ANGELS AMONG US AS HEAVEN DRAWS NEAR

ANGELS AMONG US AS HEAVEN DRAWS CLOSER

                For at least a couple of years now, Bonnie and I have been praying together and taking communion together nearly every morning. WE share wonderful fellowship with the Lord as our understanding of His precious covenant grows.  This covenant that we live in, signed by the blood of Jesus and sealed by His Holy Spirit has become very tangible and real to us.

                Communions is not a mere ritual for us, but a living thing… an anchor for our souls, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us…”

                It becomes most precious, this covenant in Christ for as 2 Cor. 1:21, 22 says: “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.” A pledge  or an earnest is  like a down payment that guarantees that we will receive payment in full at the closing. It is a most precious down payment on our home in heaven… paid for by the blood of Jesus.

                Paul further on in 2 Cor. 5:5-8 says: “Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord- for we walk by faith and not by sight- we are of good courage I say and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”

                This is the anchor that keeps our souls and sometimes when we are praying it almost seems that we are somewhere half way between heaven and earth. Occasionally we become aware of the presence of the Lord drawing near. At such times we just want to drop to our knees and worship Him as One who is sharing the room with us. Our prayers become very intimate as suddenly we are in face to face worship rather than prayers that must span the voids of time and space.

                Yesterday morning was especially precious. It was, as though a whole rank of angels had come to worship with us in our tiny living room. We both saw it in our spirits at the same time. I said (while praying) “The angels are here Bonnie” and she said, “I know, I see them too.” They had come to worship the Lord with us and we were overwhelmed with their heavenly presence.  I tried to distinguish their faces, but I could not. It was as if they were hovering just beyond a thin veil. They were very close and yet in another dimension into which The Lord was allowing the eyes of our hearts an imperfect peek.

                The veil between heaven and earth is growing thinner as the time of Christ’s return draws near. Paul says in Romans 10:8, 9: “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart- that is the word of faith which he was preaching, that if you confess with your mouth, Yeshua as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.”

                It seems to have been a common thing for people in the early church to see angels. They also received tangible instructions as to where to go and what to do.  In fact Yeshua did only what He saw the Father doing and said only what He heard the Father saying.

                The church has come a long way from those early days, having allowed religion to build walls between us and heaven. We come up with manmade doctrines saying that we cannot hear God’s voice, or that we cannot speak and pray in the Spirit.

                But as we grow closer to the time of our Lord’s return, He has stated that He will rebuild the tabernacle of David. Why not the tabernacle of Moses or the tabernacle of Solomon, or the tabernacle of Herod? It is because the tabernacle of David was a tabernacle without veils. People could see directly into the Holy of Holies and gaze upon the Ark of the Covenant and the glow of God’s presence.

                 This is the tabernacle that Yeshua is restoring in these last days. He doesn’t like the veils between us. They represent our sin that separates us from Him. He has had to hide Himself from sinful man. But if we will allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in us… if we will allow Him to conform us to the image of Christ, then we can have this hope that enters within the veil where Jesus has entered just ahead of us. WE are being prepared to meet Him face to face.

                Through the blood of Jesus we can come boldly before the throne. We are seated with Him in heavenly places and sometimes when we are praying, it is as though Jesus is standing over us and laying His hands upon our heads or shoulders. Intimate fellowship with the Lord is a most precious thing and it is at times like these when we bring our friends before the throne to pray for you. We pray for those who read our articles and those with whom we have fellowship. We pray for those of you with whom we look forward to having a forever and eternal friendship.

                Do you sense this drawing of the Holy Spirit as well? Do you feel the pull of heaven more strongly? Do you feel the unity of the Body of Christ? Even as many fall away from the faith, do you now also sense a pulling together of those who truly love the Lord? Manmade divisions can no longer divide us. IF we belong to Yeshua then we are a family… blood relatives through the blood of Yeshua… made one by His Holy Spirit.

                I hope this little window into our times of worship has blessed you, for even as the Lord is with us, you are with us too… and He is with you… and I like to picture us all arm in arm, meeting before the throne in the near future…a family that has been drawn together by the blood of Yeshua and the graceful drawing of the Holy Spirit..

                Fellowship within our congregation seems more and more like a taste of heaven as we are overwhelmed by the love that surrounds us. Our shared worship causes us to feel at one with each other and at one with God. It seems that the more love we give, the more we receive. There is nothing like fellowship with the saints and that is why I know that heaven is going to be most wonderful.

                There we will know each other even as we know each other now, but we will be in glorified bodies ,  dazzling in splendor and royalty, brothers and sisters with Yeshua at last… a kingdom of priests unto our God.

                I rather suspect that God wants to fill the entire universe with people, but we as humans from planet earth, will forever be the only ones with the eternal testimony of God’s amazing grace. WE will have a story to tell of how He redeemed us and caused us to sit with Him in heavenly places. He will forever be God and Father of all creation, but for us, the ones who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, He will also be our Redeemer and we will be the ones saved by grace. And that is why we are destined to reign with Him on His throne.
We will be the ones who will forever testify of God’s great love. He became one of us and rescued us and that will be our story to tell. Selah.