Why do we long for the Rapture?

**Longing2cJesus** · January-2nd-2010, 01:14 PM

Do you find yourself longing to be in your Heavenly home with Father God? Do you long for the return of Jesus for His Bride? I do and this from the Berean Call has helped me to better understand why I long for my Heavenly home and to be with my Lord and Saviour. I truly hope it will Bless you as you read it.

THE ABSENCE OF SIN

"Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Peter 3:13)

For thousands of years the followers of God have battled against "principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world" (Ephesians 6:12) led by Lucifer, that old serpent, the arch rebel and self-appointed accuser of the saints of God. Although assured of the ultimate victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, Christians have often suffered cruelly at the hands of Lucifer and his followers.

As Christians, the aching longing in our hearts for peace is really none other than the Holy Spirit, Himself, grieving at sin, and our own new, holy nature "groaning" to be free in its expression of the divine nature. It is the nature of the child of God to "hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matthew 5:6). It is the normal thing for one "raised" up and already seated "in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6) to long for the shackles of the "body of this death" (Romans 7:24) to be loosened. Under ordinary circumstances, our spiritual being--"the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24)--knows that we are "strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Hebrews 11:13). Such knowledge openly declares that we "desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city" (v. 16).

If we have lost sight of the place that Jesus has gone to prepare for us, we become both forlorn and despoiled. But if we treasure the great truth that we will spend eternity with our Lord in His "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," we are comforted and encouraged, recognizing that both sin and all its effects will be absent.

--Henry M Morris III

Praying that all my sisters and brothers in Christ will be encouraged and find comfort in the Blessed Hope we have before us when we will all dwell in righteousness and His prescence.

Blessings on you all in the New Year.
Ann

**mattfivefour** · January-2nd-2010, 02:15 PM

Dr, Henry Morris (his doctorate was in hydraulic engineering) was a learned engineering professor and Christian who was one of the 20th century's first young earth creationists. What he has written here—a short theological article—presents as accurate an explanation of the Christian's focus as I have ever read. With Jesus Christ as the beginning and the end of our salvation our hearts yearn for what Dr. Morris pictures before us. Thank you so much for posting this, Ann. It is good to be reminded of the Great Promise given us.

**Longing2cJesus** · January-2nd-2010, 02:35 PM

Adrian, thank you for the additional information on Dr. Henry Morris.

I think we sometimes tend to forget that we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, prompting us to long even more for a sinless home with our Father God.

Jesus is indeed the Alpha and Omega of all our heart's desires.

Continuing to keep my eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith and not on life's circumstances that surround me.

May you and Vicki and the family be Blessed of the Lord in this New Year.

**myinnuendo999** · January-2nd-2010, 06:11 PM

amen and thank you Ann and Matt.. This is indeed just a hotel and our real home is in heaven.. We are just passing through in tents

**mikalikat** · January-2nd-2010, 06:57 PM

Everyday I fall in love more with the HS--it's like our Northern compass. The clear direction it gives us, the yearning for Home it produces in us. It's like our tether to Him. He speaks to our hearts through the HS. He uses the HS to gently admonish us and bring us back to Him. How grateful I am that God loved me so much that He not only asked His Son to take my sins to the cross, but upon my salvation, gave me this spirit that holds my hand and heart until I can face my God. Never before have I felt so profoundly drawn to Home as I do at this point in time.

**anath** · January-3rd-2010, 06:04 PM

As Christians, the aching longing in our hearts for peace is really none other than the Holy Spirit, Himself, grieving at sin, and our own new, holy nature "groaning" to be free in its expression of the divine nature. It is the nature of the child of God to "hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matthew 5:6). It is the normal thing for one "raised" up and already seated "in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6) to long for the shackles of the "body of this death" (Romans 7:24) to be loosened. Under ordinary circumstances, our spiritual being--"the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24)--knows that we are "strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Hebrews 11:13). Such knowledge openly declares that we "desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city" (v. 16).

Oh my how this blessed my heart! I have never heard a better explanation for our longing hearts. Oh Praise God for the HS grieving and our own holy new nature groaning to be free. We are merely passing through. Come Lord Jesus!

**RonJohnSilver** · January-4th-2010, 01:01 PM

I agree with what's been said, but let me add some other thoughts that I ponder. I often think of heaven and what it will be like and I have my own , versions, I guess....lots of water, with hills and an occasional mountain to climb. Waves to surf in, grass that doesn't make me itch, lots of games to play (dibs on center field in baseball), all the ice cream I can eat, etc. However, in Psalms, David says that all he desires is God, and I think...really? Then I get stuck....because what is it like to be with God? I mean really.

I guess the best example I can come up with is, say you have worked your entire life, every day, no exceptions, ever,.. and as far as you know, everyone else has too...and then one day your boss says that you've earned a vacation....You think, well, o.k....what exactly is a vacation? Do you eat it? Play with it? What's it look like, how does it work...I guess what I'm saying is that it is hard to appreciate and anticipate something that you've never experienced. I look forward to the things I mentioned...baseball, ice cream, surfing...because I've done those...I know what that experience is like. But, being with Jesus? I just can't get my head around it.

Don't misunderstand me....I am a believer so I don't mean knowing Jesus in a salvation sense. I've already got that secured. Maybe I'm reading too much into things or wanting to know too many details. But I wonder. Being with Jesus? Hmmm......can I sit with my friends, including Jesus, and play cards? Of course, Jesus would know what we're all holding but I'm assuming that He'll play fair.

I heard a pastor say once that when we see Jesus, his glory and majesty will be such that we'll forget all about any earthly things. Maybe. Is any of this making sense? And what about relationships? The Bible has that verse about no marriage because we're like angels in heaven. O.K.....so, if there's no marriage...does that mean that there also are not the things that lead up to marriage?....no dating (for lack of a better word), no romance...really? I mean, I'm a romantic person...I enjoy dancing close and candlelight dinners and all of the things that people in love do. Is that not going to be there because it leads to marriage? C.S. Lewis made the statement once to view heaven as a 'feast, not a fast".

It was John MacArthur, I think, who said that we would be able to have relationships with any believer, to any level that we wished, at any time we wished. So, if I want a relationship that would, in earthly terms, lead to marriage....is that relationship somehow prevented? Is there some level of relationship that transcends marriage..an even stronger and more intimate bond? Are there such things as soul mates?.....a perfect spouse, kind of like Adam for Eve and vice versa. Is it possible to be in love? (Please don't say we'll be in love with Jesus....I understand what you mean, but practically, it opens up another can of issues).

Another minister speculated that we'll all be like brothers and sisters.....sorry, I enjoy my siblings, but for some, that relationship is wholly inadequate. I'm probably trying to mix earthly things with heavenly realties, but, like all of you, I want to know the details. I know...."...eye has not seen, nor can the mind conceive the things that God has prepared for those that love Him..." I guess it's like trying to run an extremely complex computer program on a TRS-80 computer(version 1.0). One just can't handle the other. Anyway, this is longer than I intended, but those are some of the questions that I think on......Pastor Steve Hadley made the observation that we tend to think of heaven as being our favorite things..on steroids. That's me I guess. Still though, I hope there's close dancing and holding hands and intimacy and affection and romance and baseball and cards and Mexican food and ice cream and surfing and mountain climbing and golf and airplanes and trains and white water rafting and, etc. etc. etc.

Finally, the big question....'..being with Jesus.' What exactly is that like? Am I alone in thinking on these things? RJ.

**mattfivefour** · January-4th-2010, 05:01 PM

Ron, all I can offer is this: it wil be far more abundantly, bountifully, capaciously, completely, greatly, lavishly, liberally, plenteously, plentifully, and profusely beyond any capability of our earthly minds to comprehend. I say this because in Heaven we will dwell IN love with the God who IS Love ... and Paul tells us that His love passes ALL understanding, ALL comprehension. In other words we just cannot understand it in any way. Moreover scripture says that on this earth God is able to give us beyond anything we can even hope for or even think of. How much more so in Heaven!

Our problem stems from the fact that we can only picture heaven in terms of what we know down here ... and in terms of the way we live and act and think down here. Up there, in another dimension, timeless and spaceless, we will enjoy an existence that we cannot now comprehend. Read the descriptions of heaven that men have attempted to record in the Bible. They cannot do it. They have given us glimpses that seem fantastic and bizarre to our minds, but I think that is because no man can truly accurately render that existence in terms that we in this existence can grasp ... anymore than most of us can grasp the work of quantum physicists and their string theory ... talking about 12 dimensions, dimensions where the laws of physics are changed dramatically or even reversed, where color is heard and sound seen, where time is space and space is time, where something can be andf not be, where the same object can be in two places at once, or two objects occupy the same space. If we cannot grasp some of the secrets of the universe that the world's most brilliant scientists are now discovering and struggling to understand—how can we ever hope to grasp what is to come in Heaven where the Creator Himself will bring us to where He Himself dwells?

The one thing we CAN grasp is that which the Bible plainly states: in Heaven we shall be WITH Him ... and LIKE Him.

**Longing2cJesus** · January-5th-2010, 12:45 AM

Originally Posted by mattfivefour

Ron, all I can offer is this: it wil be far more abundantly, bountifully, capaciously, completely, greatly, lavishly, liberally, plenteously, plentifully, and profusely beyond any capability of our earthly minds to comprehend. I say this because in Heaven we will dwell IN love with the God who IS Love ... and Paul tells us that His love passes ALL understanding, ALL comprehension. In other words we just cannot understand it in any way. Moreover scripture says that on this earth God is able to give us beyond anything we can even hope for or even think of. How much more so in Heaven!

Our problem stems from the fact that we can only picture heaven in terms of what we know down here ... and in terms of the way we live and act and think down here. Up there, in another dimension, timeless and spaceless, we will enjoy an existence that we cannot now comprehend. Read the descriptions of heaven that men have attempted to record in the Bible. They cannot do it. They have given us glimpses that seem fantastic and bizarre to our minds, but I think that is because no man can truly accurately render that existence in terms that we in this existence can grasp ... anymore than most of us can grasp the work of quantum physicists and their string theory ... talking about 12 dimensions, dimensions where the laws of physics are changed dramatically or even reversed, where color is heard and sound seen, where time is space and space is time, where something can be andf not be, where the same object can be in two places at once, or two objects occupy the same space. If we cannot grasp some of the secrets of the universe that the world's most brilliant scientists are now discovering and struggling to understand—how can we ever hope to grasp what is to come in Heaven where the Creator Himself will bring us to where He Himself dwells?

The one thing we CAN grasp is that which the Bible plainly states: in Heaven we shall be WITH Him ... and LIKE Him.

Isa 64:4 For since the beginning of the world [men] have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, [what] he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
1Cr 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

**Adopted Son** · January-5th-2010, 02:13 PM

Once we are reborn, and take on our intended nature, God's laws are part of our being. We naturally feel uncomfortable when folks not only break those laws, but often openly defy God in the process. This is such an awful thing to watch, it seems natural that we would look forward to "things being right" No sickness, envy, competition, etc. That's why I'm over-anxious.

**LivnForChrist** · January-5th-2010, 11:32 PM

No Ron, you're not alone. I think all of us have wondered the same things. I am a romantic
too so at first, it was hard to imagine heaven without a romantic relationship but I learn to
accept it over time. Like Adrian said, it will far more wonderful than we can imagine so I'm
content to just wonder and wait.

**MikeD** · January-6th-2010, 04:14 AM

As LivnForChrist stated, no RonJohnSilver, you're not alone in your thoughts. Many times, we all wonder, what will it be like? What I consider is what a close friend of mine shared once;

'imagine, if you can, being in a place where these is no anger, no evil thoughts, no selfishness, no rudeness, no need for "political correctness", no pestilence, no need for police nor military, no questioning of your salvation, no worries over - ANYTHING!"

These are thoughts we simply can not comprehend. Yet, to be in a place of pure perfection, we ourselves will be perfect, and present with the Creator of all things, lack nothing, and live in pure honest joy, as was said, such things are beyond our finite minds.

Mattfivefour said it perfectly as to our attempts to define Heaven "by what we know here". Obviously, it just doesn't work that way.

But, whatever way it DOES work, I sure am looking forward to it and am expecting it every day! Soon, I do pray, soon!!!

**mikalikat** · January-8th-2010, 12:26 PM

It is not possible for us to wrap our pea brains around what He has in store for us. And I do not mean that disrespectfully, but we cannot fully comprehend the mind of God and the realities of heaven until we get there. That said, I simply cannot wait. Fellowship, love, worship, friendship, peace, no more tears, disease, pain, hurt, longing....it will be more than we could ever hope for.

**Faith** · January-8th-2010, 04:54 PM

I guess I don't think much of what heaven will be because Christ will be ALL I will need...

I guess I think MORE of what I will be leaving here on earth...

Nothing to compare....

I know the answers is what Jesus did after He was ressurected....

He ate, walked through walls, and was in certain locations in an instant...

We will be like Him...

**MichaelF** · January-30th-2010, 07:42 AM

I long to be with Jesus forever, not the end of the world as we know it today.

Amos 5:18
Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.

**jesuschangesall** · January-30th-2010, 01:02 PM

I wanna go in the rapture now,actually yesterday:) why? because I wanna be with JESUS and all His wonderful people! and in a new body....all of us...Wow..can you imagine?
First of all to finally gaze on His wonderful face....to be with The Father,with Jesus,with The Holy Spirit and all the glorified saints of all ages!
It is mind blowing!It is abba-solutely amazing...To see JESUS to embrace Him,to hug HIM to be able to worship Him adore Him thank Him for the fact that HE did what He did for me a vile corrupted worm!and not only that but even giving me a new body,mind and .....I mean,camon...how can I possibly express it!...Down here it is tough,it is dark,it is so painful....sin is rampant all around us and having to deal with the old nature still present with us,with the world the flesh and the devil! It is really sad...even if we are happy and joyful because of Him with us,because of His word and His people ...how can we be really happy and satisfied? around us countless people die daily and go to a devastating eternal hell ....the devil is raging destroying people through religions and cults,through hurricanes tsunamis and earthquakes and with his "fake gospel" of human betterment and all the junk that sadly we have to see and hear continually.....down here it is dark even if thanks be to GOD His light shines for us in Jesus...asap we come down from the transfiguration mountain after having had a time of glory and fellowship with Him in prayer and praise and fellowship we meet the gadarene demon possessed and we get tested and how many times we fail! I do!....it is sad....kids get killed ...people get maimed by satn and his emissaries....I just want to thank publicly The Lord for HIS wonderful GIFT..HIS SON for me,for us and for all the lost sinners that will be eternally saved from now until the greatest event coming,THE RAPTURE!
Oh Yes,THE BRIDE LONGS TO BE WITH THE BRIDEGROOM!!!!
If you ever have loved someone in this life all you wanted was to be with the one you truly and passionately love....just hold hands and look in each other eyes and get lost in the sea of true pure love....well...that is what I feel towards JESUS....because I LOVE HIM because HE LOVED me first when I didn't even know He existed!I know that you people that are born again like me ,saved by His Grace and Love understand what I mean...
Oh Yes,the golden streets and the pearly gates are surely great but WHO and WHAT can be compared to JESUS? He is the greatest!!!!!!!! HE IS WONDERFUL !!! and if I feel and perceive this thanks to The Holy Spirit this side of eternity,I believe that is going to be spectacular when we see HIM in PERSON,FACE TO FACE and...I just have to stop now......my vocabulary is too limited...all I can say is COME LORD JESUS,COME and take us with YOU and while we wait,give us more and more of Yourself and Your Grace so we can preach YOUR GOSPEL to this generation a snatch some more people from the filthy hold of the enemy and bring the loot at YOUR FEET OH BLESSED GOD and SAVIOUR! MARANATHA!!!!

**Jesus Freak** · February-1st-2010, 11:57 PM

I feel the same way, how I long to embrace Him and tell my God I love Him face to face. To tell Him there is none like Him and that the price was too high, but I love Him for it. To worship with tears running down my face only to have them wiped by Him. How I long for that Day, too see the face of Elyon and fall down as if I were dead and Worship Him who sits on the throne!

**jesuschangesall** · February-2nd-2010, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by Jesus Freak

I feel the same way, how I long to embrace Him and tell my God I love Him face to face. To tell Him there is none like Him and that the price was too high, but I love Him for it. To worship with tears running down my face only to have them wiped by Him. How I long for that Day, too see the face of Elyon and fall down as if I were dead and Worship Him who sits on the throne!

AMEN! and....A M E N !!!!

**mattfivefour** · February-2nd-2010, 10:52 AM

JCA and JF-- such beautiful, beautiful thoughts. O Jesus, may we be with you soon! Yet, not our will but Yours be done: so out of love for you we are willing to stay here and do Your bidding as long as necessary to fulfill Your purpose. \o/