Amen! This is correct. When we were born again, we
experienced the first resurrection in Christ—our spirit was made alive! Spiritually, we are now living forever, even though we remain in this fleshly body. This is why we are reigning with Christ right now on Earth, as kings and priests of His Kingdom, preaching the Gospel.
Philippians 1:22-23
- "But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
- For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:"
The Word of God declares that
“to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Where is the Lord? Is He in the grave? In “soul sleep” like those who did not partake in the first resurrection (being born again)? In limbo?
No! The Lord is in the Kingdom of Heaven, and that is where our soul immediately goes when we depart from our earthly body—to continue reigning with Him.
Many fail to realize that when Christ speaks of someone who has “died,” He is speaking from a heavenly perspective. From the human view, the person has died—but in God’s view, that person
lives on! Christ is not saying, “He’s dead now, but will live later.” No—if you die, you are
already alive and had been since you were born again!
Let me repeat this truth: on Earth, your fleshly body will die, but your spirit—already alive in Christ—simply
transferred instantly to Heaven, continuing to reign with Him. Your spirit simply moves from the body into the presence of the Lord.
This is
not the “resurrection,” because that already occurred—the
first resurrection—when we were made alive in Christ while still living in the flesh.
Selah!
2nd Corinthians 5:6-8
- "Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
- (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
- We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."
Also note that when Christ returns, any Christians who are still “alive and remain” on the earth will experience a miraculous transformation. In an instant—“in the twinkling of an eye”—their sin-cursed, fleshly bodies will be changed or removed instantly - - in that moment, their “made alive” spirit will be fully revealed in glory before the messengers from heaven coming down to gather them up to meet the Lord in the air,
as the world watches, Matthew 24:31. For flesh and blood cannot enter heaven with the Lord.
1Co 15:52
(52) In a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, at the
last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and
we shall be changed.