Time Out Mission Kenya

Recently I read a message posted by a Christian Ministry website. I was much blessed by it. It was talking about the wonderful provision that Christ has procured for us but at great cost to Himself on Calvary not in the least the Holy Spirit to empower us for living now and the provision of a place in heaven with Christ when we die. It was an encouraging message for all believers and an incentive to the unsaved to respond to the gospel invitation.
However, as I pondered on its central message I became more and more concerned with the emphasis given on ‘going to Heaven when we die’.  It made me re-examine the whole issue of our destiny and our future and final destination as individuals and as a company of people He calls His Church.

Is heaven our final destination when we die,  as many of us have been taught or is planet Earth? What does scripture say? The writer had commented that the Lord has made provision for us…’ to live with Him in a heavenly paradise and, ultimately, as sons of God, to reign with Him in a new heaven and a new earth forever’…..but where do we live….in the new heaven or on the new earth?

The bible teaches us  that one day God will indeed  restore and re-create all things…the ‘new heaven and the new earth’ …..and then the new Jerusalem will descend from Heaven, dressed like a Bride, to earth. Then God will dwell or ‘tabernacle’ ON EARTH (the place He has always wanted to live) for ever and ever amongst His people. Yes we will live  with Him here on planet earth. This is our final destination!

This however will not take place till after another awesome series of events take place, not in the least the millenium reign  of the Church on planet Earth. Scripture tells us that before these final restoration and re-creation events take place, when the new heaven and the new earth is created and everthing will have been ‘reconciled to Christ’, we, His Bride, will first be raptured to heaven for our marriage with Him, Christ Jesus,the Lamb that was slain. At that point we will be totally released from the sin principle within us, being  ’without spot or blemish’, the umbilical chord being cut that ties us now in life dependency to Christ in the womb of the Church (His Body)…. and we will become like Him. In this pure state and union with Him, we will become ‘One’ with Him and will be then able to perfectly partner with Him in mission. This will fulfill the prayer in  Gethsamene…. ’that they may be one (with each other and with the Father and the Son) even as we are one’  (Jn 17 v21 and 23). During this time Satan will be chained for this time and we, with Him, will reign for a thousand years and see ‘the Kingdoms of this earth become the Kingdom of our God and His Christ’. Finally after the short release of Satan again and the events leading up to the battle of Armegedon, the intervention by the Lord Himself and the final judgement of Satan, heaven and earth will be renewed and we live with Him on earth for ever.

Contrary to popular teaching we do not going to heaven when we die as if  its our final destination. If we go at all it will be for a while because we die before the rapture, then it is only until we are taken to the marriage, along with the raptured saints who will be still living on earth up to or during  the anti-Christ reign.
These are so important issues. In general the church is unfamiliar with these things. It is so important that we understand these issues especially in ‘these end time days’. The Church has an identity crisis. She doesn’t know who she is!  She is His beloved Bride and He is the coming Bridegroom King. The Church needs to understand Her identity and destiny as His Bridal partner. We have a great future together!

It is so important that, despite the fact that there are various  interpretations of these events in terms of order and outworkings, we do not preach a wrong theology. For too long the church has preached an ‘escapism theology’……that is… a ‘Pie in the sky when I die’ etc that developed in times of persecution or suffering. This is demonstrated so well by the songs sung by the slaves during  the great African slave period and have been influential in promoting this wrong theology in our times.  The slaves used to sing……….
‘This world is not my home I’m just a passing through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue’. 

Even the great hymn Amazing Grace has the lines….. ‘When we’ve been there ten thousand years bright shining as the sun. We’ve no less days to sing His praise than when we’ve first begun!’ It implies that we spend those endless days in heaven.

The heart and focus of  Time Out Mission is to awaken the Church, the Bride,  to Her identity and prepare Her for effective mission both now and during Her eternal future. She has an amazing destiny and Her final destination is closer to us than we think….in fact we are living there right now. 

Your Kingdom come Lord Jesus! Your will be dome on Earth as it is in Heaven’

‘Come Lord Jesus Come!…..’The spirit and the Bride say Come!’

Howard Barnes

Co-director