Are you excited to be told the rapture could happen any day now? Are you eager to see Jesus and be out of this world? Bear in mind that if you are a follower of Jesus you will see him when all your work here is finished regardless of the rapture. Is there more God wants from you at this time? Or do you look forward to the rapture so you can escape the evil that is all around you? What if there is no rapture?
Do you realize the word “rapture” never occurs in the Bible? I asked one preacher who is strong on the idea of the rapture what is the scriptural basis for his belief. His staff told me I Thessalonians 4:16-17: “16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” But he ignores verses 13-15: “13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.” Paul is describing what will happen at the end of the age when Jesus returns to encourage those who wonder about the fate of those who die before this happens.
Consider Jesus own words about when this will happen: Matthew 24:21-23: “21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now–and never to be equaled again. 22 If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.” … and then verses 29-31: “29 “Immediately after the distress of those days ” ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ 30 “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” Jesus is also saying we will be taken up to be with him WHEN HE RETURNS in power and glory with signs in the heavens, trumpets sending the angels out to gather those who are left alive at that time. It will not be a secret silent disappearance but one which all nations will witness and mourn.
Jesus also told his disciples about this saying, Matthew 24:6-9: “6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains. 9 Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.” And also Matthew 24:21-25: “21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now–and never to be equaled again. 22 If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect–if that were possible. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.”
This must happen before Jesus returns. So if you are excited about the rapture because you will be spared all of this trouble, Please, please recognize Jesus did not say you would be spared, only that those days would be cut short so that some will survive (until they see His coming!) You must prepare now for that time. The only way out is to die before it happens and Jesus said some of us will be put to death. But God and Jesus will not abandon us.
Several of the eyewitnesses to heaven mentioned in my book Heaven Is Beyond Imagination said Jesus told them to come back and tell his people (us) what they saw and experienced because he wants us to be ready. He is coming back very soon. Two of the witnesses saw the preparations for the wedding supper of the Lamb. His coming is quite soon (according to God’s timing).
So how do we get ready? I believe to get ready we must develop such a close relationship with God and Jesus, that we KNOW in the depths of our soul that God will hear us and protect us like he did the Israelites when the plagues came down on the Egyptians, like how He took care of Elijah during the famine, like he fed the 5000, like He enabled Jesus to walk on water and calm the wind and waves, like he enabled Jesus to heal medically impossible problems, like He enabled Peter and John to make a crippled man walk, like He always answered George Müller’s prayers for the orphanage and always on time in seemingly miraculous ways. As Dale Black says, “With God nothing is impossible.” Jesus told us we could have the faith to move mountains. That is the kind of faith I am talking about. It is the kind that will enable you to have food and whatever else you need when you can’t buy or sell (or get paid) after you refuse the mark of the beast, which I think will be a powerful, very safe and convenient microchip that will replace all cash and credit or debit cards, but subtly a tool of Satan. Please check Dale Black’s new book Atomic Faith (DaleBlack.org) for how you can gain the kind of faith you will need until Jesus returns.
So please do not believe the lie of Satan that all is well and you will be taken out of this world before you have to deal with it. All is not well, as you can see by the news, as Jesus has told us this will happen. But if you do not abandon God He will not abandon you and you will see miracles of answered prayers. “With God nothing is impossible!”
Revelation 13:4-10. 4 Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?” 5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. 6 He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. 7 He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast–all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. 9 He who has an ear, let him hear. 10 If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.
Patient endurance and faithfulness! That is what you will need. So how do you learn now how to have patient endurance and faithfulness? These come from a closer relationship with the Lord, where you KNOW He loves you and WILL take care of you and WANTS to answer your prayers. You must come to a deep knowledge in the heart of your being with no doubt that God indeed loves you more than you can imagine and wants to provide everything you need. But He lets you take the initiative. He wants you to turn to Him and ask for what you need rather than you just assuming He will provide. He wants a relationship with you and not just the role of a provider. George Müller didn’t just assume God would provide, but always turned to Him in prayer to ask for what he needed. As a result, God always provided what he needed without fail. (See George Müller The Guardian of Bristol’s Orphans By Janet and Geoff Benge for his story.) Dale Black tells more examples of others who have had the faith in God’s love and provision to see answers to prayers. (See Atomic Faith by Dale Black.)
There are many examples in Scripture of people fully trusting God to provide and seeing it happen. Elijah told the widow at Zarephath to make him a loaf of bread. (1 Kings 17:7-16) She said she only had flour and oil for one loaf and was going to make it for her son and herself and then die. He told her to make him one first and she did. Then there was enough for another. And the same was true the next day and the next, until the drought ended. Elijah knew God would provide when He told Elijah to go to the widow at Zarephath. When Jesus had the disciples leave to cross the lake while he stayed and prayed for a while, he came walking to them on the water. When Peter recognized him he asked Jesus to let him come to him and Jesus said, “come”. Peter started out walking on the water, too, just like Jesus said, but then lost his faith and started to sink. Later Peter and John healed a begging invalid in the name and power of Jesus. How did they know they could do that? Because they had been with Jesus enough to know in the depths of their souls that they could do whatever Jesus did.
Have you ever walked on water? I never have, but I believe I could. However, when Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple and told him to jump off because the Bible says the angels will not let him get hurt. But he answered with scripture also and said it says not to tempt the lord your God. I may be wrong but I think that if I expect to walk on water as a novelty or show, it would be tempting God, but if I had a legitimate reason to walk on water, I could if that was God’s answer to a need.
We, his followers, have His spirit within us as we do what he did and more. (John 14:12-14, “12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”) Did Jesus lie or is what he said here truth? You may say, “but I am not Jesus, or Elijah, or Peter, or John.” True, you aren’t, but you are uniquely created by God for a special ministry on Earth and you are one of His followers. This word applies to you just as much as it did to the original disciples. Let Jesus’ words soak into your soul to give you the confidence you need to KNOW you can do all things also in the power of God and that He will do ANYTHING you ask in Jesus’ name.
By these means you can gain such an intimate relationship with God that as you walk with Him you can hear His voice and know His will and have whatever patient endurance is required. You can have the faithfulness to continue God’s mission in your life regardless of Satan and the world around you, in spite of being hated because of Jesus’ name, in spite of persecutions, and even death. Remember, you now have eternal life. No one can kill you; they can only separate your spirit from the fleshly temple. You will see miracles because of your faith and knowledge of God’s Truth. God will provide all you need when you can neither buy nor sell. He will protect you from whatever evil comes to you until either you experience physical death and go to be with the Lord, or you are still here when He returns.