Death / What it means

Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet

The following is a letter I wrote recently to a young man who has ALS.  He has reached the stage in the disease where he cannot feed himself.

The following letter is about death.

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Hi again David:

I left you a phone message and I wanted to follow up in writing ... I started to write a letter but then felt it might be difficult for you to manipulate pages of writing and perhaps email would be easier for you.

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This concerns the subject of death.

Sounds grim but to me it is great joy for I greatly look forward to leaving this earth since I know I belong to God.

And I also know that which awaits us with God after death is far greater than anything we can ever experience on this present earth. 

How do I know?

I know because in 1975, just after I was born again, I was transported into heaven in the night while I slept.  I was with God, and with Jesus, and with the Holy Spirit and at that time I was "merged into the body of Jesus."  (My experience was similar to that which Paul spoke about in II Cor. 12:1-4)

It was wonderful.

A few days later, this happened to me again ... exact same way ... in the night while I slept I was transported into heaven and I was with God, with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit and was again "merged into the body of Jesus".

At that time, I wanted to marry more than any other thing.  But this experience showed me that what awaits us in heaven is even greater than the greatest marriage on this earth.  It is greater than everything.

And later I came to believe what happened to me was done for the work God had called me to do in caring for the church.   The ministry offices of apostle/prophet.

(Apostles work with Biblical legal matters and try to keep order in the church according to that which is set forth in the Bible and we deal with various strange doctrines that humans set up in churches.

Prophets are used by God to help people to get free from various traps and to help people stay free.)

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Back to subject of death ...

Death is simply a falling asleep.  We have these examples in Bible.

John 11 ... Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany,  the town of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) 3Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. 4When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. 5Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. 6When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. 7Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again. 8His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again? 9Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. 10But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. 

These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. 12Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. 13Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. 14Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

Death in Bible is related to "sleeping" for it is simply falling asleep.

In the case of Lazarus, Jesus was going to raise Lazarus from the dead.  And Jesus will raise us from the dead after we die when we belong to HIM. 

(Death is like it is when we fall asleep at night.  When we awake we are sometimes shocked that all that time passed while we were asleep.  And this is the way death is.  We are "suspended" in time like in our natural sleep.)

Remember that dream I had about you on golf course.  You were going ahead of us and you were so happy.  You were jumping up and down you were so happy and you kept turning to us and gesturing with your hand for us to come on where you were.

I felt that showed me that you are all right spiritually.  I felt you would be leaving earth ahead of us but you were showing us to come on and join you, it was great!

I find it difficult to take death too seriously when a person belongs to God for that is what matters.

And having that experience in heaven changed me so much that when I was driving to work and passed a building where they were obviously having a funeral I was so happy and I was saying, "Oh how wonderful.  A funeral."  To me it was a joyous event because I had just been in heaven with God, with Jesus, and with the Holy Spirit.

Nothing on this earth can equal that which awaits us in heaven when we belong to God.

Love, Joan

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Some will say, "But where are we after we fall asleep between the time we die and are resurrected?"

It is the same as natural sleep.  "Where are we between the time we fall asleep in bed and the time we awake the next morning?"  We don't know.  Time just passes and we awake.  

This is one reason the Bible relates death to being asleep.

Death is not the problem for a person who really belongs to God.

Life is the problem for us.  

But in life, in everything, we overcome even that by turning to God in prayer and HE helps us and gets us through the issue before us.

I Thess. 4 ... But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep (concerning those who die), that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 

14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus (those who belong to Christ and die) will God bring with him. 

15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. (Those who die in Christ will rise ahead of those who remain alive.)  

16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 

17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 

So some will die and be asleep ... others will be alive on this earth when Jesus returns ... but those who are alive on this earth will be changed.

Paul says ... I Cor. 15 ... Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep (die), but we shall all be changed, 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.



Those who are alive on this earth at return of Jesus will be changed out of these current human bodies.  And it will happen in a blink of an eye, that fast.