28/11/2020
WHERE DOES THE SPIRIT GO WHEN WE DIE ?
IF you want the answer in one sentence here ..It is....WHAT HAPPENS AFTER WE DIE depends on WHAT HAPPENS BEFORE WE DIE..
CONSIDER WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS
HEBREWS -9-27
This is an appointment Time no one will miss..we all have a disease Called DEATH...We just don't know when the end will come..
ABOUT THE OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS
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After Christ's crucifixion, He descended into the earth following His death. There He preached to the OT saints waiting in Abraham's Bosom. Like Jesus introduced Himself as the Messiah these saints anticipated in faith, and He explained the Lord's plan of salvation. At the conclusion of three days time, Jesus ascended into Heaven, and He set these saints free from this place of waiting by escorting them directly into Heaven, as Paul and Peter explain:
Eph. 4:8
Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, And He gave gifts to men.” Eph. 4:9 (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? Eph. 4:10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.)
1Pet. 4:6 For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.
1Pet. 3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 1Pet. 3:19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,
Today, Abraham's Bosom stands empty, since the spirits of dead New Testament saints may enter directly into Heaven. By the start of Christ's thousand-year Kingdom on earth, all saints (both Old and New Testament believers) will have received new physical bodies as part of the First Resurrection, according to Revelation 20, and all will live eternally with Christ in their new bodies.
SOUL OF BELIEVERS IN NEW TESTAMENT
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The intermediate state is the time in which the spirit, or soul, of the believer exists between physical death and the resurrection of the body. Though the Bible does not have a whole lot to say concerning the intermediate state of the believer, there are some basic conclusions we can make.
Spirits With God
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The spirits of departed believers are with the Lord. The Bible says.Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
The writer to the Hebrews says.
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and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect (Hebrews 12:23).
Christ's Presence
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At death, the spirit of the believer enters into Christ's presence. Jesus promised the dying robber on the cross that he would be with Him immediately after death.And Jesus said to him, 'Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise' (Luke 23:43).
Immediately Present
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2 CORIENTIANS 5-1-8
The Apostle Paul also taught that believers would be in Christ's presence upon their death.
For the Christian who dies today, his or her spirit moves directly from the body at the moment of death into Christ's presence in the Heavenly throne room escorted by angels, according to Jesus in Luke 16. As Paul explains:
2Cor. 5:4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. 2Cor. 5:5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. 2Cor. 5:6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord — 2Cor. 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight — 2Cor. 5:8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
Our physical body is the material, temporary part of our existence, so Paul says it is only a temporary home for our spirit, which is the eternal part of us. Our spirit occupies our body for a time, but when our body dies, our spirit moves to our next home to be present with the Lord (if we are a believer) into the throne room of God.
Limited Amount Revealed
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2 CORIENTIANS -12-2-4
The Bible only reveals a limited amount of information about what goes on in the presence of the Lord. Paul wrote of his experience.
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know - God knows. And I know that this man - whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows - was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that people are not permitted to tell (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
Paul wrote to the church at Philippi.
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PHILIPPIANS -1-23
For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better (Philippians 1:23).Paul says that his death would be far better for him than remaining alive because he would be in the presence of Christ.
Stephen
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ACTS -7-54-60
Upon his death, the martyr Stephen called upon Jesus to receive his spirit.And he [Stephen], being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, 'Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!'. . . And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit' (Acts 7:55,56, 59).
The usual picture of Jesus is sitting on the right hand of God the Father. But when Stephen was about to die, Jesus stood to welcome him into God's presence. This is another indication that the believing dead go immediately to be with Christ.
1 THESSALONIANS - 4-14///// 5 -10
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Paul told the church at Thessalonica that believers will always be with the Lord. Who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him (1 Thessalonians 5:10).
Rest And Blessedness
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REVELATION - 6-9-10
Believers who die are in a restful state. The Bible says. When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of the Lord and for the testimony they held. And they cried with a loud voice saying, 'How long O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' And a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants, and their comrades, who would be killed as they were, was completed (Revelation 6:9-11).
“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:”
— Revelation 6:9 (KJV)
Those with the Lord are also blessed.
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REVELATION -14 -13
And I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, 'Write: 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.' Yes, says the Spirit, 'that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them' (Revelation 14:13).
Holiness
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The believers are in a state of holiness. In the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John asked an angel the identity of certain individuals. I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the Great Tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14).
CONCLUSION....
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The Church saints are resurrected at the Rapture, which is the modern name given to the moment Paul described in 1Corinthians 15, when the Church saints who have died (and are present in spirit with Christ in Heaven) receive new physical bodies followed by those Church saints still alive on the earth. The Old Testament saints are resurrected at the conclusion of the Tribulation, according to Daniel 12. Then all saints enter the Kingdom together in new eternal bodies.
On the other hand, the destination for unbelievers in death is very different. Hades is still occupied and its numbers grow by the hour. Every unbeliever who dies is separated, soul from body, and the spirit enters Hades where they await their day of judgment. Hades is under our feet in the center of the earth, according to the Bible, and the spirits of all unbelievers go to this place regardless of when they died in history. They suffer in torment day and night, according to the Bible, yet Hades is not their final abo all unbelievers at the conclusion of the thousand-year Kingdom on earth, according to Revelation 20. At the start of this judgment, all unbelievers are removed from Hades and given new physical bodies in the Second Resurrection, according to Revelation 20. At this judgment, these will be condemned to the "second death," which is the Bible's term for an eternal existence in the Lake of Fire.
