I’ve been giving a lot of thought in the past few weeks about the eschatology that we all pretty much cut our teeth on when we accepted Christ, especially the generation that’s my age.  I devoured everything I could learn about “end times” and even took a few bible college courses when Holly was a baby.

What we learned during the late 70’s and the 80’s was Christ was coming at any time and the teaching of those days was that the church was going to be raptured out of horrible times and we imagined those times coming so we hunkered down to await His return.  Then the year 2000 was a BIG deal with Y2K and we (or at least I) was wondering if this would be the time that we would all be whisked away.  I know I’ve said this before, but that teaching and mindset did not create a culture of growing in more of God and learning about His kingdom and how to walk in it making a difference in the world around us.

We were told that in those days the world would become darker and the church would become brighter.  With all of the doom and gloom on the horizon it didn’t really provoke me to invest in my future. When my husband wanted to save for retirement I remember thinking, “We aren’t even going to be here to need it.” The thought of living in those days of darkness intimidated me; I didn’t see them through faith, I didn’t think that anything could be done to influence it. I just hoped we’d be rescued.

Then I started listening to different teachings that began to challenge my perspective.  One podcast I listened to said, “If the world is getting darker and the church is getting brighter then we are hiding our candle inside the four walls of the church.” That comment provoked me and I started mulling it over.

Shortly after that I heard another sermon that talked about the Bride of Christ and the comment was about the Bride not coming into her true identity because she was hunkered down praying for a rapture rescue.  I heard the Lord clearly say that day, “I’m coming back for a victorious Bride, not one looking to be rescued.”  That Word from the Lord stirred my Spirit and my faith rose up to connect with the truth of it… I knew it was true.  It’s from this foundation that I write this blog.

In just the book of Matthew alone, the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” is used thirty-one times.  John the Baptist was the first one to use that phrase in Matthew 3:2 where he said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Matthew 4:17 is the next time it’s used in the New Testament and it’s right after Jesus comes back from His testing in the wilderness with the devil and He says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (It’s interesting that it’s the exact same thing John the Baptist was saying…)

All of the rest of the references are Jesus talking to the people teaching them a new perspective. Matthew 10:7 is where He is talking to His disciples before they are sent out and He says, “And as you go, preach saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

In Matthew 13:44-48 He says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach and they sat down, and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away.”

Jesus spent His time on this earth speaking a different message to the people of His day, letting them know there was more and it needed to be searched out and found. Yes, His death on the cross, satisfied the need to make animal sacrifices for the rest of our lives and that was a part of the kingdom of heaven message, but I believe many have stopped with that. My intention is to take some time to read every “kingdom of heaven” reference in the book of Matthew, I believe the Lord will bring more to the light.  But that’s another story…back to the purpose of this blog.

Satan wants us to be lulled into contentment with what we have which is contrary to scripture.  Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.”  Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”  God is honored when we invest our time in searching out His truths.  Today, there are so many things vying for our time. Giving God an intentional portion of that time is using our freewill to focus on Him and I believe it glorifies Him. I know He notices…

Genesis 1:27 is the verse that tells us what we were created and put on earth for.  It says, “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

I know I’ve shared this before but I don’t think it can be said too much.  God told man to subdue and rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Let’s look at subdue and rule:

Subdue: to tread down, to conquer, subjugate, bring into subjection. Subjugate means to bring under control and governance.

Rule over: (KJV says dominion) to tread down, i.e. subjugate; (come to, make to) have dominion, prevail against, reign, (make to) rule (over).

I believe God intended for Adam and Eve to establish the order that God had set in the Garden of Eden and spread that across the earth, bringing all of earth into God’s order with their God ordained directives of subdue and rule; Instead, Eve, then Adam obeyed the serpent and another system was set in place.

Jesus came to earth, fully man yet fully God and was our perfect example of what a man “completely surrendered to God” could do. He brought heaven to earth for many lives in that short three and a half years of His ministry. When He ascended into hell scripture says He took the keys of hell and death as Revelations 1:17-18 says, “ And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man, and He laid His right hand upon me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.’”

Jesus went to hell on our behalf to take back from the devil what was stolen from mankind in the garden. He was training His disciples to understand this concept and He trained them to walk in it. In Matthew 16:19, Jesus says, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Again, just one chapter later, in Matthew 18:18, Jesus again says, “Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The side note of my Bible says “Or Forbid” and “Or Permit”.  Let me say this verse again using these words instead. “Truly I say to you, whatever you shall forbid on earth is forbidden in heaven; and whatever you permit on earth shall be permitted in heaven.”  What is Jesus saying here?  I believe He was revealing God’s original intent for man stated in Genesis 1.  Do we know this?  I don’t think many of us do…

Back to the bride of Christ.  The Church is that bride, Ephesian 5:25-26 says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.”

Revelations 19:7 says this, “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”

Made ready in the Greek means this: to prepare, provide, make ready from the root adjusted.

That word adjusted really struck me. What might we have that needs adjusting in our lives? Here are the meanings of adjust from the dictionary:

Adjust: 1. settle, resolve 2. Rectify (like adjust an error) or (to bring the parts of to a true or more effective relative position).

The word adjust is a verb, an action word. Movement is required to adjust something…

Now look at these verses to the 7 churches (us) in Revelations:

Revelations 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.”

Revelations 2:11 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”

Revelations 2:17 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.”

Revelations 2:26 “And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations.”

Revelations 3:5 “He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and they will walk with Me in white; for they are worthy.”

Revelations 3:12 “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write upon 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 My new name.

Revelations 3:21 “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” (Here is says Jesus also overcame and we are expected to also overcome. What does this mean to you?)

Around each one of these verses, either before or after it says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church.” We are the church…what is He saying to us? We are the bride, how do we need to adjust to make ourselves ready?

I have been allowing the Lord to challenge my eschatology and honestly not make it a focus or a priority. It was the teaching of eschatology that basically rendered me paralyzed for most of my Christian life.  I know this is not God’s will or His heart for me.  I know this is not His heart for us

If all of these scriptures are true (and I know they are) then I need to adjust to them. I need to change my mindset and throw out some things that have not helped me grow in my faith and has instead rendered me hiding, waiting to be rescued from this evil world that is out of control.

(Side note here…if we were put here to forbid and permit, what if we have allowed these things by not taking dominion as we were supposed to…Perhaps we need to repent for not owning what was given us to own. Ask the Lord if this is true for you.)

We have inherited a kingdom through Christ. Galatians 4:6-7 says, “Because you are sons (or daughters), God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba! Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

I have had a real life experience with being an heir. I lost both of my parents this year and everything they worked for their entire lives has been left to my brothers and I. We had their name because we were their children, and we have their inheritance because we were their children. We did not lift a finger to help them acquire what they had in their possession. We did not deposit money into their savings account or work and give them any of our earnings. But everything was left to us when they passed. Everything!

Just as we inherited a name and an inheritance, which was everything my earthly parents owned, we have acquired a spiritual inheritance. When we accepted Jesus’ death on the cross for our salvation, we received His name, we gained salvation and an eternity with God, and a kingdom of provisions and ways that He wants us to discover, live out and use to influence the world around us. We are on a journey of discovery. It’s like spending the rest of our lives discovering His ways all around us. Like a spiritual treasure hunt where special nuggets of truth are just waiting to be uncovered, like a pearl of great price or a treasure hidden in the field. Matthew 13:44 says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” This man sold all that he had to buy that field. This is what I want me life to be…

Now to my last point and it’s one that I love… we have talked about the rapture, that whisking away of His church. Some believe pre-trib, some believe mid-trib, some believe post-trib. Everyone has an opinion to defend their point.

I’ve been thinking about Enoch referenced in Genesis 5:21-24. It says, “And Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So, all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

What this is saying is Enoch did not die…he walked so close with God that one day God just took him…I love this… (doesn’t this sound like a rapture? Enoch lived in the time before Noah and the world had really gotten bad with the Nephilim and such). Since people lived so long during those days it was only a couple of generations before Noah. The lineage was Enoch, Methuselah then Lamech. Lamech was Noah’s father.

Moses is another example. Deuteronomy 34:1-12 talks about Moses not entering the Promised Land. God told him ahead of time to prepare the people and prepare Joshua to take over as leader because Moses had disobeyed the Lord by striking the rock the second time when the Lord had said to “speak to the rock”. Moses relied on what had worked last time and didn’t obey the Lord the next time and just speak to it. Verse 5 and 6 says, “So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows his burial place to this day.”

Did you catch that? Verse 6 says He buried Him…that He was God.  Now, interestingly enough, Moses showed up along with Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:5). Elijah was another one who did not die but instead was taken up in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11-12).

I’d like to throw out a thought; what if the rapture, when it happens, is God taking His bride..those who have overcome, those who have adjusted and made themselves ready, those who walk closely WITH God just like Enoch did, and God is finally like, “They have finally come into who they are. They have become like my son Jesus and have come into their inheritance.”  What if…  This is such a different mindset than the church hunkering down to be rescued.

This is a victorious church.  This is a bride who knows who she is and what the kingdom of heaven provides.  This is a people living out God’s intention to bring heaven to earth.  I want this!  This is what I’m pursuing. There is so much more for us, so much more to experience and learn.

One last verse before I close. Ephesians 5:1-2 says, “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”

Be imitators of God. What does that mean?  What does that look like to you?  Here is what imitator means in the Greek:

Imitator: an imitator, follower from the root (a “mimic”) to imitate, follow.

We are to mimic God.  We are to imitate Him. Ask the Lord what this looks like for you. He has something in mind for each of us and I want to find out what His plan is for me as I walk with Him and grow ever closer to Him, I believe the day will come when He will say, “Come be with Me.” 

No more hunkering.  No more needing rescued. We can be victims or we can be victorious. I choose victorious. I am on a journey of discovery…who wants to join me?