Subject: Preparing For Rapture

Brothers and sisters I hope this will help and encourage you all in your daily walk with our Lord.



PREPARING FOR RAPTURE 3/31/11

Brothers and Sisters I am pressed in my spirit to get this written for the time is at hand and we cannot waste even one second of the precious time the Lord is giving us to prepare for rapture. Look around at what is taking place in the world today, you know that we are getting close to the Lords return. Israel is surrounded on all sides, no one in the world is standing with them. This is what the Lord told us would be taking place just before His return. We are about to see Ez 38-39 come to pass right before our eyes. The anti-christ is about to come on the world stage. We are drawing ever closer to the hour of trial that is to come upon the whole world. Remember what the Lord has spoken to us in His word; He has given us a promise with a condition. In Revelation 3:10 He tells us that if we keep His word of His endurance He will keep us even from the hour of trial that is about to come on all the earth. There is no need for me to cover any of the other things going on in the world today for I am sure that you already see them for yourselves. So I will get to what the Lord has been speaking to me. As Christians what should we be doing? In the Old Testament we have two examples we need to look at. First, we all need to have an Enoch moment. We don’t know exactly what kind of life Enoch lived before he was 65years old but we do know from Gen.5: 21,24 that after the birth of his son Methuselah in his 65th year that his life underwent a drastic change. After the birth of Methuselah Enoch walked with God for 300 years. What happen to Enoch? Possibly it was that he received a revelation at the time of his son’s birth. Enoch lived a total of 365 years, during the last 300 he walked with God. So the birth of his son must have had a deep effect on him. If we carefully study the scriptures and compute the years Methuselah lived we find that Methuselah died the year the flood began. Methuselah’s name means, “when he dies judgment comes.” Could this be what changed Enoch and caused him to walk with God? Could this be the Enoch moment we all need to have? The scripture says that after Methuselah’s birth that Enoch walked with God for 300 years and that before he was taken he had the testimony that he was well pleasing to God. The writer of Hebrews in 11:5 says, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him: for he hath witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing unto God.” Notice that the writer of Hebrews says, “by faith.” In what had Enoch been well pleasing to God? It was in his walk, he walked with God for 300 years. By walking with God he pleased God. And by faith he was taken by Him. We all must so walk till we too receive the witness that we are well pleasing to God. And then by faith we too shall be raptured. Every believer will eventually be raptured but the first will be overcoming believers. Only those who are ready and waiting for the Lord will be raptured first. Have you ever asked the Lord to deliver you from the great tribulation which is coming upon the whole earth? Jesus in Luke 21:36 urged His disciples to do so. He told them to watch and pray that they might be counted worthy to escape the things coming upon the earth and to stand before the Son of Man. Many take this word to mean that those who watch and pray God will deliver from the coming great tribulation. But this is actually a call to specific prayer; namely, that we should watch and pray at all times that God would deliver us from the great tribulation that is coming. May God be gracious to us that we could walk daily with Him as Enoch did. If Enoch could do it there is no reason why we can’t do it also. If you do not believe, you will not be raptured. You must believe you will be raptured, otherwise you will not be raptured. May God give us the faith to be raptured, an Enoch moment!

Now let us talk of how we should walk. In 2 Kings 2:1-14 we read of Elijah and Elisha. In this passage of scripture we read of four stages in a particular journey; it starts at Gilgal, proceeded onward to Bethel then went to Jericho and finally crossed over the Jordan River. At the time when Elijah was going to be taken up to heaven and Elisha was going to receive a double portion of the Holy Spirit, these two men of God traveled on a pathway that connected these four locations. From this journey we can glean a very important spiritual lesson, that is, if we wish to be raptured to heaven as Elijah was or receive the Holy Spirit as a mantle as did Elisha, we must travel through the same four stages of life as typified by these four places. If we are looking forward to being raptured or receiving the power of the Holy Spirit we too must start on this journey at once. We must travel to Gilgal and keep going forward till we cross the Jordan River.

Stage 1 Gilgal: Dealing with the Flesh. In order to interpret the meaning of Gilgal, we must apply the principle of first mention. In Joshua 5:9 we learn the clearest, earliest reference to its meaning that Gilgal, as a place, means “rolled away.” From reading verses 2 through 9 we understand that the generation of the children of Israel who initially came out of Egypt were all circumcised but those born in the wilderness were not. Therefore before they could enter into Canaan they had to have the flesh rolled away, that is, they need to be circumcised. They needed to put off the reproach of Egypt that they might have a change towards a new life. The meaning of circumcision as revealed in the New Testament Col 2:11 is, “the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh.” Do we truly understand what the flesh is? Do we know what it means to deal with the flesh? Most Christians believe that victory over sin is the hallmark of perfection. Yet they don’t understand that there is the flesh which sins. According to the scripture, God condemns the flesh. It is something with which God is totally displeased. What is the flesh? The flesh is everything we have through our natural birth! “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” John 3:6. Whatever we have by birth is of the flesh; that includes not only sin and uncleanness but also natural goodness, ability, zeal, wisdom and power. This is a most difficult lesson for believers to learn, that is, to know his own flesh. As Christians we must be brought through all kinds of failures and deprivations before we can know what our flesh is. What hinders believers most in progressing in spiritual life and work is his flesh. He is not aware that God is calling him to deny his entire flesh, not just the sin but also the good. He thinks that forsaking sins is good enough. He doesn’t realize that God is equally displeased with his goodness as with his sin. We must deny both the goodness and the sins of the flesh for all flesh is displeasing to God. God has no use for anything we do in our flesh, He will not accept it at all. Now in Joshua’s time, Gilgal was the precise place where the physical flesh was cut off and judged. And today for every believer, in type, it is the place where the flesh must be judged by the light God gives us. God says that the flesh must be put off, let us agree with Him and say Amen. He declares it must be circumcised; let us therefore be circumcised in heart. In preparing for rapture we must all start at Gilgal and deny the flesh. According to personal experience with the Lord, the highest expression of spiritual life is not regeneration, sanctification, perfection, victory over sin, or power. It is instead the denying of the flesh, this is both the aim and the way of true spiritual life. If you have not started your journey from Gilgal you have never really started your spiritual journey. Those who do not learn to deny their flesh do not know what true spiritual life is. Such persons may be zealous in good works and may be quite happy doing them, but they have no concept of real spiritual life.

Stage 2 Bethel: Dealing with the World. From Gilgal we move on to Bethel. What is the meaning of this place called Bethel? To find out we again must discover where it is first mentioned in scripture then we can understand its meaning for us today. Please read Gen. 12:8. Bethel was where Abraham built an alter. An alter is a place for communication with God, a place to offer sacrifices to God, and of being wholly given to Him. Genesis 12:9-14 records Abraham’s going down into Egypt. There he built no alter; his communication with God was broken, and his heart of consecration was set aside. This shows the difference between Bethel and Egypt. Bethel therefore signifies all that is contrary to whatever Egypt stands for. What Genesis 13:3, 4 records is very meaningful, “ And he went on his journey from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, unto the place of the alter, which he had made at the first: and there Abram called on the name of Jehovah.” Abraham had no fellowship with God in Egypt. It did not return until he went back to where he had built the alter Bethel and there he once again called on the name of the Lord. It is only at Bethel people can commune with God and give themselves to Him. So Gilgal speaks of overcoming the flesh and Bethel speaks of overcoming the world because in the scriptures Egypt represents the world. Overcoming the world is a condition for rapture and for receiving the power of the Holy Spirit. Our lives must reach a point where the world is not able to touch our heart. We need to ask ourselves how much are we really separated from the world? Do we express this separation in our daily living? Can the people we are around see a difference in the way we live or do we still express the world to them? If our heart has not completely overcome the world, if we still hold on to people, things and events of the world, we will not be able to reach our goal. A believer must pay the price in following the Lord if he expects to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to be raptured. We must forsake the world and learn to commune with God at the alter of consecration, this is imperative. It is estimated that between two and three million Israelites came out of Egypt, yet God did not allow a single one of them to have an alter in Egypt. For them to serve God at all they had to leave Egypt and travel for three days Ex. 8:25-27. In Egypt they could have the Passover because God had delivered them from the penalty of sin which is death; but for them to come under the name of the Lord and worship Him they had to leave Egypt. You cannot have communion, serve or even worship God if you are still living in the world.

Stage 3 Jericho: Dealing with Satan. The clearest reference concerning Jericho is found in the book of Joshua. There we can see the conquest of the city of Jericho. Joshua charged them with an oath at that time, saying, “Cursed be the man before Jehovah, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho,” Joshua 6:26. Thus Jericho means being cursed. These scriptures show us how the children of Israel overcame their enemies for the first
time in Canaan. The various people in Canaan, spiritually speaking, represent the evil spirits who belong to the devil. They can be likened to the spiritual hosts of wickedness in high places in Ephesians 6:12. These are the enemies that believers today must fight. Not only do we need to overcome the flesh and the world, we must also overcome the enemy. There is only one way to overcome him, that is, by believing in God’s word and acting accordingly. God has spoken, we believe it, that is enough. God has promised to give us every place that the sole of our feet shall tread, Joshua 1:3. Most Christians know only the battle between the spirit and the flesh; they do not know the conflict that goes on between believers and the evil spirits as shown in chapter six of Ephesians. This is the real spiritual battle that is fought between believers and Satan and the evil spirits. Every mature believer joins this battle, for evil spirits attacks the children of God on earth daily. These attacks sometimes occur in the believers thoughts, physical bodies, environment, emotions, and sometimes in their spirit. Especially in these last days the evil forces will double their efforts to keep believers from serving the Lord in a proper way by causing them to be distressed over many things. Too many times believers are not aware that evil spirits are attacking them. They can’t understand why everything seems to be against them, this causes them to be troubled and confused. They too often think that these things are just natural happenings; they fail to realize that they are under attack by evil spirits and are being supernaturally oppressed by them. In this last hour it is very important for believers to recognize their enemy and to know how to fight and overcome him. Even if we overcome the flesh and the world we still will not make much spiritual progress if we do not learn to fight and overcome the works of the enemy. The fall of Jericho could not be attributed to human strength at all but to (1) the word of God and (2) the position the children of Israel took. In order to overcome the attack of the enemy today we must (1) not be concerned with our outward circumstances or feelings we must believe in the word of God and His promises this will cause the enemy to flee. (2) We must stand in the heavenly position that Christ has given us by faith and by doing so we keep Satan and his evil spirits on the lower ground. If we do not believe the word of God and take the high ground God has given us by faith we cannot gain victory over the enemy.

Stage 4 The River Jordan: Dealing with Death. In the Bible the Jordan River points to the power of death so crossing the Jordan River is a type of overcoming death. This is rapture. This stage of the journey has a special relationship with the Lord Jesus because He was himself baptized in the Jordan River. His going down in the Jordan is a type of His death. His coming up out of the Jordan is a type of His resurrection. He overcame death through the power of resurrection. The greatest power Satan had was the power of death itself, 1 Cor. 15:26. It is as though the Lord was challenging Satan by saying, “Do what ever you want to me,” Hebrews 2:14. And Satan did his very best, he tried to put Jesus to total death but God has resurrection power, the Lord Jesus has life that cannot be touched or held by death. The Lord passed as it were through the Jordan River on dry ground and came out on the other side in resurrection life. Apart from the Lord’s resurrection there is no power that can overcome death. This is the very life we received when we were born again, the resurrection life of Christ. And the power of this resurrected life will sweep away all traces of death in the believer. Crossing the Red Sea and crossing the Jordan River are two very different experiences. Crossing the Red sea is an event that was forced upon the children of Israel by their circumstances. It was cross the Red Sea or be killed by the Egyptians, whereas, crossing the river Jordan was voluntary, a self chosen action. Some Christians today have crossed the Red Sea, that is, come out of the world to at least some degree but few have chosen to cross the river Jordan. Some refuse to cross, they have no desire to know the power of resurrection life, they are content to live a “good life” thinking that they are pleasing God when in reality they are walking in self deception. For Paul highly esteemed this power, and pursued it diligently, Phil. 3: 10-12. All believers have been resurrected with the Lord according to His word; nonetheless, most do not have any experience of the Lord’s resurrection life in their daily living. Therefore they have no victory over death. With the rapture being so near believers must strive to finally overcome the last enemy, death. We must overcome all forms of death, whether physical, mental, or spiritual. This world today is full of death it permeates the atmosphere. Some of the ones used by the Lord often suffer physically they become weak and ill. Others become paralyzed in their minds they can not think, remember or concentrate so they cannot stay alert. Furthermore the spirits of many believers appear to be surrounded in death, their spirit is inactive, and powerless so they cannot cope with their environment. We must in these days of preparing for rapture learn to cross the Jordan River that is to overcome death. We must learn to resist its power over our body as well as in our circumstances. We must prove the power of resurrection in all things in our lives. And testify more and more to the fact that our Lord Jesus has been raised from the dead and that we have been joined to Him in His resurrection! In order for us to receive the outpouring like Elisha and be raptured like Elijah we must all start our journey from Gilgal and travel forward till we reach and cross over the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit can only descend upon those that are full of resurrection life. Don’t think that just because we are saved that we will be raptured. God cannot rapture one who is not ready. So before there can be a rapture like Elijah’s we must go through the experiences of Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, and the Jordan River. May God be gracious to us that we would walk with Him day by day until we have the testimony that we are well pleasing to Him. God tells us in His word that we will be raptured; so let us go the way that He has chosen not our own way. Let us start at Gilgal and end on the other side of Jordan. If we go His way we will find at the end of this journey God will be there waiting for us.

He is coming!
Your brother in Christ
Pastor Harry