So far, we’ve been able to understand in our little capacity, the three ministries that would precede the rapture of the saints. Here we want to bring you the summary of it all, as we consider the lively hope -the Rapture!
Text: 1 Thessalonains 4:16, Matthew 25:1-6, 1 Corinthians 1, Revelation 19:7, Revelation 7:9, Hebrew 11:5, Jude 1:14
Let me start by saying that this glorious promise of God has happened before, thus, we can catch a glimpse of how ours is going to be. The rapture is not a fairy tale we tell to bamboozle people to believe in wind, it is real, and we know it because it has happened before. God raptured Enoch, God raptured Elijah, and even Jesus also ascended to heaven, and were seen by men. This should cancel any ideology of men that the rapture will cause commotion. No, it won’t. No plane will fall to the ground, no taxi will have accident, no ship will sink. I know you have a question as to what if the man who is piloting the plane is to go in the rapture, won’t the plane crash when it’s time to go?
If truly you are a rapture candidate, prior to the time of ascension, you would know. The rapture won’t meet its candidate suddenly. We are not of the night, that that day should meet us as a thief in the night, we are of the day. Enoch knew he was going in the rapture, so did Elijah, and they took steps towards it. No pilot by profession will fly when it’s time for rapture, no taxi will drive any car. Yes, the bride will know it is time, and all she’s doing at that point is to look up for that, nothing more. It may be sudden to the world, and that is even if the world would know. It is such a dove-like transition, the world may know nothing about it, except the bride.
1 Thessalonians 5:2-9 KJV
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. [3] For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. [5] Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. [6] Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. [7] For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. [8] But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. [9] For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s consider Paul in our text:
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 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 are 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. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
This special revelation of the rapture was revealed to Paul alone. This is not to say that others didn’t speak about it. The Bible is full of explanation on rapture. But the sequence of this rapture was revealed to Paul, and that was why he wrote in that manner, because he got what he wrote by the word of the Lord.
In Matthew 25, there was a parable about the virgins. That parable is not talking about the rapture, rather it is talking about the ministry of William Marrion Branham, who came in the anointing of Elijah to snatch Christ’s bride from the denominational world.
“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.”
This is the preparation to meet the bridegroom. God herald a message to wake up the sleeping virgins who are sound asleep in the dogmas of men through the church ages, and get them to trim their lamb, so they could have an intimacy with their bridegroom -Christ, coming to claim His own. The bridegroom came truly, but He came in the Word-Form. And that is why we began to search the scriptures to correct both our lives and our doctrines. The church world has made us believe that there are three Gods, but when we trimmed our lamb, we saw that there is only One God, and quickly, we correct that. We corrected our water baptism that was done for us in trinity titles to the right baptism of the apostles, done in the name of Jesus Christ, and by immersion, and lot more. This is the bride, making herself ready for the rapture.
But realize that there are two categories of virgins. Though virgins, some were wise, and some were foolish. That is dependent on how you take God seriously and allow His purging in your life. It is because he has something that has not come into man’s understanding for us, that is why He is washing us by His word, so that we can be fit to inherit the incorruptible. To the degree to which you surrender yourself, is the extent to which you will see Him work in and through your life.
Now, we are in the time of the Shout, which is the time for the trimming of our lamps, correcting our lives by the word of the Lord. That is the time of our perfection as living saints. That is what will put us in position for the Voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God. Amen!
Like we have explained, there had to be this message of awakening, because enemies had done evil in the field of Christ. And this resulted in the beclouding of men’s heart from the true Light of the gospel, and because Christ can only come to reap what he has sown, He had to send His Prophet to CRY, “Come ye out” -yes, out of worldliness, out of the doctrines of men, out of Romanism, out of Babylon. We are to keep the feast of unleavened bread for seven church age dispensation, and all leaven must be purged out. This is what God is doing at this time, and only those who are partakers can be fit for rapture.
Enoch walked with the Lord, and He had a testimony that he pleased God. That is the same position God is expecting us to assume. Those who don’t please Him can’t go in the rapture. The rapture is for those who have set their affections on things above. I implore you to walk with Him in newness of Spirit and come out of any gospel that is preaching this world to you. God did not promise us this world. It is reserved to be burned with fire! So, look above thee, and be in the program of your Creator.
Shalom!