THE RAPTURE

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,with the voice of an archangel,and with the trumpet of God.And the dead in Christ will rise first.Then we who alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.And thus we shall always be with the Lord" (I Thes 4:16-17-NKJ)

In my previous posting,I've mentioned that we are living in the spiritual waiting time frame period called the rapture.Let us examine what the Bible say about this significance end time event.First of all,let me share with you the very word of Jesus prior to His departure and death on the cross.Jesus said
"Let not your heart be troubled;you believe in God,believe also in Me.In My Father's house are many mansions;if it were not so,I would have told you.I go to prepare a place for you.I will come again and receive you to Myself;that where I am,there you may be also"(John 14:1-3)

Jesus mentioned that one of His divine purpose to go back to heaven is to prepare a place for every believer.Yet He also promises to come back again and to receive His disciples unto Himself.Notice carefully how the apostle Paul elaborate this event when he said that "the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout...".The Lord Jesus Christ will physically come down from heaven and together with God's angels,He will be standing in the mid-air waiting for all the saints to come and meet Him in the air.His powerful commanding voice will bring life to the dead in Christ to rise up from the ground and together with the living ones,they will be caught up by the power of the Holy Spirit to meet the Lord in the air.


This is the first phase of His second coming i.e.to come and to "Rapture" the saints of God from this earth(Rev 4:1).The second phase of His second coming again will be the so called "Glorious appearing"(Rev 19:11-21)whereby He together with the saints will come down to earth to face the battle or Armageddon(Rev 19:17-19) just after the seven years tribulation period have ended.Let me stress seriously that only those who are Spirit filled,God's fearing believers who live a holy life will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.On the other hand,the lukewarm christian,those worldly carnal christian,those who compromise their lifestyle between with the work of the flesh shall be left behind and will go through the seven years tribulation period.

The greek word for "Caught up" is "harpagesometha"is "being snatched from"and this is the same synonymous word that was use to describe how Philip the evangelist was "Caught away"by the Spirit of the Lord after he successfully ministered and baptized a gentile Ethiopian Eunuch.In Acts 8 :39 says "Now when they came up out of the water,the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away,so that the eunuch saw him no more...".Notice the word "caught Philip away".In the greek translation it is "herpasen"which also means "Snatch away".
I was drawn by Holy Spirit to see how Philip was so obedient to His Voice,how sensitive he was to His leading and that it was the Holy Spirit's anointing power that causes Philip to be raptured/snatch/caught away.



The same thing with the apostle John.John look up a saw a door standing open in heaven and then he heard the Lord's voice calling unto him "Come up here,and I will show you things which must shortly take place after this" (Rev 4:1).what happen to John next was that he said"Immediately I was in the Spirit;and behold a throne set in heaven and One sat on the throne"(Rev 4:2).The word "I was in the Spirit"in the greek translation is "egenomen"or "came to be".When we are filled with the Holy Spirit,we are so full of His presence that we become totally under the control of His will and power.The apostle John was totally under the control of the Holy Spirit and just like Philip,suddenly he was snatch away,raptured or caught up by the Spirit to heaven.I'm therefore convinced in my heart that only a Spirit filled believer who live a life of absolute obedience to God and live a sanctified life will be raptured by the Lord Jesus to meet Him in the air.Woe unto those christian who are left behind!

When all Spirit filled believers are caught up to heaven,the seven years of great tribulation will occur on earth.I will narrate the details of such important prophetic events that will occur during these seven years period in my next posting.In a nutshell,during the seven years tribulation period
1.The seven seal of Judgments will be revealed (Rev 6:1-17)
2.The seven Trumpet Judgements will be pour out (Rev 8:1-9:21)
3.The seven Bowl Judgments shall be revealed (Rev 16:1-21)
Just as what I've mentioned before,the rapture of the saints will triggers a host of prophetic events that are prophesied in the Book of Revelation.Let us all be wacthfull and have a repentance of heart,living in obedience to God's commandments, for blessed are those who are pure in heart,for shall see God!(Matt 5:8)