GONE TO BE WITH THE LORD…

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION WITH PASTOR CHRIS OYAKHILOME.

GONE TO BE WITH THE LORD.

QUESTION: Greetings dear Pastor a couple of times in our Ministry I have heard it being said, one has gone to be with the Lord when they depart from this world through death. Why do we say that if we, both the living and dead, according to 1 Thessalonians 4:16 are all waiting to be with the Lord forever through the Rapture of the Church? Please assist me to understand.

ANSWER
So he’s asking when someone dies, why do we say he has gone to be with the Lord when He says, we’re only going to be with the Lord at the Rapture of the Church? When a Christian dies, his spirit goes to God, so in the Spirit, he is present with the Lord. That’s what the Bible says.

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Let me just read that scripture to you, 2 Corinthians 5:6 Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight.We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. So when the man, the Christian is absent from the body, he is present with the Lord, no middle he’s out of the body, he’s present with the Lord.

What does that mean, in the presence of the Lord, as we studied we saw some of those things in the book of Revelation, when a man’s spirit goes to God, he is present in heaven with the Lord but in a certain state, where he’s a disembodied spirit. He hasn’t put on a celestial body, he is in a sense, not clothed. So that’s why when you read in that place it says, would rather be clothed. So he is waiting, but he has a certain level of function in heaven in that state, waiting until he’s clothed, And the Bible says those who have gone to be with the Lord, will God bring with Jesus when he comes back at the Rapture. That’s the place you were referring to in 1 Thessalonians 4.

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So God will bring them with him So they come, but they’re not going to be visible to the world. And remember, at the Rapture of the Church, Jesus doesn’t come to the world. He remains in the air. But these spirits that have been disembodied will take up their bodies. Their bodies will be given life. Suddenly at the sound of that trumpet, their bodies will receive life because the spirits will get into those bodies.And it doesn’t matter where those particles were. It doesn’t matter where the winds took them. Just like the bible tells us at the Valley of dry bones.

It says bone came to its bone, every cell will be touched by the spirit of God and they will receive life and mortality will be swallowed up of life, the Bible tells us. And suddenly the bodies will be changed from the natural to the celestial. The dead in Christ will rise first, the Bible says. So now they’ll be fully clothed with their celestial bodies. That’s why it is accurate to say when a Christian dies, he’s present with the Lord. He’s going to be with the Lord, It’s perfectly scriptural that’s what the Bible teaches.