His Coming - Looking Forward

What God Has Prepared
By Catherine J. Craig

Sometimes a shroud of thick mist will boil over the mountains or roll in from Prince William Sound to completely obscure the blue sky above the Alaskan fishing village where my husband and I live. This is a picture of how today's difficult economic, social and world situations can filter out the beauty of the Kingdom we will - perhaps soon - inherit.

We, who hope in Christ and view this world more as a Travel Lodge than our actual home, have a tangible destination. Though the Bible says, "Neither eye has seen, nor ear has heard what God has prepared for those who love Him," it does give some description of what God has laid up ahead for His faithful followers.

It is Jesus who first set the example of enduring hardship by focusing on something better and higher, "...Who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross despising the shame..." In the same way, Hebrews Chapter 12 also encourages us to, "...fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...".

Romans Chapter 1 declares that creation itself reveals Gods invisible qualities, eternal power, and divine splendor. It's easy to see the majesty of God when viewing the rugged Denali Range's jagged outline against a pristine blue sky or listening to the swoosh of an eagle’s wings as it swoops down to snatch salmon from the Sound and cheat a diving duck out of its quarry.

If what we believe according to Romans Chapter 8:21is true, then this earth as we know it will be freed from its bondage to decay and eventually released to be something much more glorious than anything we know now. Jesus will live among us and there will be no darkness - sort of like Alaska's 24/7 of daylight in the summer - the radiance of God's presence will cancel our need for the sun.

There are some mornings my back complains so much that I can hardly pull myself out of bed. It won't be like that once we get our new bodies. The Bible says that Jesus was the firstborn of many brethren, that our bodies will be similar to His resurrected one. 1 Corinthians Chapter 15:52 describes a transformation, a swallowing up in some fashion of our mortal bodies by immortality which will happen instantly - "in a flash, or a twinkling of an eye".

At Jesus' appearances after His resurrection, He demonstrated another interesting phenomenon by walking through solid walls and startling His disciples who were meeting behind locked doors. Another time He ate fish with them that He'd cooked Himself on the beach after they had gone fishing. As illustrated by Jesus when He knew at different times what His disciples were thinking without being told, we also may "know" things too and have telepathic skills along with advanced reasoning abilities through expanded intellect.

In the new order that God sets up, love will infiltrate and dictate every aspect of existence; there will be no sin, no need to hide or protect ourselves from one another - thus conceivably no need for barriers between people. In 1 Corinthians Chapter 13, verses 9-12 reflect that we see imperfectly now as through a foggy glass, but when the Perfect comes, we will know "fully" just as we are fully known.

Heavenly Jerusalem will somehow descend; God will somehow relocate it from the Heavenly realm to be the Crown City from which the King will rule. Jerusalem’s walls, roads and gates are made of precious stones and jewels.

In the first Chapter of Ezekiel, the prophet describes a Heavenly vision in which He saw the "figure of a man" sitting on a throne made of sapphire. The radiance around the glowing figure on the Throne was reminiscent of a rainbow after a rain. In Exodus Chapter 24, verses 9-11, Moses, along with over seventy others climbed the mountain where God's presence dwelt. They saw what appeared to be a preincarnate manifestation of God and described the "road" He stood on this way, "Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself..."

There are many doctrinal differences and interpretations of the "what, when, how and what" of the future the Bible depicts, but these descriptions above do give glimpses of what a remarkable inheritance we as believers have.

Unfortunately, we also have an enemy who knows his time is short; he wants to take as many people with him as possible when God locks him up forever. Over the next few months in the next eleven columns titled "His Coming", we will examine how we might get ourselves ready, stay on track, and expose the strategies the Devil will use to try to take us and others we know down.

Tune in and we'll take this necessary and invaluable journey together.

Catherine J. Craig, originally from Upstate New York, first planted both feet on Alaskan soil in 1990 to pursue a vision, but in March 2005, a life-changing turn of events brought her busy life as an entrepreneur to a standstill. Unable to return to work due to unexpected health issues, Catherine, supported by her husband Jeff, capitalized on her unforeseen downtime to begin writing the book she'd dreamed of writing. Much of Catherine's passion for life and her unstoppable faith is reflected in her writing. Her novel, "The Golden Thread" is a rich revelation not only of Jewish history, but also of a broad spectrum of her personal convictions and intuitive beliefs about life, faith, and God. http://www.catherinejcraig.com or http://www.lookinup.org.

Copyright © 2010 Catherine J. Craig.  All rights reserved.