In the volume of the Book it is written of ME

I have always had a difficult time reconciling the Jesus I have discovered in the Word with the church’s view of the end time, the second coming, the tribulation (pre, post or otherwise) death, resurrection, eternity, Heaven and Hell, the “rapture” and I how I am supposed to fit into the “end-time” plan.
When I hear people say how wonderful Heaven will be and when they sing songs like “ICan’t Wait to Get to Heaven” and “In the Sweet By and By” it leaves me totally unmoved. In fact, if the truth be told, it used to frighten me. Death frightened me, the rapture, the resurrection, the “great tribulation” and even Heaven as it was traditionally described…they all frightened me. But, the Bible teaches me that Jesus does not bring a spirit of fear.
The descriptions of Heaven I heard seemed far-fetched, unreal and they were NOT a present help in my times of trouble. I loved the world, God’s creation, all that He had given me to enjoy as He Himself seemed to “…for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son …”. Besides, all that it sounded like I would have to go through “hell” to get to Heaven , what with pre-tribulation, tribulation, post-tribulation, end-time disasters, the rapture (because no matter how cool they tried to make the rapture sound it still did not bring peace to my spirit) and of course….dum, dum, da, dum….the Final Judgement!
But, the Jesus I came to know refuted everything traditional religion had taught me. His love reaches to the Heavens, His faithfulness reaches to the skies, His righteousness is the like mighty mountains and His justice is like the great deep and He PRESERVES both man and beast. My God will redeem my life from the grave and will surely take me to Himself. My comfort is that His promise preserves my life. My Jesus told the Samaritan women that He had water to drink that she would never thirst again and it would even become in her a spring of water welling up to ETERNAL LIFE. He told the disciples EVEN NOW He harvest the crop for ETERNAL LIFE. I have come to believe that my body will wear out like a garment, but like a garment…in the twinkling of an eye …it will be changed. My old body will be discarded and I will put on the new.
2Cr 5:4 NKJV - For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
I do not wish to be unclothed! I just want to be FURTHER clothed. And I believe that is exactly what will take place. Not the dooms day account of most traditional theologians, not the dying, rising, rupturing, fighting account of main stream religion, but a complete metamorphous, totally swallowed up by life, over taken by Jesus and what He has already accomplished, because IT IS FINISHED.
I love to talk about spending eternity with Jesus – that moves me! But, I don’t believe that I have to die again to do that. I died when I accepted Christ as my savior and was baptized. My old sinful nature was buried (it was sown a natural body, it was raised a spiritual body.) I became a new creation in Christ and because of that I no longer need to fear the second death. In fact, I believe I will not die. I was guaranteed eternal life. Yes; this old mortal body may die to be perfected, but I don’t believe I have to GO anywhere to be with Jesus. And truth told, I believe as the scripture teaches there is coming a generation that will never taste death. And like the Samaritan woman who received before her time I too can receive whatever Heaven has to offer, before my time, as my faith allows.
Jesus is as real to me TODAY as any person I speak with in the flesh. In fact, He’s more real, more intimate, and more present because He is IN me. He’s as close as my breath and my next heartbeat – He IS my breath and my next heartbeat, He quickens my mortal body.
~
One of the greatest deceptions of the enemy (in my opinion) is the “rapture” doctrine. It is not scriptural. The most frequently used verses of scripture used to support this doctrine is 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.
1Th 4:16 KJV - For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Th 4:17 KJV - Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

I don’t believe the end of time or the end of this age and the ushering in of the age to come will be much like our human minds have imagined – certainly not much like traditional religious minds have painted it for so long. I believe it will be a removal of the last vestige of the flesh that binds us to the world, an unveiling of the reality of the spiritual world that is, has always been and will continue to be eternally.
Jesus said, “in the volume of the book it is written of ME.” Genesis through Malachi is an overview of this physical world - sin and it’s results – Jesus and His solution. Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ (1.1), His testimony (1.2). It is an overview of the spiritual world – The Kingdom of Heaven and it’s principles – Jesus Christ and His reign. Since Jesus is the eternal Alpha and Omega, The Revelation of Jesus would be His testimony from the beginning to the end of time, or this age and beyond.
In my opinion, the best explanation of the “end of the age” is given by Jesus Christ Himself in Matthew 13. He first tells His followers and His disciples a parable about a sower and his field. After everyone else had left His disciples came to Him and asked Him to explain the parable to them.
Mat 13:37 KJV - He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
Mat 13:38 KJV - The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked [one];
Mat 13:39 KJV - The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
Mat 13:40 KJV - As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
Mat 13:41 KJV - The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
Mat 13:42 KJV - And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 13:43 KJV - Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
So let’s see; This world (His Kingdom) is full of the children of the Kingdom as well as the children of the wicked one. At “the end of the world” (= age, a human lifetime, life itself, an unbroken age, perpetuity of time, eternity) the angels of God will gather from this world (His Kingdom) “all things leading to sin and the ones doing lawlessness …then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in their Father’s Kingdom (original Greek). ” Now THAT sounds like Heaven to me.
Luke 17:20-21 says, “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God does not come visible, nor will people say, ‘Here it is’, or ‘there it is’, because The Kingdom of God is within you.”
Our bodies are the temple of the living God – The Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus lives within us and rules and reigns from His throne – our heart. We are the spiritual Jerusalem. (Eph. 3:17, 1 Cor. 6:19) Jesus is the Kingdom of Heaven. In His presence is fullness of joy. In His presence there is no sin, no hatred, no pain and no sorrow. In His presence is paradise. When we become completely consumed by the presence of God in our lives, when He becomes more real to us than anything in this physical world we will begin to be swallowed up by life! The revelation of Jesus will have completely overtaken us and like Elijah’s servant we will see with our spiritual eyes the reality of the age to come.
Rev 3:12 NKJV - "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
1Jo 5:4 NKJV - For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith.
1Jo 5:5 NKJV - Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
I am an overcomer, because I have been born again of God, by faith I am overcoming the world, because I believe that Jesus is son of God. Therefore, I am a pillar in the temple of My God. His name is written on my heart, The New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God.
Scripture teaches us that God will finish what He has begun. He began a work when He created this world, the Garden of Eden, Paradise, He intended that we should live there in perfect harmony with God and nature. He knew there would be a breach in that relationship from the beginning and He provided a solution to repair the breach, to finish what He had begun. We are being perfected by His grace and restored to our former relationship in Him.
Zec 14:6 NKJV - It shall come to pass in that day That there will be no light; The lights will diminish.
Zec 14:7 NKJV - It shall be one day Which is known to the LORD Neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen That it will be light.
Zec 14:8 NKJV - And in that day it shall be That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, Half of them toward the eastern sea And half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur.
Zec 14:9 NKJV - And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be "The LORD is one," And His name one.
Zec 14:10 NKJV - All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin's Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's winepresses.
Zec 14:11 NKJV - The people shall dwell in it; And no longer shall there be utter destruction, But Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
Rev 22:1 NKJV - And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Rev 22:2 NKJV - In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Rev 22:3 NKJV - And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.
Rev 22:4 NKJV - They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.
Rev 22:5 NKJV - There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.
Jesus was, is and will be King over the whole Earth. His was, is and will be One God, and His name is The ONLY name, above every other name! The King !

I do not know you

When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you, where you are from,'
then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.'
But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.' (Luke 13: 25-27)

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: (John 1:12)

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. (John 15:16)

Jesus said, "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We [are].
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare [it], that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17: 6, 11, 12, 26)

let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:10 & 12)

To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins." (Acts 10:43)

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,and [that] every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ [is] Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:9-11)


The name!! It is THE only name under heaven by which man can be saved...it is THE ONLY narrow way, the only door into heaven. And when that day comes that the Father shuts that way, closes that door, removes that name...there will be no chance left for mankind. And if a man comes to God by any other name...He will say depart from I never knew you...no matter that he may have followed God even to death, no matter that he lived out his life in the temple God, followed every letter of the law of God...unless He knew by THAT NAME...Jesus Christ...not Jehovah, not Muhammad, not Buddha, no other name will gain mankind access to heaven.

If Christians want to see people saved, the church revived, sin quenched, the world changed...they MUST begin to manifest THAT NAME!!! All their scare tactics, good deeds, programs and projects will not SAVE anyone.

What The World Needs Now Is...

A greater revelation of Jesus Christ!!

First sign of trouble: "...Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God..."

Then Cain caused himself much grief and he "...went out from the presence of the Lord..." and dwelt outside of paradise.

Then we don't read of the presence of the Lord again until 1 Chronicles & it is trees that recognize His presence and sing out as He comes to judge the world.

Then the people prepared a house for God's name & recognized His presence dwelt there because of that name & that if they stood in that presence because of that name and cried out He would hear them and save them. (II Chrons. 20:9) God exalted Jesus giving Him that name which is above every name. (Phil. 2:9)

The next time we see someone in the presence of the Lord it is Satan! ( Job 1:12; 2:7)

But in the psalms, David (a man after God's own heart) understood the presence of God and He had a revelation of Jesus Christ. "Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence." (Ps. 140:13.)

Then the prophets began to speak of the presence of The Lord as God revealed His plan.

"Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD [is] at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests." (Zep 1:7)

No mention of the presence of God in the gospels, because He was made flesh and dwelt among us....a greater revelation.

"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, [which are] the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9:24)

Where does Christ dwell...within us...in that holy place not made with human hands...we are the temple of the living God. We are the presence of the Lord God on earth today. But, how can we reveal Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world when we have not had a greater revelation of Him ourselves.

Jesus asked Peter, 'who do you say that I am?' What is your revelation of me Peter? And Peter said, "You are the Christ (messiah), the son of the living God!" And Jesus told Peter he was blessed because man had not revealed that to him, but the Heavenly Father had and that it would be upon this revelation of Christ that He would build HIS church! Who's church are we attending? If we are not having a greater and greater revelation of Christ...

He warned them that many would come saying they were Christ and deceive many & people would say there He is or He is over there, but don't believe them.

The coming of the son of man will be obvious as He is revealed in His people, from His Holy Temple...when people begin to have a greater revelation of Jesus Christ they will see what has always been from before the foundation of world and will always be forever...

Paul had a greater revelation of Jesus Christ. He knew who Jesus was and only when man truly knows who Jesus is can he begin to fully understand who he is and then walk in his greatest potential. Paul walked on a higher ground. He lived above his circumstances. He lived in the very center of grace.

Not everyone has the same calling or purpose, but whatever it is you will know it because you will have God's grace to fulfill it and deep satisfaction in doing so. And in fulfilling it you will be the head and not the tail. You will abound in every good work. You will have to give. You will know the blessing and the favor of God and you will continually have a greater revelation of Jesus Christ.