Rapture – Light from the Word

Come, My Beloved, Come!

Come, My Beloved, come!

The winter has been long

Waiting for your return

To take us to Your home

Here we remain. Come!

Come, my Beloved, come

Hear your bride’s cry

Echoing throughout the mountains

Sustained by faith- The force

That will take us up as one!

Come, my Beloved, come

We long to be with you

Forever worshipping you

Eternally adoring you

In harmony, loving You

Come, my Beloved, come

Whenever it will be

O, that You would rend the heavens

With the trumpet now

In an everlasting sounding of victory!

To fetch your bride

Forgiven, and sanctified

Forever free from sin.

What glory it will be

When Your face we shall see!

Behold, One Like a Son of Man Was Coming With the Clouds of Heaven

The glorious promise YAHSHUA left before He ascended to heaven is getting closer and closer to its fulfillment. The Word of God mentions in various places the promise of His return. Look up! For our redemption is very near! In one of the Prophet Daniel’s visions, he said, “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass way; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14).

ALLELUIA! So, that at the name of YAHSHUA every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue will confess that YAHSHUA Messiah is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phi. 2:10-11). Answering to the high priest a very question, “I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.” YAHSHUA said to him, “You have said it yourself; nevertheless, I tell you, here after you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 26:63-64). At the ascension, while the disciples were gazing intently into the sky while YAHSHUA was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This YAHSHUA, Who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same as you have watched Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

Hours before His trials, while comforting His disciples He said, Do not let you heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go and prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also… (John 14:1-3). In YAHSHUA’S own words, the promise stands. Daniel’s vision of hundreds of years earlier, is echoed and confirmed by YAHSHUA Himself – the Son of Man Daniel saw in his vision. In the message to the seven churches, John said, Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So, it is to be. Amen (Rev. 1:7). “AND BEHOLD, I AM COMING QUICKLY. BLESSED IS HE WHO HEEDS THE WORDS OF THE PROPHECY OF THIS BOOK.” (REV. 22:7).

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God’s Purpose in Lazarus’ Death

When YAHSHUA received the news that Lazarus was sick, He was staying in Peraea beyond Jordan with His disciples, which was more than a day’s journey. By the time the news arrived, Lazarus had died. YAHSHUA knowing that, He remained there two more days, before He went to see Lazarus. He said, Our friend Lazarus is at rest and sleeping; but I am going there that I may awaken him out of his sleep. The disciples answered, Lord, If he is sleeping, he will recover. However, YAHSHUA had spoken of his death. So, then He told them plainly, Lazarus is dead (John 11:4-14). That happened at the time when the Jewish Passover was at hand, (11:55). Lazarus death and resurrection coincided two weeks before YAHSHUA’S death and resurrection. According to the Restored Vision book by A.E Ware the death and resurrection of Lazarus took place exactly two weeks before that of our Lord YAHSHUA, and precisely the same days of the week. The messenger sent by the two sisters must have left Bethany on Thursday, April 16^th and reached our Lord on Friday, April 17^th. Lazarus died on Friday, April 17^th, and rose on Monday, April 20^th; our Lord died on Friday, May first and rose on Monday 4^th of May, in exact fulfillment of every statement He had made upon the subject. Lazarus death was not an isolated case, without a significant meaning that of connecting him to a prophetic event to happen many years later in the life of the Jewish nation. Lazarus, was a type of the nation of Israel, which was destroyed A.D.70 and remained dead as a nation, until the time when it was reestablished in the year 1948. Lazarus’ resurrection pointed to a time in history when his nation would arise from the ashes into life.

The urgency of the moment of Lazarus’ sickness didn’t concern our Lord, for He knew the perfect timing when He should go to attend to Lazarus’ situation, fulfilling the Father’s desire for that important moment in His life on earth, for it was the time when YAHSHUA’S messiahship would be brought to light. Lazarus’ illness and death was for the glory of God. The burial of Lazarus for four days constituted a case of no doubt in the minds of the people that YAHSHUA was the Messiah, the Son of God. The Sabbath on April 25^th A.D. 33, was therefore the last day of the great Messianic time prophecy of the “seventy weeks” minus one or 483 of 490 years, as measured in Gentile time. (Dan. 9:24-27). However, that day, the Jewish nation showed their ultimate rejection, for settling their minds to kill YAHSHUA, their Messiah. Which happened two weeks later, but on God’s calendar and purpose. Our Lord YAHSHUA Messiah from the very beginning experienced the hatred of the Jewish leaders and knew well that in spite of all His miracles and manifested grace they would reject and kill Him. One week after our Lord was in Jericho He was crucified and six of the seven weeks of years (483 0f 490) were completed in A.D. 26 to 33, which would now have to be relived at the end of the Christian era as a period of retributive judgments, the desolating nature of which the Apostle John received by revelation from our risen Lord and recorded in the book of Revelation (Restored Vision, A.E Ware).

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When My Faith Shall Be Sight

The thrill of that day will be loud and clear for all of us who know the Lord. The joy will be indescribable, when finally, after thousands of years, the promise will no longer be just a promise, but a reality. The sound of the trumpet of God, the voice of the archangel, summering us up will awaken our deep feeling of joy, a feeling never felt before, leading us up to meet YAHSHUA, our bridegroom. This has been a lifelong preparation. From the time we enter in relationship with God, it starts the preparation for that day through the process of sanctification by the Holy Spirit. Without it we cannot see God (Heb. 12:14). While following the world, many Christians are eager for that day, without realizing that unless he walks in faith and in sanctification, he will not experience the rapture. No matter what he does in church or outside church, missionary works or any other service in the name of YAHSHUA. First and above all, for us Christians is to have a relationship with God. That means to make time to stay in His Word, obeying what He commands us to do. Walking every day with Him, making Him part of our life in all its aspects. We are facing an unprecedented time in history, when we see the world turning its axis in the direction of distraction. What does it mean if not prophecy of long ago being fulfilled in its speed of time, while we marvel and fear the outcome ahead of us? There is no need to be glued to the news, for they know nothing that has been predicted by the Word of God. This is a time for readiness, for alertness with our lamp filled with oil, waiting for the middle-night call, Arise to meet the bridegroom! There will be no time left. The time will be now.

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Tribulation Dream 1980

This is a summary of someone’s dream forty-four years ago.

As soon as he had fallen asleep, a dream started with a very loud sound, as a sound of a horn from a car of the 1970’s. (I Thess. 4:16) It was piercing to the ear and lasted a long period of time. He was given the opportunity look from heaven and see many graveyards. He was brought very close to these graveyards, and what he saw was a very unusual thing; the dirt was breaking open violently and people were coming out of the graves. He saw resurrected people coming out of the graves. The condition they came out of it was very unusual: one cemetery plot headstone would have a person come out of the dirt and one next to it would not. It seemed to be not just random but kind of a categorized launching so to speak of these people out of the dirt. Again, it was very violent; it was almost as though the dirt was receiving a small explosion or something and breaking over and when people begun to come out, there were two things about their appearance: the clothes they were wearing seemed to be like a choir robe, kind of like a long dress, a cloak almost hanging off them but in the middle of the day it was like those outfits that entertainers were when they were under the lights. Their outfits and their person were brighter than the sun. He could see the brightness of these people coming out. Men, although they had these robes on, appeared to be very masculine; When women were resurrected, they look very feminine. Older people would come out with the appearance that they were old, but they weren’t old. You could tell that they had lived a full life, maybe 75 or 80 years, their lost hair was back again; they looked mature, they didn’t look aging; young people were resurrected and although, they looked very young, they weren’t very young; there was a maturity about them.

(These resurrected people were the ones who were born-again. They took part of the first resurrection according to Revelation 20: 6: Blessed and holy is the person who takes part in the first resurrection! Over them the second death exerts no power or authority, but they shall be ministers of God and of Christ, and they shall rule along with Him a thousand years (Rev. 20:6); Isaiah 26:19: Your dead shall live; the bodies of our dead shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light and the earth shall cast forth the dead again; for on the land of the shades of the dead, You will let Your dew fall (Isaiah 26:19; the reminder of the dead were not restored to life again until the thousand years were completed… (Rev. 20:5a).)

All the sudden, the people that came, they just disappeared. As soon these people disappeared, mass hysteria began to hit the earth. People had the appearance of absolute despair, there was pandemonium everywhere, there was mass chaos, lawlessness and fear was working everywhere. He was able to see many quadrants of the earth; all the globe was experiencing this. As the mass pandemonium permeated society, there was a very unusual event that happened; TV, telephone, radio and this very unusual communicator devise, was able to see into many homes; they were white boxes that looked like televisions. When he saw this, they were in every home in the USA. It looked as if television was playing through them. All those media devises were shut down for about a two-week period. He knew now what he was seeing was personal computers in people’s homes. The television communication was down for a period of time. This shut down alarmed people and lasted for about two weeks. Can you imagine all your telephone, computers, televisions and radio being shut down for a two-week period of time? Can you imagine the hysteria in all the businesses? He was shocked at the current events; events that were hard to describe, because lawlessness and fear began to permeate society completely. After two weeks’ time, television and radio started up again. However, it was completely different than it was previously. The broadcast was bombarded everywhere. It was depicting a soon to come new government and leadership, a man would emerge to lead the world. He finally came on the scene and spoke with great eloquence and charisma; he was soothing and promised answers to all current issues; this man was soothing and extremely convincing; he was able to solve nearly all problems; he was a consummate communicator. He explained that the removal of all those people was God’s judgment upon them. This individual was rallying the globe. It was very, very frightening. Almost immediately, he begun to communicate through large screen televisions that were strategically placed where general populous met. This was the norm; now what was strange about this was that this man’s speeches for the whole world was new times for us human beings. New directives for global peace and the need to give up citizenship for world citizenship. He continually and constantly spoke of world order in the benefits of all men growing together in peace. He could do signs and wonders and fix all the problems, I will never forget his face, (he said). His face was almost supernatural in appearance; he was almost too perfect; he was the most handsome man I’d ever seen. He had everything going together for him, he had kind of chisel kind of look to his face; everything about his appearance was almost perfect. When he spoke, he had a very strange quality about him.

(Paul said, The coming of the lawless one, the antichrist is through the activity and working of Satan and he will be attended by great power and with all sorts of miracles and signs and delusive wonders- and by unlimited seduction to evil and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they did not welcome the Truth but refused to love it that they might be saved; therefore, God sends upon them a misleading influence, a working of error and a strong delusion to make the believe what is false in order that all may be judged and condemned who did not believe in the Truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness (II Thess. 2:9-12). )

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God’s Trumpet and the Last Trumpet of Revelation

The Jewish Feast of Trumpets has nothing to do with the new covenant of blood YAHSHUA established for all who will believe in Him- His church, comprised of Jews and Gentiles. From God’s command to blow trumpets, it derived its name. The word teruah in Hebrew has its meaning in English a shout or a blowing. The significance of the blowing of trumpets in the Jewish tradition is:

Time to move on

Time to gather the people and call an assembly

To mark a sacrifice on a feast day

Warning of war or danger

To praise

To declare a procession or feast

To proclaim a king

Assemble the troops for battle

To declare victory.

We see here the blowing of trumpets as God commanded Israel, has great significance for that nation in the formation of their tradition, in setting them apart from other nations, as a guide and many other reasons. The blowing of trumpets does not necessarily serve the church of the New Testament, as it embraces all nations with different traditions and life-styles. It connected the nation of Israel to God’s command as in the practice of a feast, although the meaning of gathering the people for an assembly, is relevant to the church, because God’s calling His bride to assemble to heaven will be through the sound of His trumpet, according to the words of Paul, which read, For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud cry of summons, with the shout of an archangel, and with the blast of the trumpet of God… (I Thess. 4:16). The trumpet mentioned here clearly shows a difference from the trumpets of Revelation 8-9, whose purposes are for judgments. These seven trumpets are angelic trumpets and not defined as God’s trumpet. For those who believe that the last trumpet mentioned by Paul has to do with the last trumpet in Revelation, remember one thing: that seventh and last trumpet is not the trumpet of God. Not one of the seven trumpets in Revelation is defined as the trumpet of God. In God’s coming judgment there will be seven angels, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls each carrying that which was determined to fulfill God’s judgments on the wicked. One more thing, the last trumpet of Revelation is not the same last trumpet Paul mentioned in I Corinthians, since the book of Revelation had not yet been written. Someone has said that Paul was drawing his tradition from the Old Testament in referring to the summoning the congregation of Israel to set out (Numbers 10:2-5) Paul called it the last trumpet to show the completion of God’s redemption embed in the number seven.

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The Great Tribulation = Jacob’s Trouble

(Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 9)

The great tribulation is a period of seven years reserved for the Jewish nation, when God will refine and redeem Israel. Daniel 9: 24-27, Zachariah 12-13). The Bible registers the period of seven years of tribulation in chapter 12 verse 1 of Daniel: And at that time [of the end] Michael shall arise, the great prince who defends and has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of straightness and distress such as never was since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the Book.

One cannot refute neither change the Word of God spoken through His prophets of old, who faithfully warned of disasters coming for this nation. This prophecy against Israel was also uttered by Moses even before they entered the Promised Land. We read in Deuteronomy 4:30 the following: When you are in tribulation and all these things come upon you in the latter days you will turn to the Lord your God and be obedient to His voice. The Prophet Zachariah echoes the words of Moses when he prophesized the tribulation and deliverance of Israel. Zachariah 12 and 13). And in all the land, says the Lord, two-thirds shall be cut off and perish, but one-third shall be left alive; and I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined and will test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will hear and answer them. I will say, It is My people; and they will say, The Lord is my God (Zachariah 13:8-9). And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. And they shall look upon Me Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one who mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him as one who is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of [city of] Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo [over beloved King Josiah]. And the land shall mourn, every family apart…(Zachariah 12:10-12a).

The purposes and reason for the great tribulation are found in Daniel 9: 24: Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, (Israel (Judah) and Jerusalem) to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity and to bring in an everlasting righteousness and seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. Seventy weeks have been decreed for Israel, which started from the time of “the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem until [the coming of] the anointed One, (YAHSHUA) a Prince, shall be seven weeks [of years] and sixty-two weeks [of years]; it shall be built again with [city] square and moat, but in troublous times (found in the history of the Jews when they returned from exile in the book of Nehemiah and Esdras). After the sixty-two weeks [of years] shall the Anointed One be cut off or killed and shall have nothing belonging to Him. (YAHSHUA died in the period of the sixty-ninth week [of years] which was the week of years before the final week of years of seventy weeks of years reserved for the Jewish nation) (Daniel 9: 24-26).

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At Mid-night, a Shout

(Matthew 25)

YAHSHUA tells a parable of comparison illustrating the kingdom of heaven to ten virgins: five wise and five foolish. This parable not only is a warning consisting of preparedness, but it also reveals who will be taken and who will be left behind when YAHSHUA comes to meet His bride on the air.

The kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom (vs. 1). “The numberten is the number of testimony. It stands for responsibility and its judgement or reward. Man was responsible under the Law to keep the commandments and bear a testimony for God.” (Dr. Ed F. Vallowe). The ten virgins were identified as carrying their lamps with the purpose of meeting the bridegroom. Let’s imagine that these virgins were Christians who Sunday after Sunday worshiped together in some church. They lived their life of faith in a way that indicated they had a relationship with God. Perhaps they were involved in activities of their church, as in Sunday School teaching, pastoring, visitation, perhaps they were deacons and leaders in some capacity in church. These were not only women, but men also. The tittle bride of Christ applies to all professing Christians. They had some knowledge concerning the return of the bridegroom and prepared themselves as they saw fit. Five followed the Word of God and the other five simply followed what they thought to be right according to the interpretation of men, but empty of God’s truth. Nevertheless, they had one thing in common: to meet the waited for bridegroom.

For that trip they needed their lamps to be filled with oil, for the wait could be long. Five of them were prepared with extra oil in case the bridegroom was tardy coming. The other five, however, had insufficient quantity of oil for the journey. They were the ones who lived their spiritual lives quenching the Holy Spirit to satisfy their fleshy desires. The oil remaining in them was not enough to take them to meet the bridegroom. To quench means to overpower, to extinguish and to put out. That’s the difference that separated them. Oil speaks of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the true believer’s life. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, confirms this truth when he wrote: In Him you also who have heard of your salvation, and have believed, were stamped with the seal of the long-promised Holy spirit; He is the guarantee of our inheritance, an anticipation of its full redemption and our acquiring possession of it – to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:13-14).

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“Read This in my Word Everyday”

Were the words I heard right after I woke up from an afternoon nap. I tried remembering the dream I had that afternoon, to understand what were the words the Lord was telling me to read every day. But I did not remember the dream. However, a few minutes later the phrase, “As it was on Noah’s day” and its reference came to me. My husband and I have been reading this passage of Mathews 24: 37-46 together every day since a week ago. From the amplified Bible it reads: As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For just as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and be given in marriage, until the day when Noah went into the ark, and they did not know or understand until the flood came and swept them all away – so will be the coming of the Son of Man. At that time two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left; two women will be grinding at the hand mill; one will be taken and one will be left. Watch therefore for you do not know in what kind of a day your Lord is coming. But understand this: had the householder known what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have allowed his house to be undermined and broken into. You also must be ready therefore, for the son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect Him. Who then is the faithful, thoughtful, and wise servant, whom his master has put in charge of his household to give to the others the food and supplies at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom, when his master comes, he will find so doing.

In another passage, the Lord YAHSHUA again warned the disciples about the things that are coming to the entire world and told them to “keep awake and watch at all times, praying that you may have the full strength and ability and be accounted worthy to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man” (Luke 21: 36).

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Why the Rapture

(Psalm 91:14, Matthew 24:37-42, Revelation 3:10)

The word rapture excites some, but angers others. There are three beliefs pertaining to the time of rapture that divides the church of Christ: the pre, the mid and the post tribulation beliefs. Although we are considered to have the same faith, we are far apart in understanding this important time line of when the rapture will take place in the consummation of time. Seemly, the majority of Christians are not waiting for the Lord, but for the antichrist and the tribulation. Many are physically preparing for it by storing extra foods and everything else necessary according to their knowledge of the situation, with the help of tele-evangelists. These televangelists misinform the people and bring in them a feeling of fear and panic, when they should be rejoicing with the promised deliverance through the rapture. They convince many who are not knowable of Scripture to believe a lie and persist in selling their expensive foods and other amenities. Some Christians have gone all the way financially to prepare for every situation the tribulation will bring, forgetting that when one is under the wrath of God there is nothing one can do to escape it. One cannot fight against God and prevail. If when the rapture happens, you are found to be left behind, there will be nothing you will do to alleviate God’s painful judgments. The only group of people protected at that time will be the 144 thousand, who will be chosen to evangelize the world. Revelation 7:3-8 says: …Harm neither the earth nor the sea nor the trees, until we have sealed the bond servants of our God upon their foreheads. And then I heard how many were sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel: there were 144,000. These will be the only people on earth who will not suffer the consequences of the tribulation because they are sealed or marked with the protection of God. It will not be because they have prepared themselves for the event, neither because they put themselves in that privileged position. God was the one Who chose them. Why would God seal His Jewish servants and not His Gentile bride? The fact remains that the tribulation is the precise reason why the rapture will take place before it happens. The tribulation is called Jacob’s trouble. It is directed to the unredeemed Israel and to all who rejected the Son of God. It will be for the purpose to purge the nation. We read in the book of Jeremiah 30:7: Alas! For that day will be great, so that none will be like it; it will be the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he will be saved out of it. To the church of Philadelphia YAHSHUA promised to deliver her from “the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world.” He rewards the Philadelphia church because she has guarded and has kept His word of patient endurance (Rev. 3: 10). What is this hour of trial, if it were not the great Tribulation? The word of God says that the way to escape His wrath will be by faithfulness to His word and endurance of faith. It will not be by means of physically preparing oneself to go through His judgements, for there will not be tribulation for His bride. There would not be a rapture if there would not be a tribulation. The word of God never commanded us to be prepared for the coming tribulation. Instead He warns us to be ready for His coming. Paul said this to the Corinthian Church: ….That you are not falling behind or lacking in any special spiritual endowment or Christian grace, while you wait and watch for the coming of our Lord YAHSHUA and (His] being made visible to all (I Cor. 1:7); and to the Thessalonians, And [how you] look forward to and await the coming of His Son from heaven, Whom He raised from the dead- YAHSHUA, Who personally rescues and delivers us out of and from the wrath which is coming [upon the impenitent] and draws us to Himself (I Thess. 1: 10). If there will not be a tribulation, there will not be a need for the bride of Christ to be rescued and delivered from it. If the bride of Christ must go through God’s wrath, then there would not be the promise of hope and of comfort for His bride.

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