If the Rapture takes place before our physical deaths, we immediately get our resurrected body.

What happens next is taught in 2CO 5:10: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. This is the beginning of the final handing out of Divine blessings given to the believer in his or her resurrection body. It’s important to note here that “good” in this verse is the Greek word agathos. It refers to Christian service or deeds performed by the believer who is filled with The Holy Spirit, directed by the truth of The Word of God, and motivated by love for Him. Only these deeds are accepted by God and rewarded at the Judgment seat of Christ. Anything else accomplished apart from the Filling of The Holy Spirit and The Word of God, is considered human good, performed under human power and it’s evil and worthless to God.

Human good must never be confused with morality or the legitimate production of the believer, known as Divine good (agathos). Human good is what the believer produces in the cosmic system and it’s not valid in God's eyes. People often give or do so-called good things because of wrong motivation. All human good will be burned up at the judgment seat of Christ: …each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. (1CO 3:13)

A very interesting fact about the Resurrection life is that, although we’ll each have a resurrection body like Christ’s, not all resurrection bodies will look alike. There are different types of resurrection bodies, depending on your success or failure in the Christian life and your attitude toward Bible doctrine.

Some believers will receive The Crown of Righteousness at the Judgment Seat of Christ. It will be awarded to the Church-Age believers who fulfill the Pre-Designed Plan of God by advancing to spiritual maturity. The believer who wears the invisible Uniform of Honor will receive The Crown of Righteousness. The invisible Uniform of Honor is described in EPH 6:11-17: Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
{to be continued}