My question about dying starts with what is living? We must come to grips with the inevitable event of earthly death. Famous pastor John Wesley summed up the faith of the early Methodists with four simple words, “Our people die well.”
When our Abba Father Adam created Adam, he breathed life, our spirit, into him. That created the soul, our life awareness element, and our spirit receiver in our GCS. That gives us an awareness of being a conscious life. That still happens today when we are born. We exit the womb and start breathing with the breath of life from the Holy Spirit. Job 33:4, “The Spirit of God hath made me, And the breath of the Almighty giveth me life.“Isaiah 42:5, “Thus saith God Yahweh . . . he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein.“
When a baby is born, the Holy Spirit delivers the breath and spirit of life to us, which is eternal. When we receive Christ, the Holy Spirit connects with our GCS; Jesus comes into us and connects us to our Abba Father, all in the spirit form. Why would that stop when the material body dies? Nothing in the Scripture points to that happening.
Remember the words of Jesus to the thief on the cross, Luke 23:43, “And he said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” That is a straightforward statement: at the moment of death, our life awareness element, our spirit, disconnects from our earthly body and is already in the spirit realm with Jesus, referred to as “paradise.”
How could the thief be “that very day” in paradise if his life awareness element, his spirit, went to sleep when he died? At the moment of death, the believer’s spirit passes immediately into the personal presence of Jesus Christ.
Acts 7:59, “And they stoned Stephen, calling upon the Lord, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Philippians 1:23, “But I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better.” 2 Corinthians 5:8, “we are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.”
Those are the words of a man who knew that the afterlife would begin at the moment of their death. They were looking forward to the personal presence of Jesus Christ. I pray that all believers at least have that knowledge in common.
In sharing the love, John 11:25-26, “Jesus said unto her (Martha), I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die. Believest thou this?” Do you believe that?” Martha said to him in person, she believed.
It seems like hiding from thoughts of dying is used as a false test of one’s faith, as if whistling passed the graveyard is the ultimate in faith. It is not because it misses why our Abba Father created us the way he did. Avoiding what happens when we die anchors us to our mortal earthly life more than any other element of weak faith. So let us open our eyes.
The Scripture classifies our Abba Father’s children into two broad categories, the redeemed and the lost. The redeemed are those who have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The lost are those who have not received Christ. John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.“
What happens to the redeemed is radically different from what happens to the lost, but I offer that simply wanting to avoid the fiery pit is not enough to get you into heaven. 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
So how do we get “the God of peace himself to sanctify us completely . . .?” We can’t. That was Adam and Eve’s mistake. They wanted to be their own god at the suggestion of the enemy, the beginning of ELB. Our only hope is to receive the sacrifice of Jesus.
Too many believers just put the gift of eternal life on the mantle, look at it in ELB, and continue in their ELB life. And they miss so much; it breaks my heart. Please understand what Jesus’ sacrifice was for, our adoption into the Family with an inheritance of wonders.
My mom worked very hard and sacrificed for me to have a better life. I did not deserve it, but no matter what I messed up, she kept encouraging me to keep trying. Deep down inside, I even resented the pressure a little bit. But one day, I realized all she had done for me, and it was a fantastic feeling. I was so grateful for her and blessed and felt close to her.
That testimony is an earthly version of our planned relationship with our Abba Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus sacrificed for me, provided for me, and led me into his Family. And I received with all my heart what he did for me. With that acceptance and gratitude, he adopted and redeemed me. And I see his magnificence every day.
But that is not the whole story. 1 Thessalonians 4:14 says, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” Here we have both sides of the truth. Believers who die are with Jesus in his conscious presence, and the body sleeps in the grave.
With Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we move from the land of the dying to the land of the living. Here are some of the images the Scripture uses for the death of a believer: going to sleep and waking up in heaven, moving from a tent to a mansion, walking from the darkness into a well-lit room, coming home to see your family and friends, being set free from prison, taking a long journey to a new land, riding a chariot to the New Jerusalem, moving into a brand-new home, and opening a gate to a brand-new world.
Believers have always faced death with confidence. The word cemetery comes from a Greek word meaning “sleeping-place,” which refers to their confidence in the promise of the resurrection. As he lay dying, D. L. Moody proclaimed, “Earth recedes, Heaven opens before me.” Catherine Booth, the wife of the founder of the Salvation Army, cried out, “The waters are rising, but I am not sinking.” And George MacDonald, the English novelist, said, “I came from God, and I’m going back to God, and I won’t have any gaps of death in the middle of my life.”
Eternal Body
Our next look sends chills down my spine, which is why it is so limiting to omit this subject from our faith. 1 Corinthians 15:44, “it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” Philippians 3:21 says, “who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself . . .”
Jesus’ resurrected body is not his flesh and blood earthly body. It is the new eternal body, a spirit body, but still a body with form and substance. His disciples could not tell the difference but remember that body ascended directly to heaven. Let us continue with Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:46-48 NKJV, “If there is a natural body, there is also a spirit body. So it is written: “The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.” So whatever Jesus’ body was after resurrection, that is what we get, and we will be fit for the eternal life in the presence of our Abba Father in the afterlife.
With the Lord forever
Once our new bodies are in place, we will be with the LORD forever. Wherever he is, we will be, rejoicing, praising, singing, and celebrating throughout eternity. 1 Thessalonians 4:17 says, “We will be with the Lord forever.”
Speaking of his return, Jesus said in John 14:2-3, “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.“
Now for the last piece of the puzzle – the reunion of our life awareness and new spirit-type body. Paul’s description of that great reunion of body and soul is in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”
Here is a clear promise of future bodily resurrection for the believer, but into a new type of body designed for eternity. 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 adds the crucial fact that our bodies will be “raised imperishable,” with a body that is perfect in every way, free from the vestiges of death and decay. 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 NKJV, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
