AT THE MOMENT OF RAPTURE
Just over a month ago, while preparing a message on the end of the age, I asked God to show me something special in the Word of God about the Rapture. I’m going to share that with you, but first, I want to take you through the process of the rapture of the church. Let’s look at Revelation 11:12.
“And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them.”
The men being spoken about here are the Two Witnesses, Enoch and Elijah, during the Tribulation. When their ministry is completed, Yahweh God will call them home into heaven.
About two dozen times in the New Testament, we see the words spoken by God in heaven, “Come”, or “Come up here”. It takes only one word from God to command a thing. In Genesis chapter 1, God says “Light be”, and it was so. These commands by God concerning the catching away of the church into heaven have the same effect. Four times the description given of this event is, “caught up”, in 2 Corinthians 12:2, 4, Revelation 12:5, and here in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”
Question: The words, “Caught up” doesn’t sound like the word “rapture”, so where did we get the word rapture?
Answer: The original Hebrew texts of the New Testament were copied into Greek for the majority of the Gentile world. Later in 405 AD, Jerome published Latin Vulgate translation. In Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, the word used for “caught up” in 2 Corinthians 12:2 and 12:4 is raptum (or raptus), meaning “to snatch,” “seize,” or “carry away”. This word in the Greek is harpagenta (from harpazo), being the same concept “we shall be caught up” used in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. So, the word “rapture” is a translation addition to our English vocabulary from Jerome’s Vulgate Bible.
As I said above, I asked the Holy Spirit for a deeper understanding of the rapture, and something I hadn’t seen or heard before. I heard, “Psalm 34:5”, and went and looked it up.
“They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces will never be ashamed.”
The Hebrew word for “radiant”, or in some translations, “lightened”, is “nahar” (נָהַר), meaning to shine, to beam, or to sparkle. It describes the face lighting up with joy, confidence, and radiant light from within, reflecting God’s glory. This radiance represents the transformation from shame to joy, intensified by turning your gaze and focus completely towards the face of Jesus. God revealed to me that at the moment of the rapture, being “caught up”, this is what occurs!
This is what God revealed to me. “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord (Jesus).” At that moment in time, in the twinkle of an eye, we will be filled with the full strength of heaven itself, shining inside and out, with power and confidence that we have never experienced before.
At that moment, “…we will see Him just as He is.” 1 John 3:2. His eyes will capture our eyes, His face will beam into our face, and as He looks into our very being, He will be speaking to us individually, as if there is no one else in existence. He will radiate His love for us with intensity. All of our natural cares and shame will be gone, permanently, faster than a blink of an eye.
“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Corinthians 15:52-53
As the Holy Spirit was flowing towards me in that week concerning the rapture, the radiance, and the complete loss of our mortal bodies, He revealed again the power that was flowing through every person that was caught up. He said, “The power of the Sun, as large and powerful as it is, is only cosmic dust, compared to the brilliance and eternal power that will be flowing through us.” He gave me this equation, “The sun times infinity equals = RADIANCE”. The astonishing power of eternal life in heaven, with our Lord, is unattainable in our natural language to fully explain!
The same root word nahar – RADIANT, is used in Isaiah 60:5 to describe the heart that thrills and beams with joy. “They looked to Him and were radiant; their faces shall never blush for shame or be confused.” The Divine glory of God Himself will be reflected in our faces. God’s very nature and power, that created this world, will now for eternity be flowing through us. His power is not natural like the sun of our earthly galaxy, but dimensionally unmatched by anything that we have ever experienced.
“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” 1 John 3:2
From that time on, as we live with God, the burdens removed from our hearts, and our countenance becomes radiant with hope and joy. Radiant is also used as “They flowed unto him.” The Hebrew word, נָהַרnâhar, also means, “to flow, or to flow together”.
“But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet Him.’” Matthew 25:6.
At that moment, at the rapture and from that time on, your face and mind will never be confounded, nor will you ever again be made to the blush with disappointment! Wow.
Pray for me and this ministry daily. Your support of me and the work of this ministry will make a lasting and eternal impact in millions of lives!
I am praying for you daily. Shalom!
Pastor David Gonzalez
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