Life Starts Here, Next Stage
Pastor J. R. Wilhite, author
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When you die you are no longer of this universe, and even though you are no longer of it, and no longer remember it any more than you did any part of your life in the womb, it does not make this life any less real. Imagine, you have left this life; you have gone on to the next; as far as you are concerned this life is no more real to you than life in the womb was to you after you got here in this life. That makes it no less real, and all those who remain behind, as far as they are concerned, this life is still the only life. We need to start understanding life to understand what Jesus did for us. When He died for us He removed death from us. He also removed Hell and the grave from us as well. Anyone who is of Jesus, born again, will not see death. John 8 51. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. John 3 3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. When we are born again, first our old inner man dies and we are born again. Our old man, that which is born of this world, dies to this world to be born again of God. So, like with a car, when it has out lasted its usefulness, we junk it and get a new one. The same is for our body; when it has out lasted or out lived its usefulness and we put away the old for the new, then and only then are we truly born again. 18. I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Matthew 16 28. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. John 5 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. 25. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. 26. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; Matthew 27 52. And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, 53. And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. I have shared the above few verses so you can get some handle on what we are talking about here. It took me a long time to realize just how useless the flesh really is. It's not just useless, but it actually brings us down and can destroy us. As we are born physically into this world and then in this world we are born again spiritually (John 3) so were the attacks on us from Satan, only in reverse. Satan first cut us off from God by sin spiritually and then physically. Genesis 6 1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. Who are the sons of God? We are not called that yet, not until after Jesus. Job 1:6-8 (KJV) 6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. 7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. 8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? The "sons of God" reference is to angels, and the angels in Job are the two thirds which are still of God. The ones in Genesis are those which follow Satan. What would happen if you crossed a dog with a wolf? It would not be pure dog or pure wolf any more, actually a perversion of what God created. Genesis 3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. Here is the only time God refers to striving with man or a length of time in this fashion. We know the year of jubilee, or God's year, is every fifty years. Lev 25:8-10 (KJV) 8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. 9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. 10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. So 120 of God's years equals 50 times 120 or 6,000 years. This is the lease on the earth He was giving man. Genesis 4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. "Giants and men of renown" does not necessarily refer to physical stature here. It should be translated as men of great wisdom and ingenuity (technologically advanced). 5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. As with Babel, the more men build big cities and develop technology and become dependent on each other, the less they are dependent on God, and the more doubt that He "is" enters. Remember this is all His. Genesis 6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. 7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. Noah finds grace 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. We know that "Perfect in his generation" does mean not spiritually, because due to sin the spiritual connection was gone. So it was physical. Now look at the age of Noah; he was born right at the beginning of the time when angels and women mated, so to be perfect, none of his ancestors were products of these perverted unions. 10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth. Gen 6:1-12 (KJV) As we become more intelligent in the ways of the world and technology(not intelligent in God and His ways), the more evil, violence, and perversion grow. So as you can see the sin of Adam cut us off from God in the spiritual sense, but it was when sin entered the flesh that we really were cut off from God. Imagine you have left this life for the next. Now the next life seems as real as the last one here did, but you remember very little if anything of this life. So as far as you are concerned this life is not real. Then the last life the one we are in now would seem like when we were of this life looking back on the last one (in the womb). It just did not seem real because there was nothing left to remind us of it. For this reason we have doubts about the next life, and we for the most part (most, not all) fight leaving this life. Even though to the person who has left this life it may seem that this life is no more, and never existed, it does not make it any less real for those still in this life.
Our bodies die, but we do not; we are born again.
Revelation 1
It is in the flesh that sin entered and then started the real problems of mankind:
Still all sin is based in the flesh. In this sense we mean the physical flesh as well as the mind, will, and emotions of our soul. When the mind is controlled by the flesh it is of this world, but when the mind is controlled by God then our spirit is in charge and we are of the spiritual realm. So as you control your thoughts you also control who is in charge of you, the flesh (the world system and Satan), spirit (God).
When you leave this world, if you are of this world you will have to deal with death, Hell and the grave.