The Rapture The Greatest Demonstration of Sheer Holy Ghost Power Part 2
The Holy Spirit fulfills this office of all life and resurrection as the Spirit of Jesus Christ. All the glory is given to Christ when the Scripture says, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” (St. John 1: 4-5)
The glory goes to our Lord Jesus Christ who by His Spirit gives physical life to all creation, even the unsaved. “ . . . For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45) Thank God that He not only gives us natural life and a natural world where His evidence is everywhere, but to the souls that surrender to His saving blood, He gives much, much more. It is impossible to be “born again” without the convicting office of the Holy Ghost and His renewing and sealing of our hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. His Spirit renews our spirit and we are quickened to life in His likeness. We become “new creatures.” “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (II Corinthians 5:17)
The Rapture and the Resurrection
No wonder the Holy Ghost is called “the Seven Spirits of God.” Just as in the trinity we do not dare speak of three different Gods, so in the person of the Holy Ghost we do not speak of seven separate and different Spirits. The Holy Ghost is one, but His expressions and offices are set forth in the completed expression of “seven.” He is the Spirit of Life and was active with Jesus Christ in His resurrection. He is to us the Spirit of Life and there is no resurrection without His anointed powers. Jesus Christ could not be held in death because there was no sin to grant powers of death to His enemy, Satan. If His resurrection was aided by the Holy Ghost even though He was without sin, ours is totally dependant upon the Holy Ghost because of the death which works in our sin nature. But our Lord by His blood has defeated death as our substitute and if we are cleansed by that blood then death has lost its sway. “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24-25a)
Our resurrection and rapture is guaranteed by His New Testament covenant with us. To the Corinthians He said, “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.” (II Corinthians 5:4-5) The Holy Ghost anointing upon our life is our “insurance policy” or “earnest” (guarantee). Multitudes of empty church people are going to be miserably disappointed after the rapture. You have no assurance of this glorious hope of the rapture if you have no fire of the Holy Ghost in your soul. His living and anointed presence working in your life is your certainty of readiness. It is not an experience we need but a total surrender to His will and leading. Our song must become, “Where He leads me, I will follow.”
The Sheer Display of Holy Ghost Power
No one can possibly doubt the supernatural power of the Holy Ghost. The Bible is a catalog of incredible acts of Divine intervention, expression, and creation. From the parting of the Red Sea, where a host of tens of thousands of escaping Hebrews fled before the Pharaoh’s army, to the event of three Hebrew boys that were unscathed by a fiery furnace, miracles are the common facts. Elijah was supernaturally transported from earth to Heaven, Lazarus was called out of a tomb after his body was already decaying, and Blind Bartimaeus received his sight by a simple command. All of these miracles and a multitude more fill the pages of God’s Holy Bible. The Spirit of God was the Father’s and the Son’s manifestation of the Godhead’s every supernatural act.
This future resurrection and rapture will be the church’s grand finale of supernatural intervention. Nothing since creation comes close to revealing so much power in one moment of time. Every grave of every dead saint from all history [except Enoch, Elijah, Moses, and the saints that arose at His resurrection (Matthew 27:51-53)] will be opened as a testimony to his or her escape. Their dead bodies will be changed from the dust of death and in some cases gathered from seas or the winds to become glorified specimens of eternal lives. Millions of living saints will step out of their suits and dresses into transformed specimens of the same eternal glory.
There is no such thing as a secret rapture. There is no way such a display of Holy Ghost power can escape the attention of this world. Thousands of cars in the developed world or riding carts in the undeveloped world will suddenly be missing their drivers. Telephone lines will be jammed with frantic calls from hysterical husbands, wives, parents, children, etc. to make missing person reports. Big name politicians, who discover that their old grandmother that begged them to serve Jesus has disappeared, will drop to the floor of some government chamber unable to stand. The news will suddenly be filled with liberal ministers explaining the disappearance with deceiving words to cover their broken theology. The world will never be the same after that day. There will be millions that repent and prepare that day for what they missed.
The Holy Spirit fulfills this office of all life and resurrection as the Spirit of Jesus Christ. All the glory is given to Christ when the Scripture says, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” (St. John 1: 4-5)
The glory goes to our Lord Jesus Christ who by His Spirit gives physical life to all creation, even the unsaved. “ . . . For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45) Thank God that He not only gives us natural life and a natural world where His evidence is everywhere, but to the souls that surrender to His saving blood, He gives much, much more. It is impossible to be “born again” without the convicting office of the Holy Ghost and His renewing and sealing of our hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. His Spirit renews our spirit and we are quickened to life in His likeness. We become “new creatures.” “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (II Corinthians 5:17)
The Rapture and the Resurrection
No wonder the Holy Ghost is called “the Seven Spirits of God.” Just as in the trinity we do not dare speak of three different Gods, so in the person of the Holy Ghost we do not speak of seven separate and different Spirits. The Holy Ghost is one, but His expressions and offices are set forth in the completed expression of “seven.” He is the Spirit of Life and was active with Jesus Christ in His resurrection. He is to us the Spirit of Life and there is no resurrection without His anointed powers. Jesus Christ could not be held in death because there was no sin to grant powers of death to His enemy, Satan. If His resurrection was aided by the Holy Ghost even though He was without sin, ours is totally dependant upon the Holy Ghost because of the death which works in our sin nature. But our Lord by His blood has defeated death as our substitute and if we are cleansed by that blood then death has lost its sway. “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24-25a)
Our resurrection and rapture is guaranteed by His New Testament covenant with us. To the Corinthians He said, “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.” (II Corinthians 5:4-5) The Holy Ghost anointing upon our life is our “insurance policy” or “earnest” (guarantee). Multitudes of empty church people are going to be miserably disappointed after the rapture. You have no assurance of this glorious hope of the rapture if you have no fire of the Holy Ghost in your soul. His living and anointed presence working in your life is your certainty of readiness. It is not an experience we need but a total surrender to His will and leading. Our song must become, “Where He leads me, I will follow.”
The Sheer Display of Holy Ghost Power
No one can possibly doubt the supernatural power of the Holy Ghost. The Bible is a catalog of incredible acts of Divine intervention, expression, and creation. From the parting of the Red Sea, where a host of tens of thousands of escaping Hebrews fled before the Pharaoh’s army, to the event of three Hebrew boys that were unscathed by a fiery furnace, miracles are the common facts. Elijah was supernaturally transported from earth to Heaven, Lazarus was called out of a tomb after his body was already decaying, and Blind Bartimaeus received his sight by a simple command. All of these miracles and a multitude more fill the pages of God’s Holy Bible. The Spirit of God was the Father’s and the Son’s manifestation of the Godhead’s every supernatural act.
This future resurrection and rapture will be the church’s grand finale of supernatural intervention. Nothing since creation comes close to revealing so much power in one moment of time. Every grave of every dead saint from all history [except Enoch, Elijah, Moses, and the saints that arose at His resurrection (Matthew 27:51-53)] will be opened as a testimony to his or her escape. Their dead bodies will be changed from the dust of death and in some cases gathered from seas or the winds to become glorified specimens of eternal lives. Millions of living saints will step out of their suits and dresses into transformed specimens of the same eternal glory.
There is no such thing as a secret rapture. There is no way such a display of Holy Ghost power can escape the attention of this world. Thousands of cars in the developed world or riding carts in the undeveloped world will suddenly be missing their drivers. Telephone lines will be jammed with frantic calls from hysterical husbands, wives, parents, children, etc. to make missing person reports. Big name politicians, who discover that their old grandmother that begged them to serve Jesus has disappeared, will drop to the floor of some government chamber unable to stand. The news will suddenly be filled with liberal ministers explaining the disappearance with deceiving words to cover their broken theology. The world will never be the same after that day. There will be millions that repent and prepare that day for what they missed.
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