Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
Today I’m headed to Portugal for a few days of leader’s gathering in the presence of Holy Spirit. After that I’ll be headed to Angola, Africa. It was a great weekend here with a worship night at Alife on Friday, and I was blessed to speak at Alife yesterday. I have a great expectancy for what God is going to do in my journey across the big pond.
It was in the first century that Jesus rose into the heavenly dimension. He was the firstfruit of a family of believers who are made to be new creations in Christ. As the firstfruit, Jesus ascended and was taken into the “cloud” in a ‘bodily form’ (Acts 1:9). He did this so that we could receive the fullness of the blessings found in His heavenly dimension (Eph. 1:3; 3:10; 1 Pet. 1:3). When Jesus ascended into heaven, two angels had a message for the observing disciples of Jesus.
Acts 1:11 …who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
Clouds speak of the manifest presence of the Lord in Scripture. There have been numerous aspects to the manifest experiences of the church and the Lord in the ages of men that have brought increasing testimonies of God’s glory in the earth. If you will, there have been many comings of Christ “in the clouds”. There have been various comings of the Lord in many aspects of God’s grace that have brought forth increasing glory and change in the church. The comfort of the first century church was, and our comfort is, that each and every one in Christ is promised a greater glory of eternal life in Christ in every aspect of their lives.
Every season of our lives culminates with the sound of a prophetic trumpet that reaps a harvest of bread for others in our world and seed for another harvest. The last trumpet is resurrection life for those in Christ. Paul said that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. This is our greatest hope! In the history of the culture of the shadow of the law, the last trumpet is the trumpet that sounds the completion of the harvest. It is a sound of tabernacles where a new season of rest leads to a new season of increasing life. Everyone has a last trumpet to the completed harvest of their lives. Though there may be a full culmination of this in a future day to come, I believe that there is a last trumpet for each of us in life. For us in Christ it is a sound of greater glory. It is therefore a reason to live this life to the fullest as the glory of God subdues the things that can be subdued in this world. This is the testimony of the increasing harvest of God in our lives. The unshakeable kingdom of God continually removes the shakable things in our lives and in our world. Our comfort is that life and purpose doesn’t end when the last trumpet is blown for us in this life, but Christ receives us to join those who are alive in Christ in heaven, those who have already fallen asleep to this life.
1 Thessalonians 5:1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. 11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.
Like those going through the great tribulation of the birth of the Body of Christ in the first century, we need not be shaken or troubled in the times and seasons of the world. We have already embraced a Day that never ends. We have embraced the Day of the Lord in Christ. Our last day was the day we lost our old life, and we found resurrection life in Christ. Our personal kingdoms are increasingly becoming a kingdom of our Lord and Christ. The life we live we live by faith in Him! There is no death that has any power over us for the second death has been destroyed by the resurrection life of Christ within us.
The day of the Lord comes for everyone, but that day does not come as a thief to those who are already alive in Christ. For those who are not alive in Christ, the last trumpet of their life is a surprise, and their life is taken from them. They live their lives as though they have peace and safety, but the last trumpet of their life reveals to them that the peace they held on to was not peace at all. The safety they clung to, was not safety at all.
The constant coming of the Lord into the generations of humanity proves to destroy those things that are not true peace or safety and what people trust in apart from Christ is destroyed. What is life for those in Christ proves to destroy anything that is not true life. It destroys anything that is not life or life-giving. Our comfort is that we are sons and daughters of God. We are sons and daughters of the true light. We are of the Day and not the night, so the constant and increasing coming of the Lord into the generations of men proves to be the light of Day to us. We must remain awake, aware of God and His presence. We must remain alive to the fellowship and purpose of God’s Spirit in Christ. What keeps our hearts in all seasons of our lives and of the earth is faith and love in our hearts. Our minds are secure because we know that Jesus is salvation in any and every situation of our lives. While we live in this world, or after we rise in Christ, we are together in the life and purpose of Christ for eternity. This is comfort to us in all seasons of life.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
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