Part two

 

After our spirits are caught up to Him, our souls will follow, for our minds, our thoughts, will focus on whatever our hearts are desiring. If our hearts are caught up to Him then we will seek those things which are above - we will seek and we will find the mind of Christ  "let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" - so, after our hearts, our soul's become raptured by Him - indeed, the battle for our souls cannot be won if our hearts are not fully surrendered to Him. 

This battle for our soul can last a lifetime but the war for our souls was won long ago when Jesus breathed His last breath on Calvary's Cross, just as Jesus crucified his heart, with it's lusts and desires,  then crucified his soul in the garden of Gethsemane -  then gave up his body to be crucified- so must we - but for us, our bodies are not required to serve Him in death, rather as we crucify our hearts and minds, our self will, we become living sacrifices "PRESENT YOUR BODIES A LIVING SACRIFICE, HOLY, ACCEPTABLE TO GOD". Very few of us have the honor of being called to become martyrs for him. For most of us, our hearts and souls are enough.

So then, the rapture of our bodies will only take place if our hearts and minds, our spirits and souls, have already been raptured- for just as the mind follows and obeys the heart, so will our body follow and obey our minds.

So if you have a religious form of Christianity where you honor him with your lips but your heart is far from him, then you will miss the rapture - the catching up of your body in the air to whom your heart and soul have already been joined. You will miss the rapturous joy of the final, physical union of God and His bride - when she is transformed into her glorious eternal body, in which she'll dwell with him forever "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly; such are they also that are heavenly."

When we trade in, or exchange, our carnal mind for a spiritual mind, we stop desiring the things our carnal man desires.

When Jesus said to the goats who assumed they were sheep "depart from Me, ye cursed", when he says to them "I never knew you: depart from me" - the word "knew" refers to the way a husband "knows" his wife - "And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived,  and bare Cain". Jesus, intellectually, knows everyone- He is Omniscient- but he doesn't have deep, heart deep, intimacy with everyone.  Many on that great and fearful Day of The Lord - that Day of Judgment of our God - will claim they "know" the Lord but they only know Him with their minds - their hearts never belonged to Him. They were "saved" into churches where He was only ever sought after with their minds. In these churches,  everything has to make sense - everything has to be logical, everything has to fit into our understanding. Well, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith The Lord. For as the heavens are higher thanvthe earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" . Week after week, year after year, churches are filled with sermons that make perfect sense to people - the people file out and say "that was a good sermon today", etc. but their hearts are rarely touched, only their minds. "TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL THINE HEART, AND LEAN NOT UNTO THINE OWN UNDERSTANDING" yet in many churches, they DO NOT engage the Lord with all their hearts but they DO lean on their own understanding, to their eternal regret.

Lust is centered around and focused on, self. What can I get out of this? What's in it for me? Love is focused on others - what can I do for them? What can I give to them? During intercourse,  love thinks "how can i please them"? Lust says "how can i get them to please me"? If we love the Lord with all our hearts then we devote our lives to the pursuit of pleasing Him. How can I give Him pleasure? We don't focus on us, on self - we don't spend our lives pursuing what we can get from Him ( including eternal life), no, we focus on HIM - we cry out to Him "Cast your cares upon me, Jesus, for i care for you"! 

Share your heart with me, Lord! Use me, to please my Father. Use me to speak to others - out of the abundance of the Lord's heart in me - my mouth becomes his mouth, his words become my words, till all I say is what He's speaking, and all i do is what He's doing, till He becomes the first thought we think  in the morning and the last thought we think at night, for our minds will dwell on whatever passions arouse our hearts. If He is truly the king of your heart - if He is sitting on your heart's throne, not self, then your days will be consumed with thoughts of Him. He will literally be the focal point of your life - of all your remaining days on earth. You won't be able to stop thinking about Him! Like a young girl in love for the first time (or boy), you'll write love letters to Him - you'll compose poems, you'll shower Him with attention and love. You'll make love to Him in your heart.

When i first met my wife i couldn't stop thinking about her. We often talked on the phone for hours on end. Yet, over time (24 years and counting), she's become familiar to me, like the Pina Colada song. If I'm not careful,  I don't long to hear her voice in the same way i used to. The same thing can happen to our relationship with The Lord - "Nevertheless I have somewhat against you, because you have left your first love". Our walk with Him can become routine. We substitute rituals for relationship.  We hide behind the fact we're going to church each week but for many of us, church is our fig leaf. We even go to church to avoid Him, not meet with Him. We substitute meeting with our pastor for meeting with him. We stop walking with Him daily, so we hide from Him weekly by going to a church where His presence is avoided.