The Apostle Paul was pressing on that he might know the Lord he was pressing on to be a part of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
He said that he had not yet attained it but he pressed on and people think “oh Paul was worried that he wasn’t going to go to heaven!” and so they develop all sorts of silly ideas that you can “lose your salvation” because to most of Christianity salvation is “dying and going to heaven one day”.
They think that’s what salvation is. Paul was talking about the first resurrection -whether he had attained that or not -and so he pressed on that he might attain it and he pressed on in faith he didn’t press on in keeping the law.
He pressed on with Jesus, staying in him, abiding in him, resting in him because the pressure that comes against a person in grace, a person in the spirit, every Christian, is to pull you out of rest back into worrying and fear, back into “are keeping the law and trying hard” because “Grace isn’t enough”. The devil whispers to you – “look at you ..you still do this ..you still do that”– and so the accuser of the Brethren causes us to stumble if we let him –and we come out of that place of rest.
Being found in Christ alone is enough! You are perfect in him complete in him and so you you are assured a part…a place in the first resurrection where you will put on your Immortal
bodysuit at that first trumpet call .
But if you refuse to stay resting in Christ..if you refuse that and you get pulled out of rest back into your own efforts then you won’t be in that first resurrection you’ll have to wait till the end of the thousand years before you are raised up.
Paul was not talking about dying and going to heaven that’s not what the gospel is about. I find that people cannot hear the revelation of the holy spirit because of that doctrine- that tare that is sown in their minds. If that’s all it’s about then God should kill all of us as soon as we believe in him but it’s not and so the first resurrection is for a company of Overcomers and they don’t overcome through their own efforts and through forcing themselves to obey they overcome the Enemy by faith. “Who is He Who overcomes but he who who believes that Jesus Christ Has Come In the Flesh.”Hallelujah! That Jesus Christ is the Son of God! God In the Flesh! “God In the Flesh”- that’s what it means to be the Son of God. “but you being a man call yourself God because he said “I am the Son of God” Yes! that’s what it means to be a son of God. God In the Flesh and that goes for all those who believe into Jesus. Hallelujah!!
But if you reject that idea and listen to some religious preacher telling you that Jesus is way up there and you better begin obeying his law you’ve fallen from Grace you’ve been separated from this wonderful savior who lives in you and now you’re trying to go it alone in fear and trembling to please a God who cannot be pleased-that is that false god that you’ve set up- it’s not the real God.
The real God is pleased with you already because of Jesus who lives in you…because what Jesus did. So this idea that salvation is ‘one day when I die I’ll go to heaven’ it’s like a firewall stopping you from seeing what God is really doing it’s a tragedy it’s a false teaching it’s misleading at best but it’s diabolical in what it does to a person. You stop your ears from hearing about the need to rest in Jesus so that you will be part of that Rapture
The rapture is not being taken away to Heaven forever. When you read the passage there in 1 Thessalonians 4 it says that we will be caught up with him and meet the Lord in the air and and there will we will be forever with the Lord or we will ever be with the Lord or something…but if you read it what it’s saying is you’ll be caught up and changed and you’ll have an encounter with the Lord in the air in the atmosphere and in that way you will be with the Lord forever… you’ll be changed in that way you’ll be with the Lord not going to a place forever but being changed into the same immortal body that he has… and you’ll be like that with the Lord forever. and those Overcomers will be snatched away caught up only to return to the Earth at the end of 10 days because it happens at the Feast of trumpets in one year we don’t know when, at the Feast of trumpets when the Trump sounds and these ones are gathered from all over the Earth as well as those who have already died who sleep in Jesus and they will meet together in the air be changed in the twinkling of an eye receive their Immortal body and return into heaven for 10 days to come back down at the um Feast of Tabernacles and then the new age will begin led by these Overcomers…led by by them…Hallelujah!!! and that’s what Paul was wanting to press into to be a part of and it requires–not forcing yourself to obey Commandments but resting by faith and refusing the accusations of the enemy that ‘you just don’t measure up’ and declaring that Christ Jesus alone is your righteousness and strength every day he is just that and if you rest in him you will be a part of that Rapture Hallelujah