The “rapture” doctrine is misunderstood—- by ALL camps— and it has served as a “divide and conquer” strategy of the enemy for too long. As long as the saints are arguing over who is right and who is wrong (and obviously, if you believe one side or the other, it must mean the other side is completely blind, deceived, and “not chosen”), then the enemy is prevailing. If I can be so bold as to say—- NEITHER side has it fully understood correctly, because all flesh is corrupt, and any true Word given by the Holy Spirit is filtered through a VEIL that OBSCURES anyway. Do not trust too dogmatically in doctrine about the rapture, whether pre or post— b/c it is not rapture doctrine belief that saves…. It is KNOWING HIM that saves. Too many people focus on the wrong things.
Who really KNEW God intimately? Moses? or the Israelites?
“He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.” Ps. 103:7
Moses knew God in a way that the Israelites, who only knew God by the external evidence of His existence, did not. The Israelites only knew God by out outward evidence— the “signs”. Moses knew God “as a friend” does:
“And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” Exo. 33:11a
We all have ‘acquaintances’ and others we call ‘friends’. There is a difference.
What was the difference between Moses and the Israelites? Let’s look at this, but let’s begin with where Moses began.
Like a lot of zealous children these days, Moses began as a zealot for God and for those whom he saw as his ‘brothers’….even going so far as to kill an egyptian’ — in the name of God’.
Does this occur today?
Certainly it does. There are a lot of zealots for God these days who believe they must prove their love of God by slaying all the egyptians (“enemies of God”) out there. The enemies of God are more numerous than we, and we are in bondage to a very oppressive world babylonian system. But how did the Lord God deliver them? Was it through the great and zealous acts of Moses as a young and impulsive young man? A young man with much bravado, courage, and faith in his OWN flesh? No. God will not honor a man’s intentions, even it be “for the Lord”, if it is not done according to the WAYS of the Lord, i.e., His Will.
God is not surprised to see new Christians to act impulsively– this is how we all act in the beginning, for we are but babes in Christ at that point, and eager to save the world. But it is not by our might and power (the “horses of egypt”, the FLESH) that it will occur. It is only by going through our OWN wilderness experience first that we are trained in the WAYS of the Lord and humbled in realizing that we are but nothing and able to do nothing pleasing to Him if it is done outside His Will. Until we have determined what His Will is, we are simply as the Israelites were— spectators of His ACTS in the World today, rather than knowing Him intimately as a friend.
When Moses was exiled from Egypt, it was as though he was called out of the world… a sojourner in the wilderness, and learning through personal trial and tribulation what it means to NOT depend upon his own human flesh and ability, but rather, to depend upon God. To eventually get to the point that he does nothing but that he pray about it first and find the Will of God in the matter. Forty years it took him to finally be “emptied” of his own soul– his own soulish and fleshly pride, ego, and ability— to finally get to the point that when God called him to go “back to Egypt” (the world) to deliver the Israelites from THEIR bondage (as Moses had been– i.e., his bondage to his own flesh), that Moses felt completely inadequate and worthless to be of any service to God.
Do you see how before God will use us in a situation or calling to deliver others, that He will first work on US? We can do more harm that good to others if we go wielding a sword upon whom we perceive as God’s “enemies” when we have not had that “enemy” in us poured out as an offering first. The Israelites did not “thank” Moses for killing the egyptian slave, and neither will brothers and sisters thank you in your attempts to cut away the “egyptian” in them either. Thus the reason we are to work on removing the mote in our own eye before attempting to remove a speck we see in another. God knows how to deliver. But a true son, a true ‘manchild’ as Moses was a type of, will heed the calling to go into the wilderness alone with God and allow God to work on him/her first.
When the Lord God revealed Himself to Moses as a voice speaking from the burning bush. Do you know this ‘baptism of fire?’ There is a counterfeit and there is the true. It is the spirit of burning within our very soul that “burns away the chaff”– the FLESH within— that is the true revelation of God presence in you. The Holy Spirit baptism of fire is this:
“Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jer. 23:29).
When a TRUE WORD from the Lord is heard, whether through dream, vision, or Word of Knowledge, it will have the effect of burning within. For our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29; Deut. 4:24; Isa. 33:14; etc.)— He consumes the flesh within us by burning it out of us. In a sense, it is the “brightness of his coming” that destroys the man of sin within. It is this that empowers a person to become an OVERCOMER. They overcome the sins that so easily beset them before, and are able to ONLY because they listen and obey the true Word, the consuming fire that leads them. They, like Moses, are not afraid to approach God. They are not afraid to approach the thick darkness and infolding fire atop the Mount… They are not afraid like the Israelites (the rest) were afraid, because they trust God and know that “if I perish, I perish” but at least I know and believe the WAY of God is more righteous than I, and knowing that, I can lay down my life and approach the consuming fire that is God:
“And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,….” Exo. 24:17-18; 25:1.
Moses knew God’s WAYS because he OVERCAME the fear of approaching God. He understood perfectly that to approach God without reservation certainly meant that he would DIE… The Israelites were to hear the Voice of God as well. But all they could handle was the first Ten Commandments (and is it not interesting that all know these, but know little of the others that were given?). When the fire of God’s presence approached each Israelite individually (as a flame of fire) to speak the words of the Law, they could not “hear” for the “fear” that welled up within them:
“And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” EXO. 20:19).
The Israelites were afraid to die. They did not understand that this was the whole point. The flesh, the carnality, the evil in our own hearts, must DIE. We must pick up our cross and follow Him– dying DAILY and resisting the temptation to sin with the sword of our mouths as so many do. Unless we receive this baptism of fire, approaching God without reservation and asking HIM to BURN it out of us from WITHIN, we will only know God EXTERNALLY…by His ACTS.
So… is KNOWING the rapture or arguing over timelines or whose right more important? No. It is simply fighting the egyptian in others. Let us rather move past that. Seek the Lord while He may be found and ask Him to reveal His consuming fire, His WORD to you. Do not be afraid to hear. It will burn. Your flesh will die. But YOU shall live.
by a Faithful Christian
