Resurrection of the Dead 106: Descent from Heaven

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
‭‭I Thessalonians‬ ‭4:16-17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The phrase “For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven...”  is our topic is discussion. 

From this beginning phrase, the main idea of this entire revelation
is about the coming of The Lord –  His descent from Heaven.

It didn’t begin with “and we shall go to heaven” nor did
it say, “when we all die we shall go to heaven.”

Looking at the order of events from the passage, the Lord descends from Heaven first before the
dead are resurrected. Not the other way round. 

I have already
taught on the resurrection of the dead in Christ being mainly about
the rousing of the dead in Christ in order to give them new
incorruptible or immortal bodies.
What is more important is that the Lord descends first in order for
that to happen. 

All over scripture, the purpose of God is not about earth going to
heaven but Heaven rather coming to earth. The main goal of our
Christian life is not to go to Heaven but to play our role in God’s
plan to bring kingdom of Heaven to the earth.
We see that in the Lord’s Prayer : 

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is
in heaven.”

Matthew 6:10  (KJV)

Our mandate is to play our role in fulfilling this plan that the
will of God that is in heaven will reach and completely influence and takeover the earth .
The glory and influence of the kingdom of God will be on earth as it currently is
in Heaven. 

We are not going to Heaven. The kingdom of Heaven is coming to us.

Have we not forgotten that before the fall of Adam, man was on
earth? The jurisdiction of the Earth was made for man (Psalm 115:16)  to dominate and rule as children of God. Adam, before the fall, was created here on the earth and was given
a mandate of dominion and fruitfulness (Genesis 1:27-28). 

This is
the mandate of mankind of which we didn’t get to fully accomplish
because of the fall. Why weren’t we created in a different sphere?
Why earth and not heaven?
If the ultimate goal of being a Christian is to go to heaven why is
that when we were born again, we didn’t instantly leave the earth
and appear there. We are now Christians so why the wait? 

For believers in Christ, we are already seated in HEAVENLY PLACES
in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). We are already living in
Heaven.
Heaven is a realm and we are already a part of it though we are
here on earth. 

Jesus made another profound statement during His discourse with
Nicodemus as recorded in the Gospel of John: 

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came
down from heaven, even the Son of man WHICH IS IN HEAVEN.  

John 3:13 (KJV)

Though Jesus was physically walking and speaking on earth. He
asserted that He was in heaven and the same goes for us believers as
we see affirmed in Ephesians 2:6.
We can also see the same in the Book of Hebrews:
“

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven,
and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous
made perfect,” 

Hebrews 12:22-23

We have already come to mount Zion, the Heavenly (not earthly)
Jerusalem and have been enrolled in Heaven. Our main goal is to
play our role in establishing our heavenly reality all over the
earth.
That His “Will” will be done on earth just as it is in Heaven. 
Conclusion 

We even see in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the same
pattern. 

“And I John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. 

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”

Revelation 21:2-3 (KJV)

It is all about Heaven descending to the earth and not vice versa. The tarbenacle descended from Heaven to dwell with mankind on earth. 

Our mandate of dominion on earth has not been fully realized because of the problem of the fall. Once that has been taken care of completely, mankind will revert back to doing their makir mandate in its fullness.

It is my prayer that this revelation sinks into your heart. The will of God on earth as in Heaven begins with each member, organization or sector on earth that the kingdom of Heaven influences. Let us continue to engage in this assignment bequeathed to us. 

 We will delve deeper into this topic in our next session. 

Shalom!!!

Uche Okorie