The Holy Spirit of Christ in our spirit that transforms our soul IS God present, abiding in us, just as it was in Jesus. The difference is that Jesus was born to the body of man with the equipping to attain to the full measure of that reality from the beginning because he was incarnate God Himself. It is a reality that was the plan and will of the Father, to abide in the body of the Son, fulfilling His promises and His plan for redemption since He conceived the creation of the earth. and to demonstrate to us the possibility that we, too, could experience God abiding with us through faith in and by following in the footsteps of Jesus. It is accomplished first by justification of one’s spirit by the Spirit’s regeneration. Then the Spirit-spirit union equipping begins His sanctifying work within our soul by the transformation of the mind, emotions, will, personality, and conscience. Beyond that, new power to affect our bodies’ well-being through obedience and prayer become possible. We may not be freed from every “thorn in the flesh”, but we can learn to walk transcendently, in peace and joy with the comfort and strength of the Lord to console and sustain us
When we are “walking in the Spirit” it means we are experiencing the full measure of the abiding Presence of God with us -“spirit, soul, and body.” It does not mean that we are doing anything in particular of a holier nature than at any other moment, because all that we do day to day can and should be consecrated to God’s will and purpose for a follower of Jesus. It means we are surrendered to and allowing the full measure of God’s grace and truth to direct the fullness of who we are in that moment. It is being His holy habitation and us abiding in Him, not just Him abiding with us. The roles and personas are reversed. We are so fully surrendered to His Being that we are “in Him” rather than Him being “in us.” This is why Paul could say, “I no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God which comes upon you, you don’t enter into it except through union with the Spirit of the Son, His Spirit having come into your spirit and merging to transform your soul and body. This is in the here and now. Not just at physical death and resurrection into heavenly eternity. When we are so fully surrendered to the Spirit of Christ in us, we never even experience the moment of our own physical death, but Christ takes the blow of that moment of death for us ….Revelation speaks of the second death in relation to death of the unregenerate spirit… to those who reject Christ. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.” Some commentators have said that in
this verse, Jesus promises that believers (“overcomers”; see 1 John 5:4) will not experience the lake of fire. The second death is exclusively for those who have rejected Christ because they did not participate in the first death, the spiritual death of self that allows Christ to dwell within one’s spirit and soul, even body. The second death is not a place or an experience believers in Christ should fear because they have already overcome it by the Spirit of Christ in them and are “taking part in the first resurrection, that of Jesus Christ Himself. “Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:6. Such persons in whom Christ abides simply step out of this life into the next in the Spirt-spirit union with Jesus who is already present with us, in us, abiding to greater and greater degrees of fullness of His glory, which is the glory of God. There is a supernatural Presence that can be seen (with spiritual eyes), heard (with spiritual ears), and felt ( through spiritual senses) when one is in the presence of the Spirit of Christ, (which is incarnate God).
it seems to me that the whole notion of rapture arises because of a misunderstanding about how and when and in whom the first death occurs. It seems to me that for born-again followers of Jesus Christ the first death is the spiritual death of self that allows the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit to progress completely.. spirit, soul, and body. The second death is the physical death that immediately ushers the overcomers, those “in Christ” to step into eternity in the grasp of God without any delay …”to be absent from the body is to be present with God.”
Clarence Haynes wrote at Crossealk.com in July 2021 on Romans8:18:
“When you know you are an eternal being and you recognize that longing in you that desires to be in your eternal dwelling. When you also have the inner confidence that comes from the Holy Spirit, then this verse makes even more sense. To be absent from the body and present with the Lord means that the moment you breathe your last breath on earth you are instantly transferred directly into the presence of God, not temporarily but forever. There is an exchange that will take place where you will take off the burdens of this life and begin the realities of new life, that is eternal and free from the groanings we now experience. That’s why Paul in Romans made this statement.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” – Romans 8:18
The moment you are absent from the body, the suffering of this present time ends. For one who believes that our eternal life begins with justification in Christ, from that moment on we can begin to have a different perspective on the suffering of this physical existence, just as Paul did. Our physical life, once surrendered and “in Christ” , means that we are partaking in His suffering and resurrection already and we will not experience physical death in the same way as others who do not know Him.
1Thessalonians 4:13 says: “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death,so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.” I have generally perceived this verse as comfort for those who survive the death of loved ones and experience the loss of their fellowship, that we who have faith in Christ have the sure hope that we will see our deceased loved ones, also believers, again in heaven. But I think it is more than that. As Paul continues it seems that the comfort is also to us as believers who will face our own physical mortality either at the point of our death or as we anticipate and grieve it as in times of apparent fatal diagnoses or in times of disaster or persecution. We don’t have to fear or grieve even our own future or the specter of imminent death, because we are already dead to self in Christ and have the seal of the Holy Spirit as a promise that the physical death will not harm us.
Haynes continues:
“Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” – 2 Corinthians 5:5
“The reason you can approach death and eternity with confidence and without fear is because God has placed the Holy Spirit within you. The assurance of eternal life comes because God has said it in his word and the Holy Spirit has confirmed it in your heart.”
Paul continues in 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18
“For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus (at the time of His Second Coming return, perhaps) those who have fallen asleep in him.15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
He speaks of three states of believers’ being:
-those who have “fallen asleep in Him”….those who experienced the first death of the spirit/soul self and embraced Christ, then died the second physical death and who are already with the Lord in spirit/soul eternity, though we have not yet seen them in glorified bodies.
-those who are dead in Christ….. having surrendered self fully to Christ and no longer live of the world but are still in it…”born again” and still physically alive but dead in Christ, as Paul referred to himself
- those who “are still alive”, not having fully experienced the spiritual death so that they still fear and grieve their own mortality. They are still in the world and to some degree or another of the world, too. They are not yet living the eternal life that comes with having the assurance of the Holy Spirit. Believers perhaps, but not “born again”
This makes Jesus’ words about Lazarus more coherent in John 22:11-14:
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” (Lazarus had been born again in Christ but died physically, is the implication.)
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Calling Lazarus forth from the grave was a physical preview of the coming event that they did not comprehend. Jesus had both raised others from their death bed and had healed those with deadly infirmities. It was one thing for a man claiming to be God’s son to heal the sick or even raise a man from the dead. That was fearsome enough and a cause of great jealousy and suspicion for the Pharisees. But what Jesus would do just days later in rising from the tomb himself was a hell-harrowing, heaven-coming event like nothing any of them could have imagined. Jesus Himself was not just “in Christ”, or born again… He was The Christ, born of the Spirit from conception. He came to guide us into how to be born of water and Spirit…. baptized and receiving and cooperating with the Spirit