What does it all mean?
What’s it all about?
What’s going to happen to the Church?
What’s going to happen to my family and I?
Will we (the Church) go through the tribulation?
These are some of the questions that have buzzed through my mind from time to time. Fortunately for us the Bible has the answer to all our questions. The Holy Spirit reveals all things to us and reminds us of what the scriptures say. But we do need to know the Bible for ourselves, please read and study as often as you can!
Ok so what is the purpose and function of the Holy Spirit in the Rapture?
Let’s start off with one of my favourite passages of scripture from the Old Testament and scripture that I regularly pray into being and scripture that we all know so well:
Joel 2:28-32 (NIV)
28 “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
32 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said,even among the survivors
whom the Lord calls..
This passage of scripture was also quoted by the Apostle Peter at Pentecost in Acts 2:17-21.
I also believe that God will pour out his Spirit like this in the last days to prepare His Church for the rapture, when those that belong to Him and that are still alive here upon earth will be taken up into the clouds as Jesus comes with a loud trumpet blast. Come, Lord Jesus! Come! Preparing us for the rapture is one of most important functions of the Holy Spirit in the ‘End Times’.
Now is the time (today) for the Church to stand up in faith and fully embrace the Holy Spirit in all his fullness. It is time for each and every believer to immerse himself in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is time for each and every believer to eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit especially the gift of prophecy so that we can build up and edify each other to do the works that God has predestined us to do. Now is the time for the fruit of the Spirit to be manifest in us and through us to a dying world!
It is time for each and every believer to walk in the Spirit every minute of every day and allow him to take complete control of our lives so that the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit will be manifest in us and through us at all times.
It is time for healings and the casting out of demons, miracles, signs and wonders, to follow us everywhere we go! It is time for the Church to rise up in the power of the Holy Spirit and win the lost to salvation in Christ Jesus – IT IS TIME FOR THE LAST AND GREATEST HOLY SPIRIT REVIVAL so that the Church will be cleansed and ready for the coming of the Lord, whether He comes now, next week, next year or in the next 100 years. This will only be done through Spirit filled believers moving in His power and His strength! This will glorify the name of Jesus!
Now is the time for the army of God to be mobilised and to put on the full armour of God and ward off the attack of the enemy in these turbulent times!
It is time for the Church to be ready and waiting for the trumpet blast and the coming of the Lord in the sky at any time.
Church! Keep your lamps burning and never let them go out! It is time for all born again believers to keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit and live in a state of permanent revival.
Ephesians 5 :18 (AMP)
Do not get drunk with wine, for that is wickedness (corruption, stupidity), but be filled with the [Holy] Spirit and constantly guided by Him.
Let’s take heed of the mystery that Paul tells us about in 1 Corinthians and be ready for the final trumpet blast of the Lord:
1 Corinthians 15:51-56 (NIV)
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NIV)
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For 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 word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 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. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter by Jesus and the Greek word for comforter is ‘paraklétos’ and has the expanded meaning of counsellor, helper, encourager and advocate. This expanded meaning of the Holy Spirit along with the many spiritual names he has in the Bible like, power of God, fire of God, creative power etcetera, builds for us a picture of strength and comfort that every believer must tap into every day, let alone in the last days.
We can do all things in Christ Jesus who strengthens us. How does he strengthen us? By the power of his Holy Spirit of course, that is why the Lord sent the Comforter to us. We can all tap into the full power of God in Christ Jesus and all we have to do is appropriate it in belief and walk in faith as Abraham did, as Paul did and as Jesus himself did!
It was the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and it is the Holy Spirit that will do the same for his followers at the Lord’s Rapture for those who have fallen asleep. Paul wrote about this in the book of Romans.
Romans 8:11 (NIV)
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Prophecies of the Rapture from the New Testament
In John 14 we see Jesus talking to the disciples just be before he is arrested, and he is telling them that he has to go away to prepare a place for them in the Father’s house – which to me speaks of heaven as that is where God dwells. The Lord then goes on to say to the disciples that because he is preparing a place for them in heaven it stands to reason that he will come back to fetch them – this to me speaks of the Rapture. What do you think?
John 14:2-4 (NIV
2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Now it appears that the disciples seemed to have some trouble in understanding what the Lord meant as Thomas in verse 5 says, “Lord we don’t know where you are going so how can we get there?”
John 14:5 (NIV)
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus’ response to Thomas and the disciples is that they know that the only way to the Father is through him.
John 14:6 (NIV)
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
This response still doesn’t seem to clear things up for the disciples as Philip asks, in verse 8, the Lord to show them the Father.
John 14:8 (NIV)
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Now this statement from Philip seems to exasperate the Lord just a little bit as he says in verse 9 words to this effect, “Philip, I’ve been with you for all this time and you still don’t know me?” He then goes on to tell them the things that he has told them many times before over the past three years. But strangely enough he doesn’t explain any further about the place he is preparing for them and coming back for them to take them there!
One other thing of significance that he does say though in verse 26 is that the Holy Spirit, when the Father sends him to them, will teach them many things and that he will remind them of everything he (Jesus) has taught them and everything he has said to them.
John 14:26 (NIV)
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
It is not until a few years after the Lord’s ascension into heaven that we get a fuller picture of what the Rapture will entail. We get this enlightenment through the Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonian Church.
Let’s have a look at the scripture in 1 Thessalonians 4 again, shall we?
1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 (NIV)
14 For 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 word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 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. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
So, in the above verses Paul gives us a pretty clear picture of what will happen when the Lord comes for his Church, most commonly known as the Rapture. Let’s put the happenings down in bullet point form:
- The dead in Christ shall rise first, including Jesus’ twelve disciples.
- Then the Church, the ones that are alive on earth at the time, will be taken to meet the Lord in the air.
- He also tells us to encourage one another with these words.
Philippians 3:20-21 (NIV)
20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Now there are different schools of thought about the Rapture brought about by many learned Bible Scholars over the centuries, right through to today. There are different answers put forward to the questions:
- Does the Rapture and the second coming of Jesus take place at the same time?
- Will born again believers that are alive at the time have to go through the Tribulation or will they be Raptured before?
- Will the Rapture take place before the Tribulation, halfway through or at the end?
Personally, from my understanding of scripture, I believe the rapture will take place before the tribulation. Why on earth would our Heavenly Father want His children to suffer through the tribulation! The tribulation is a judgement of God for those who have not accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour at the point of the Church’s rapture.
Matthew 24:40-42 (NIV)
40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come
What I want to encourage my readers to do is to live life in the Spirit as Paul encourages us to do in Romans 8 and be ready right now to be Raptured.
Are you ready? Are you walking in the Spirit? Are you living your life on the path that the Father has predestined for you right now? Are you ready for the Rapture?
Remember your life is all about Jesus!
We belong to Him!
Prayer:
Heavenly Father
I pray that you will fill me with your Holy Spirit and keep on filling me. I pray that in the power of your Holy Spirit that you would help me to walk on the path that is your will for my life. I pray that you would show me and help me to do the works that you have predestined me to do before I was born. Help me, O Lord, to live life in the Spirit always that I may bring glory to your name, the name of Jesus. Bless me. O Lord, that I may be a blessing to others. Amen.
To Jesus belongs all glory honour and praise!
Jesus, the Name above all names!
Acts 4:12 (NIV)
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
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