Michael Landrum
7 June 2006



The Transformation And The Rapture Of The Church

When the Lord speaks a Word, that Word is alive. It has the power itself to accomplish the thing for which it is sent. Man’s words fall to the ground, yet God’s Words from Heaven continue to go forth to perform their intended purposes.

The word “Transformation” has been used and overused by modern liberal Theology and by the New Age religions. What I am about to show you here, of what the Lord has shown me, should restore to our hearts the true meaning of this word, and restore us to the joy of our Salvation and to Paul’s intention in describing, “The Blessed Hope”.

On Earth as it is in Heaven

Many years ago, I was going through some particularly difficult times. My wife Kathy and I just wanted to be with Him--in His Presence. I remember a moment in prayer as I looked out the window of our apartment in Kirkland, Washington. The thought of David’s own expression many centuries ago came to mind in Psalm 55: 6, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest,” and I remember thinking wistfully about Heaven. Almost immediately, the Spirit of God spoke to me saying,

“Pray not for you to go to Heaven, but rather for Heaven to come to earth!”

Almost as quickly, sprang to my mind the words of the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples, “. . . thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven . . .” As I stood there at the window, He spoke again,

“Son, I am about to answer the most commonly prayed prayer in the history of the church.”

With astonishment, I realized that Christians the world over for twenty centuries had, in their own languages, had been praying this most familiar of prayers; sometimes rotely and without comprehension; sometimes earnestly, with all longing desire. Now, He was answering me by speaking plainly: “Heaven come TO earth”.

The Sure Mercies of David-- Promise of Eternal Life

Some months later, He spoke again. My wife Kathy and I had gone to Whistler, B.C in a dedicated weekend apart with the Lord. Kathy and I were filled with a Holy anticipation as we interceded in the car on our way up from Seattle. I sensed that God was about to speak more to me, and I wanted to be listening. When we got to our condo, with the cool breeze of a mountain afternoon in summer wafting through the bedroom, I turned to survey the ambiance. There came that familiar, “Still Small Voice.” I had been praying, “Lord, show me more of what You mean.”

I heard the words, “The Sure Mercies of David.”

I sat down on the bed knowing I was in the Presence of the Same One Who had spoken earlier. For a long while, I heard nothing more. Slowly I rose to my feet, thinking that He would say no more at that time. As I did, I felt the Presence of the Lord in front of me. Gently, but palpably, I felt a push on my chest which dropped me back to the bed. In astonishment, I waited for a few more moments, and again, I cautiously began to stand up, only to have the same experience again, of being pushed as with a large hand, gently, but firmly, backward, into a seated position on the bed. I waited yet a longer time, and listened, asking the Lord to speak to me, and, after what seemed to be many minutes of silence, I cautiously ventured to rise to my feet again. When I felt His Presence literally push me back a third time, I said, “Lord, You have my full attention, forgive me for less, give me ears to hear. At this, He began to pour into my understanding, the meaning and interrelationship of several verses from the scripture that I was only vaguely able to recall at the time. They had not previously been on my mind. I began to search scripture and found references to this subject including 2 Samuel 23:5 where David says, “truly, does not my house stand so with God? For He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure”. Other references included 2 Samuel 7:16, 1Samuel 2:35, Psalms 16:9-11, Isaiah 55:3, but one that got my closest attention was Psalms 21:2-4. In reading this scripture, I realized how little of the meaning of this scripture I had heard from the pulpit. It describes David’s most heartfelt prayer, and the answer he then received from God. “You have given Him his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah! For you send blessings of good things to meet him, you set a crown of gold on his head He asked life of You, and You gave it to him, long life for ever and ever more.”

For me to have missed this unusual request in all the years of Bible Study and church meetings, might even have been dismissible, were it not for Paul’s words in Acts 13. These words bring David’s request all the way forward to the New Testament and to our own day. In speaking of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul was exhorting the leaders of the synagogue in Antioch, saying, “and as to His having raised Him from among the dead, now no more to return to [undergo] putrefaction and dissolution [of the grave], He spoke in this way, I will fulfill and give to you the Holy and sure mercies and blessings [that were promised and assured] to David.” Verse 36, describes that David had indeed experienced death, and “he did see corruption and undergo putrefaction, and dissolution [of the grave]. Then verse 37 intervenes with this thought “but He Whom God raised up [to life] saw no corruption—did not experience putrefaction, and dissolution [of the grave]. (Amplified) This was the promised “sure mercies” fulfilled!

The concealed will be revealed

I realized I was treading on Holy Ground. I was hearing things that were meant to bring answers I had long sought. In the book of Daniel, God told His prophet to “go your way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.” (Daniel 12:9). Paul, in 2 Corinthians 12: 3, Paul describes his experience of “being caught up into paradise, and hearing utterances, beyond the power of man to put into words, which man is not permitted to utter, and yet, as I contemplated what was unfolding, the Lord reminded me that, indeed, for “there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.” (Matthew 10:26, NAS)

What an extraordinary trust that was conveyed to men like Daniel and Paul, and yet some of the things that they were shown, were not permitted at that time to be spoken of. They were meant for a yet future day. God is today seeking modern day Daniels and Pauls who are counted worthy of receiving the same trust given in ages past. Even as the inheritance of one generation falls to another, each successive generation must in their own day, carry that trust with responsibility and insight equal to the previous, lest that inheritance be lost. The church in our day, yes, in this very moment, has within it the people who have been prepared to carry forward the revelation of things not yet revealed. Rev. 22:6 declares: “And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent His messenger to make known and exhibit to His servants what must soon come to pass”. That prophetic baton is being passed now.

On Earth as it is in Heaven

God was putting together a very big picture for me. It had to do with what we, the church, have “already known” of resurrection and eternal life, and yet have not known as we fully need to.

Phil 3: 10-12 “… to know Him, and the power of the resurrection of Him, and the fellowship of the sufferings of Him, being conformed to the death of Him; if somehow I may attain to the resurrection out of the dead.

The first word “resurrection” is the Greek word “anastasis”, meaning: “a resurrection from death”. It means a literal rising from a state or condition of death.

The second word “resurrection” is the Greek word “ex-anastasis”, meaning: “a rising from death”. Being distinctly different, it directly implies a rising out from even the possibility of physical death.

God has ordained that the revealing of Himself in Glory, will be accomplished, “on earth as it is in Heaven”. It will be for an intended time, which all indicators point to being our present day. That God-ordained fashion of our progressive dying to self will allow a progressive transformation into His likeness. Paul emphasized the need for a Christian to die to self in order to live unto God as a precondition to being changed:

I Cor. 15:31 “I die daily…”

Heb 9:27 “it is appointed unto men once to die…”

Rom 12:2 “…but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

Because Christ accomplished the victory over death, having died Himself for the sins of mankind, we now stand in the potential place of benefiting from this work and attaining to a yet higher degree. Christ Who is our Conqueror, now makes us more than conquerors, so that, according to Paul’s actual meaning in that passage, there is a coming moment of transformation out of this physical, mortal frame directly into resurrection life-bypassing death itself!

Paul describes that the price for this is that we be “conformed to the death of Him” (Verse 11). That is, we have to allow Him to take us to the very end of ourselves, “that the Life of Christ may be made manifest in our mortal flesh”.

Then, verse 21 describes, “… Christ, Who will change the body of the humiliation of us for to be it (sic) conformed to the Body of the Glory of Him …” The Greek word for change is “metaschematizo” (Strongs 3345) meaning: to transfer or to transform.

Our commonly held view of the Rapture is that the Body of Christ will be taken out of the world in a sudden moment of disappearance. What He then revealed to me is something FAR BETTER: it is not JUST a sudden, unannounced disappearance!

Jesus Coming Before He Comes

As I listened, He then said something that changed me forever. Very quietly but firmly it was,

“Son, the church has it all wrong.

It is not a disappearing.

It is an appearing!”

Since the mid-1980’s, the Lord had begun to speak to me, a Word to the church, which has only opened to me more completely in these last few years. I have thought about it and prayed about it before venturing to speak about it. The Word He has given me is about the revealing. It is a Word to not just anyone. It is specifically directed to the Remnant, the true Bride of Christ, who waits with oil lamp ready in hand to hear His imminent announcement of arrival.

It is the Transformation into the Resurrection Body that is, in fact, about to happen; or, as He showed it to me, “Jesus coming before He comes”. It is the true meaning of the Greek word Parousia. He is to be revealed first in the transformed state through us, as His Body on earth. It is His Body, “that little flock” of whom Jesus said, “…it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom”. This will be the listening, responding, dying to self, being set apart, progressively being transformed company. These will enter into the modern day “Noah’s Ark/Enoch’s Walk” experience.

It will be the fulfillment of Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins, of whom only five were waiting with enough oil in their lamps to meet the Bridegroom at His appearing. At a certain actual moment, there will not be a transition into death any longer, but a Sovereign working of His ability to complete us by transforming His remnant people, His true Bride, directly into His own resurrection likeness. We will then appear with Him in Glory.

The “rapture”, from the Latin rapturo, meaning a “catching away”, will not be a disappearing as has been popularly taught in the church. A clearer understanding of the revealed Word shows that it is rather an appearing with Him, followed by a sudden removal. That “twinkling of an eye” will be when His called-apart ones who have died to themselves daily, finally cross heaven’s threshold in a single Sovereign moment of God’s choosing.

The issue of a “disappearing rapture”, as it has been taught up to now, truly leaves the issue of an appropriate testimony on the earth unanswered. Where would be the church characterized in the Song of Solomon “as mighty as an army with banners”?

We will be transformed into the resurrection state, just as He is now, when He comes for His true Bride. We will then be revealed to be truly like Him-“the ultimate definition of Christian” (i.e. “little Christs”). He will appear to receive His Bride, prior to His second coming, as a testimony of Himself to the whole world, just before antichrist is fully revealed.

Romans 8:8 speaks of, “The Glory which shall be revealed.”

Romans 8:22 “All creation groans at the revealing of the sons of God.”

Malachi 3:2 “And who can stand when He appears?”

Colossians 3:4 “… when Christ, Who is our Life appears, then we shall appear also with Him in Glory

1 Peter 5:4 “… and when the Chief Shepherd appears…”

1 John 3:2 “… when He is revealed…”

1 John 2:28 “abide in Him, that when He appears ...”

2Thess 1:7 “… when the Lord Jesus is revealed… “

Matt. 10:26 Nothing is covered that will not be revealed.

1Cor 15:51-54 “… we shall be changed” (transformed)

Testimony of the remnant Bride

I asked the Lord, “How long?”

He said, “Forty”.

I asked, “Forty what?”

He said, “Forty days”.

The pattern is seen first in Jesus Himself, Who goes before us. Jesus spent 40 days prior to the onset of His ministry, in the desert. Much might be said of the purposes represented in that. The essential sense of it is that He was coming all the way to the end of His human limitations. Thereafter, His entire reliance was sharpened to be upon His Heavenly Father. Jesus arose to 40 days of Resurrection Life on earth, before returning to Heaven and to the Father. Note, there were 40 days of dying to self (human limitations), later followed by 40 days of Resurrection unto God (Heaven’s Glory revealed on earth).

The number 40 has prophetically signified a number of key moments in prophetic history. The list of those prophetic moments associated is long and impressive. Noah experienced 40 days and 40 nights of rain before he could arrive into a transformed world and Jesus was 40 days in the wilderness before His ministry on earth began in earnest. Moses was 40 days on Mount Sinai at the giving of the law, before coming down to the people with a face that shone so brightly that he had to put a veil over it. We, “who follow the Lamb wherever He goes”, may well follow Him into a prophetic 40 “days” of the end to self, which will precede the Transformation. Only afterward will we follow Him into Life.

After Jesus rose from the dead, He was 40 days in His Resurrection Body, coming and going to his disciples on earth before being taken up into Heaven in the sight of all. It is God’s true and enduring purpose that His testimony be a public witness, that it go on record to be noted for all time. Such is also the Lord’s original commission to the church that we bear faithful testimony of Who He is and what He has done.

Notice also that during those 40 days after resurrection, Jesus did not appear to Caesar in Rome or to the magistrates and counsels of this world’s system. He only appeared to His own who received Him. As a result, the testimony of the early church was that of a first-hand account of literal resurrection from death. It was a testimony so profound that it enabled Christian Martyrs to go to the Roman arenas with total assurance.

Such will be the case again in the era that is just ahead of us. A testimony will be born to all those within the circle of those called, and in so doing, He will add a testimony to the world itself.

The “five wise virgins”, waiting with enough oil for His appearing, will go out to meet Him in this day. They will be transformed to be fully like Him. But the five virgins who were not ready will not enjoy that privilege... Yet they are still betrothed. The testimony of the reality of the resurrection can still be carried by them, as they too will observe it the way that the early Church did. The five remaining virgins represent that part of the church which was “not ready”. They will be given the chance to become ready by finally and fully dying to themselves during the violent martyrdom of the anti-Christ era. Yet note this crucial point: both of the two groups of “virgins” must have come to the end of themselves before they could come even to the beginning of God. The first group has already “died”—having died daily. Hence, they will be ready for resurrection at the appearing of their Bridegroom.

Confirmations

As you can imagine, I was reeling at the thought of an alteration in a major doctrinal teaching of the Church. I thought of the Scripture stating that every fact will be confirmed out of the mouth of two or three witnesses. So I asked Him for these.

The first confirmation came out of the Word itself. Recall that when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, he declared that “No Word of God will be devoid of power”. If God speaks a Word, it does not merely apply for the moment. It will remain and keep on working. It is permanent. It will literally change everything. A revealed Word will agree with God’s written Word. It will not be a substitute for it or an addendum to it. A revealed Word from God will further reveal the written Word. Since it is brought out of the Holy Spirit, it will also characterize what Jesus said about the ministry of the Holy Spirit: “He will speak of mine and show it to you”, and also, “He will show you things to come”. A revealed Word from God does not contradict the written Word. It does not even need to embellish it. It just shows us more of the living Word, who is Jesus. As such, when we hear a true Word from God, we will bear witness to it.

This is what happened to me as I searched the Scriptures to, “see if these things be true”. The written Word became my first and most important confirming “witness”.

The second “witness” came from an e-mail forwarded to me from a friend of ours in Washington State with whom I had already carefully shared this revelation. Judy Curmi sent, “Amazing Rapture Dream” written in 1993 by, Armin Wolff, a believer from Oregon. This dream can be found at: http://www.tvbn.com/index.html?http://www.tvbn.com/Frame/ . Click on “visions”, then on Armin Wolf’s Rapture Dream. In this dream from 1993, the author describes several startling points of direct confirmation.

The third “witness” came as I afterward listened to a tape set by Charles Capps, a Bible teacher in Little Rock, Arkansas, entitled “The Solomon Concept Update”. Side 2 of the second tape stated much the same as I had been given, along with additional confirmatory Scriptures. These tapes can be found on the Capps Ministry web site: http://charlescapps.com/

For the last two years, I have intermittently had extended conversations with Bible teacher Charles Capps in regard to what God has shown me. His talks on “the Solomon Concept” have closely confirmed what the Lord revealed. Charles quoted Solomon as describing, “that which has been will be again”, in a pattern of prophetic recurrence.

The “Greater Works”

In Hebrew, the number 40 is a numerical symbol which describes something being brought to completion or judgment through intense activity or trial. As the Lord helped me to understand all of this, He showed me again how He is the Shepherd Who goes before His flock and illustrated to me a precept He had put into my heart in May of 2000.

He showed me that His Precept for the church is, “We are to do ONLY what we see Him do”, and speak ONLY what we hear Him say.” (This is In agreement with Jesus’ own statement when He said, “I always do that which I see the Father doing.”) He showed me that just as Jesus Himself went before us in the Resurrection, and was on earth for 40 days afterwards, so it will be at His revealing that His waiting bride, who has gone out to meet Him, will be transformed into resurrection, for forty days on earth.

Just as He appeared, ministering to other disciples and believers in Him, so shall we also, in the same way, be doing as He did, first. We shall minister to those in the church, who were not ready at His coming, to prepare them for tribulation, which will follow shortly after, at the hands of antichrist. This ministry to the non-transformed ones, who will yet be saved, will be with the same effect as the Lord’s risen testimony upon the first century believers who saw and heard the risen Lord. They were then so vividly convinced of His victory over death, that they were able to go to martyr’s deaths with complete confidence of the resurrection to come. So, those who are left (along with others who will believe, hearing their testimony) will be prepared to “love not their lives even unto the death”. They will be empowered to broadcast the message of His love--and coming judgment to all nations, before the end.

Just as Jesus was “taken up into Heaven in the sight of all” at the conclusion of 40 days, so the transformed saints will leave the earth after 40 days together with the Lord as a public testimony to the whole world of a triumphant church. Then, He will take her with Him—in the sight of all, just as He was taken up after forty days of Resurrection on Earth. In my conversations with brother Capps, he spoke of the same thing. He spoke of the significance of God leaving a true and clear Testimony of Himself. He confirmed this point.

These “Transformed ones” will enjoy the seven day bridal week in Heaven. But before they leave, the forty day period of time on earth will have represented that long awaited time of the fulfillment of “the Greater Works” which Jesus spoke of. These will be forty days of the greatest testimony of God on earth that will have ever been seen. Before antichrist is given the chance to fully rule, the world will know the testimony of the Truth in living color.

During these times of listening and receiving from Him, The Lord spoke to my spirit the following question:

“Son, Who can do greater works than I did when I walked on Galilee’s shores?”

My only response was, “…Lord, you know!”

He replied, “There is One Who can do greater works than the Jesus that came to earth… it will be the Jesus Who was resurrected”.

He then said that the change—or Transformation—will bring us into full alignment with the resurrection mind and body of Christ. We will be then fully identified with the risen Lord. We will have no vestige left of the mind of flesh. We will finally, fully be able to do the appointed “Greater Works”. At our present moment of pre-Transformation, we cannot realistically imagine what these could be. 1 Cor 13 says that when the perfect is come, the partial will be done away. Our works will reflect that fact. There will simply be no more admixture of the nature of flesh. It will be no more. The “perfect” will be seen in what Jesus called, “The Greater Works”, to come.

Trial and the Contrite Heart

The seven day bridal week in Heaven will be simultaneous with the seven years of “Jacob’s trouble on the earth”, when the Lord will then be specifically dealing with His ancient people of Israel. He will also be judging the rule of the antichrist and the godless systems and kingdoms of man on earth.

All men must first realize that we are sinners who need a Savior. Then we must realize that God’s Love is so great that He provided the answer in His Son, Jesus the Messiah who died for the sins of mankind. But we must respond appropriately to that magnificent provision by saying “YES” to it.

There is something significant, something of a watershed, which occurs when we decide to fully cooperate with God. He will not force our response, but He will require our response, our appropriate response to His first initiative of Grace.

The scripture says that, “He is near those who are of a broken heart, but He saves those of a contrite spirit.” (Ps 34:18) The broken heart is still in the process of “going all the way down”. But the contrite, has actually, finally, achieved it!

The message of the Transformation is that if you would embrace His Life, you will have to first embrace His death. Death must actually one day be transited in order to have arrived at the “other side”, namely Resurrection.

see part 2

part2

The message of the Transformation is that if you would embrace His Life, you will have to first embrace His death. Death must actually one day be transited in order to have arrived at the “other side”, namely Resurrection.

The Lord does not cherish that ultimately, we must commit to physical death. He would illustrate, rather, to us and the world that “death is swallowed up in victory”. The Transformation is the fulfillment of that ultimate will of God in the redemption of our mortal bodies. But the bypassing of physical death cannot be achieved in His will for us, until we have fully allowed the death of the self-life which is apart from Him. That final end to the “self” which has been separate from Him, will free us into the long awaited beginning of Him, then into the Transformation of our bodies into the likeness of His own Resurrection state.

The End of Futility

The Transformation spells the end of futility. It is the end of the effects of the sin of Adam (Habakkuk 2:13-14).

The Transformation is the full conforming of our flesh to meet His Presence. As the Lord told Moses (Exodus 33:20), “you cannot see My Face, for no man shall see me and live”. To approach Him then, to walk out into His Presence, is to die to the flesh. To behold His Face is to be Transformed into the Glory, that is, into His very likeness. The Glory of God is revealed to us in the very face of Jesus, the Messiah (2 Corinthians 4:6). The Face of Jesus reveals the Glory of God. As we then continue to look at Him, we find that His likeness is increasingly seen on our faces. As we continue to behold, as in a mirror, the Face of Jesus, we behold the glory. We are then progressively becoming transformed into His Own image and likeness, from one degree of Glory to the next (2 Cor 3:18).

That which is distractive from Transformation is ultimately destructive. The church of Jesus Christ is appointed unto His purposes for a Divine End in the latter day. Only a revelation of the Word in your life can bring you to the God-ordained end of yourself. Any other means is only a kind of substitute--a religious counterfeit--of His Works in your life.

To be called as a disciple is to be called into a discipline. It is to set a gaze upon Him without distraction until we are completely transformed into His likeness from the former likeness of human flesh to the full and future likeness of the One Who has called us from our death into His Life (Greek “Zoe” meaning the God kind of life, or life as God has it.)

Enoch, Noah, and Jonah: Full Identification with Him

The Enoch experience of a walk with God was that of one day going with Him so far out into the Presence and beholding Him so intently, that nothing was left to hold him to an earthly confine. He eventually never returned from His walk, he just kept on going. This is in fact the ultimate end of a walk of faith: the permanent and unimpeded access to His Presence.

The Noah experience of a walk with God was that same kind spoken of in Hebrews 10:36-37: “For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised. “For still a little while--a very little while--and the Coming One will come and He will not delay.” (Amp) Hebrews 11:7 says that by faith, “Noah, being forewarned of God concerning events of which as yet there was no visible sign, took heed and diligently and reverently constructed and prepared an ark for the deliverance of his own family. By this [his faith which relied on God] he passed judgment and sentence on the world’s unbelief and became an heir and possessor of righteousness…”

Up to our present day, the church’s only reference points into the manifest presence of God have been with His visitations in the history of revivals. These have been seen from the day of Pentecost to Azusa Street. In our prophetic moment, we can no longer be content with a visitation from God, as in ages past. Today, we can only be content to become a habitation of God.

This is the moment when the true bride of Christ will begin to be prepared to wear pure white, as Her Bridegroom comes to meet her. Her preparation will be a Sovereign one, not done by her own effort, because it cannot be done by her own effort. He must do what only He can do, as she does what only she can do, by His Grace.

In recent days, I have been led to read and re-read the book of Jonah. I did not know why exactly, until I later read Matthew 16. The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus, asking Him to show them a sign (a spectacular miracle) attesting His Divine Authority. Jesus’ response was, “a wicked and morally unfaithful generation craves for a sign, but no sign shall be given it, except for the sign of the Prophet Jonah.” The Amplified Bible then references Jonah 3:4-5 which reads. “…and Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, ‘yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ so the people of Nineveh believed in God, and proclaimed a fast…” Recall that Jonah 1:1 describes Jonah’s original commission was to proclaim against the city, “…for their wickedness has come up before me”. We see that “the wicked generation” in Jesus’ day, and of which Jesus spoke, would also receive the sign of Jonah. It had the same condition of wickedness as did Nineveh in Jonah’s day.

They were both a, “wicked and morally unfaithful generation”. They both received therefore, the same sign. What was that sign? It was the appearance of “Jonah” himself. Jonah, after having been swallowed by the fish, was then spit back out after three days in the fishes’ belly. He was transformed in appearance. The action of digestive enzymes would have left him looking de-pigmented and unnaturally white. Jesus rose again after three days in the grave. His resurrection body was not at first able to be recognized by some of His diciples because He had been transformed.

Furthermore, he describes that while in the fishes’ belly for three days, “…the earth, with its bars, closed behind me forever. Yet, You have brought up my life from the pit and corruption, oh Lord My God.” (Chapter 2:6)

In other words, he says that he had passed through death itself, to be used as a testimony of the truth of the message that God would judge this wicked generation, … in FORTY DAYS time.

In Matt 16, after Jesus had told the Pharisees of the attesting sign that their wicked generation could expect to receive, He asked His disciples (V.15), “who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Then, Jesus answered Him, “Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah. For flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but My Father Who is in Heaven …I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven . . .”

The title of Bar-Jonah literally means “Son of Jonah”; or that Peter had supernaturally received a revelation, a revealing, of the same nature that was intended in Jonah’s God-given message to Nineveh: “BELIEVE AND TURN”.

The sign of the prophet Jonah was that God had actually brought His Prophet through death, to proclaim warning to a wicked and morally corrupt generation that they had 40 days to respond to Him. Jonah’s generation is a type of our own. Our present generation is equally that “wicked generation” of Nineveh’s day and of Jesus’ Day. It, too will receive the sign of the prophet Jonah: Transformed saints brought through death, preaching an eternal Gospel in ultimate power.

Summary

The Transformation saints will be those brought through and actually beyond death. They will proclaim on earth God’s message of warning to this unbelieving present generation--for 40 days. They will do so using the “keys to the kingdom” that the believing Peter was promised by Jesus. These shall be the “Greater Works”.

Peter’s revelation of Christ as the Son of the Living God saw Jesus as the Eternal Son of God. His death on the cross, which was to follow, was characterized by three days in the grave, after which He appeared unto many in a Transformed state for 40 days: the exact parallel of Jonah.

Just as Nineveh of old was so startled by this sign that they repented, so did many, in the wicked generation of Jesus’ day. So, will our own generation shortly become witness to the actual physical evidence of the resurrection from death by the living and true God. It is likely that the result will be massive revival, on a scale probably never before seen, just as the clock of time in the age of Grace winds to an end.

The sign of Jonah to be delivered in our day, will be similarly demonstrated in a sum total transformation of those who have been dying daily, so as to be fully conformed to the death of Jesus their Savior. They will appear in that moment, even as their Lord did in His Resurrection. They will be deathless even has He was. They themselves will be the “sign” to this wicked generation, and they will be eloquent for 40 days, as their Lord Himself was, and is today.

Then shall be judgment for those who do not receive His testimony. For then, that generation will have seen the evidence of the resurrection, of “The Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

And they will be without excuse.

After this will be the coming of the Lord to publicly judge the Antichrist and to rule the nations, in what we have long spoken of as His Second Coming, when EVERY eye shall see Him!

Wow! - To be transformed, knowing I will soon be with Jesus permanently, it would be awesome to have 40 days to convince friends and loved ones, cause I KNOW they would THEN be convinced and I could be at peace knowing they would be in Glory too in the near future. Whatever God's will is, whatever His plan is, it's OK with me! I would love to be able to return to Heaven with Jesus KNOWING my family would soon be coming behind me. Your Will Be Done Lord, on earth as it is in heaven. AMEN!

I know, that is good and exciting news, isn't it, Shirley? You know, when I read this article, I was very surprised to see Charles Capps came to this conclusion as well. So neat. You know, I feel the Lord showed me a few months ago that this would indeed be the case, not for any teaching, but I sought Him directly and He showed me in His Word Himself. It blew me away because I was very resistant to any deviation from the standard pre-trib teachings. In any case, we can all be most assured that His plan is PERFECTION and we who are called by His Name will be blessed beyond measure to be a part of it!!!

Love, M.

may we have a 'Clif notes' version?



this seems a little strange to me? a bit far-fetched.

do the words 'twinkling of an eye' and 'in a moment' mean anything?

Email: scuggers1@gmail.com

Website: twitter.com/#search?q=rapture2010

Scuggers, IMO, you won't want to miss a word of this man's testimony.

okay, I did speed-scan it but I'm not buying it

I don't say it isn't possible just wishful thinking


but I don't want to be mean or ruin anyone else's message. If you receive it, God bless then.

I had more like this in mind



When Christ Your Lord starts this event the first thing that will happen is that He will stop the functioning of the human bodies of BORN-AGAIN Christians.

Then EACH one will experience the infilling of great joy. Then with speed faster than a flash of lightning each BORN AGAIN Christian will ascend to meet Christ Your Lord right above the atmosphere of Planet Earth.

We are so blessed to know we shall be taken from the earth to meet the LORD IN THE AIR.

Email: scuggers1@gmail.com

Website: twitter.com/#search?q=rapture2010

That makes two of us, Scruggers. I thought that we were all saved by grace; like that thief on the cross next to Jesus, and those others whom rose from the dead when Jesus was resurrected and returned to heaven.

Get what I mean?